Modification

Not content with immortalising Ythendria in text and digital and physical illustration, I decided I HAD to get her as a tattoo.

Remember this? Ythendria in her two main guises, the happy-go-lucky bard about to perform to her adoring fans in some Waterdeep tavern, and the anxious half-elf trying to keep her friends alive and well in Undermountain (Dungeon of the Mad Mage). I am very lucky and honoured to know Grace, the accomplished artist who did this for me, thanks to University of Nottingham’s Roleplaying and Wagames Society (which, let’s face it, I know almost everone I consider a friend through). Well, some time ago now, Grace posted some shibari-style pictures she was designing, and that sparked something in my head, which led to me having some pictures designed by Grace and then getting this recently:

I got this done at Bodycraft in Nottingham (where I had my first and only other tattoo done), and Cat was my artist. She’s a D&D player too and we talked about roleplaying and cats for 2hrs, it was brilliant, I had such a great time.

It’s enormous. I’ve been thinking it’s small but it covers literally my entire inner upper arm and down just past my elbow bend. That’s about 8″. Not small!

I love it. I’m still running on the euphoric high it gave me. And it’s healing well. Today it’s super itchy, but less so than yesterday.

This has led to a discussion of why I don’t have a tattoo to celebrate Matt: both tattoos I already have commemorated/celebrated lifechanging stuff in my life, so it would make sense to do the same with him. There was a brief discussion of having the Specsavers plane (a King Air) with him in one of the windows, just a tiny bespectacled face with sideburns, but I think just the text ‘Carpe DM’ is much better. In Comic Sans, Matt’s ‘favourite’ font.

Now I just need to decide where, and then when…! I think it needs to be somewhere around my hands, given the phrase ;P

Anticipation

The First Real Test

Matt finally managed to find some time to finish going through the first part of Dragon Heist so I was able to get that out to my fellow players. Again, no responses but that’s OK: no news is good news! I’ve since been through the rest of Part Two and, as far as I can, made it releasable so as soon as Matt’s done, it’s straight out.

Distractions

Of course, it’s not that easy. Matt’s REALLY busy. We’ve just finished a campaign (Dragonlance) so he’s preparing for the next, as am I, and it’s complicated: it’s Planescape for which we’re making three separate but ‘connected’ characters from three largely unfamiliar settings, two of which I doubt we’ll ever see again, namely Ravnica and Theros. The third is Eberron and was chosen because it, too, has a low-level ‘introductory’ adventure of the right length. So I’m busy making decisions about characters while Matt’s busy helping everyone do the same. Living with the GM has a lot of benefits ;P

Add to that I need to do art of these characters, as well as the Waterdeep panorama (of characters), plus paint a load of models we got with a boardgame but will totally use for D&D almost exclusively, as well as plan a holiday (which is largely done), a massive party and Mum’s move 140mi closer to me, not forgetting completing the house rewire, any number of other household jobs, my lack of reliable health (which is probably what led me down this writing path in the first place…), possibly needing to find a new car and all manner of less-expected life events.

Developments

I have, however, gone back to part of my original idea of keeping everything that happened in-game together in Story One. So now we’re up to Part Nine with its seven or so chapters, currently incomplete but rolling in at 98k words, leaving Story Two even more bare but a lot more… organised?

Additionally, at the rate Matt is getting around to doing the NPC interaction checking for me, I might even have my own illustrations of everyone’s PC ready by the time I need them. Of course, the Original Six are out there already, now I’ve released Dragon Heist Chapter One, but they might have a ‘later version’ anyway: I have some solid ideas of things either I want to achieve or someone else (I have a list of scenes and artists I’d like to draw them, I just need the time and brainspace to organise references etc.!), but I’d like to at least do some of the Panorama digitally, so I’ve got an easily shareable copy of my work.

Illustration

L-R: Tidebreaker, male human barbarian sailor; Fionn, male half-elf wizard; Erdaiz, female kender rogue scout; Birch, male human druid Chosen of Habbakuk; Pyrrhos, male minotaur mercenary fighter.

