Pour BOIR

 Pourboire is French for a tip. Loosely, it means, "To buy yourself a drink." "Pour" means "for" and "boire" means "to drink".

 

B.O.I.R. is the Beneficial Ownership Information report, and here is a tip.

"...the Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Ownership Information rule (CTA BOI rule) has a looming deadline of JANUARY 1.

It is an unconstitutional rule that treats small business owners like financial criminals and has egregious penalties, including nearly $600 a day and jail time for non-compliance."

However, apparently there has been a temporary "stay" (check the Treasury Department site yourself) owing to a lawsuit, so the swingeing penalties and the deadline may not be in force.

See here: https://fincen.gov/boi

Back in March (of 2024), Mark Friedlich ESQ., CPA, of Wolters Kluwer posted about a minimal number of small businesses who were exempted from filing.

 

Read it here (although it is old news.)

https://www.wolterskluwer.com/en/expert-insights/corporate-transparency-act-ruled-unconstitutional-what-it-means-for-beneficial-ownership-reporting

Here's a better tip.

Now, just a week ago, Carol Roth reports that there has been a real reprieve for everyone who makes decisions within a Condo Association, HOA, small business, S-corp, LLC etc etc.  Her explanation is really worth reading for anyone who might have been caught up in the wide net.

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/small-businesses-get-temporary-reprieve-from-big-brother-need-more-certainty

For once, perhaps, procrastination pays off!

 

But, maybe don't bank on it. The stay is temporary. Reporting for the time being is voluntary, and it is possible that the next administration might do away with such time wasting, intrusive red tape. 

 

In fact, there is a well-named bill, "Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act" which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, and in the Senate by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Alabama.... introduced way back in April, and still languishing.

Read about it here: 

https://davidson.house.gov/2024/4/repwarren-davidson-introduces-repealing-big-brother-overreach-ac

 

If you are a writer or an aspiring writer, you probably ought to own an LLC. Legal Zoom is one place to start, or you can look up "Start an LLC...." + the name of the State you are in. If you have an LLC, you will have to file an annual report ($25) online with your State, and you will have to file a BOI report if the rule is reinstated.

You also might like to contact your representatives and senators in order to encourage them to support the Repealing Big Brother Overreach Act.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

SPACE SNARK™  

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

https://www.rowenacherry.com

Karen S. Wiesner {Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge"

by Charlie Lovett

by Karen S. Wiesner

"Merry Christmas" ringing out in the sweltering heat of a June summer? What else would be on the lips of a transformed man after the events of "A Christmas Carol" (which was the focus of my December 22, 2023 column "The Practice of Benevolence {A Reflection on Dicken's A Christmas Carol}" https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-practice-of-benevolence-reflection.html). "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" by Charlie Lovett--author of such highly recommended literary mystery titles as The Bookman's Tale and First Impressions--was published in 2015, which came 172 years after Dickens' timeless tale.

In this, Scrooge's testimony of a transformed life, twenty years have passed since he was visited by the ghosts that changed everything in a single night. His radical shift, as the joy and benevolence of Christmas become an integral part of his daily life, have spilled over to those around him, altering them as well, but not always for the better. Scrooge gives of himself and his wealth sacrificially--leaving little or nothing for his own meager requirements--to all in need. Nothing discourages his cheer. However, the hard lessons he's learned haven't necessarily carried over to those he loves.

His nephew Fred (Freddie) has a wife and family, along with an uncompromising governmental position working for the assistant to the undersecretary. Unfortunately, he's grasped that, "with bills to pay…books to balance…a year older and not a farthing richer", he can afford no more than a few days of Christmas each year.

In Scrooge's own business, Bob Cratchit has been made a partner, only he's allowed his extreme work ethic to dominate his life to the exclusion of his once beloved family and their many grandchildren.

Meanwhile, the bankers (affectionately called Pleasant and Portly by Scrooge) have become more concerned with Scrooge's current balance of outstanding debt rather than "making some slight concession for the poor" not simply once a year at the holidays. Scrooge writes cheques his account can't cover in order to help the destitute running rampant in their city.

