The email was literally sent out at 1 am and I was already asleep.

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

Also, with three votes for it, we're going to be reading First Test, the first book in the Protector of the Small series! This is pretty much my favorite set of the many Tortall books, so I'm excited too.

Brief content warning for the first couple chapters if anyone wants/needs it:

Mind you, in general, the entire book deals with bullying and fighting, particularly physical fighting. Kel's training to be a knight, and is in the perfect position to be viewed as an outsider. Presumably, this was all clear from the book description, but I figured I'd be clear just in case, since we've tended to do that here for quite a few years now.

~Z

Mostly because, uh, the decision was just made for me. I now have a conflict on Monday as well as today--no idea why everyone's scheduling things for roughly this time, but there you have it! We'll be doing this on Tuesday, April 7, 2020. It'll probably last 30-45 minutes (or 30-40, depending on Zoom's time limits--I have yet to see them kick in, but supposedly it sometimes cuts off at the 40 minute mark, so we'll keep an eye out for that).

Hopefully that works for everyone! If it doesn't, I'm sorry, and hopefully we'll catch you in a potential second reading.

We also currently have what amounts to three votes for First Test, so odds are that's our book. Ix, you're still welcome to weigh in. (Also, Fuda, the metal plant is pretty great!)

I'm going to schedule the meeting, uh, today or tomorrow, I guess--we'll see how that goes. Never done it before. Once I have it, I'll email it to you all; I already have emails for Neshomeh and Iximaz (the perils of co-writing :P) so if you are anyone other than them and are interested (yup, still leaving this open to anyone else who wants to join!) please either send me an email or leave yours below! I can be reached at dawnfire360 (at) gmail (dot) com. (replace (at) with @ and (dot) with . and close the spaces, of course--no idea if the spam worries are still a thing on the new Board, but why not be careful?)

Off we go! Here's hoping Zoom meetings are simple to set up :)

~Z

Okay! So, we're officially doing this at 10 AM EST.

For days--Monday or Tuesday would work best for me in this coming week, as the other half of the week will be busy and I have a conflict on Sunday. Can you all do one or both of those days? Any preference for one over the other? Let me know!

Book poll, since we should absolutely decide this ahead of time:

I did find Will of the Empress; turns out it was hiding, as I'd thought. This makes our choices the following:

Protector of the Small series: (please be aware that the old covers were so much better, wow)

-First Test

-Page (linking to a different site here for a book summary that isn't full of spoilers--for whatever reason, the version on the author's website is more of a synopsis. This one still has the option to read an excerpt--just scroll down.)

-Squire

-Lady Knight

Winding Circle series:

-Sandry's Book

-Tris's Book

-Daja's Book

-Briar's Book

Circle Reforged:

-The Will of the Empress

I've linked to descriptions of each, for general information purposes. Said links are (almost all) to Tamora Pierce's website, which also gives series summaries and the option to read an excerpt.

Let me know which sounds best! You can choose a few different ones, if you'd rather (though please rank them, if possible). Remember, if everyone says they don't have a preference, we're going to have to start rolling dice or something ;) (...also an option, technically, if no one has a preference).

Conversely: if there's a book you don't want read, speak up. Most of these deal with at least some heavier topics, including war, bullying, children in bad situations (generally in the past, or changing onscreen, though not always), and, rather topically, epidemics (Briar's Book; and Sandry's backstory includes being hidden during a smallpox outbreak, though there's only very minimal focus on the disease itself). These are generally handled pretty well--among other things, the author studied social work and psychology and was once a housemother in a group home (and a martial arts movie reviewer, which explains so much)--but if you want or need to avoid a book because of this, please say so.

~Z

(Yes I am going to oversimplify this because I don’t want to open a can of worms.)

Essentially I left the server because I was feeling angry and upset. Later that day, I looked at the wiki for the link back to the server and it was gone!

Delta Juliette must have locked the server from outsiders because there was a user who did “things”( I don’t know what he/she did but he/she was banned).

And I have realised that I don’t have any friend requests by Zingenmir, so now I don’t know how to join the stream.

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

Okay! This is good :) No clue what book we'll go for at this rate (suggestions? Hold on, I'll put a list of the books I have physically with me down below), but timing wise: based on the information I have, something like 10 am EST (that's 10 pm for you, Fuda, unless I've messed up the calculation) might work for everyone. As far as I know (feel free to correct me!) the earliest time zone involved would put that at 9 am, and the latest at 10 pm. Somariel and ChampionorChicken are the ones I don't have time zone information for; I don't need it, but if the suggested time is way too early or late for you, do speak up! Same goes for everyone else: if that's too early or too late for you, speak up. Like I said, I'm very flexible; this is just the first time I thought of that seemed like it might fall within reasonable waking hours for everyone currently interested. I can also tell you now that this is most likely to happen Sun-Thurs, apart from the end of next week; within that, I'm also fairly flexible, though that may change slightly.

Re: Zoom: it is possible to join with audio-only! Might even give you the option right off? It did this time, though previously it's given me a video preview. Maybe it's to do with how the meeting is set up. I'll find out when I try out that part of it; so far, I've only joined other people's meetings, not tried to host one.

Book list:

Circle of Magic quartet, following four young mages who become family:

Sandry's Book

Tris' Book

Daja's Book

Briar's Book

Protector of the Small quartet, following Keladry of Mindelan who is determined to become the second female knight in a hundred years and, as the series title suggests, repeatedly stands up for pretty much every misfit she encounters along the way:

First Test

Page

Squire

Lady Knight

The one I'm pretty sure is here but hiding: The Circle Reforged book (currently last chronologically in the set that started with the Circle of Magic books): The Will of the Empress, when, after some years apart, Sandry, Tris, Daja, and Briar go on a trip together to visit Sandry's cousin and try to regain their closeness amidst political intrigue.

Personally, I like Squire, Lady Knight, and Will of the Empress best (as well as the Circle books, but those are more...I like them all and don't really prefer one over the others too strongly. I will say that I've heard the audiobook versions multiple times before, though, and would probably have that playing in my head a lot with Sandry's Book if I tried to read it). I'm happy to go with any of them, though, for reading purposes.

~Z

Well, I am interested in listening to the reading. I have never read or even heard of Tamora Pierce, but since you said good things about her writing, I would like to join!

Here are some ways that you can contact me:

My Discord Tag: SomeRandomPersonAccount#6297 My Email: toorandomperson@gmail.com

Since I’m from Singapore, my time zone is GMT 8+, so it may be a bit complicated if you live somewhere else other than Asia. So what’s your timezone Zingenmir?

~SomeRandomPersonAccount

Never actually read any Tamora Pierce, I don't think, so it should be an interesting experience!

(Also, boo, your Oklahoma mention had to be about the musical and not the state. :P I was born in Oklahoma but I'm not a fan of the musical, so you've just ruined my day. How dare you. ;))

I've never read any of Tamora Pierce's works, but I'm interested. If there's a zoom, I'll try my best to be there.

Broadway HD sounds awesome! I'll definitely check it out. Thanks for posting this:)

I don't think I'd be a good choice to do any reading, but I love Tammy's writing and would enjoy listening to others read it.

Never read much Tamora Pierce and I don't have the books, but it sounds like a nice way to low-key socialize with fellow PPCers. ^_^

~Neshomeh