This was the picture I did for our now-previous campaign, Dragonlance: ‘Arrival at Vogler’, aquarelle, fineliner and metallic pen on card. It shows us all at the very beginning of the campaign as we arrived in Vogler. Heights are accurate, although don’t look too closely at limbs, I got some sizing of those VERY wrong, but I got to a stage where I couldn’t care anymore and just went with it. This is what I want to do with the many, many characters in our Waterdeep campaign: if you include everyone who was Reincarnated or Raised and came back different, that would be 25 characters. I have managed, with some good advice from Matt, to pare it down to the minimum 18, so everyone appears once except the two one-session, two-encounter ad-hoc characters who I really liked but will only get their avatars in the story. Plus the artificer’s Steel Defender, my bard’s dragonnel and the paladin’s pegasus in the background, of course, all those played huge roles. It’s effectively two landscape sheets of A2 (I mapped it out as two landscape A3 with a portrait A3 at each end, like a U shape), and two characters will share others’ space as they’re Small so there’s 16 ‘slots’ to fill, 8 per sheet.

Deviation

So, that’s all I’ve got to say really, but if you want to head over to my mate’s blog where she talks about attraction and asexuality, then please do do! This is relevant to me, as I identify as demisexual at best, but in a different way to Amanda, and I’ve always wondered what attracts me to certain people.

She writes a lot of interesting stuff, take some time to have a look around her site 🙂

My Experience of Attraction as an Asexual Person

Progression

Five Hundred Thousand Words later

Now, it’s not finished, but I’ve started getting my fellow players to read the less-interesting bits, so all the backstory/prelude. And no comments so far, so, uhh, that’s probably good, right? And that means it’s getting to the stage I can release it to everyone else. I have, in fact finished editing up to the end of Part Two, which constitutes Dragon Heist, but Matt’s doing a sense check of the NPC interactions for me and he’s really busy so it might be a while.

Formatting

As it stands, the story is just over 500k words, split into eight parts which are around short novel length each. Each part then has chapters of between 2k and just over 10k words, mostly around 8k: there are a total of eighty chapters, although some of those are split into sub-10k parts themselves. There are pictures scattered throughout, and each chapter, part etc. has a frontispiece ready to go, just to break up the blocks of text.

The Italics Issue

In D&D, pretty much everything special is in italics. I thought that might be confusing, so I went with Spells and One-Off Artefacts Having Capital Letters, italics for special abilities like bardic inspiration or lay on hands, and nothing for magic items, although I’m still undecided about that. I really wanted to avoid everything being in italics every other word, which is something a faithful D&D story should, really, be full of, but I thought it would lose all the emphasis.

Stories of fiction

I had an apprentice editor have a look at my formatting (for very reasonable rates and excellent feedback!) and they suggested I look at Lit RPG works to see how to tackle the italics overload. Unfortunately, reading a Lit RPG for that reason requires knowledge of the RPG they’re based on so I’m pretty much restricted to D&D and most of the stuff out there is video game-based. What I did find that I could understand was good in its own way but did not suit what I am doing.

Stories of fact

I also asked my fellow players if they had any insight, but beyond agreeing with me about overdoing italics, they didn’t have any ideas. But I did ask them all about what I was doing, and it’s why I letthem read everything first: this is not a story by one author, just a story written by one writer. There are seven authors: myself, the DM, and my fellow players. Without them, there wouldn’t be a story. As such, this is not a fiction story in the truest sense, as large parts of it did really happen for all seven of us, in our heads, as a shared semi-fiction I suppose.

And that’s why it’s important they get first read: to make sure I’ve done their characters proud, to make sure I’ve not messed it up, to make sure they’re happy with whatever I’ve said going, well, public.

Version control

When I release each chapter, I share multiple PDF versions: a print and a screen version so people can read whatever’s more comfortable, and then a complete and edited versions. Firstly, I waffled on a bit much on some kinda irrelevant stuff, so anyone pushed for time gets a Basic version where appropriate. In fact, some of the chapters are wholly irrelevant. Secondly, no-one told me when I was writing this I’d start writing erotic stuff! That’s NEVER been me, I have never liked that sort of thing, let alone considered writing it. So there’s a clean version of those sorts of chapters, and sometimes an in-between version.