That evening, Scrooge is visited by the ghost of his former partner, Jacob Marley. His heavy chains of penance have been lessened by Scrooge's redemption--but only by five links. Marley holds no hope that he can ever decrease it more. Scrooge is determined to help his old friend eliminate the weighty burden and send him to a well-deserved rest. To do that, he calls upon the familiar spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future to teach valuable lessons about living Christmas charity all year round to Freddie, Bob, and the bankers.

Although I was originally put off by the idea of the characters I knew and loved in the original story taking on the less than appealing traits Scrooge once displayed (essentially becoming hypocrites, as the only time of year that seemed to bring out goodwill in all of them was at Christmas), I did find the evolving facets of their personality realistic:

·       In "A Christmas Carol", Scrooge's nephew was very young, newly married, without a family and position as the breadwinner and a member of society to weigh him down. With greater responsibility come greater burdens.

·       Cratchit was moved overnight from apprentice to partner, and he'd known Scrooge long enough not to be fully trusting that that situation couldn't change in a duplicitous heartbeat.

·       And bankers…well, bankers are known for loving wealth, not spreading it around as if it's easy to come by.

I was also won over by how Lovett took familiar quotes from the original "paraphrasing, parodying, and plagiarizing passages" (as he says). Because of the clever repurposing Lovett did with those beloved sections, I began to notice that this story was structured and laid out almost scene by scene just as the original story had been. In that way, "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" stayed true to its processor.

Additionally, Lovett incorporated Dickens--also a great social reformer in his time, as his debatably most famous character Scrooge became--into this story with references of Dickens as a famous author in Scrooge's time. Finally, allusions were made to Dickens' other works, where he described the less fortunate in Victorian London in such works as Bleak House, Little Dorrit, David Copperfield, and others.

If you love re-reading the enduring morals taught in "A Christmas Carol" during the holidays as I do, you'll adore "The Further Adventures of Ebenezer Scrooge" any time of year as an apt reminder that not only can we bless others less fortunate than ourselves with our kindness and benevolence, but that we inevitably receive the same in exchange by opening our hands and our hearts. In this way, we also further the game-changing principle of "paying it forward" one precious life at a time.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Octopus Superpowers

I came across another article about the delightful weirdness and surprising intelligence of octopuses:

10 Incredible Facts About Octopuses

In addition to their amazing powers of camouflage, shapeshifting, and squeezing through tiny spaces, they can use tools, recognize people, and solve problems such as opening jars and navigating mazes. They would make an excellent template for an alien sapient species.

With their eight flexible arms, they arguably have a greater capacity for manipulating objects than we do. However, one problem would inhibit them from developing an advanced technological culture, no matter how intelligent they might become -- their aquatic environment. An underwater creature can't use fire and therefore can't work with metal.

One species, though, spends a nontrivial amount of its life on land:

Adopus Aculeatus

This small octopus "lives on beaches walking from one tidal pool to the next hunting for crabs." We could imagine a planet rich in tidal ecosystems dominated by an intelligent population of amphibious octopuses. For them to invent what we'd consider an advanced civilization, though, their evolutionary history would need to include some urgent motivation for developing such skills. No doubt a clever science fiction author could come up with a plausible scenario to produce that result.

Unfortunately for Earth octopuses' prospect of developing intelligence to rival ours and filling an aquatic niche similar to the human land-bound role, their short lifespans and habit of dying soon after reproducing limit them. Creating a culture that could transmit knowledge from older to younger generations would require a mutation to lengthen their lives.

Another potential limitation might be their solitary lifestyle. Typically, most highly intelligent animals are social. Also, community cooperation would seem to be a requirement for a civilization -- at least, in the sense that we understand it.

An interesting side note: Their copper-based blood is blue. So why is Vulcan copper-based blood green? :)

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Phthongs In A Twist

One of the most intelligent sfr authors of our day, Linnea Sinclair, once opined that even my laundry list would be entertaining. That compliment is very loosely remembered, and is apropos of almost nothing, since I am not writing about carelessly removed thongs.

Perish the thought!

Although, thinking of "knickers in a twist", "panties in a wad" and other underwear idioms, I came upon a great source. https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/panties+in+a+wad

Last week, I mentioned speakers of diphthongs disparagingly... in haste, as an afterthought. I should not have done that, because I was wrong about the diphthongs. I apologize unreservedly. My examples were triphthongs.

With diphthongs, two adjacent vowels slide into one another. With triphthongs, both consecutive vowels are pronounced equally.

