ATLA Marathon: "The Waterbending Scroll" & "Jet"

 

Sometimes everything's better with pirates.

The Waterbending Scroll

Anyone who has read my books can probably guess that I like this episode. Hell, I would have loved to hear Jack Angel narrating those if he was still around.

Aang is stressing out because of what Roku told him last episode, so Katara offers to teach him the few waterbending techniques she knows. Unfortunately, she grows frustrated when Aang learns techniques in a day that she took months to learn. After their training accidentally washes away their supplies, they visit a nearby port town to restock and Katara discovers a scroll with waterbending techniques at a storefront operated by "high risk traders". Eager to learn the secrets, she steals the scroll. Meanwhile, Iroh orders a course change for the most trivial reason (a lost Lotus tile used in the strategy game Pai Sho), and they visit the same storefront. Learning that the pirates encountered Aang, Zuko enters an uneasy alliance with them. Katara gets captured by Zuko, while the pirates capture Aang and Sokka.

This episode has some great action sequences. We have a harrowing chase scene after the pirates discover that Katara has stolen their scroll, with some great moments like Katara using the contents of a water butt to make ice, or Aang launching a cabbage merchant's cart at their pursuers. This is topped by the climax of the episode when Sokka turns the pirates against Zuko by playing to their greed. They escape in the ensuing melee and steal the pirates' ship in a moment which even Zuko finds hilarious. Seriously, this might be the only time we see him laugh.

Beyond the action, there's also an interesting message about how not everything is a competition. Katara's obsession with the scroll not only makes enemies out of the pirates, but her determination to learn the techniques makes her snap at Aang until she comes to her senses. In the end, they have to waterbend toegether to escape.

All in all, this one's pretty good.

Jet

This has some interesting themes about xenophobia and casualties of war, but falls a little short in the execution.

While travelling through a forest, the party stumble across a Fire Nation camp where they're saved by Jet, the leader of a band of war orphans who are carrying out a guerrilla campaign against the Fire Nation. Katara becomes enamoured with him, but Sokka is more doubtful and soon realises that he's an extremist, willing to destroy a dam to flood an Earth Kingdom village occupied by the Fire Nation.

Jet is presented as a charismatic leader, but is later revealed to be ruthless and manipulative. One notable scene has him inviting Sokka to join him on an ambush, only for Sokka to learn that he's ambushing an old man. He later claims to Aang and Katara that the old man was an assassin, and tricks them into filling a reservoir as part of his scheme. While there's an important message about not hurting those who come from a group that harmed you, it also makes Jet a little one-dimensional. Yes, he talks about how he lost his parents to the Fire Nation, but I think they could have given him a little more nuance.

Nevertheless, there's still a great theme to the episode along with some great action sequences. At the beginning, we have Jet and his freedom fighters battling Fire Nation soldiers. And at the end, there's a cool fight between Aang and Jet as the former tries to recover his glider from the latter.

Out of these two episodes, I definitely enjoyed the first one more. The next episode has a rather notorious reputation, but it'll be worth it for the one after.

ATLA Marathon: The Winter Solstice

 

We've got a two-part episode today, which plays a significant part of the story.

Part 1: The Spirit World

I'm getting a real Hayao Miyazaki vibe from this particular episode.

Continuing their journey to the North Pole, our friends discover an area of woodland which has been torched by the Fire Nation. The party is subsequently approached by an elder from the nearby village seeking aid: A spirit known as Hei Bai is attacking the village every night and abducting people. Aang's attempts to parley with the spirit are fruitless, Sokka is abducted when he tries to intervene, and Aang ends up in the spirit world when he pursues them. Meanwhile, Iroh is taking a break at a hot spring when he gets captured by Earth Kingdom soldiers who seek to put him on trail for war crimes at the Earth Kingdom's capital at Ba Sing Se. As Zuko follows his trail, he's forced to choose between pursuing the Avatar and saving his uncle.

This episode introduces one of the Avatar's other responsibilities: being the bridge between the human world and the spirit world. It offers much greater depth to the world and has the potential for some great designs. There's also a subtle environmental message as Katara finds acorns in the desolated woodland region, showing us that the land can heal given time. This also helps Aang pacify the spirit.

In the other story, we're offered some depth to Zuko and Iroh, especially the latter. While he presents himself as an eccentric old man, his discussions with his captors hint at a darker past while he also leaves clues for Zuko to follow. This culminates in a great fight scene as the pair battle the earthbenders.