Not that kind of roleplaying

Romantic relationships aren’t something that come into anything we do, not even the IRL ones. It’s not our group, it’s never been any group I’ve ever played in either. Not only was the whole inter-character romance something that had never even crossed my mind (except in Tyranny of Dragons but I’ll explain that later) but then writing about it was something unexpected and then dabbling in erotic writing? Impossible! Except, perhaps not.

When they say being shut in your own house for 2.5yrs changes you, I did not expect this.

Anyway, Tyranny of Dragons: Tim’s character had a “night of passion” (actual quote) with mine after she Revivified him when he got a bit eaten by a blue dragon. My cleric then pined a bit for his not-quite-bard, but she was left under no illusion that was all he was interested in. The night itself was no more than that quote and me saying something like “Yeah, sure, why not!” That was all that was ever expressed because none of us want to be anywhere near that sort of roleplay, that’s horrible, but I did make an effort to roleplay the whole ongoing disappointment thing. She even went looking for him after they defeated Tiamat and dispersed but, well, he was good at hiding!

If you look carefully, Tim’s character from Tyranny of Dragons does, in fact, make an appearance in Ythendria’s story. Now who’s a tease?!

Release Schedule

I was thinking of releasing a chapter a month. But 80 months is a loooong time, so maybe I’ll got with a chapter a week? Obviously it’s different for my fellow players, they get given what’s ready when it’s ready, but the rest of you can have something neat and tidy.

Having said that, I will probably release all of Part One (prelude/backstory) with the first chapter of Part Two (Dragon Heist, so the game proper), otherwise it’s just rambling backstory with no ‘real’ context. Much like this post ;P I have a lot of preamble to go with the story but, mmm, that might not be finalised until I’ve finished writing the thing, or at least doing the vast majority of the edits. But we’ll see!

Check back in, uhh, I guess a few weeks to see what’s happened?! XD

Resurrection

A push to a more definite return

I was last here two and a half years ago, writing a retrospective of 2yrs, but it fell by the wayside as this so often has post-MA. Other things became important, time was precious (and still is), and then early last year I developed a(nother) hyperobsession which has all but consumed my entire life since. That hyperobsession is what I’m here to talk about.

Rubbish characters

The hyperobsession is something to do with Matt’s Monday D&D game, which started way back in July 2019 at level one with a brief jaunt around Waterdeep: Dragon Heist before the main event, Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Something just… clicked: it was the end of March 2022, I’d stopped focussing on our building works at home because they were all done and paid for, and my brain spacetime was looking for something else. It latched on to my character, half-elf lore bard Ythendria, one of only two surviving (well, continuing: plenty of traumatised survivors!) original characters despite (because of?) being totally unsuited to dungeoneering. All my favourite characters have been a bit rubbish: Alatielle (5e noble wood elf cleric of Rillafane Rallathil) was a lovely, helpful person, but ditzy and didn’t really understand where her magic came from, and Toby (4e halfling vampire) was an ex-NPC and a puppet leader, and he knew it.

A new challenge

Ythendria was, like all my characters, totally like and unlike me. She was happy, optimistic, made lots of friends, was outgoing and worried about things. She liked to help and support her friends and was happy in the background if whatever was happening wasn’t her expertise. Unlike me, she undersold herself a lot (something I used to be good at ;P), loved the inner city life, didn’t plan for the future and her favourite activities were eating, drinking and sex, in ascending order of enjoyability. I thought it was about time I played a not-really-lecherous bard but one certainly down that end of the spectrum: Ythendria was as much pansexual as I’m asexual. We’d been playing in fundamentally this group since 2015, and the only new person since then I’d ben friends with since 1998, so this was as comfortable an intragaming relationship group as I was going to get. And Ythendria was never the sort to randomly hook up with her mates unless they wanted that too, so nothing like that happened in game: that was never our group.