Alien is a triphthong. Alien - Ay-Lee-Un...not much different from maniac. May Nee Ak.

Here are some sources:

English Diphthongs,  Pronouncing dinosaur names, Types of vowels, American-English, 3 vowels together, and Words with 3- or more vowels

I wonder what grammarist think of "buoy" (sometimes known as a bobber).

Is that a diphthong or a triphthong. President George W. Bush pronounced it a Boooo-eeeee, so that must be the correct, American navy pronunciation,

When I was a girl, sailing dinghys in near shore races off the Cherbourg Peninsula that could last six hours, which was a serious strain even on a teenage bladder, we pronounced them Boys.

On the other hand, GW pronounced the most serious weapons to which he held the codes, NEW-Cue-Lar rather than New-Clee-Arr, so there is room for doubt.

Other triphthongs of interest might be:

moity

frailty

myocardial

coequal

coitus

oophrectomy

But not oedipal.

And then there is dialysis. As the Speak More Clearly folks share as Secret Number 6, 

"In the triphthong ‘aia’ as in the word ‘dialysis’ / daɪˈælɪsɪs /, the aya has to be fully said and not cut short."

https://www.speakmoreclearly.com/english-pronunciation-tips/your-secret-guide-to-english-vowels/

That's a lot of sources. Would my modest piece have been better if I had only referred to one?

Aside: I loathe AI. It changed my title to Pythons In A Twist. It might do it again. I also noticed a BING pitch for AI touting the ease of never having to check multiple sources for information again. So, what happens to journalistic integrity?

They say that with History, the victors write it. Would it be an improvement if a Chat Bot wrote it?

All the best.

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ http://www.spacesnark.com/  http://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

Beware Ignorance and Want by Karen S. Wiesner

 

Beware Ignorance and Want

by Karen S. Wiesner

 

 

From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens:

 They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish; but prostrate, too, in their humility. Where graceful youth should have filled their features out, and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat enthroned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change, no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade, through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monsters half so horrible and dread. 

Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to him in this way, he tried to say they were fine children, but the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie of such enormous magnitude. 

“Spirit! are they yours?” Scrooge could say no more.  

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end!”

The cells that make up the body--whether human, animal, or even plant--are countless, diversified, and specialized. There are different types that each do something special, all with the goal of working efficiently with the rest of the cells. In this way, the body can run so smoothly, few of us are even aware of their existence.

Some cells work with larger organisms within the body. For instance, white blood cells subject themselves to the determination of a higher function that assigns it specific duties. At the times when an invader enters the body, the white blood cell rushes toward danger, often forced to sacrifice itself for the sake of the function it serves. Both danger and self-sacrifice are at the heart of its very existence. For the greater good, it does what it has to in order to defend and keep the body alive. 

Cells don't always work "in community" though. For whatever reason, a cell can become selfish and superior, working against the body with every fiber of its being to serve its own ends. A parasite or cancer cell, literally, considers nothing except its own survival and what it needs to thrive. They maintain complete independence of the whole while freely and selfishly partaking in the benefits of being part of the body. These cells leave the body in want, weaker and sickened. 

In a similar way, individual cells that make up a body are like a community. When all are working together in one place, each undeniably functions better--to the best of their ability. Unconditionally, the individuals within the community share in the fruits and privileges of belonging together. Individual parts have no choice about whether they can live or thrive separate from the rest of the body. A hand, a foot, an eye--none of these can live apart from the rest of the body. But, by existing as a coherent team, everyone flourishes. 

Also, like cells, communities don't always exist in harmony. A community at odds keeps all within it divided and at war, shrouded in the ignorance of shunning everything and everyone around them that doesn't fit a limited agenda. 

Charles Dickens' beloved A Christmas Carol goes out of its way to show us that we can't choose a single day of the year to effect changes within a community that will benefit the whole. Social responsibility must be a daily, continuous pursuit. But so often our global body (our community) is ripped apart by self-focus and flavor of the day, hot-button disagreements. Like cancer cells or parasites, these agendas feed off the slightest bit of hate, superiority, ignorance, and want. 