As for further continuity, Aang is visited by a dragon spirit who shows him a comet and directs him to a temple dedicated to Avatar Roku on an island in the Fire Nation. It turns out that he has to be there on the winter solstice to make contact with his past life, leaving the episode on a cliffhanger.

Part 2: Avatar Roku

This is a suitably tense and action-packed one.

It's the day of the winter solstice, and Aang must reach the temple in his vision before sundown to contact his past incarnation, Avatar Roku. Unfortunately, that's easier said than done: the island where the temple is located is in the Fire Nation, Zuko's in hot pursuit, and there's a blockade being overseen by Commander Zhao. To make matters worse, the Fire Sages at the temple are hostile to the party.

The ticking clock aspect provides some excellent tension as the party have to run the Fire Nation's blockade while dodging fireballs. It creates a cool chase scene as Zuko risks being arrested in his pursuit of the Avatar, and Zhao won't hesitate to sink his vessel. It also shows how cunning our antagonists can be. When Aang and his friends bypass the blockade, Zhao allows Zuko to pass in order to follow him in a bid to capture both him and the Avatar. Zuko and Iroh draw the same conclusion, and Zuko uses his vessel as a decoy while he slips away in a launch under the cover of smoke from an engine fire.

There's some quiet drama at the temple as one of the Fire Sages, Shyu, defects and helps Aang evade the others. It's the first time we see a firebender helping the party, and demonstrates that not everybody is willing to serve the regime back home. He leads them to an equally impressive door which can only be opened by the five Fire Sages simultaneously. Sokka once again proves his ingenuity and adaptability by putting bags of lamp oil in the five openings that Shyu can ignite simultaneously. When the plan doesn't work, both Sokka and Katara use the scorch marks it left to their advantage by getting Shyu to trick the other sages into opening the door. It's nail-biting as Zuko's arrival almost hampers the plan.

Ultimately, this episode fleshes out Aang's ultimate goal. While Bumi previously told him he has to defeat the Fire Lord, Aang now learns there's a time limit. A hundred years earlier, Fire Lord Sozin discovered a comet which enhances the power of all firebending when it passes over the world, which he used to start the war and wipe out the Air Nomads. The comet, dubbed "Sozin's Comet", is due to return at the end of summer, and Fire Lord Ozai intends to use it to end the war. Aang must now master the elements and defeat Ozai before that happens.

All in all, these were both good episodes, but the second part was definitely the stronger of the two.

ATLA Marathon: "The King of Omashu" & "Imprisoned"

 

One of these was victim to an infamous mistreatment. Also, that seems an unhealthy obsession with those cabbages.

The King of Omashu

This episode kinda plays out like an adaptation of Rumplestiltskin. We also see the introduction of one of the best running gags in animation.

Aang's third proposed diversion is to the Earth Kingdom city of Omashu, where his "mad genius" friend Bumi lived a hundred years ago. He shows Sokka and Katara the mail chute system, which Bumi used as a giant slide, but they get arrested after destroying a cabbage merchant's cart. They're brought before the eccentric king of Omashu, who deduces that Aang is the Avatar and puts him through a series of deadly challenges. To ensure Aang's compliance, he gives Sokka and Katara rings made of "creeping crystal" which slowly encase them.

This episode has some great slapstick as our friends ride the mail delivery system and cause no shortage of destruction (even if it's a little traditional in places, such as breaking a freshly decorated vase). This is followed by some tense moments as Aang takes the tests and has to come up with some creative solutions to solve them. The king's also fun to watch, even though he's presented as an antagonist. My favourite moment is when Aang has to pick an opponent for a gladiatorial contest as part of his final challenge. Presented with two rough-looking fighters, he picks the king, who turns out to be surprisingly brawny for his age and a powerful earthbender.

Now, I'm gonna have to spoil things: after completing the challenges, Aang is told that he has to guess the king's name, because as he puts it, "what's the point of a test if you don't learn anything?" Try asking that to the exam boards, mate. Anyway, based on the nature of the challenges, Aang realises that the king is his old friend Bumi. To be honest, it was kind of obvious when the king first appeared.

Nevertheless, it's a fun episode and helps establish Aang's quest for the series; learn the elements and defeat Fire Lord Ozai.

Imprisoned

Looking back, this episode is quite powerful.