What did happen was she fell in love with one of them: come the end of 2021 I was thinking ‘there’s no way she wouldn’t have fallen head over heels in love with this lying, reckless, magnificent half-vampire paladin by now,’ even though her first love had died in a horrible accident 5yrs previous and then she’d been taken advantage of by someone else she thought she loved too. So this certainly wasn’t on her to-do list, in fact it was firmly on her never-again list. I broached the idea to the GM first, who’s my IRL partner Matt, because this is absolutely not the sort of thing that happens in his games: the closest we ever came previously was a ‘night of passion’ (exactly Ythendria’s preferred sexual encounters) between Alatielle and Tim’s half-elf bard-warlock (not a multiclass!) who was, indeed, a lot like Ythendria and even levelled up in a brothel once. Note Ythendria never paid for sex though, she never needed to ;P Importantly, we never roleplay these things: that’s abhorrent to all of us but if you want to do it and everyone’s comfortable wit that, then that’s fine too. Anyway, Matt’s happy for me to go ahead and approach the paladin’s player to make sure he’s OK with it too and see where we go from there.

I should mention this game continued online even after the pandemic lockdown restrictions meant we could have gone back to in-person. It was a massive dungeon crawl, all the maps were on the system and it was just easier. Everyone felt more comfortable doing it too, a few were hesitant about seeing other people too soon. Others were finding it really hard online but not as hard as it would have been to come back too soon.

Of course, the person I’m emailing is the WORST person in the group for me to email about this: the person I know the least well and have known for the least amount of time, who I feel most awkward around because I perceive they’re awkward around me, the person whose reactions I can anticipate the least. I aired my concerns to Matt but he said it would be fine, and there was no reason it shouldn’t have been: I knew this person from a different roleplaying campaign we’d played in together a very long time ago, they’re a GM too and they’ve a lot of roleplaying experience. Matt really likes them and values their opinion so that’s good. So I send the hardest email in my life…

The scary part

And the reply was positive. Adam, the player of the ex-human dhampir paladin of Torm who’s gorgeous, cheats and has a Cloak of Billowing that makes Ythendria swoon every time he uses it, is totally on board. If surprised! As was Tim and everyone else when I revealed all a few weeks later, coincidentally a session Adam couldn’t make. Between those times, I spent a lot of time writing: writing up how Ythendria felt, her worries if she was rejected, songs and poems she’d written… I got my creative streak back after I can’t tell you how many years; maybe 20? I even went back to drawing. Poor Adam gets all this stuff sent to him, but he’s a wiling enough victim of my creativity, and my writing turns from discrete stories to, well, the whole thing.

The Project

And that’s where I am now, just about finishing up the combat parts of the 500hr double-book campaign. I fully intend to release it to those who roleplayed through with us, and perhaps I’ll get around to posting it all here much later. For now, here’s an extract from the day before Ythendria told Blake she loved him.

Cast list:

• Kagan, part-orc noble fighter-wizard, Grey Hand, leader of Kagan’s KryptoKartography Kompany, part-owner of Trollskull Manor
• Blake, ex-human dhampir noble paladin of Torm currently under an Oath of Conquest; also a Grey Hand
• Rashek, human aberrant mind sorceror whose very likeable but has a lot of shady patrons and a thirst for knowledge
• Trevyn, elf soulknife rogue-gloom stalker ranger assassin out for himself but really good in a team
• Ildrex, bronze dragonborn red dragon bloodline sorceror who’s likeable but a terrible team player
• Ythendria, half-elf College of Lore bard, ex-courtier, part-owner of Trollskull Manor; feels out of her depth in the dungeon but can’t let her friends get hurt

The Scout and the Demon

The stairs ended in a chamber lit by a candle flame in a crystal, the only door in a similar place to the last landing, which Kagan opened.

“A magic circle,” he said, stepping into the room and carefully around the circle. Rashek was next in, poring over the circle’s runes.