Another universal truth highlighted in A Christmas Carol is that, when everyone is treating everyone else with respect, regardless of natural or preferential diversity, they become "…fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys." Every part that makes up a body is unique and crucial, even if it's unaware of all each does to make the whole better and healthy. All are equal. None are superior. Humility, acceptance, cooperation, and daily goodwill are the only ways for a body and a community to function. 

This time of the year and every other, human beings can learn a lot from the way our own bodies function in the ideal when every part is grateful for the rest. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

Visit her website here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

and https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

Find out more about her books and see her art here: http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor 

Visit her publisher here: https://www.writers-exchange.com/Karen-Wiesner/

Old-Fashioned Holidays

Having recently discovered we own a copy of Washington Irving's SKETCH BOOK, published around 1820 (one of the books we inherited from my mother-in-law, many of which I shelved without looking at closely), I read his essays/stories about English festivities surrounding Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and Christmas dinner. The narrator, an American visiting England, comments with delight on the customs of the season. The host, a merry old squire, insists on keeping the time-honored traditions as he understands them. None of this modern stuff allowed! Centuries-old songs are sung, games of venerable vintage are played, wassailers are welcomed, the Yule log is burned, a decorated pig's head is ceremoniously carried to the dinner table in lieu of a boar's head. The kindly old gentleman, however, is widely considered eccentric for his devotion to the past. Some of the guests carefully chosen from among the "decent" subset of the local peasantry snicker behind his back. Although the narrator enjoys the celebrations, he makes it clear that the squire is reconstructing traditional customs as he imagines them, not passing them on unbroken from previous generations.

According to THE BATTLE FOR CHRISTMAS, by Stephen Nissenbaum, our concept of an "old-fashioned Christmas" derives in large part from these "sketches" by Irving as well as "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (aka "The Night Before Christmas"), by his contemporary Clement Clarke Moore, and of course Dickens' A CHRISTMAS CAROL. Nissenbaum offers strong evidence that the Saint Nicholas legend brought to life by Moore didn't cross over intact from Holland. Instead, Santa Claus as popularized in early 19th-century New York and immortalized by Moore was "a conscious reconstruction. . . an invented tradition."

Similarly, Nissenbaum's research reveals that the Christmas tree constituted a purely local custom in a small area of Germany until it became nationwide only in the late 18th century. Moreover, instead of spontaneously spreading from German immigrant communities to the wider American population, Christmas trees first became familiar to the general public from literary sources. Yet already by the mid-19th century people would casually remark that of course they always displayed a tree, as if it were a long-established tradition. Popularization of trees, Santa Claus, and gift-giving went along with the invention of the domestic, child-centered holiday, replacing the REAL "old-fashioned Christmas." To us, the older celebration would look like a rowdy blend of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and New Year's Eve.

Invented traditions continue to spring up in our own era. How could we now imagine the American Christmas season without Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer annually appearing on TV? Yet his story was originally written as an advertising giveaway book for the Montgomery Ward department store in 1939. In a short essay published in the 1950s, C. S. Lewis complains of the Yuletide "commercial racket," implying the phenomenon had intruded on the season quite recently. As Nissenbaum describes at length, though, commercialization of gift-giving infested the child-centered holiday from the beginning. The film A CHRISTMAS STORY, what I think of as "the BB gun movie," presumably set pre-World-War-II like the book it's based on, showcases a department store Santa in a lavishly consumerist setting.

In my childhood home, Christmas traditions included having the extended family over on Christmas Eve, emerging from our bedrooms the next morning to the sight of a dazzling spread of presents from Santa, and driving to my grandmother's house for Christmas dinner. (When I could get away with it, I sat in a corner reading a new book; I figured that shouldn't be a problem because the adults would be talking to each other, not to me, anyway.) Our kids' Christmas traditions, in addition to church, festive dinners, and gifts, involved watching programs such as Rudolph, Charlie Brown, the Grinch (the Boris Karloff cartoon, of course!), and later the BB gun movie. Nowadays, with the prevalence of streaming media, the custom of a family gathering around the TV to watch one show together threatens to die out, if it hasn't already. What will our great-grandchildren (we currently have four) look back on as cherished holiday traditions that have "always" been done?

For many of us, a "traditional" holiday means customs as we imagine them having been celebrated in our grandparents' childhoods, whenever that may have been. "Over the river and through the woods. . . ." With snow, naturally, "dreaming of a white Christmas," even if we live in a region where the most we can expect are a few flurries in January. As Rudyard Kipling's ode of farewell to Romance -- in the sense of an imagined, ideal past more romantic than the dull, mundane present -- concludes, "Then taught his chosen bard to say: Our king was with us -- yesterday."

