Tag: Young Wizards

dubiousculturalartifact:

geekhyena:

dispatchrabbi:

ao3org:

[The cover of the New Millennium Edition of So You Want To Be A Wizard: the first book in the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane. The illustration features the story’s heroes, Nita, Kit, and Fred (a star), casting spells while being pursued by a vicious-looking pack of dogs. ]

The Young Wizards Series is a long-running young adult fantasy novel series written by Diane Duane. The first volume, So You Want To Be A Wizard, was originally published in 1983 and the latest, ninth volume, A Wizard of Mars, was published in 2010. The series has been running for so long that the author has published “New Millennium Editions” of the earlier novels which change some dated references and fixes some problems with continuity.

The series tells the adventures of the newly-endowed wizard Nita and her partner Kit as they battle the Lone Power and its creations in the hope to offset the slow death of the universe. Often dealing with complex issues as sacrifice, death, and duty, the Young Wizards Series forces its characters to deal with the consequences of their actions: for themselves, their families, and the universe as a whole.

Join in the April Showers celebrations by posting your own Young Wizards fan works on AO3, and sharing your fandom stories and resources on the series’ Fanlore page! And don’t forget to add your fanwork recommendations to our April Showers collection!

(In honor of our April Showers festivities, we’re highlighting one fandom for each day in April. Help us celebrate by keeping an eye on our social media sites: AO3 Twitter, AO3 Tumblr, and Fanlore Twitter.)

Top Ten Things to Like about the Young Wizards Series:

  1. The books are fast reads, but each time you reread them you discover something new.
  2. They’ll make you feel more equipped to handle life as it comes at you.
  3. The author is one of us. And she listened to her readers to fix problematic points in her books when she put out the New Millennium Editions.
  4. If you buy the NME ebooks, the whole price goes to the author (and if you are on a budget, there are frequent sales).
  5. There are nine of them (and a tenth out Any Day Now) and three short stories, so you won’t run out soon.
  6. If you do run out, just go read something else the author has written. (Not linked: various screenplays, Star Trek novels and episode scripts, and several Hanna Barbera episode scripts.)
  7. And then when you run out of all of those, you can always look at fics. (The universe is particularly fertile for crossovers. With everything.)
  8. And when you’re done with that you can look for the fandom, which is full of awesome, diverse, enthusiastic, lovely people whose only flaw is that we all operate under consistent denial of the fact that (GIANT SPOILER).
  9. And when you have made friends with everyone in the fandom, you can come to the convention!
  10. BLUE FOOD!

So, really, you have no reason not to be reading these books already.

(Bonus fanfic recommendation: Office Hours. Read the books first, though.)

All of this.  Because of Young Wizards, I have made so many dear and wonderful friends, and I would not trade them for the world.

Also!

11. PoC! Lots of PoC! As a kid I think YW was one of the only series I knew that wasn’t just white kids saving the world.  

12. Women kicking ass in multiple ways. There are so many ways to be strong, whether it’s the snarky, raw power of Dairine, the persuasiveness of Carmela, the understanding and selflessness of Nita, the courage of Betty, Annie telling an ancient treasure to listen to her and having it sit up and take notice – all of these amazing badass women saving the universe.

13. AUTISTIC CHARACTERS. AUTISTIC CHARACTERS WRITTEN WELL AND GIVEN REPRESENTATION BEYOND WHITE CISHET BOYS WHO ARE CHARMINGLY QUIRKY. (Note: this applies only to the NME books. The prior versions were…problematic, but not from a place of ableism, just not understanding enough. AND SHE FIXED IT WHEN WE ASKED HER TO).

14. Feline wizards! Whale wizards! DOGGIES!

15. Queer characters! (At least one confirmed, several suspected, the author has said more will come out in the next book)

Fanfic Recommendation: So Your Roommate is a Wizard

(also I have written some fics for this series myself ^_^)

Reblogging again because it got better.

To add:
16. Diane Duane is totally cool with us writing fanfiction, but since she is on tumblr, she kindly requests that any fic posted on tumblr be tagged with ‘not you dd’… 
This allows her to tumblr savior them, so she can avoid any sticky situations of idea bleed-through and legalities and various issues thereof.

17. Doctor Who-crossovers aren’t merely an issue of fan fiction… There was an honest to goodness, Word-of-God confirmed, cameo by the Fifth Doctor in the third book. 
No joke. There’s also a mind-boggling mention of a planet that matches the exact description as the Library from the Silence in the Library in the same book, despite the fact that the book was published in 1990. (but that’s assuming you’re into sequential time, after all)

Take that, Superwholock.

18. Did we mention that she’s doing the 30 Day OTP challenge WITH HER OWN CHARACTERS?

Seriously, though… Go read them. The New Millenium Editions, if you can. Then come back and write some fic with us all.

Source: ao3org

lackadaisicallexicon:

You know what I want to see more of in fandom? Darryl McAllister.

Always positive Darryl McAllister with his cute ass ‘fro and ready smile.

Dorky bilocating Darryl McAllister doing work in the next galaxy over while he studies biology in school.

Darryl McAllister invited to stuff the rest of the cast does, because he’s cool as shit and his presence alone is enough to pick up a mood.

Darryl McAllister being autistic, and everyone knowing it, and no one questioning it.

Darryl McAllister tweaking his WizPod’s musical functions to frequencies he likes better.

