Top 5 Wednesday: Top 5 Favourite Book Covers

It's Wednesday again! Welcome back to another top five!

If you missed my post a few weeks ago, I recently got into the Goodreads group Top Five Wednesday, which is a group where a topic for a top five list is given, and everyone gives their rankings for that list. (Check out the group right here, and you can see my previous top five here.)

You may have noticed that I didn't do Top Five Wednesday for the past two weeks, and that's because I just didn't connect with the last two topics. I looked at them, and couldn't come up with anything whatsoever.

This topic, however, made me SUPER EXCITED!

IT'S TIME TO TALK ABOUT BOOK COVERS!!!!!!

I. Love. Book covers. I'm a really visual and artistic person, and beautiful book covers make me so VERY happy.

And that also made this list a bit...difficult, since I had to narrow down the book covers I love to my top five.

But I did it. Somehow, I did it.

So, without further ado and not actually in any particular order since I love them all and there are many others that could also rank up here with them, here are five of my favourite book covers.

Top 5 Wednesday: Top 5 Favourite Friend Groups

Hello, everyone! Happy Wednesday to you!

...or Thursday...I didn't quite get this post finished at a reasonable posting time yesterday...

...haha...oops...

HAPPY BELATED WEDNESDAY TO YOU!

So for the past while, I've been seeing a thing called 'Top 5 Wednesday' on YouTube. When I saw that it was an open-to-join group on Goodreads, I thought I'd join in.

(You can check the Top 5 Wednesday group out right here if you like.)

Basically, the gist of it is that every Wednesday there is a new prompt for a top five list, and everyone does a list of their picks for their top five.

Today's topic is, as you can probably see in the title, the Top Five Favourite Friend Groups. People are allowed to take from all media for these prompts, but I want to keep the actual lists book-centric. I will have a couple honourable mentions, though.

So, without further ado, here are my picks for my Top Five Favourite Friend Groups in books.

A Very Specific Set of Skills: Choosing an Assassin's Method

So.

You. Yes, you.

The "assassin".

Theoretical assassin.

You have your target. You have your wardrobe.

You look fantastic.

Now it's time for the fun bit.

Let's. Get. STABBITY.

...or not stabbity. Many assassins fight without stabbity weapons, and every assassin should be at least proficient at all methods of dealing death, and many also have a specialty that they like to fall back on as their preferred technique.

But, anyway, it's time to get to my favourite part with assassins: the thing that makes them badass.

Let's talk about some assassin methods.

Dressed to Kill: Choosing Your Assassin's Wardrobe

So. You're an assassin.

...just play along for a bit, alright?

You're an assassin. You've been given a mission. You are now starting to get ready to go kill some fools for some sweet, sweet cash.

So. What are you going to wear?

(If you can give me an honest answer as to the right clothes you prepare to wear while killing people...please stay away from me. Maybe turn yourself into the police. Seek help. Don't kill people. Please. Please.)

This might not seem like that big of an issue, but the wardrobe of an assassin is actually quite a big deal. How the character dresses can tell a lot about this character's culture, worldview, methods, and, overall, their personality.

Do they hide themselves completely when they kill? Do they kill in plain sight? What is their purpose behind their killing? How does their wardrobe play into the method itself?

The way an assassin dresses can make them stand out and can tell a lot about them, so let's get talking about dressing your killer.

Writing Assassins: Five Questions to Ask When Making a Killer

Assassins sure make cool characters, don't they?

I mean, just think about it. Who doesn't want a story where a threatening, morally dark, often enigmatic character appears to turn the tables or rattle the cages?

Let's face it: saying "A knight walked into a bar" is interesting, but saying "An assassin walked into a bar"...well. Now you have my attention. Speak on.

Assassins have particularly seemed to become popular in the past couple decades, stealing their way into our hearts and heads alike with their dastardly deeds, wicked wit, and often antagonistic/anti-heroic antics.

With hundreds of stories from Nevernight to Night Angel, John Wick to Assassin's Creed, or Shadowdance to The Farseer Trilogy, assassins have come to infect our media with stabs and shots, and it's a wonderful thing.

So that brings us to the topic of today's blog: how do we write one? How do we make a convincing assassin character?

Well, like all characters, it comes down to this:

It's time to sit that character down, and start interrogating them.

Or, maybe it would be better to politely interview these ones from a distance. You know. With them being assassins and all. Probably better to stay out of reach...

Anyway, here are five questions to ask when writing an assassin character.

Review: Age of Myth (Legends of the First Empire Book 1); by Michael J. Sullivan

So, if you don't know (and, since I haven't talked about this on the blog before, most of you probably don't know), the author on my shelf who is most likely to be called my favourite is Michael J. Sullivan. Ever since I read his first series (The Riyria Revelations) and fell for his dynamic mercenary/thief duo, I was hooked on his writing.

And so, I eagerly have been buying every book he has put out since.

His newest series, The Legends of the First Empire, obviously falls under that category.

Last week, the newest book in that series, Age of War, hit the shelves. However, since I think it would be weird to start reviewing a series on book 3, I thought I would do something different.

Start on book one, work my way up to book three, and then review the rest upon their release in the next while.

You know. Stay up to date and all.

So, long story short, that's why I'm reviewing Age of Myth. The one that came out in 2016.

Let's get started, shall we?

Magic Systems 101

What makes a fantasy a fantasy?

Well, there are obviously many things. It takes place in a different world, tends to have lower technology, has new and mysterious cultures and creatures...

Arguably, though, there is one thing that comes to mind immediately when people hear the word fantasy: MAGIC.

Magic sure is fun, isn't it? Adding it into a story can bring mystery and mysticism to the mundane, uniqueness to things that could otherwise be ordinary.

Magic also happens to be everywhere.

Every fantasy world seems to have a form of magic. From Middle Earth to the Nevernever to Narnia to the ever expanding Cosmere, Magic Systems are in just about everything fantasy.

So what sets each of these apart? What makes the magic in Harry Potter different from the magic in Mistborn?

Well, it's all about spectrum, really.

That's right. Time to get to some magical definitions.

Oh, yeah.