World Book Day

Today is World Book Day!

What is World Book Day?

World Book and Copyright Day (also known as International Day of the Book or World Book Day) is observed on April 23, 2015. The annually celebrated day is organized by UNESCO to promote reading, publishing and copyright. It was first celebrated in 1995. [Source]

As a bibliophile, writer and English teacher, I couldn't not post about it. So, a colleague and I made up this little survey for you! 

1. Top 5 Favourite Authors?

2. Top 5 Favourite Book Series?

3. Top 5 Favourite Fiction Books (NOT part of a series)?

4. Least Favourite Book?

5. Favourite Genre/s?

6. Least Favourite Genre/s?

7. Favourite Childhood Book?

8. Top 5 Female Characters From Books?

9. Top 5 Male Characters From Books?

10. Book City/Country/World you’d like to visit/live?

11. Action Of A Fictional Character You Still Can’t Forgive?

12. “Classic” Book You Think Is Overrated?

13. Your Favourite Book To Film/Mini-Series Adaptation?

14. Guilty Pleasure Book/Author?

15. Favourite Non-Fiction Book/s?

16. First Fictional Character You Had A Crush On?

17. The Fictional Character You Most Hate?

18. Death In A Book You Will Never Be Over?

19. Book I Am Now Reading:

20. Book You Recommend Everyone Should Read:

My Answers:

1. JK Rowling- Jodi Picoult- Rainbow Rowell- Cecelia Ahern- Nicholas Sparks
2. Harry Potter- Anne of Green Gables- Lord of the Rings- Trixie Belden- Percy Jackson
3. The Book Thief (Marcus Zusak)- Rebecca (Daphne Du Maurier)- Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)- Fangirl (Rainbow Rowell)- PS I Love You (Cecelia Ahern) 
4. Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
5. Romance, Drama, Historical
6. Science Fiction
7. First one I remember hearing about is Cinderella. According to my mum, I could find it in the dark. 
8. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter), Anne Shirley (Anne of Green Gables), Elizabeth Bennet (Pride and Prejudice), Jo March (Little Women), Professor McGonagall (Harry Potter)
9. Gilbert Blythe (Anne of Green Gables), Harry Potter (Harry Potter), Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice), Colonel Brandon (Sense and Sensibility), Sirius Black (Harry Potter)
10. The Wizarding World in Harry Potter. (This won over Avonlea. And Middle Earth. It was close though).
11. In Little Women when Amy burned Jo's manuscript. 
12. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I've never been able to finish it.
13. Anne of Green Gables movies in 1985 and 1987 (you can't really count the third because it doesn't follow the books). And Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca in 1940. 
14. Danielle Steel. 
15. The Diary of Anne Frank. 
16. Gilbert Blythe, Anne of Green Gables. 
17. Dolores Umbridge, Harry Potter. 
18. Sirius Black, Harry Potter. 
19. Briar Rose, by Jane Yolen 
20. Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell. 

[PERSONAL NOTE: For those who know me, no- Elphaba, Fiyero and Wicked is NOT on the list. Because whilst it started as a book, I prefer the characters in their musicalverse forms. I made myself stick to book forms/characters only.]

The Party: Pictures

Nessa and Galinda's Bridesmaid Dress:

Elphaba's Wedding Dress

The Petal Path and The Gazebo (Pretty much what I was picturing):

The Tent (although probably with more pink):









The Garden:

The Most Convenient Definitions: Galinda's Story

In Chapter 4 of The Most Convenient Definitions, everyone revealed why they were in detention and a few secrets.

Galinda's, it seems (according to the reviews), caught everyone's attention- in a good way!

If you haven't read it yet, but you've somehow stumbled across this post, you can read it here. We'll wait.

Actually, while we wait and before I forget, if you want to see the video I mentioned in the AN of Chapter 5, you can find it here. 

Ok, so, Galinda's secret. She revealed that the reason she came to Shiz, was because her alternative option was to get married. Her parents even had someone in mind- an associate of her father's. I gave the excuse that her parents were older than most, and wanted to know Galinda would be taken care of if something happened to them.

