#braz replies

I'm gonna be honest I have no idea what this is supposed to mean

My username has nothing to do with my ethnicity?

Minstrel... like... like the medieval musician storytellers? Because I'm a musician and a writer?

Long story short? It was depression, or anti-depression measures.

Slightly longer version: There was a time I felt so incredibly shitty about school being a pain, about 2 years ago. All I made back then, music and writing, was on a screen. It wasn't tangible, I couldn't hold it.

So I started sewing.

First little things like dice pouches, then I started working on the first gender jacket, and so I distracted myself from the things I was going through by making art I could hold in my own two hands.

I'm not ... a very good crafter. Not in the way that I can make elaborate quilts or sew plushies or make very good stencils. I have no sewing machine, I don't have the space for it. I make my things from salvaged, thrifted and literally picked-off-the-street materials.

S-songs? You know I barely listen to vocal music right?

Tide Full In. Either by Rosie Hodgson or Niamh Parsons

Atzo Goizean sung by Olatz Zugasti

Tor i Helheim by Myrkur

Erlkönig, composed by Schubert, the version sung by Anna Sophie von Otter

I collect pins!! Here’s almost the whole collection. Most of these are bought secondhand or gifted to me. Flea markets, Vinted and of course the thrift store where I work are treasure troves.

Any questions about specific ones?

14. do you love the smell of earth after it rains?

I do! I really do, and I'm kinda sad that the summer has become so dry here in the Netherlands. 25. perfume/body spray or lotion? Usually just deodorant, but when I have to attend a concert or some other place with lots of (probably sweaty) people I do put on some of the "men's" perfume that smells like musk or sandalwood or whatever.

31. what type of music keeps you grounded?

Hey Anon!

Well, you could read @epaniou's very explicit ThornHart (Raine/Susan) fic?

This took a while but busy little composer is busy... sorry.  2: What character(s) do you find most difficult to write? Why?  Probably bland men who are just there for being bland men? I can find personality and interest in a lot of characters, even truly awful ones like Stregobor (The Witcher) or people I really don’t like such as Anduin (Warcraft). As long as they have some kind of motivation that’s not being male and straight. The most recent and obvious example of this is probably Istredd in the fic Still Waters, and even with that Greypaws and I found a way to make him fit into the fic lol  29: What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc) A combination of outlining and seeing where that outline leads. Which scenes I get to keep in there, what I need to change as I write because it doesn’t end up fitting. There are few things more satisfying than to see an outline shape itself into a fic in a successful way. 

36: What fanfic of yours has the symbolism you’re proudest of?  I’m not entirely sure if symbolism is something I’m very good at. Foreshadowing and tying things together is, however. I’m most proud of Still Waters, in that way. Some examples: 

Still Waters is divided into 3 story arcs! It’s not super clear but it’s chapter 1-14, 15-26 and 27-the epilogue. The first one is for Yen and Tissaia only, then it branches out with two additional stories. One is for Coral and Philippa, starting at chapter 15, the other is for Vanielle, starting at chapter 28.

In the second (?) chapter, Tissaia and Yennefer mention Coral in their first conversation. Even there, you already know she’s a witcher and that she has interacted with Tissaia in the past. In chapter 9, Tissaia says something about her stay in Skellige, with Coral as well. This returns a few chapters later as a backstory section in the fic.

Coral later becomes one of the two primary side characters for the second story arc of the fic, and you could see it coming if you read the story in one go.

The third story arc too, is foreshadowed earlier in the fic. Tissaia drops the names Vanielle and Nilfgaard in one breath, right at the end of chapter 7. Then a chapter later, you learn that Fringilla is now the highest ranking mage instead of Vanielle (this is according to canon, episode 3 establishes Vanielle as mage in service of Nilfgaard). 

Tissaia reiterates this in chapter 26 and two chapters later, you finally meet Vanielle herself. The wet towel mage. 

I absolutely love carefully crafting things like this!