While camping in the woods, our friends encounter Haru, an earthbender who is forced to practice his ability in secret after the Fire Nation occupied his village and arrested all known earthbenders (including his father Tyro). Katara - whom we learn lost her mother in a Fire Nation raid - bonds with Haru over their shared experience, and she convinces him to use his earthbending to free an old man from a tunnel collapse in the nearby mine. Unfortunately, the old man promptly rats Haru out to the Fire Nation, resulting in his arrest. Katara opts to set things right by getting herself arrested for earthbending.

The episode does a great job at showing the effects of the Fire Nation's colonialism and imperialism. Not only have they banned earthbending in Haru's village, but they also extort protection money from the local shopkeepers like Haru's mother. The captured earthbenders are imprisoned on a giant offshore shipyard made out of metal, which they can't bend. This serves to break their spirits as they can't fight back. It also provides a brilliant perfomance from George Takei as the delightfully hammy warden. He's having a blast with it.

We also get to see an early example of Sokka's ingenuity. While it's Katara who comes up with the idea to get herself arrested for earthbending, it's Sokka who devises the scheme to pull it off. This provides some humour in the execution, with the siblings' deliberately bad acting as they argue in front of a patrol, Aang being late to his cue, and the Fire Nation soldiers initially believing that Momo is earthbending. On top of that, we see how Katara will always look out for those in need as she tries to inspire an uprising amongst the captured earthbenders. It leads to a fantastic battle sequence after Sokka puts another idea to good use.

Before I go, I'd like to address an elephant in the room. I'm not going to discuss the live-action movie during this marathon, but I am going to make an exception here because of how infamous the events of this episode became when they were put to film. Mainly how the earthbenders were imprisoned in a giant quarry. Think about that.

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow for "The Winter Solstice", which is a two-part episode.

ATLA Marathon: "The Southern Air Temple" & "The Warriors of Kyoshi"

 

Man, that's a cool door. Although commander is actually a lower rank than captain in most navies.

The Southern Air Temple

While most of the first season is akin to a road trip comedy with fun adventures, it doesn't shy away from darker moments and this is one of them. I actually tore up while watching it.

The first stop on Aang's trip to the North Pole is his old home at the Southern Air Temple. While he's excited to see it again, Katara and Sokka are apprehensive, knowing that the Fire Nation carried out a genocide against the Air Nomads. Meanwhile, Zuko and Iroh sail to a Fire Nation naval facility to repair their ship and meet the ambitious Commander Zhao. It's here we learn that Zuko was banished from his homeland by his father, the Fire Lord, and has to capture the Avatar to redeem himself. Since the Avatar hadn't been seen in a century, you get the idea that it was meant as a wild goose chase. But when Zhao learns that he did find the Avatar, he decides to capture Aang for his own prestige.

This episode provides an ample opportunity to explore Aang's past and his relationship with his mentor, a monk named Gyatso. We see that Aang doubts his status as the Avatar, having been told of his status four years earlier than what's traditional. After all, a twelve-year-old learning of that kind of power and having the weight of the world on his shoulders is going to bring all sorts of stress and trauma. Chosen ones never have it easy, do they? We also learn that when the Avatar dies, they're reborn into another nation in the Avatar Cycle: Water, Earth, Fire, and Air. Aang's immediate predecessor was a firebender named Roku, and his successor would be born a waterbender.

While that's going on, we see the beginning of another conflict as Zuko and Zhao settle their dispute with a firebending duel. While Zhao has more resources at his disposal, the stakes are higher for Zuko. We also get some badass moment from Iroh. He might come across as goofy and more interested in tea than questing, but he also knows when to get serious when Zhao resorts to underhanded methods. To quote a meme I once saw, we see one of Zuko's lessons being to "behave honourably, even in exile".

If there's any moment that deserves special mention, it's when Aang chases a flying lemur (later dubbed Momo) and discovers Gyatso's remains. In despair, he goes into the Avatar State and almost throws Sokka and Katara off the mountain until Katara calms him down. It's a truly poignant moment, but shows something greater: We get scenes around the world in which the statues of previous Avatars get glowing eyes. This includes one at a temple in the Fire Nation, prompting the sages to report to the Fire Lord that the Avatar has returned. That's the only dialogue in the sequence, but it's clear that people in the Northern Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom have likely reached the same conclusion. Hope has been rekindled.

All in all, it's a powerful episode and helps solidify Team Avatar as a family.

The Warriors of Kyoshi

It's nice to see that Sexist Sokka didn't last long.