To me, this has always been a possibility of Galinda's background. Maybe it was the "Momsie and Popsicle" thing or that Galinda is obviously rather spoilt.

So Galinda came to Shiz, avoiding marriage, and kinda hoping she might be able to find a husband amongst her classmates.

As a few people have mentioned to me, it puts Galinda's "Fiyero and I are going to be married [despite the fact I only met him a few hours ago]" in a new light. I thought so too, obviously; although I do also think Galinda is just a hopeless romantic who knows what she wants. Fiyero meets her ideal, so she immediately decides this must be it. That's my interpretation of her anyway.

The thing is that Galinda's family is wealthy. And typically, wealthy girls didn't have careers. They either got married, or went to university (often to find a husband) and then got married. There's even a trope for it. The idea just made sense to me.

My headcanon for Galinda is that she's a debutante, did a year or so of finishing school before Shiz.

And for those of you who read the book (yes, I know, I don't typically take from the Wicked book, but I have on occasion), Galinda does marry someone much older than her, and very wealthy, Sir Chuffrey.

So to me it seemed plausible that this was a very real option for Galinda; and I thought it would make a good secret for Galinda and to reveal as a crack in her "perfect" life.

I'm glad it was so well received!

Video: Works in Progress

Here's a video about all the Wicked fics I have planned, but done a little differently!

I used Prezi.com (basically super fancy power points) and Screencast-O-Matic (something new I was trying out) to make this. It was fun.

Wish List

A list of a few things I'd love to do if I had the skills/money/people were actually interested.

• Have an actual website. Like, I love my blog, and I try to be good and let you all know when I post something fic-related on it and try to make sure everything is tagged with the story title so (in theory) you should always be able to find stuff from an old story; but a website would be cool where you could just post the links within the story. 
• Do a fanfiction podcast. I just think a lot of people have a lot to say on fanfiction, and I like to discuss things. 
• Travel around the world and meet people from FF.net. Just because it'd be cool.

My Mental Oz

I've been meaning to do this for a while, but now I've finally had the motivation to actually do it.

Basically, I thought it would be interesting (for me at least, not necessarily you) to give you an idea of how I envision each province of Oz and a few other things.

Now, you may not agree, and if that's the case, I'd like to hear your opinion! Also, many of my mental images may differ from the information we're given in different sources; and that is mainly a result of me seeing the musical before reading the book and having seen The Wizard of Oz 1000 times before seeing Wicked.

For example, I know the Vinkus in the book is largely grasslands and desert. But again, I saw the musical before knowing anything of the book; and although I have the grasslands in my mental "Vinkus"- because it's also featured on the musical map, I still see the Vinkus as I first did upon watching Wicked.

I also have to stress that I haven't actually been to most of these places, so my mental images mostly come from pictures I've seen and movies/TV shows, etc. Also, the pictures used aren't exact, obviously. Just to give you an idea.

So, here we go:

Munchkinland:

Munchkinland is a tricky one, because I actually have two sources. One of course, is The Wizard of Oz movie, as Munchkinland is the first place in Oz we see. Although The WoO mostly forms my basis for Munchkin City itself, combined with sort of just the typical country town.

For the rest of the province, I mostly envision where I've been living the past 3 years- the Australian countryside. Lots of green, lots of farmland, lots of sheep.

And to be honest, maybe a little bit like The Shire from Lord of the Rings.











The Governor's Mansion:

The Governor's mansion is the sole exception to this picture, and it's very similar to what I picture for Gilikin, as you'll see in the next paragraph.
Basically it's a big white house. And for some reason, it's always on the top of a hill.

This is the Governor's Mansion in Alabama. LOOK AT THAT STAIRCASE!!! *swoon*
(I have this weird thing about staircases. Love them)

Gilikin:

My vision of Gilikin comes from certain American states. You know the big plantation houses? That's what I picture. Like Gone With the Wind kind of stuff. Very green, lots of trees....





