#e l james

[lazyasriel]

I’ve been picking my little sister up from school recently and don’t 100% know how to talk to a 13 year old. So far I have:

1. Ranted about the development of the vampire diaries and the differences between the books and tv show

2. Sung most of the Hamilton sound track with her

3. Played her the first few episodes of the Magnus archives

4. Played her 3 of the mechanisms albums

We also got coffee bc I’m not afraid to bribe her for love

I’m excited for the future

#I really don’t know how to talk to 13 year olds #I want to engage in her interests and share mine #I just want to be a good big sister #tma #the magnus archives #jonathan sims #the mechanisms #jon sims #Hamilton #alexander hamilton #Hamilton musical #hamilton memes #the vampire diaries #tvd #damon salvatore #e l james #sister shit

[lendoevivendo]

" Ele me enche de certezas e depois me cobre de dúvidas. "

" Eu estou chorando por algo que nunca tive. "

E.L James

#e l james #fifty shades of grey #50 tons de cinza

[sinister-surname]

So correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard in the original Hellbound Heart the Cenobites don't back out of their deal and go after Kirsty like in Hellraiser, and if that's true then it'd mean that Pinhead and the sex demons have a better understanding of consent than Christian Grey and Erika Mitchell/E L James

#Hellraiser #Pinhead #Cenobites #doug bradley #clive barker #The books of blood #The Hellbound heart #Christian Grey #50 Shades of Grey #Erika Mitchell #e l james #Horror #80's horror #Horror movies

[books-in-a-storm]

JOMP February BPC: Day 12 Can't Read In Public

#justonemorepage #jompbpc #booklr #bookblr #book photo challenge #e l james #fifty shade of grey #grey

[eg-writtenthoughts]

My 2022 Reads & Thoughts

As a writer, I don’t have the time to read as much as I’d like. Determined to not feel like I’m completely missing out on something else I love, I gave myself the goal of 12 books in 2022. I was able to meet that goal. At some points, I didn’t read one book a month. Some months, I didn’t read at all. Others, I read an entire series back to back. This post is coming almost a year late, making all of my comments based on memory (with a little Googling for characters I no longer remember).

The twelve books were, not in order:

Blood of Elves (The Witcher, book 1) - Andrzej Sapkowski

A Court of Thorns and Roses - Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass - Sarah J. Maas

Ugly Love - Colleen Hoover

A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas

Grey (Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian) - E L James

Darker (Fifty Shades as Told by Christian) - E L James

Freed (Fifty Shades as told by Christian) - E L James

These Hollow Vows - Lexi Ryan

These Twisted Bonds - Lexi Ryan

The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, book 1) - Holly Black

At the bottom of my list, was The Cruel Prince by Holly Black. This is the first book  I put on my DNF list which broke my heart. Growing up I read The Spiderwick Chronicles by Black and Tony DiTerlizzi. It was my favourite series and what introduced me to Urban Fantasy. It was a pivotal point to my childhood because it really made a base for me. I went into The Cruel Prince fairly open minded, but I did have expectations. Fairy/Fae fantasy hasn’t been a genre that’s enticed me. I couldn’t tell you why. I love vampires, werewolves, witches, etc. Fairy/Fae hasn’t caught my attention in the same way. When I began The Cruel Prince, it didn’t draw me in. The main character, Jude was unlikable and I had a hard time finding a hook within it to grab. I always look for an unexpected romance but the abuse from Cardan just wasn’t worth wanting a change. And honestly, that’s all I remember. Maybe I’ll try to read it again one day, only because I hold Black on a podium in my head, but it won’t be in 2023.

Next, is Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. I’m ignoring the controversy that’s come from Hoover and her personal life between the time I read this book and now. I know Hoover is at the peak of her writing career right now and Ugly Love is considered one of her must read books. But, I couldn’t stand it. From what I’ve been told, Hoover has a tendency to touch on heavy topics within her book. Just from this one book, I do not think she has the writing ability to execute these kinds of topics well or with dignity. With no spoilers, Ugly Love has a character trauma that Hoover writes the situation at an surface level of emotions. I didn’t feel anything while reading it. There was suspense of what happened to Miles as you read but it absolutely did not satisfy. It was like hitting a speed bump and for once, it blew out the tire of your car. This might be the only book I’ve returned after reading because of how disappointed I was. Thankfully, the employee at the bookstore agreed with me. I felt vindicated.

Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski is a book I enjoyed but have a very specific, personal thought about. When it comes to a series, I prefer each book to have its own storyline that also contributes to the overall story. For example, the Harry Potter saga. Blood of Elves however, felt like it was just the starting point of one storyline. It didn’t have a distinctive storyline that was for it alone. It felt long without a satisfying conclusion. The only reason I haven’t entirely put the book in my negative bookshelf in my mind is that I know Henry Cavill is a fan that led him to playing Geralt. So there must be something great about it. It’s also spun off a very successful video game series. I’d be willing to give Blood of Elves another chance, but I would need to be in a cottage, relaxing with the rest of the series with nothing to distract me.

Lumping the next together, is the duology These Hollow Vows and These Twisted Bonds by Lexi Ryan. If I was to rate the duology as one single book, out of five, I’d give it a 3. The first book, These Hollow Vows was a good book but felt like it was missing something. Maybe it had to do with Ryan’s desire to put the story into two books, the first one was just less. Until the end! The end was that amazing cliff hanger where the heroine is shown to be a badass. I loved These Twisted Bonds. It was a swell of the storyline and I felt like I was racing towards the end. The plot wasn’t fleshed out entirely, since I felt like the Queen wasn’t met enough to have her really feel like the villain. The conclusion was satisfying and truly, I didn’t know who the main character would end up with. I’d like to do a re-read just to enjoy the love triangle again.

At the top of my 2022 bookshelf, the books that surprised me the most were Grey, Darker, and Freed by E. L. James. I read the original trilogy (more than once) and I find it a guilty pleasure. It’s a quick read trilogy and decent enough to quiet my brain. It was the first romance only book(s) I’ve read. Similarly to Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyers, the change of perspective, made the story significantly better and more appealing to me. The trauma Christian brings to the story is enticing in a way that naive Ana didn’t have. You genuinely root for Christian and his growth and success. I definitely will re-read this trilogy.

And finally, the first three ACOTAR books and Throne of Glass. I genuinely don’t remember much about Throne of Glass, other than the fact I fell to my urges and googled how the relationships go throughout the series. I’ll be the first to admit that spoilers don’t bother me 95% of the time. I wasn’t a fan of the results and that’s what stopped me from reading more. I plan on trying again to read them, most likely at the end of 2023 or in 2024. I will say, I’m displeased about the cover change. I own the first three books in the 2nd released covers, where Celaena Sardothien is featured. That’s too many for me not to want the rest in that cover. The new ones are nice, but I don’t want to have to re-buy them. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses may be the only Fae books I’ve ever immersed myself into. It’s been a very long time since I’ve fallen into a series/universe that I want to ingest over and over again, especially from a new author. Falling in love with characters (especially Azriel) is a happy and personal feeling. I cried during A Court of Wings and Ruin, from the comradery and love that the characters share, which I don’t do often. Yes, there was a hint of a love triangle in the beginning which always tugs at my attention, but Feyre and Rhys were beautiful. The demise of Tamlin was an incredible side plot that I could hear more about. Maas really knows how to keep her readers actively reading. ACOTAR being a Beauty and the Beast retelling was a great starting point for the series. I read A Court of Frost and Starlight this year and that review is to come. I haven’t read A Court of Silver Flames and that’s from pure stubbornness. I love Feyre’s point of view and yes, Nesta is incredible and her love story with Cassian is intense but I’m picky. From my own opinion, I don’t think this should’ve been a part of ACOTAR but its own independent series. Unless the entire series is jumping POVs, it makes it weird for me. I will definitely be re-reading this series again at some point. The fanfiction online satisfies me for now.

I’m not unhappy with my reading choices for 2022. There were a few that I didn’t like, but we all have to read stuff we don’t like. I know which author I don’t plan on reading again. As an author myself, it really opens my eyes to what audiences are reading and what I like. I know how to focus myself and my plot lines, not going off on wild adventures where I won’t be satisfied with the conclusion. 

#book review #book recommendations #book blog #acotar #ugly love #sarah j maas #holly black #the witcher #e l james #fifty shades of grey #reads of 2022

[fic-history]

Filing Off the Serial Numbers: Professionally Published FIcs

While texts that we might call fanfiction in the most basic sense of the term have been published in the past (think Wide Sargasso Sea), modern fanfictions have only started to go pro in the past few decades. Fanfiction authors will pull all their fic from the internet, change the character names and other ties to the source media, and publish their works as original fiction. This is a process known in the fannish community as “filing off the serial numbers,” and it’s generated a lot of controversy as more and more fan writers take their work to the professional publishing stage. In this iteration of Fic History, we’re going to explore three of the most well known professionally published fanfictions.

The Mortal Instruments

Cassandra Clare is a household name to any fantasy or YA fiction lover, but you may not know that she also used to be a household name in the Harry Potter fandom. Then writing as Cassandra Claire (peep the i), Clare was a Big Name Fan who was revered in fandom circles for writing The Draco Trilogy, among other fics, which helped to shape how the fandom characterized Draco. She pulled all of her fics from the internet prior to the publishing of City of Bones, but the name of the series that City of Bones belongs to, The Mortal Instruments, shares a name with a Ron/Ginny (yes, incest) fic Clare penned in 2004. 