Margaret L. Carter

Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.

Less Envy

I feel a rant coming on.

 

In the world rankings for the best education systems, Great Britain comes third. America comes twelfth, so, as a British-educated person, I feel that I may opine a little.

 

There are two things that may contribute to America's dismal performance... not to mention Noah Webster, who dumbed down the language and  thereby obscured the etymological roots of words. 

One of those things is the First Amendment as applies to advertising and general standards of literacy in broadcast media. There is no mechanism to prevent poorly educated young advertising employees from drumming bad grammar and vile word choices into our heads.

Another is sloppy scholarship, especially in the field of editing works that purport to be educational. Oooh, harsh.

I have two examples: the confusion between the abstract nouns "Envy" and "Jealousy", and between the comparative adjectives "Less" and "Fewer".

Envy and Jealousy are different sins. Envy is like covetousness. It is the desire to have something that someone else has. Jealousy is like greed. It is the desire to keep good things for oneself.

It would be wrong to say, "I'm jealous of his hair..." unless he is wearing a toupee made of my own hair.

 

One is jealous of something that belongs (or once belonged) to one, and that one resents someone else enjoying. One could guard a possession jealously; for instance, one might guard the manicured lawn to one's home, and shout at dog walkers who allow their dogs to squat on it.

It would be grammatically correct to say, "I envy his hair," if my own hair (or lack thereof) does not compare favorably with his.

The simplest, five-word mnemonic for the difference between jealous and envious is:  

"A jealous husband; envious Casca."

 

Othello was a jealous husband. ("Othello", Shakespeare). Casca was described by Anthony as envious. ("Julius Caesar", Shakespeare).

" n Julius Caesar, Antony describes Casca as envious to highlight Casca's underlying jealousy and discontent. This characterization serves to illustrate the personal and political motivations driving Casca's involvement in the conspiracy against Caesar."

Notice how the cheat sheet editors muddy the waters of scholarship by writing that Casca is described as envious because he is jealous? 

My reference: "Julius Casear" Act 3-Verse 2- Line 174. "See what a rent envious Casca made..."

A fine discussion of the actual assassination can be seen here:

https://onlinecoursesblog.hillsdale.edu/the-assassination-of-julius-caesar/

 

Another scholar and his editor apparently did not bother to fact check a reference to murder in "Julius Caesar", and asserted that the envious assassin was Cassius. Of course, Cassius may have also been envious, but he is not immortalized for that motivation by Shakespeare.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/joy-and-pain/201401/what-is-the-difference-between-envy-and-jealousy

Casca has a Wiki page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publius_Servilius_Casca

By the way, Publius Servilius, Capurnaum, Brachiosaurus...  what do they have in common? A diphthong. Americans struggle with dipthongs, which might be a topic for another day.

And so, to comparing and contrasting the comparatives of the day.

Fewer vs. Less—Explanation and Examples | LanguageTool

"Less is More" is an oxymoron, (that link links to an excellent explanation of the etymology of "oxymoron" and its use in poetry to stimulate thought), often associated by the architect and designer Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe, who abhorred clutter and excess.

Less Is More - Meaning & Origin Of The Phrase

Less is like a measure of flour in a baking recipe... uncountable elements, measured by the spoonful, or cupful... or vodka in a martini, or trouble, or time, incentives, or money, (especially fixed value units of currency such as 100 dollars, or effort.

Fewer is like the counting of lemons,  or minutes, or seconds, or casualties, or single-denomination dollars, or choices, or alternatives, options, problems, people, customers, demonstrators, members of an audience, ideas, stars in the sky.

'Fewer' and 'Less'

That's it, more or less. Notice it next time an anchor or actor or advertisement gets it wrong. It's probably too late to do anything about it, because the errors will have been scarfed up by AI and will be inserted willy-nilly (will he/ ne will he) into our written consciousness.

PS. The online dictionaries have "willy-nilly" wrong, etymologically speaking, but they are in a majority, so what can one do? 

 

Think about it: "will he" is much closer to "willy" than "will I"... if you speak it.  The "n" part of "nilly" is from the French, where "ne" is a negative prefix.