The Emerald City:

Basically, early 1900s New York, but green. I watch a lot of movies set in early 1900s New York. Or just early 1900s.



The Vinkus:

Again, I know- deserts and grasslands. What do I picture? Germany. Why? Excellent question. I don't know.





Kiamo Ko:

There's some really pretty German castles, and that's how I picture Kiamo Ko.



Shiz:

For Shiz, I mostly think of the big Ivy League colleges- namely, Harvard. Very old and lots of stone work....



Quadling Country:

Quadling Country was a hard one, and one I've only written once so far. All I knew about Quadling Country in the beginning was "marshland" and they were poor. This is what I think of.





The Glikkus:

The Glikkus is a place I haven't written yet. All I knew about that was this is where they mine the Emeralds for the Emerald City, and aside from Australia the only place I know Emeralds come from is Russia.

So, yeah, I tend to think of Russia.






I think that's everything... there's also Ugabu of course, but that's disputed and I haven't written that either so I don't think about it much.

Wicked movie rumours 2016

Rumours about the Wicked movie are nothing new. I've been hearing about them since I first found Wicked in 2010.
Then, it was going to be released in 2014.

Rumours have kicked off 2015 by saying that the movie will be released in 2016. It's all over the internet (this is just one article of 100, but they all pretty much say the same thing), but I'm not getting excited. Yet. Here is why:

1. These aren't the first rumours we've heard. 

They've been floating around for years and since the success of Frozen and Idina Menzel's become more popular among the mainstream, the rumours have only peaked.

They're going to cast Idina; they're not going to cast Idina; they want Lea Michele for Elphaba (I have mixed feelings about this, but mostly towards 'no'. Can she sing it? Hell yes. Can she act it? ... I'm not convinced); Harry Styles will be Fiyero (No offence to 1D fans, but... please no); etc, etc.

It took until last year that Stephen Schwartz finally said they were "gearing up"to make it and looking at the script to make the screenplay.

It's like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. There might actually be a wolf in the village this time, but I'll need to see a few missing sheep before I believe it.

2. If you read the article... 

"[A 2016 release date] is the goal, but I don’t know whether we’ll make that goal or not. We will make the movie, but like I said, the bar is really high. We’re going to scrutinise our work on the screenplay and our prep on the movie, and when we feel like it’s ready, okay. We’re not going to shoot to a release date is what I’m saying. It’s in the works, it’s not in a rush."

That is a quote from producer Marc Platt. 2016 is the goal. He doesn't know if they'll make that goal. "It's in the works, it's not in a rush."

This supports so many months worth of articles where Platt, Schwartz or anyone else involved with the musical has stated that it's not a priority to make the movie- especially when the musical continues to do so well all around the world.

So, until we get a 100% official release date, I'm not holding my breath. Anything could happen between now and then.


3. Timing

You know what else is coming out 2016? Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. 
FB is coming out in November of next year. Which means Wicked would have to be on a similar time frame to be released next year, if not further advanced- depending on when in 2016 it would be released.

There was an article on FB the other day that said they're planning to start filming late this summer (Northern Hemisphere summer, that is). We don't have a FB cast either, but it's expected in the next few months, from what I understand.

Now, I'm assuming FB would have more special effects than the Wicked movie (but I guess that depends on what they actually do with the Wicked movie), which I'm assuming means more time in post-production to do all the effects? (Yes? Film people correct me if I'm wrong).

But either way, to be released in 2016, I'm assuming Wicked would have to be filmed at least in the same time period, maybe a bit later?

So if we don't have any casting news by mid-year, I'm assuming the movie will be delayed past 2016.


I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong, and everything will go according to plan. Maybe 2016 will be the year. This is just my opinion, and I'm not exactly an expert on the film industry and how it works. And I do definitely want there to be a movie, mostly to help my pain once Wicked finishes it's run in Australia this year.

In a perfect world, everyone would agree on the cast and be thrillified, but I can't see that happening either.

I'm nervous about casting and wary about changes, but I will reserve judgement until I see the movie- whenever that is.