Carrying on with the road trip vibe, Aang's next diversion is to ride the gigantic "Elephant Koi" that inhabit the waters near Kyoshi, an island off the coast of the Earth Kingdom. His surfing is cut short by a giant water-spout shooting sea creature, and he and his friends are promptly captured by a group of all-female warriors who live on the island. After initially being mistaken for Fire Nation spies, Aang convinces the village he's the Avatar, learning that both the island and the warriors are named after a previous Avatar. Initially enjoying the attention and fan club, it soon goes to his head as he begins to show off. As word of his presence spreads off the island via a fishing boat, it's only a matter of time before it gets back to Zuko.

While Aang enjoying his celebrity status does provide some funny moments (like the portrait scene), it does seem to contradict his previous comments about not wanting to be the Avatar. Nevertheless, he's still a kid and that's probably more attention he's got from a circle that's different to the monks at the Air Temple. Katara is not buying it either, and seems uninterested that Aang wants to ride the sea serpent, but still cares enough to check up on him after his fan club leaves.

If there's anyone who does get some nice development, it's Sokka. The episode begins with him being a sexist douchebag, and he feels stung after being captured by the Kyoshi Warriors. Once again, there's some schadenfreude as he challenges their leader Suki to a rematch and gets utterly trounced again. Nevertheless, he's ultimately humbled by his experience and even asks Suki to teach him her techniques.

Zuko doesn't have his own sub-plot this time. He learns early on that Aang is on Kyoshi Island, but doesn't turn up until the end. It provides a sense of underlying tension, akin to Hitchcock's bomb analogy; the audience knows Zuko is coming, but the characters are too engrossed in their own stories to notice until it's too late. Nevertheless, it provides a great climax as his men ride into the village and the Kyoshi Warriors ambush them.

Out of those two episodes, I definitely think the first one's the stronger of the pair. I'm still looking forward to see more adventures.

ATLA Marathon: "The Boy in the Iceberg" & "The Avatar Returns"

 

It's time to start the marathon, looking at the first two episodes of the first season, which pretty much act like a two-parter. The seasons are referred to as "books", and the first book is "Water".

The Boy in the Iceberg

Man, that's such a cool intro and a neat way to explain bending and the avatar. Here's the rundown: There are four nations based on the elements of nature, and people known as benders can manipulate their native element using the physical motions of martial arts. Peace between the nations is maintained by the Avatar, who is capable of bending all four elements. A hundred years ago, the Avatar disappeared at a time when the imperialistic Fire Nation sought to conquer the rest of the world. The young waterbender Katara and her older brother Sokka have been left in charge of their village in the Southern Water Tribe after their father and the other able-bodied men went to the Earth Kingdom to fight two years prior to the beginning of the story.

Anyway, we open with Katara and Sokka (who isn't a bender) as they attempt to fish in the South Pole. The pair get stranded on an ice floe after their canoe is caught in rapids, but they discover an iceberg containing a young airbender named Aang and his flying bison, Appa. Katara quickly warms up to his goofy and fun-loving persona, while Sokka is more wary; nobody has seen Air Nomads in a century after the Fire Nation carried out a genocide against them, and the iceberg emitted a skyward beam which could serve as a beacon to their ships. He's not wrong on that, as it attracts the attention of one warship commanded by Zuko, a Fire Nation prince who has been assigned a mission to capture the Avatar.

Being the first episode, a lot of this is pretty much worldbuilding, but handles it well. Aang's a goofy kid, Katara's caring and optimistic, while Sokka's more of a wisecracking cynic. Although he's also a bit of a misogynist at this point. That makes it a bit difficult to find him endearing, but it also provides some schadenfreude from his misfortunes. In fact, Katara actually unearths Aang and Appa by gesticulating while calling him out for that attitude. Fortunately, he gets better as the series goes on.

There is some underlying tension with Zuko's ship being drawn to the skyward beam, but even then we get some comic relief from his more reserved uncle, Iroh. Some of that jasmine tea sounds nice. The tension ends the episode on a cliffhanger as Aang and Katara trigger a trap while exploring an abandoned Fire Nation ship. This sends out a signal flare which Zuko spots, leading him to the village.

The Avatar Returns

We've built the world, now it's time for some action. 

Upon their return from the ship, Sokka has Aang banished from the village. It's actually quite poignant, as Katara is torn between staying and going with him in the hopes of learning to waterbend with the Northern Water Tribe. Anyway, Zuko promptly arrives and single handedly defeats Sokka. Aang promptly returns and offers to surrender to Zuko in the hopes that the village will be of no further interest to him. After they leave, Katara opts to rescue Aang and Sokka offers to go with her. Their grandmother gives them her blessing, having realised that Aang is the Avatar.