"In French, a negative sentence is formed by using the words "ne", “n’ ”, and "pas" around a verb. "Ne" comes before the verb, and "pas" follows it.

For example, "Je ne parle pas" means "I don't speak". The placement of "ne" and "pas" around the verb is the most basic form of creating a negative statement."

And, thus, I end on a negative note, much as I began.

All the best,

Rowena Cherry 

SPACE SNARK™ 

https://www.spacesnark.com/  

https://www.rowenacherry.com

EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday   

{Put This One on Your TBR List} Book Review: Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights Edited by Chris Bain, Patrick Weekes, Matthew Goldman, and Christopher Morgan by Karen S. Wiesner

 

{Put This One on Your TBR List}

Book Review: Dragon Age: Tevinter Nights

Edited by Chris Bain, Patrick Weekes, Matthew Goldman, and Christopher Morgan

by Karen S. Wiesner

  

Warning Spoilers! 

Prior to Dragon Age: The Veilguard's release (which I reviewed last week and you'll probably want to refer back to in reading the reviews of these strongly connected individual tales), a new anthology of short stories was released in March 2020 called Tevinter Nights. As the name implies, all the stories are set in Dragon Age's Thedas, many directly in the Tevinter Imperium, where magic-wielding magisters rule and blood magic isn't forbidden. I bought the book (complete with a gorgeous, foldout, color map) at the time of its publication and read it, but since The Veilguard was still in development at that time (and wasn't even named that until later), I felt like I didn't understand where all the stories were coming from. Following the release of The Veilguard, I got it out again and started rereading it. With a much better understanding of all the things going on around the events of the new game, I enjoyed the stories immensely. In fact, it may be the only anthology collection that I enjoyed every single one of the stories included. The tagline of this collection really says it all: "Ancient horrors. Marauding invaders. Powerful mages. And a world that refuses to stay fixed… Welcome to Thedas." Dragon Age is everything I look for in the fantasy genre and then some. 

In this collection, readers are getting a real treat with stories written by nine BioWare staff writers who really know the world contained in the Dragon Age franchise that includes but isn't limited to videogames, electronic games, books, comics, film and television, tabletop roleplaying games, and music. As I said last week, you might be interested in my previous review of all things Dragon Age, which is here: https://aliendjinnromances.blogspot.com/2022/11/karen-wiesner-fiction-series-so-big.html. 

Below you'll find reviews of every story in the collection. Be aware that a major plot angle in Dragon Age: The Veilguard videogame centers around ancient Tevinter artifacts being stolen or unearthed in order to aid the evil that wants to take over the world. So several of these short tales have that as a major theme. Below, I've listed each story in the order they appear in the original publication.

                                                                   

1.     "Three Trees to Midnight" by Patrick Weekes: At the time The Veilguard is set, there's a qunari invasion going on in Thedas that's changing the world. This first story focuses on their capture of a Dalish elf Veil Jumper named Strife (who's featured in the videogame along with Irelin, a team-mate also in this story) and a mage named Myrion. Qunari deeply distrust and put down mages, so Myrion has to hide his powers once he's captured. He's chained to the elf Strife. Tevinter magisters treat elves as nothing more than slaves. So there was a lot of "Enemy Mine" racial prejudice in this this story as the two are forced to work together in order to escape their relentless captors.

 

2.     "Down Among the Dead Men" by Sylvia Feketekuty: The Mourn Watch are the elite guardians of the Grand Necropolis, reverently caring for the dead. They're also a faction of a larger organization, the Mortalitasi. In Inquisition, I was led to believe the Moralitasi are all evil, but in The Veilguard, I learned that's not always the case. We met one of their order, Emmrich, in Veilguard, along with his beloved skeletal companion Manfred, and I was pleased to see them play a role in this particular story in which a guardsman investigates a death in the Necropolis. Very intriguing setting in both the game and this wonderful story with a twist ending.

 

3.     "The Horror of Hormak" by John Epler: My favorite part of Dragon Age has always been the Grey Wardens, those who give so sacrificially in order to maintain a constant vigilance over the return of darkspawn and potential Blights. This story has two Wardens investigating the disappearance of a scouting party. This story is horror in its purest, most intriguing form, and it was an instant favorite of mine.