“Oh this is very interesting,” he crooned. “This can hold all sorts of beings. Let me make some notes.” He let go of the Staff of Frost and quarterstaff, the former floating in place, and pulled a scrollcase and stub of charcoal pencil from his robes, writing down the runes and making notes about the circle. He finished just in time for Blake to open the next door, revealing a statue of Ezzat as a human mage, clutching the lich’s actual spellbook, and emanating a terrifying aura. Kagan, beside the fearless paladin, looked worried and took a step back, while the human sorceror made a small noise and moved closer to the dhampir. Trevyn, out of Blake’s aura of courage but within sight of the statue, screamed and dashed outside, slowing briefly between the door and top of the stairs to speak to the bard who was keeping watch.

“Terrifying statue. I’m, uh, going to make sure Ildrex is alright.”

Then he was gone, racing down the stairs. Ythendria heard a door shut.

“It’s gone now!” said Blake.

She put her face round the door as Blake scrawled the room with the terrifying statue onto his map.

“I didn’t see it in there, but it feels like there should be more above.” He used his cleansing touch to rid Kagan of the statue’s Antipathy.

Ythendria shrugged. “I can Dimension Door and have a look?” She was mostly unscathed, and the best placed to see what was going on. She didn’t want to take anyone with her as, if it failed, it’d just be her taking some force damage. Kagan and Blake nodded.

“If you think you’re up to it, it’s probably the best we’ve got,” said Kagan.

She intoned the short series of curses which constituted the spell’s components and appeared in a chamber. She blinked in the dark space, momentarily disorientated, when the marilith’s tail snapped out. It barely missed her as she dodged out of the way before it bore down on her with its swords. Her magical drowcraft armour and keen dodging saved her from only a couple of blows, but it was enough that she survived to assess the chamber and see the phylactery, out of reach, and intoned the spell again, louder and with the intent the curse words carried this time, and reappeared where she had started. Kagan, Blake and Rashek were surprised to see the previously uninjured bard return covered in her own blood, cut in numerous places from head to toe, mostly on her forearms, and barely standing: Kagan caught her as she stumbled on arrival. She explained she thought she had seen the phylactery there, and described the creature guarding it that had attacked her.

“A marilith,” said Rashek, smiling at the half-elf with some respect, “You did well to survive.”

She had no time to think of a smart comeback because Blake grasped her shoulder and smiled.

“Good job”, he said, as the warm healing of lay on hands spread through her body.

She used everything she had left to keep composed and not launch herself at him: she would have sworn she physically shook with the effort. The combination of pain and pleasure was almost too much. She only dared look up from the floor after he released her shoulder from his grip.

“Can you Teleport us in?” Kagan asked. She nodded, knowing that she was prepared enough to go back with her friends, especially as she reckoned she could stay at the back where she preferred to be; being hard to hit was all well and good, but being away from the fight was preferable. Blake fetched Ildrex and the terrified elf as this was a fight that needed everyone, and spent the time healing himself with Aura of Vitality. The minute that took gave the bard time to compose herself, find her voice and try and forget the feelings coursing through her nerves.

She arranged everyone as she thought best and cast the spell. It didn’t go entirely to plan, she was a fair distance off from where she had originally landed, but no-one ended up in a wall or part-merged with a marilith, so it was fine. The demon was quickly destroyed, although the fight was bloody and the marilith both fast and powerful, and Ythendria used up her Aura of Vitality between everyone.

“Do I need to Teleport us out as well?” she asked as Kagan picked up the small adamantine box with gold edging.

“No,” said Blake, scribbling notes on his map. “There’s some sort of, erm, trapdoor, maybe? Here.”

He tried pulling it but it was too heavy. Kagan handed the phylactery to Rashek who, like the bard, would be worse than useless if strength was needed, and pulled the big iron ring attached to the stone plug. It didn’t budge.

“Let me know if you need me to Knock it loose,” said the half-elf. Blake joined the big man and it moved slightly.