I want to clarify that The Mortal Instruments is not officially a published fanfiction, but fans have noticed similarities between main characters Clary and Jace and Clare’s characterizations of Ginny and Draco, and a passage from one of her Draco fics appears verbatim in City of Bones, save for a few name edits. Due to the popularity of the series and Clare’s past as a fan writer, I chose to include the series here.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Starting in 2009, an author going by the screen name Snowqueens Icedragon began publishing a Twilight BDSM AU fic titled Master of the Universe. It was deleted from the internet in 2011, and in early 2012, Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James was published to international acclaim and revilement. These two texts are the same story by the same author. While Fifty Shades generated a lot of stir in the media for being a doctored fanfiction (something many people had never heard of before), it generated a lot of stir in fandom spaces for a few reasons. One, many beta readers had worked on the story when it was a fanfiction, and those readers received none of the profit (Jamison 2013). Two, the book was now essentially mainstream media’s only perception of fanfiction, and given that it was being heavily criticized for being a poorly written inaccurate (in terms of the BDSM stuff) smut-fest, it gave fanfiction a bad name. 

The After Series

The most notable and recent example of filing off the serial numbers I can think of is the After series by Anna Todd, known to the internet originally as Imaginator1D. You may know the series now as a best-selling set of novels featuring college students Tessa Young and Hardin Scott that received a set of movie adaptations starting in 2019, but the original iteration of After was a college AU that starred characters Tessa Young and Harry Styles of One Direction fame. Harry’s then bandmates were featured as friends and stepbrothers of Styles, while Tessa is an original character. The After series also received/receives a lot of flak from fannish communities for not being a very high quality example of fanfiction, as well as glorifying what many viewed as an abusive relationship between the two leads.

Publishing your fanfic is forever going to be a touchy subject in fannish communities. Some are completely fine with it, and some fans see it as the ultimate fan sin. As Anne Jamison wrote in Fic (see Bibliography page),

“The fan culture tenet that ‘thou shalt not profit from fanworks’ has been, depending on who you talk to, an almost sacred and inviolate, wholly necessary founding principle of fandom. To others within the same community, it’s only been a necessary evil.”

She also notes that the fact that the term fanfiction doesn’t have one solid definition, and doesn’t actually clarify how close the story is to the material it was based off of. This doesn’t even bring into question the ethical dilemma surrounding profiting off of a fic that beta readers worked on for no cost. All in all, filing off the serial numbers will always be hot button issue in fandom, and I’d love to hear what thoughts y’all might have on it!

Happy reading,

KP

Further Reading:

#mortal instruments #the mortal instruments #cassandra clare #anna todd #after #fifty shades of grey #50 shades of grey #e l james #fanfiction #fanfic #fan fiction #fanfiction history

[inlovewithquotes]

You're the only person I'd fly three thousand miles to see.

-Fifty Shades Darker

#quotes #book quotes #literature #books & libraries #relationship quotes #e l james #fifty shades darker #christian grey #ana steele

[thansxplace]

It’s incredibly racist to infantilise an entire ethnicity or nationality. Fuck off EL James.

#yes #this is about that monstrous book #the mister #el James #e l james

[never-read-enough-books]

#fifty shades trilogy #fifty shades of grey #booksbooksbooks #books #e l james #to kill a mockingbird #kitten #catslover

[scarletsabers-blog]

My august TBR ❤️✨

#bookworld #bookaddict #booknerd #bookstagram #booksbooksbooks #books & libraries #book review #book blog #book recommendations #booklover #i love it #spanish love deception #atlas six #beach read #house of sky and breath #crescent city #all the light we cannot see #the mister #e l james

[xoivy]

i'm by no means a fan of either e. l. james or stephanie meyer, but e. l. ate steph the fuck UP by getting big off of her ideas basically AND THEN releasing a christian's pov book before stephanie managed to release midnight sun knowing full well that it was in the works already

#e. l. really said 'you wanna see some real speed bitch?' #i just know steph was punching the air the moment that book was published #the girls are fightinggg #and i'm all here for it. i got my snacks and coffee and i'm incredibly invested #twilight #fifty shades of grey #stephanie meyer #e l james #booklr

[lendoevivendo]

Você disse que nunca iria me deixar, mas foi só as coisas ficarem difíceis para que fosse embora.