 

4.     "Callback" by Lukas Kristjanson: Dragon Age: Inquisition had an unmarked quest about "Sutherland and Company" that was mainly followed through War Table operations. If you didn't screw these up and prematurely end the venture, they culminated in an actual crusade for the Inquisitor to save Sutherland and his band of misfits. In this story, the Inquisition has disbanded but their headquarters Skyhold is still maintained by caretakers that haven't been heard from in a while. Sutherland and Company are sent by the Inquisitor to investigate. I loved revisiting Skyhold and these uber-loyal, unlikely heroes.

 

5.     "Luck in the Gardens" by Sylvia Feketekuty: Another beloved Inquisition character, Dorian, makes an appearance in this fun story in which a member of the Lords of Fortune (from The Veilguard) investigates a series of monster killings in Minrathous.

 

6.     "Hunger" by Brianne Battye: In The Veilguard, we're introduced to two married Grey Wardens, Evka and Antoine. This story takes place while these new recruits are traveling to report for duty at Weisshaupt Fortress. They're sidetracked in a town cursed by mysterious and monstrous deaths. This was a neat background to the roles these two end up playing in the videogame, and a precursor to their romance.

 

7.     "Murder by Death Mages" by Caitlin Sullivan Kelly: Mortalitasi is the umbrella organization of "death mages" in the Grand Necropolis that advise Nevarran nobility. The Pentaghast family (re: Cassandra from Inquisition) were some of the founders. Though the group is well-respected in Nevarra, outside they're feared as a cult. The current ruler of Nevarra is aged and weak, his sanity uncertain, and most believe the Mortalitasi are ruling through him. Cassandra Pentaghast, one of the Inquisition's inner circle, assigns a volunteer in the Inquisition to investigate the death of a death mage. This Inquisition mage volunteer was raised by and eventually abandoned this particular death mage, vowing never to return to Nevarra. A Mortalitasi member is suspected of causing political unrest in order to assassinate Nevarra's ruler. Both Cassandra and this investigator have a lot at stake in seeing this situation resolved. While the point-of-view character wasn't exactly lovable, with baggage that's made her bitter and withdrawn, the story had an intriguing whodunit with a lot of complications to keep it suspenseful.

 

8.     "The Streets of Minrathous" by Brianne Battye: Neve Gallus is one of the main companions in The Veilguard, a member of the Shadow Dragons, and a supernatural detective. In the videogame, her loyalty quests all involve a Venatori agent, Aelia, who's trying to subjugate Minrathous (isn't it ironic how often a tyrant calls it "freeing" a population?). This story is the background to all of that--and it's also here we find out what happened to the Templar Brom, something only referenced in the videogame. I enjoyed this setup to a pivotal character in the game.

 

9.     "The Wigmaker Job" by Courtney Woods: Another inner circle Veilguard member, Lucanis Dellamorte, is an Antivan Crow assassin. We learn much more of his background in this story detailing a heist with his cousin Illario (also featured in the videogame), which doesn't get into how Lucanis came to have a demon inhabiting his body, which is a focus of the game.

 

10.  "Genitivi Dies in the End" by Lukas Kristjanson: The Veilguard Lords of Fortune are included in this crazy, off-beat story that I really don't even know how to describe beyond that a weird group containing a bard, a brother in the Chantry, a qunari mage, and a writer take on qunari Antaam (military) in order to steal some ancient elven artifacts. It seems they did this for the sole purpose of their art--in other words, so they'd have something exciting to write about for their ravenous fans to devour. Writers will appreciate this literary escapade, highlighting the extreme lengths authors will go to get a great story.

11.  "Herold Had the Plan" by Ryan Cormier: Two Lords of Fortune (one who recently lost his adventuring partner Herold of four decades) stealthily steal an ancient Tevinter relic that heals even the deadliest of wounds during a Grand Tourney. Unfathomably, every knight in the arena is instantly on their tails. Before long, they realize that their third partner-in-crime has stolen the tourney's grand prize right off the grandstand--the legendary Celebrant greatsword. This was a fun, thrilling story that had unexpected depth and heart at its core.

 

12.  "An Old Crow's Old Tricks" by Arone Le Bray: Lessef of the Antivan Crows fulfills the contract to exact vengeance on those who murdered the Dalish elf clan Oranava. This was a clever story that took a bit to coalesce and make sense, as it's told mainly from the points-of-view of those about to be assassinated who foolishly think they're invincible.