“Ildrex, can you help too?” Blake dusted his hands down and prepared to pull again as the tall dragonborn went over to assist. The stone plug popped out of the hole, nearly flattening the trio pulling it, and Blake shouted a warning.

“That statue is below. Avert your eyes from it and you should be fine.” He knew Ythendria had been well within range of the antipathy effect and outside of his fearless aura, and assumed this Antipathy spell worked on sight not proximity. The drop into the room was twenty feet, but the heavy plug made a good anchor for a rope, and everyone made it down safely. Ildrex and Ythendria kept their eyes shut until they were out of the room with the statue to avoid its terrifying effect, the others either already affected and so sticking close to Blake, or immune.

The paladin turned to Trevyn. “When did you stop feeling scared?”

The elf grinned. “The outside door.”

Blake chuckled. “Well let’s get going so you don’t have to spend too much time near me and Kagan’s sunblade, eh?”

(Last Year’s) New Beginnings (and in Limbo)

I wrote the bulk of this post shortly after my graduation last year, but never posted it.  I have, in fact, just been through all my draft posts and deleted a fair number that are no lone relevant, but this one still serves! So, to the post I found today:

I graduated on 17th July 2018. To some, this is a life-changing experience as you leave one stage of life and move on to another: you may have moved away already, be living with your parents again or have started a new job on the other side of the world.  It may be the last time you see anyone you’ve just spent the last 3-4 years with.  Or it may simply be, as it was for me, an excuse to wear a silly hat, have some nice photos done and drag the parents around campus again. For me, it was my third graduation: my second at University of Nottingham, and my first where the weather wasn’t horrible. I’ve lived in Nottingham since 2003 effectively and so the day wasn’t really the same sort of special as I’m on campus all the time, and I didn’t study at the Uni much so didn’t really make any friends who also graduated at the same time: in fact, my name was on its own under my degree level and subject. Some of my friends from RPGSoc and who I’ve met through owning rabbits are graduating this year too, and some graduated earlier than me and some later, so I’ve looked them up in the programme and wished them well.

For me, graduation was the formal end of my time as a Masters student. It is not a new beginning in itself but signals the final point in my Masters timeline.  I can no longer call myself a student, but then I haven’t actually been a registered student since 1st October 2017: I couldn’t join any societies as a student member all last year, but then I hadn’t passed my course until part-way through the academic year, so I wasn’t ‘not’ a student. I was in a sort of limbo, where my student email still functioned and my student card still worked, but I was an associate member of the Student’s Union and couldn’t vote, or stand as a council member, but yet all my emails came through to my student account. With graduation, that ends and I become a true Associate Member again.

But where does that leave my status as a researcher? Does the formality of graduation end my association with Nottingham? It certainly doesn’t end my research: I fully intend to carry out as much as possible even without formal support, thanks to my status as a University staff member, which gives me access to libraries and resources in a very similar way to those I had as a postgraduate research student. And that association with Nottingham through formal employment, albeit completely unrelated to my own research, means I cannot in good conscience call myself a fully independent researcher since it is the University of Nottingham which has supplied me with library books and access to online resources which I would otherwise be unable to afford, especially as I only work two days a week.  Working part-time enables me to enjoy hobby time as well as continuing to pursue my research activities and support myself without simply sponging off my parents and/or the other half which wouldn’t work for me longterm.

So, I am an independent-ish researcher with an MA(Res) looking for opportunities.

Which brings us to today, a year since I graduated (the same graduations are happening today, rather than a calendar year), and where am I?  the short answer is: limbo.

I’m an independent researcher with ties to University of Nottingham: I work 2 days a week as an administrator in a pan-European doctoral training programme, and the University lets its admin staff use the libraries and resources too, so I’ve still got all the access to books and journals I had before, but no-one telling me what to do, or guiding me as such.