While Zuko is pretty much an angsty teen who can bend fire, this is the first episode to show his honourable side when he accepts Aang's surrender. We also get to see Katara's determination as she opts to go after Aang, not wanting to see an innocent child being taken away by the Fire Nation.

As mentioned above, there's a lot more action in this episode. Sokka confronts Zuko despite not having any bending abilities, and even lands a hit with his boomerang after getting completely curb-stomped. This is followed by Aang escaping from the ship, and when he almost drowns after falling overboard, he subdues his pursuers with the hidden ability that later gets called "The Avatar State".

The episode ends with our trio escaping on Appa, planning to travel to the North Pole (after Aang plans a few detours). We also get a hint to a darker past for Aang, when he mentions that he never wanted to be the Avatar.

All in all, these two episodes do a fantastic job of opening the series. In fact, I'm getting the urge to watch the next couple of episodes even as I sit here writing about it. I'll probably do that and schedule the next post for tomorrow.

The ATLA Marathon

I don't know about anybody else, but it feels like 2025 is shaping itself up to be a rather horrid year even though it's only January. Feeling worn down, I've found that my writing has been slow and I'm in need of a comfort watch. With that in mind, I've decided to kill two birds with one stone through another blogging marathon. To commemorate the show's 20th anniversary in February, I'm looking at my favourite animated series: Avatar: The Last Airbender (also known in some places as The Legend of Aang).

Now, here's something a little ironic about my looking at this show; it originally passed me by when it first aired. I would have been eleven years old in 2005, but I wasn't really watching cartoons other than The Simpsons at that point. Flash forward to my 21st birthday, I was visiting my older brother and he showed me the first couple of episodes on Netflix. With that, I was hooked. As soon as I got back from my trip, I got my own Netflix subscription and slowly worked my way through the series. It's since become one of my favourite comfort watches. I love the characters, the animation, the worldbuilding, and the deep themes. It was such a ride, and I love the epic journey the characters embark on.

I'm going to start the marathon tomorrow, looking at two episodes per post (possibly more if there's two-parters). I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but that's not always easy for events that carry over into subsequent episodes.

I hope you can join me this odyssey, and save me some cactus juice.

Book Review: Red Daisy by Gemma Owen-Kendall

Happy New Year. Things have been a bit quiet on here lately, since I've been getting used to starting work again and have been in a bit of a creative slump during the Mondayest month of the year. Nevertheless, I have some plans for blogging projects. Anyway, to start this New Year, I decided to take a look at Red Daisy, a fantasy by fellow Swanwicker Gemma Owen-Kendall. This post is part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams.

Blurb

What if the girl who wore the red coat fell in love with the wolf? 

Grace Kennedy was once a quiet teenage girl, growing up in a rural area with her parents. When Grace turns sixteen, she moves to a new town to live with her grandparents to study a diploma in Dance at the local college.

It's there that Grace’s life changes when she meets the polite and charming Daniel and also encounters the dark and mysterious Ben.

But are both boys truly who they say they are ...

Dealing with the sudden strange events happening to her and a complicated love triangle, Grace world implodes when she learns that werewolves and spellcasters do truly exist.

Review

At first glance, you'd expect this book to be a modern-day re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood. Even Grace herself lampshades this during the narrative. However, I was surprised at the angle it took.

The first chapter acts as a prologue of sorts. Taking place in 1884, it tells the story of how the boys Magnus and Constantine became werewolves and were told to protect a spellcaster named Florence, but fought over her affections, resulting in their death's and Florence becoming pregnant.

The rest of the book is told from the perspective of Grace - a descendent of Florence - looking back on her teenage years. While studying dance, she's courted by Daniel and Ben, but it later transpires that history is repeating itself. Having read the outcome in the first chapter, that made me want to know what would happen the second time around.

There are some great twists and turns as we find out who's filling what role in a prophecy that was both laid out and played out in the prologue, and I enjoyed how the story developed and added more layers to the myth. While both Daniel and Ben have a creepy overtone, it was interesting to see the interactions between them and Grace, especially after the more fantastical aspects of the story came to light. And when the fantastical aspects do come out, it provides some great action scenes and some memorable moments from characters you'd least expect.

Red Daisy is available on Amazon here. It's not a particularly hefty read, but certainly an enjoyable one. I look forward to seeing what other adventures Grace Kennedy will get involved in.

