If Gwydion is the man Tarin needs to be, then
Ilanwi is the woman Tarin needs to be able to
win the heart of. And I'm not saying that this
chapter 6 of the Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
introduces romance into the book. And I'm not
saying I want adolescent romance in the book.
I'm actually against that. And I think that should
be saved for adult characters, not for children
characters. Even in this medieval world where
they're both 12 or 13 or whatever ages they are,
it's unclear to me how old they are exactly.
I don't remember if it was mentioned earlier
how old Tarin is. I think he's around 11 or 12,
and I think by the end of the series he's like
16 or 17, maybe. Anyway, and she's about his
age. Or it says that he's the same age as her,
but she's taller? I think is what it says. Anyway,
doesn't matter. Moving forward. There is something
weird about this chapter. It feels a little romantic.
It feels like there's a potential relationship,
whatever. Like, you know, this is a ship waiting
to be launched or a ship waiting to set sail.
But, like, I don't want that. And I'm just going
to spoil it for you. That doesn't happen at all
in this book. And you could argue that it doesn't
really happen in the series as a whole. And if
it does, that happens in a very chaste, wholesome
way, which I approve of. Um, I know I've kind
of said different things about it, but there
you go. That's, that's what I'm going to say,
because I want to walk this fine line between
not spoiling the series and also giving you reassurance
of what this is and isn't. And, uh, it's not
kids, uh, smooching in Harry Potter, which was
super inappropriate in my opinion. And, uh, yeah,
not good stuff. Anyway. So, uh, what do I mean
by Elanri's the kind of woman that Tarn needs
to... be able to impress? Well, she's very much
self -assured. She has a great understanding
of who she is. And she... And we get so little
insight on her as far as exposition is concerned.
But from her interactions with Taran, we get
to see what type of person Elanwi is. She's a
little flighty, or she feels flighty to Taran.
Taran's very dark, very dour, very heavy, very
much seeing catastrophe everywhere. Ironically,
He sees catastrophe everywhere, but he sees himself
winning in every situation. For example, in the
last chapter, I believe, or the chapter before,
actually, he thought that he would just be able
to swim when the need arose. And yet, here, he's
thinking, he's worried that the water that they
give him in his bowl is poisoned. He's worried
that the food that Aharon would offer him and
Gwydion is poisoned as well. He's constantly
of two minds. He's constantly thinking, What's
the worst that can happen? That's probably going
to happen. And also, no matter what happens,
I'll be able to handle it. And it's a little
crazy how he is scatterbrained in that way. And
yet he criticizes the laundry for being scatterbrained
as well. And when she's going off to help him,
he worries that she'll forget what she was supposed
to do and how she was supposed to help him and
Gwydion, who is the other prisoner. It's really
fascinating. It's really fascinating because
he accuses her, he accuses her of the very thing
that he's guilty of and he sees her flaws, but
doesn't see them in himself. And yet this energy,
this vibrance, this like zest for life and this,
this very much different energy and attitude
that she brings to the book, to the chapter.
is very compelling and it's very enjoyable. Like,
she's a joy to experience and it has nothing
to do with, I don't know, it has nothing to do
with the fact that she's a girl. It has nothing
to do with the fact that he calls her beautiful
or assesses her as being beautiful. It's just
the energy and the personality is so much more
enjoyable than Taryn's dourness. And yeah, she
does make Taryn look stupid and she calls him
stupid. in, I think, three different ways on
like five different occasions. And it's just
a lot of fun because it isn't a girl boss thing.
It isn't a modern woke thing where she's tearing
down this guy in order to be better than him.
Taran genuinely has flaws and is not a perfect
character and is still in need of a lot of growth.
And we haven't gotten to know Elanri well enough
to know what her flaws are. And to know where
she needs to grow and in what way she needs to
grow. But it feels to me as if she's already
farther along on her journey. Tarn, she asks
Tarn, are you, all these different things. Among
them is a great war leader. And he says, no,
none of those things. I'm an assistant pig keeper.
She accepts this graciously and doesn't say,
oh, I'm an assistant pig keeper. That's awful.
Like, how dumb. She accepts him for who he is.
But when he seems like he's stupid or slow -witted
because he's saying, you know, what is this?