I’m both working (14.5hrs per week!) and not working because I’m not fulltime, not on a permanent contract and not working as an academic, researcher, teacher etc. I do not know where I belong and there are no set rules or overall guidance in terms of paying academic society memberships, conference fees etc. The student – academic dichotomy doesn’t fit me. (I feel some readers may be thinking the adult – child thing doesn’t apply to me either XD)

I’m still researching, but not as much as I’d like or as much as this job lets me (with the other 5 days off), because my house renovations have taken over a year (which is a blog post in itself but a much more private one I’m not willing to write) and I’m really struggling with it now. I need some sort of finalisation, order, or simply space to sit down, knock out the work I need to do and try and reorganise my time back to what it used to be, rather than the only workspace being the bed or the sofa if I have books I need to access, or the downstairs computer if I don’t, or I need Windows (perils of upgrading to a Chromebook Flip, although I will be getting a second PC eventually).

Life, however, has been generally good over the last year. Academically, I’ve presented new (fledgling) research at conferences, written a book chapter(!) and am currently rewriting a book review (from November: see above house status :S).  I’ve had two proper rejections (a conference and a different book chapter) which weren’t too bad, and I cannot complain because I’ve had loads of great acceptances which far outweigh two tiny things.  I suppose having a fairly wide ‘niche’ is useful!

I actually came here to write a draft about my latest carnivorous plant exploits, but reorganising my drafts has been much more productive!

A realisation about PowerPoints

… They’re all set out to look like little book chapters, aren’t they!

I am about to embark on writing a chapter for a book, and I’ve dug out the paper I wrote and gave upon which this chapter is based.  The paper is laid out so each paragraph is split by the command , except some where I change tack and talk about something while the previous slide is still up.  The University of Nottingham PowerPoint template has subheadings: a subtitle page, so to speak, which breaks the ‘chapter’ down into smaller chunks, different sections basically, and I think that’s actually really useful for organising ideas into longer pieces of writing.

I never expected PowerPoint to become my tool for thesis etc. mapping!

I also checked the word count: my chapter needs to be 6,000-8,000 words, and this paper was just over 3,100 before I’ve added references, made it academic (it currently reads how I speak, because that’s what it’s for) and generally tied it all together, so I think I’ve got it in the bag 🙂

Expect an update on blog-status at some point, although right now I’m finding it a useful idea-laying tool, which I think is what I’ve always wanted to do with it academically!

Run down or take off?

The inevitable ‘I evidently haven’t put enough time into this blog’ post, with the usual question: put in the time to keep it going, or discard it (appropriately) and just use it as a static set of webpages?

Option one seems distinctly less likely but then I also haven’t done the organising well enough of my other projects, leaving me with time that needs parcelling up for projects, so I could feasibly factor this in…

So I will see you later, I expect, a it’ll either be a ‘final post’ or ‘I found time! Go me!’ start of a new chapter.

That’s Dawn, MA, to you…

Yes, I did it: I passed my MA!  Only a pass: my weaknesses in writing and formulating did not allow for a merit or distinction, but a pass nonetheless 🙂  Therefore I am now a Master of Russian Metal Music.

And technically it’s Dawn MA BSc anyway ;P

I have mostly written up a piece about Canada but I haven’t had time to sort the pictures for it yet, so you’ll have to wait a bit.

So what else have I been up to that’s kept me away?  Well, Summer was working 40hr weeks on my MA thesis (while still working 18.12hrs a week at paid-work), followed by an Autumn of panicked jobsearching as I was told my contract wasn’t being renewed. I’d found a job within 3 weeks though, which I started while finishing my old one as the times worked so I’m effectively working 5 days a week until Christmas, which might explain a thing or two…

I hope to post again in January!  Meanwhile, keep track of what I’m up to on Twitter 🙂

Ô Canada! La Première Partie

Ta da!  See, I DID manage to get around to writing at least about SOMETHING from Canada!  And I’ve optimistically labelled it the first part.  The second, though, might be well after my thesis submission date in September.  But this, at least, should at least make people think this blog is actually being used 😀

So, this first part?  The most important, to be honest, as without this bit, I never would have gone (although I expect I would have gone sooner or later; I mean, I already want to return!).  This part is my brief conference report.  I had to write it as part of my conditions of funding from BASEES so I thought I may as well replicate it here, with some additions.