About the Author

Gemma is a writer from North East Lincolnshire, UK. Graduated at the University of Lincoln in 2009, she studied a degree in Drama. However years later Gemma has discovered writing is her hobby and passion. She hopes to one day to be able to go back to University to study creative writing. As well as her own writing, Gemma is a huge supporter for writers within her local area.

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Happy writing.

Ending 2024

Well, we're once more around the sun. I must admit that it's been quite a year. As you can see, I haven't posted much on this blog because I've been so busy lately. Flat moving tends to have that effect (with no shortage of stresses before, during, and after).

One big thing was the release of The Lady's Favour, my latest Kestrel and Scar book. This wasn't a new story, but rather a collection with the three stories I've previously published: "Gentlemen of Fortune", "The Pirate King", and "The Homecoming". Seems a bit odd, but it was a way for the latter two stories to have a physical release (I initially only published them as e-books because Amazon's paperback formatting is a ballache).

I tried starting a new story with my swashbuckling rogues in November as part of a new writing challenge called "First Draft Fall", but the ideas weren't really flowing beyond Kestrel and Scar going on what's essentially a double date with a similar adventuring duo. I might look over some of the other dormant story ideas I started while I think more about this one.

As for my other projects, I'm still working on my comic fantasy RPG, Misadventures in Planaterra. I'm stuck in a world-building rabbit hole while trying to come up with some travel encounters for the various regions. I've also recently started working on a new adventure for the setting which I came up with while teaching a course at Swanwick on writing for TTRPGs. I hope to have "The Curse of Faltitek" in a state of completion by September so I can test it at my local rpg group.

On the subject of RPGs, I also had my first taste of Actual Plays (recorded sessions), as part of a group known as the Denizens. I played in a campaign of Edge of the Empire, which is now on YouTube, and also ran one of my adventures for them. I'm currently taking part in a more esoteric game called "Scum and Vindaloo", a campaign in the Scum and Villainy sci-fi rpg in which everyone's a character from Red Dwarf (I'm playing Rimmer). I look forward to trying out new systems, and might run something else for them in the near future.

For now, I've been spending the last few days of the year watching the Lord of the Rings films. Until then, I'll see you in 2025.

Book Review - Behind the Curtain by Anita D Hunt

Warning: This post will be discussing abuse and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.

There often comes a time when you explore titles in genres that you don't normally read. During this year's visit to Swanwick, several attendees launched books published by Spellbound Books, including Anita D Hunt with her thriller, Behind the Curtain. This review is part of a Reading Between the Lines blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams.

Blurb

Two wives.
One dead.
One alive.
One perfect husband.

Penny-May cannot quite believe her luck when the handsome and charming Sam is interested in her, especially so soon after the death of his first wife, Lucy. As the relationship develops and Sam’s true nature begins to emerge, Penny-May believes that it is all her fault for not being perfect, for not doing as she is told, for not being Lucy. After all, according to everyone else, he’s the perfect gentleman. Isn’t he?

As desperation sets in, Penny-May is stunned to come across the diaries of Sam's first wife. Will the legacy of Lucy's hidden diaries finally give Penny-May the strength and upper hand to escape Sam?

Review

It's safe to say this book takes a dark tone. The bulk of the story is from Penny-May's perspective, utilising a first-person point of view. It opens with a prologue which takes place in media res, in which she laments her marriage to Sam and wonders about Lucy. We then flash back to roughly two years earlier, where Penny-May secures a temp job as a personal assistant at Sam's firm of architects. She later learns that he's apparently grieving his first wife, who is mentioned to have committed suicide.

Roughly the first third of the book shows Penny-May working more directly with Sam, which soon blossoms into a romantic relationship and later a marriage. You'd think that part would play out like a romantic novel, if it wasn't for the prologue. The book is also interspersed with chapters from Sam's perspective, which utilise a third-person point of view but nonetheless establish that he isn't a nice person. This becomes especially apparent after he's introduced to Penny-May's brother Daniel, who has Down's syndrome. While his interactions are cordial, subsequent chapters from his perspective show his ableism, and it's only a matter of time before that mask slips.

After Sam marries Penny-May, things get unpleasant very quickly. Sam's mother looks down on Penny-May, believing that she married him for his money, while Sam himself is incredibly controlling. It isn't long before he gets physically abusive, and at that point Penny May has few people she can turn to, especially because Sam's regarded as a pillar of the local community.