What is that? Who are you? What's going on in
these different circumstances? Where from her
perspective, it should be very clear what the
Bible is and that she's coming up from the great
and all these different things. She feels like,
hey, this guy doesn't get it. He's not on the
same page as me. So I guess he must be stupid
because I'm. you know, at whatever level of intelligence
I am. And I understand these things plainly from
where I'm seeing things and he can't see them.
So she's lacking. So from there, you can see
that she is lacking in grace and graciousness.
She's well -intentioned, but she doesn't have
the wisdom and the perspective to see like, oh,
okay. He's not asking what is the bauble and
needs to be told it's my bauble, you idiot. He's
asking. Why is it glowing? Oh, my bauble is magical.
It glows when I want it to or when I don't want
it to. And it can do X, Y, and Z, these other
things. And I don't remember all the full capabilities
of it. And we don't know the full capabilities
of it. I kind of think for right now, it only
glows, but we'll see. And that's interesting.
So we are revealing some of her character flaws
or a character flaw of her. And it's very interesting.
It's just, it's very fun the way they play off
of each other. Uh, once she gets into his cell,
she ends up healing him. And she says something
along the lines of, uh, like, oh, you must not
be a very good warrior if you allowed yourself
to be cut up and banged up like this. And he
said, oh, I didn't let myself be. I tried not
to. And just, you know, your aunt's, uh, you
know, warriors were tougher than me and they
got the better of me. And she says like, oh,
okay, I guess that makes sense. And it also makes
sense that an assistant pit keeper wouldn't be
called upon to be competent in battle very often.
So I understand. So anyway. That is another textual
example I'm bringing up to show you that... I
don't know how I would identify that flaw or
what I would say that flaw is, but there's something
there. But there's also... Like, you can see
the intelligence. You can see the wheels spinning
for her and understand where she's coming from
and why she would say things or frame things
in these certain ways. And then with the additional
context from him, she's figuring them out. Also,
I find this very fascinating. She says at one
point that men grow up to become war leaders
and women grow up to be sorceresses, at least
in her family. She's of noble birth, of noble
blood, etc., etc. And that's what's expected.
Ahren is her aunt, and she's training her because
she's an orphan. Her parents are dead. And so
she's been sent by other relations to Ahren to
become a sorceress as well. And it's interesting
because Tarn wants to be a war leader. And then
he meets this girl who affirms that that's what
men become. And she says that women become sorceresses.
She's a woman. We can expect that she will become
a sorceress. And we see with her bauble, which
glows magically, that there is already some sorcery
within her. And that's something within her grasp.
That is an interesting foil in contrast to, like,
how Tarn wants to become a war leader, like Gwydion.
He wants to be this great man, and he's met somebody
who's an equal a peer of his. I mean, she's not
in lineage and birth and everything like that,
but for right, you know, in the story, she's
a friend and an ally and somebody who is in a
similar situation as him. They're both trapped
with Ahren, even though she could leave, it seems,
anytime she wants Elanri, can. they're both stuck
there in that situation they're together so like
there's a peerage that forms between them if
not like a friendship and yet or and that helps
to put them on these opposite sides where she's
a woman so she'll become or you know she's a
girl who become a woman who become a sorceress
and he's a boy who'll become a man who become
a war leader potentially there's like these defined
societal constructs of what they will become
based on who they are in how they were born.
And because she's a woman, she has magic affinity,
I guess. And because he's a man, he doesn't,
or he lacks it, or it's not as potent. So he,
it's more likely for him to become a war leader.
And I really liked that contrast and that like
breakdown of like by gender, this is what you
should do. Um, I believe in gender roles. I'm
a very traditional person. My family and I operate
in a traditional fashion. Um, and I think that's
really great. I like that it's here and I like
that it's presented. kind of without question
and without expectation or without any pushback.
It's just, she's, and at the same time, Elanui
is this very like breaking the mold kind of character.