‘Boundaries and Ties: the Place of Metal Music in Communities’, Victoria, BC, Canada, 9^th-11^th July 2017.

I was awarded a BASEES Postgraduate Research Grant, the Graduate School Travel Prize from the University of Nottingham and funding from the Partridge Bequest held by Russian and Slavonic Studies, University of Nottingham to attend and present my research at the International Society for Metal Music Studies (ISMMS) biennial conference, held this time in Canada.  Having never presented my research outside of my own University, nor having been outside Europe in my life, it was an exciting experience!  The two-and-a-half day conference was supported by keynotes from Keith Kahn-Harris, one of the founding members of ISMMS and Brittney Slayes, lead singer of Victoria-born power metal band Unleash the Archers.  Panels were parallel to give more time and breadth to the programme and included categories such as local & global metal communities, performance, resistance, scene construction and ethics.  Presenters were from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds, including cultural studies, musicology, anthropology, religious studies and history, as well as independent scholars and industry professionals.

My research concerns the first album of Russia’s leading heavy metal group, Aria, and I presented a basic overview of late Soviet cultural history as well as insights into my research on themes and influences in the album.  I was the only person presenting on Russia but other researchers presented on cultures as disparate as Japan, Madagascar, Austria, and Indonesia, proving that metal music and culture is a global phenomenon.  I connected with researchers in Birmingham who hope to extend their ‘Home of Metal’ study out from there to other ‘homes’ of metal across the world.

In the evening of the first day there was an opportunity to go to Unleash the Archer’s album release gig in Downtown Victoria, and on the final day there was a special screening of the documentary film ‘Blekkmetal’ about the origins of Norway’s black metal scene, set against the backdrop of the 2015 festival of the same name.  This was followed by a Q&A session with two of the producers.  In the evening there was an opportunity to experience more of the local metal scene in an ‘all-ages’ gig at a local community centre.  The ISMMS AGM was also held during the conference and I participated in this as an ordinary member. There were also plenty of opportunities for networking and sightseeing: on one occasion I happened upon one of the locals down at the beach:

North American River Otter

I was heartened by the interest in my research, and I was able to reconnect with friends I first met in Hull in March 2016.  I was impressed by the range of different approaches and projects metal scholars are undertaking and managed to speak with most people about their research.  I was also in charge of live Tweeting the conference using ISMMS’ official Twitter profile (@ISMMSOfficial), which was challenging but very useful for making me think differently about the papers being given.

Overall, I think the conference was a very valuable experience: not only was it an excellent opportunity to present my research to the ‘metal’ side of my field, but it was also an exceptional chance to travel well outside of my comfort zone!  I did, in fact, experience ‘culture shock’: because Victoria is an English-speaking part of Canada, the difference in culture was, in a way, surprising, as everywhere else I have been are predominantly foreign-language based foreign cultures!

I made many new academic friends at the conference, people who are researching new and exciting things and people who are very interested in my research.  I have opened up some opportunities for myself in future research as well as in the opportunity to become more involved with the administration and promotion of ISMMS, once my MA is finished.  I also pushed my boundaries by experiencing music I don’t generally associate with (extreme metal) and research that is unusual and innovative, pushing the boundaries of academic thought (especially Gemma Antonelli’s paper on self-mutilation in performance).

Thankyou very much to BASEES, the University of Nottingham Graduate School and my Russian and Slavonic Studies ‘family’ for granting me the financial opportunity to undertake this groundbreaking trip!  It was beyond worth it!

Don’t hold your breath for the next instalment: my list of ‘urgent things to do once my thesis is handed in’ might already need to be split into ‘super urgent’ and ‘can wait until after Christmas 2017’…!

Another eight months!

Don’t make promises you can’t keep: you’ll notice I didn’t promise ;P

Anyway, just a brief update to say: I’m presenting my research in Canada shortly and I hope to use this blog to report on my trip.  Not least to chart6 my aircraft discoveries (see ‘It’s Not All Work‘ from Moscow!)

No promises, though ;P