In the final third, Penny-May discovers Lucy's diaries, showing her journey that was almost identical to Penny's. It further reinforces how vile a person Sam truly is. This is accompanied by Penny-May's escape, which provides an incredible twist and some much-needed catharsis.

All-in-all, Behind the Curtain is a well-written thriller. It will make you angry, but I'd say that's the desired effect, and helps create a truly gripping story. The book is available from Amazon here, and I recommend checking it out.

About the Author

Anita D Hunt lives in the beautiful County of Cornwall. She has a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and is a published poet, theatre critic and short story writer with four of her short stories appearing in the three volumes of Cornwall Writers anthologies. She is also an admin on the Cornwall Writers team. 

Anita works in the care industry working with people with dementia and delivering cognitive stimulation therapy sessions for them. She is passionate about equality and accessibility for all. With this driving force, she has several volunteering roles within the County as well as singing and performance signing for Rock Choir Cornwall. 

In what spare time she has left, she spends her time with her family, walking her elderly dog and turning her hand to anything crafty. 

She has often been known to say that ‘sleep is for wimps…’

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Happy writing.

Renegade Nell - A Review

Yeah, I'm procrastinating again. Dealing with post-Swanwick Blues and contemplating what to work on next, I decided to take a look at Renegade Nell, a swashbuckler fantasy series created by Sally Wainwright (of Gentleman Jack fame). While the Kestrel and Scar stories aren't really fantasy, I hoped to get some inspiration for them.

Taking place in 1705, we follow Louisa Harland as Nell Jackson, a soldier's widow who returns to her father's pub in Tottenham. During her journey, she's confronted by a gang of highway robbers led by Isembard Tully but defeats them with the aid of a fey called Billy Blind, played by Nick Mohammed. Not long after returning, she gets into a fight with Thomas Blancheford, the spoiled and boorish son of the local magistrate. In revenge, he kills Nell's father, arranges to have her and her sisters evicted, and then kills his own father and frames Nell for it. Now an outlaw, Nell must find a way to clear her name. Meanwhile, Thomas and his sister both fall under the sway of the unscrupulous Earl of Poynton, a powerful sorcerer and ringleader of a Jacobite plot to depose Queen Anne.

Going into the series, I was expecting some entertaining swashbuckler fantasy, and that delivers. There are some great sequences where Billy Blind inhabits Nell to give her superhuman strength (and the ability to catch bullets), but he won't inhabit her all the time. Nevertheless, Nell is still a cunning fighter even without Billy's help, and provides plenty of witty lines when she doesn't take anyone's crap. We don't know much about where Billy Blind came from, and he doesn't know either.

There's an impressive array of other characters too:

• Enyi Okoronkwo plays Rasselas, a stable hand at the Blancheford estate who becomes one of Nell's first allies. After Blancheford's father covers up the death of Nell's father, it's Rasselas who blows the whistle and later joins Nell when she goes on the run.
• Frank Dillane plays Charles Deveraux, a foppish noble whom Nell deduces to be Isembard Tully. The pair pose as an aristocratic couple at one point, which produces some funny bickering as they comment on their wanted posters.
• Jake Dunn plays Thomas Blancheford, who is a spoiled and foppish bully but later gets consumed by guilt after he kills his father. It's satisfying to see Nell kick his ass at the beginning of the series.
• Alice Kremelberg plays Blancheford's widowed sister, Sofia Wilmot. She initially covers for Thomas when he kills their father, and soon becomes a student of Poynton's black magic.
• Ashna Rabheru plays Polly Honeycombe, an aspiring novelist and romantic at heart who is looking to escape from an arranged marriage and later develops a crush on Nell.

One thing I wasn't expecting was the harsh critique of the inequality and elitism of society at that time (which honestly hasn't changed much). Nell is disdainful of how the law only protects the wealthy and influential, and fears that a magistrate won't help her since she's apparently killed one of their own. A later episode shows her posing as a doctor to infiltrate Newgate Prison, where she finds children serving sentences or awaiting execution for stealing bread or blankets. There's also a recurring theme (including a whole musical number) in which Nell is demonised by the newspapers, showing how the media often serves the interests of the elite while profiting off sensationalism. This is where I found the writing to be the strongest.

Sadly, there's only one season with eight episodes. When I was reading up on things, I discovered that Disney cancelled the series at the end of July. It's surprising what you find when you don't use Twitter. I guess Disney weren't keen on the aforementioned themes.