Like she's not a bashful, timid girl. She's brash
and she's excited about, uh, springing, uh, Taran
and Gwydion out of the prison that her aunt has
them in. And she can't wait to see the look on
her aunt's face when she realizes that they have
escaped from her dungeons. And, um, She just
thinks it'll be great fun and a great adventure
to do this. So she's doing a very brave and noble
thing, you could say, but she's doing it in a
girlish way, which is like to spite her aunt
and enjoy seeing her frustration and irritation
with her for doing that. And I love that. She's
like a lovable scamp of a character, but she's
like a proper, I don't know, I guess she's a
princess of sorts. She's like a proper princess
who's a lovable scamp at the same time. So it'd
be like if Leia and Han Solo were the same person
somehow. And that's a really interesting dynamic,
and I think it's really cool that Lloyd Alexander
did that, and I like that, like, she accepts
the traditional gender norms, but she also doesn't,
she's not constrained by them, it's where she
lives, and she's going to be whatever kind of
sorceress she wants and have whatever kind of
attitude and personality she wants, because Elanui
is still Elanui, despite the fact that she's,
you know, stuck in her traditional, you know,
gender norm role of becoming a powerful sorceress.
Not like that's a bad thing. You could say that
Tarin becoming a war leader and potentially having
to die someday in battle is a worse place to
be. But, I mean, they both have their pluses
and minuses, which is true of real life. It's
true of being a mother -father. It's true of
being a husband or wife. Each one has different
pluses and minuses. And fortunately, I'm married
to a wonderful woman. She and I tell each other,
you're a great mother. You're a great father.
Not like... all the time, but like we do sometimes
when it's like, yeah, thank you for doing that,
I don't want to do that, and you're the dad,
that's your job somehow, it became your job,
I'm the mom, this is what I do, and I don't want
to do what you do, and I don't want to do what
she has to do, so it's just funny how it works
out like that, so anyway, yeah, this was a great
chapter, it was a blast, I really thoroughly
enjoyed it, and yeah, I'm excited to get more
into the book, I'd love to hear your thoughts
on it, and what you think about the book as a
whole, if you've gotten through it already. Keep
an eye on the spoilers, because I want this to
be like an open place where we can discuss it,
but not get too crazy. If you want to go into
the full spoilers, you can reach out to me on
Twitter or X, whatever. I think there should
be links in the description. If not, it's all
on mjminews .com, where you can find links to
everything I do, my art, my writing, and my analysis
of stuff. And we can also have conversations
there, because there's a comment section, and
there will be show notes where you can comment
there, and we can talk back and forth. And then
I've been working on Mock Ring Mayhem, my debut.
middle grade novel about magical bugs battling
monsters. Specifically, a monster finds out where
the bugs, the magical bugs live, and it goes
there to kill them all. And a couple of young
grow bugs use, or who are untrained and untested,
not ready for battle, they end up having to,
or seizing the opportunity to help save one of
their mentors and fight off one of these monsters
called a grimling, which is a misty bird that
can hide in fog and do different things. And
it's a very challenging fight for them. They
might not live. And even if they do, there are
a bunch of other Mockwings for them to fight.
And will they be able to fight them? Will they
be able to save their mentor? If you want to
find out, you've got to find the book. It's called
Mockwing Mayhem. It's coming out this year, 2025.
Hopefully before the summer. Hopefully in the
spring. We'll see. I'm working on doing a bunch
of stuff on the back end. I'm getting a cover
made. Right now, I've been in talks with an artist,
and she's working on it. She's going to get me
a mock -up soon for Mockwing Mayhem, which is
exciting. And then I've got to do another...
back -end stuff to get the book ready to publish
as far as like formatting and being positioned
and being able to get it as a print file and
all there's all sorts of technical stuff but
I'm working on that in the back end the book
is finished I feel very confident in it I feel
like it's a great story and it's great for kids
it's great for families it's an all -aged kind
of thing it doesn't talk down to the to the reader
it addresses things in a way where there's real
stakes and there's real danger and there's real
excitement and there's real glory and victory
over uh enemies and over obstacles and challenges
because i think that's what matters and i think
that's the kind of thing you get in uh the book
of three i think that's the kind of thing you're
going to get in all of my writing at least that's
the goal anyway so anyway until next time folks
take care be well grobugs .com g -r -o -b -u
-g -s or MJMunoz.com where you can find everything.
I link everything there, and I'll have links
pointing out to other things as well. If you
go to the website, to either website, you should
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