Darryl McAllister using wizardry to make his own accommodations.

Darryl McAllister knowing his friends are there to help him so he doesn’t have to do it all on his own.

DARRYL MCALLISTER

Young Wizards: Christmas in July Is Coming

jenesaispourquoi:

ywchristmasinjuly:

The second Young Wizards Christmas in July fic exchange opens for signups on 1 May 2014 until 14 May 2014.  Keep those dates free, and remember that the stories are due 1 July 2014.

A post will go up on 1 May about how to sign up and what the rules are for those participating for the first time, but essentially they are:

  1. You sign up, requesting one or two things, and then offer to write certain characters;
  2. You write a story of a minimum of 1,000 words for the person you are assigned to;
  3. Come reveals, you get a gift of at least 1,000 words based on a prompt you requested; and
  4. Comments, kudos and squeeing on various blogging platforms goes on.

Last year we had nineteen awesome stories and this year I’m hoping we can crack 20!

Also if anyone is arty, please message me so that we can make icons and stuff because lord knows my skills with Photoshop boil down to “yep that sure is a thing”.

WHEEEEEEEE LET’S GO

lackadaisicallexicon:

YW Book 1: You Will Cry Over the Death of a Hypothetical Physical Phenomenon

YW Book 2: You Will Cry Over the Death of a Functionally Immortal Megalodon

YW Book 3: You Will Cry Over Small Silicon-based Turtle Aliens

YW Book 4: You Will Cry Over A God-Indwelt Teenager’s Angst

YW Book 5: You Will Cry Over Every Page Of This Book

YW Book 6: You Will Cry Over A Strained Partnership and Residual Grief from Book Five

YW Book 7: You Will Cry Over The Sacrificing Nature Of An Alien Anime Prince and A Species Of Idyllic Aliens

YW Book 8: You Will Cry Over The Dog Dying And the Disappearance Of the Alien Prince from Book Seven

YW Book 9: You Will Cry Over the Fact That It Took Nine Books For The Main Characters To Admit They Liked Each Other

YW Book 10: We Don’t Know Yet But You Will Probably Cry

emitter-of-learjets:

enterprising-gentleman:

lackadaisicallexicon:

Can you imagine the YW characters playing D&D?

“Can Carmela play Eye of the Tiger on her lute every time I talk?"—Dairine, the Avenger

"Please tell me I am allowed to insult this orc on his poor attire."—Roshaun, the Mage

"Can I do a Charisma check to get this prostitute to pay for the privilege of sleeping with me?"—Carmela, the Bard

"Yes, this setting started out pre-industrial, but I don’t see why it should have to stay that way. I’m going to teach the dwarves about ion tech and worldgates.” —Sker’ret, the…I forget what engineering-related classes there are in D&D but I know they exist…

"Okay, yes, Nita, that might be technically allowed, but I’m not sure it’s in the spirit of the rules…” —Tom Swale, the DM

"I don’t see how exponentially multiplied firepower isn’t in the spirit of the rules. Isn’t the point to be creative?” —Nita Callahan, the Sorcerer

"I’m gonna need a great roll on this Diplomacy check, I can already tell. If not, well, then we go to plan B.” —Kit Rodriguez, the Fighter

"I get the feeling I should have prepared more healing spells for you all.” —Filif, the cleric

Can you imagine though? they’re facing off against an avatar of the LP who’s basically the grim reaper of human folklore, and doing poorly – until someone has the bright idea of challenging him to a game. He agrees – because that’s what the grim reaper does – and gestures at a nearby table, upon which has appeared the usual stuff: chess, cards, dice… “you win, I leave – but you would do well to prepare yourselves for what will happen when I win, because I will: I have mastered every game of logic and chance since before humanity has even created them. Choose the means by which you will lose.” And they’re all standing there  fairly apprehensive, trying to figure a way out – when Kit just slowly gets this huge grin on his face. “I knew this would come in handy someday,” he says as he pulls a giant rulebook out of the air. 

Reconciling the HP and YW universes

lackadaisicallexicon:

enterprising-gentleman:

graygryphon:

Okay, so everyone knows that Young Wizards and Harry Potter are different things, right? Really different. One of the best comparisons I’ve heard is that magic is a right in the HP world, and a privilege in the YW world.

Yet it’s also close to canon that the YW ‘verse can encompass all fictional universes to some degree. So how do we reconcile this? I will talk about this under the read more.

Read More

Ooh, this is interesting! And what if the HP universe is a variant in which the human Choice went very differently, thereby affecting humans’ relationship to magic on a foundational level from the start?

Also, let’s point out that Harry’s uses of nonverbal wizardry as a young boy was to ease his own pain (and that of a boa constrictor)? He inadvertently adhered to the Wizard’s Oath even though magic in his universe does not function that way. 

Magic’s passed down genetically in the HP universe, so the wizards in HP do not have to adhere to the Oath. That’s why HP has dark wizards and YW does not: because in YW, like OP said, magic is a privilege, and no heart willing to use magic to speed up entropy would retain that power.

I would say that Earth’s Choice in the HP universe was to bind all magic on the planet into a few select species, but allow each to formulate a personal Choice regarding the use of their magic. This explains why there are magical creatures and nonmagical creatures, and why the morality of wizards is up to each one.

Oh wow, I didn’t actually realize that about Harry+noverbal magic when I wrote this! That’s really excellent!