However, the series is available on Disney+ and is definitely worth a watch.

Happy writing.

Swanwick 2024 - My Write Up

Once again, it's that wonderful time of year. No, not Christmas, but it can feel like Christmas (especially at the times you don't know what day it is). I'm of course talking about my annual visit to the Writers' Summer School at Swanwick. This has been my eighth visit to the school, and my third visit as a member of the committee which organises it. One of my roles in the months leading up to the school is processing applications for the "TopWrite" scheme which offers subsidised places for 18-30 year-olds starting out in the writing world. Much bigger than this was the technical side of things, which involved a lot of running around to switch on screens and microphones in the conference rooms. That was hard work.

Like every year, the school hosts a wide variety of fascinating courses. These include "Specialist Courses", which comprise four sessions spread over the week; "Short Courses", which comprise two sessions taught on the same  day (with lunchtime between them); and single session "Workshops".

Being on tech meant not always being able to attend the courses I was interested in, since I give first dibs to my volunteers as to where they want to be. I remember being told on my visit "don't try to attend everything because you'll tire yourself out by Tuesday". Boy is that true. Not only was I in charge of tech, I was also running my own course, gave a one-to-one session on writing action, and sold a few copies of The Lady's Favour.

For the specialist course this year, I attended the first two sessions of "The Secrets of Storytelling" by Simon Hall. There were some truly interesting pointers, including the use of senses in writing and how to show not tell. There was even a segment which involved looking at the story in the song "Escape". I do like Piña Coladas. Getting caught in the rain...not so much. Unfortunately, I had to miss the latter half so I could get a bit of quiet time and make some preparations for other parts of the school (including my own course).

Sunday's short course was "Talking Taboos" with Liz Hurst. The first session was dedicated to writing sex scenes, which is something I don't really do, but was nonetheless insightful. The second session looked at swearing, including when and where to use them to great effect and the law of diminishing returns. I don't really use that much swearing in my prose. Kestrel might use "bloody" or "arse" from time to time, but nothing more severe than that. My poetry is a bit more potty-mouthed though. This was followed by a workshop on "Secrets of the Psychological Thriller" with Lesley Kara. While that's not my usual genre, it was nonetheless fascinating.

On Monday, I attended "Writing Fillers" with Maggie Cobbett (pictured above with my book). That provided some interesting pointers on where to submit photos or letters to magazines, and could be an avenue that's worth looking into (I haven't done any ghostwriting since pausing my Fiverr gig last October). The workshop that afternoon was "Find Your Historical Fiction Voice" with Fiona Forsyth. Historical fiction is one of my main genres, and I got some great pointers about avoiding use of slang or explaining terminology in narrative.

On Wednesday, I ran my own short course on writing content for Table-Top Roleplaying Games. Being a rather niche area of writing, I didn't get many attendees, but that nonetheless helped create a comfortable environment to bounce ideas. In fact, I've since started working on an adventure in my comic fantasy setting called "The Curse of Faltitek", which got brainstormed as part of a group exercise. After a particularly stressful evening with that side of things, I found a sense of catharsis in that.

In addition to courses, there was a fantastic array of evening events. These included a poetry open mic on the Sunday night, which I was on hand for and read one of my own works. There was a campfire singalong on Monday night where I sang a couple of pirate songs from memory, and enjoyed some marshmallows. There was also a fancy dress evening on the Wednesday with the theme "Diamonds are Forever", complete with a disco. I didn't do much dancing this year; it was too hot and I picked up a few blisters on my feet. But I had a pleasant evening in the bar.

Agent 0075, Licensed to Quill

As this was the school's diamond jubilee, there was a special celebration dinner preceded by a cake cutting ceremony with a speech from the Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. This ceremony included an announcement of members for next year's committee from a vote held at the school's Annual General Meeting. I had run for chair at next year's school, but was unsuccessful. However, I am still on the committee, so I can keep the mics running for another year.

Insert Portal reference here

Despite the stresses of the technical side, this year's Swanwick was still an enjoyable experience. People enjoyed my course, I sold half of my stock in the book shop, and I made a lot of new friends. It was great to be approached by people who said they had voted for me in the election, enjoyed my performances, or showing appreciation for my running around. Tech is a big job, and often regarded as a thankless task, but it was great to see that proven wrong.

I'm certainly looking forward to returning next year, although I will have to step down as a committee member afterwards. If my finances hold out, I'm sure I'll be able to attend in Swanwick 2026. Might even get some writing done.

Happy writing.