 

13.  "Eight Little Talons" by Courtney Woods: This was probably my favorite in the collection. Here, the author has done an Agatha Christie, following the style of And Then There Were None. The eight major players that head the Antivan Crows are called "Talons" and the hierarchy is from Talon 8 being the lowest of them, to Talon 1 being the highest ranking. Along with their fellow Talons, #5 Talon Viago and #7 Teia (who are featured in The Veilguard) are called to a summit at the First Talon's island home to discuss the qunari and the security of their nation, Treviso. One by one, the Talons are picked off at this secluded meeting, each death re-enacting infamous Crow assassins of the past. This is an obvious statement that no other Crows are safe. In this location, the killer is either hiding somewhere on the island or it's one of their own. (Intriguing--Crows hunting Crows.) Viago and Teia investigate. I loved both of these well-drawn characters, and their obvious attraction to each other sets the stage for their compelling banter in the videogame.

 

14.  "Half Up Front" by John Epler: Another Tevinter artifact--Dumat's Folly (a puzzle that needed to be solved in the Dragon Age II DLC Legacy)--has been stolen. A thief is hired to find out who stole it from the Chantry and why--and to steal it back. The events in this tale directly play into the videogame, which really adds more dimension to that story, since this artifact is one that's integral to Solas/Fen-Harel's ultimate plan. I will also note that the story reminded me a lot of the events in the manga TV miniseries, Dragon Age: Absolution, which aired on Netflix in December 2022 and takes place around the time of The Veilguard. In Absolution, the Inquisition employs two members of the Absolution team, one of them its agent Fairbanks, who was a freedom fighter that asked the Inquisition to reclaim his home, the Emerald Graves. None of the other characters in the miniseries are recognizable, to me anyway. (The voices are very familiar for those who play videogames though.) While I really can't stand anime and manga and therefore I had a lot of trouble getting through even three of the six episodes available in the first season, there were some fun moments in the early episodes and the overall story had a really good twist I didn't see coming (I read a summary of the final episodes rather than forcing myself to watch them). Fans of the series that enjoy anime or manga would probably get much more out of Absolution than I did. Suffice it to say that the story in Absolution paralleled a lot of what was in "Half Up Front", almost too closely. At first, I even though they were the same characters from one to the other, though they weren't. In the end, I felt like one of these was redundant, as they're so similar as to be the same story. I believe "Half Up Front" is probably the most valuable, as it points directly to events in The Veilguard.

 

15.  "The Dread Wolf Take You" by Patrick Weekes: "May the Dread Wolf take you" is an old Dalish curse that gives this story even more meaning. The main character, Charter, was one of Leliana's top spies from Dragon Age: Inquisition. In this story, she's called together a clandestine meeting of Thedas's top spies in order to share information about Solas and his plans to restore the ancient elven empire by tearing down the Veil. In this secret place are a Carta assassin, a Moralitasi, an "Executor" from across the sea, and an Orlesian bard. Each tells a piece of the tale, and it becomes clear that the target for each of their encounters with Solas was the red lyrium idol that was the cause of destruction in Kirkwall in DA II. Little does Charter realize that the cloak-and-dagger meeting has an unexpected guest! I read this story all but holding my breath. I couldn't identify any of the characters other than Charter, but it was very clear that this was the setup for events (and even some of the pivotal settings) about to unfold in The Veilguard.

For anyone following my reviews of short story collections and my philosophy about how short story collections should be arranged, I think the editors did a fantastic job of exactly placing every story in Tevinter Nights in the order needed for optimal reading. The slightly weaker stories are wonderfully anchored and buoyed by the stronger ones with the strongest ones as the first, last, and middle. 

In one sense, Tevinter Nights may not be a good introduction into the world explored in the Dragon Age series, since a lot of the material requires a bit of understanding in how the world of Thedas is run, the crucial events, etc. But, in another, these are just well-written, slice of life stories, a lot of which include magic, mages, mysteries, monsters, and intricate political machinations. Even if you're not familiar with DA lore, there's still lot to love here and, if you're ultimately lured in by these compelling tales, there's so much more to explore in this expansive realm. 

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

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