Good Reads and Military Conflicts

Better late than never, yes? Here you will find not only a batch of articles for the reading challenge but I also decided to kill two birds with one stone, adding a little information regarding the entries i judged for the Military Conflict category, which was a blast to judge and gave me oodles of inspiration. I hope you enjoy it! let's get down to business.

awesome reads.

why this world has only 18 followers, I'll never know. It deserves far more. I read this earlier but as the days go by I find myself thinking about it more and more. This article here really shows how important perception can be. The way clouds are expressed in this beautiful and bizarre setting just baffles me. I never once considered taking something so mundane as a cloud and focusing on it due to the alien way its presented.

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I aspire to be as good as ethnis one day. You all know this world. If you don't, you should. I present it here because this article did something unusual for me. It made me want to join the patreon. I've been dabbling with the idea of starting my own and I wish I knew the dark sorcery behind it. On top of that, it blows my css out of the water. This is a pretty article. Just looking at makes me happy. I love it.

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There were so many mushrooms this WE and rightly so. Mushrooms are fascinating. I think this was my favorite though. I love how this article answers a very important question: what happens when nature is forced to deal with magic? How does flora and fauna react and evolve in its presence? I need to ask that question more.

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Storm needs no introduction, and I doubt I really need to explain why cathedris is on my list here. The css, the attention to detail, even the topic of holidays and celebration, are all things I wish to improve on. Storm is an inspiration and I hope to one day match such skill.

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Avalonarcana has some amazing articles. This is no exception. I love how they take inspiration from the real world and shape it to fit in theirs. Something I've always struggled with is really delving into how different cultures perceive each other, and this article does a wonderful job of that.

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Brokenjac has a world that fascinated me from the start. I love their magic system the most. The way they delve into even the great minds who helped develop it inspires me to do the same. On top of that, the writing is great. You cant ask for more.

Millitary Conflict

I decided to stall in making this article due to the fact that I wanted to finish judging the special category for World Ember, and I honestly had some real trouble picking the winner. The following articles are the ones that made the shortlist for me. You guys did not disappoint, nor did you make it easy.

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Luridty is such an awesome world. I love reading Dani's work and this take on a conflict was no exception. More than a conflict, it details a devastating war that ended up being more of an extermination. The war preludes a novel as well, and frankly, I'm excited to read it!

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I really liked this one. It was a wonderful change of pace. It takes a slew of common tropes and even a few cliches and molds them into something that immediately drew me in and kept my attention. I always find it hard to maintain focus when reading, so that alone is quite a feat. On top of that, the article is written in character, and what an awesome character she is.

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Poor casters. The mages always seem to have a bad go of things. In this conflict, the fae marked are victims of violent persecution. It was a realization of their worst fears. I loved how it took a different approach to a military conflict. Much like The Great Betrayal listed above, it depicts a one-sided conflict as opposed to an all-out war between superpowers, which is just as good in my book.

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Remember me mentioning those all-out wars? This is a prime example of why that's just as good. When the goddess of thunder joins the fray, you know it's gonna be wild. I love the detail here, and from someone I can't recall reading much of before this article. Color me impressed.

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Another anvilite whose work I'm new to. Oh, my. Where to even begin. This was one of my favorites for how it deviates from the standard format. The entire article is a series of audio logs. It's one thing to talk about war, either current or in the past. It's another to depict it from the eyes of those stuck in the trenches. It presents not only an opportunity to disclose information about a conflict but also a means of discussing the horrors of war. There were several that discussed the impact of conflict, but this one stood out to me the most.

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Another favorite of mine... who am i kidding? their all favorites. This article discusses another major conflict and it's done with style. It has maps! Im actually surprised at how few maps I saw when judging this. The maps included are great additions to the article as a whole. It made for a wonderful read.

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Ahhh... this one. I saved it for last for a reason. There were several articles entered that lacked a single like. I found articles that lacked the formatting and CSS flare we all know and love, but this one really hooked me. It could have been the nature of the conflict, nomadic houses, destructive events, and the arms race that followed. It may have been the inclusion of outside details like a book used as propaganda depicting events of the war. Regardless, it goes to show that you don't need fancy CSS and perfect formatting to keep this ADHD brain hooked.

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Resolutions

This year, I want to take my next step. I have a novel to edit and publish, I have whatever on earth I plan to do with The Void Between, as well. I think I may finally be ready to monetize my writing, attend the stage seminars, and move forward toward my goals of becoming a *professional* writer.
To do this I need to improve. I need to get better at editing which to this day is my absolute strongest weakness. I need to not procrastinate as much, and I need to learn from all the amazing anvilites out there. Here's to a new year guys. After the last few we've had, it can only go up from here.