E.L James

#e l james #50 tons de cinza #fifty shades of grey

[eachpage]

50 Shades Darker

50 Shades Darker - New perspective #honestreview #books #50shadesofgrey

Author: E.L. James Series: Fifty Shades Trilogy Genres: Erotic (sure), Romance (eh…), Drama (so much), BDSM (only accurate one) Honest, different view after years and reading other books. Hello, dearies! 🚁 I had to look up to know if the trilogy’s name was actually 50 Shades or not. Lol. The Fifty Shades Trilogy it seems, and then the Fifty Shades Series, but I didn’t read Christian’s POV…

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#50 Shades Darker #50 shades of grey #book blog #book review #E L James #fifty shades trilogy #honest review

[books-in-a-storm]

January 2024 JOMPBPC: Day 15 Deals With Rough Stuff

#justonemorepage #jompbpc #booklr #bookblr #funko pop #funko and books #grey #freed #e l james #book photo challenge #january 2024

[maethoughtsandreports]

“Real” Books vs. Fanfiction

| My List |

Why should other people decide what a “real” book is or what “real” writing is?

Writing by definition is “the activity or occupation of composing text for publication.” Now what about publication, is there really a difference between The New York Times and Archive Our Own(Ao3)? Yes there is, The New York Times is a newspaper; they talk about news not making fan-written content, but even then isn’t some of what they write fan-written too?

Anyone who paid attention to their high school English classes should know that William Shakespeare did not create Romeo and Juliet it was a story that was already around. Shakespeare just turned it into a play and made it his own.

Many people have used the story of Romeo and Juliet to make and tell other stories, much like the 2010 movie Letters to Juliet. People in Italy write letters to ‘Juliet’ leaving the letters on the wall, the letters are taken by these women who are ‘Juliet’ giving love advice to hundreds of people, there’s more to the movie but the story around the Italian lovers plays a major part in the movie’s plot.

Another movie based on the old Shakespearean play is Gnomeo and Juliet (2011), about two gnomes who fall in love but are from fighting gardens. Gnomeo ‘dies’ leaving Juliet heartbroken and for her “safety” her father glues her to her tower. Gnomeo’s best friend goes for revenge using a lawn tractor destroying both gardens; they find out that Gnomeo is alive just before the lawn tractor hits the tower Juliet and Gnomeo are on. Unlike the classic tragedy, they live and the gnomes make peace.

Another play by Shakespeare is Julius Ceasar, about the general Julius Ceasar, leading up to his death the ‘Ides of March’. We do not know what was said or the specifics of all that happened, but the play is not historically accurate either. What Shakespeare makes seem to happen in just a few weeks actually took two years; much more happened than what the play shows, but then that would make the play longer than it already is.

What about modern media, where fanfiction has become a constant that’s just there? Some very popular books have even gotten movies of their own. Specifically, After by Anna Todd and the far more popular Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, were both originally works of fanfiction.

Fifty Shades of Grey the million-dollar selling series was originally a Twilight fanfiction posted on Fanfiction.net, James eventually took it down and made her own website to post her story on along with changing the characters�� names. Her online book gained so much traction that agents came to her to sign with them.

Unlike James' book, Anna Todd’s was posted on the infamous Wattpad, a writing and reading website and app better known for its abundance of fanfiction rather than its’ original stories.

After follows the protagonist Tessa and her very…messy love life of college. Her main love interest is Harry Styles, from the boy band that raged its most in the 2000s, One Direction. While the boy is nothing like the Harry Styles that everyone loves today(and then), Todd did say that they only share looks and dress. She did eventually change his name to Hardin Scott, keeping the singers’ initials, because if she did publish it with his name Harry Styles could certainly sue for defamation of character.

Ao3 has thousands if not millions of pages on its site, not all of them are good but not all horrible. Sure some should have never seen the light of day but here we are, a site where you can post a fan-written piece regardless of whether it is problematic or not. While none of them are “real books”, they are real writing.

Writing in itself is a spectrum, like poetry. Poetry is a form of writing that has so many different ways to go about it, you don’t truly have rules in poetry. Poetry simply has guidelines and that should go for writing as a whole.

-

If you’re interested!

Fifty Shades of Grey History

The History of After

#please indulge me #fanfiction #fanfics #books #fiction #writing #journalism #journal #ao3 #the new york times #after #fifty shades of grey #anna todd #e l james

[maepolzine]

More Popular Books I Will Probably Not Read

Sharing more popular books I will probably never end up reading.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com After writing my previous blog post of the same nature, more books either popped up on my TikTok FYP or I remembered and was like “Oh, yeah, I’m probably not going to read those either.” So, today we’re doing another round of popular books I will probably never end up reading. I still haven’t decided on a name for this as I have a feeling there are going to be…

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#ali hazelwood #anna todd #book #E L James #fifty shades of grey #madeline miller #Pop Culture #tj klune