Lost Lore Readalong! discussion

Hey all - as we wait for 27th January to roll around, this post is for people taking part in the readalong to introduce themselves. So... fire when ready!

Hi, my name's Benedict, I like long walks on the beach...

I write stuff, I read stuff. I don't do enough of either of those things. I'm an Irishman living in Scotland with my amazing family. I game, both digital and tabletop variety.

My current jams:
Dead paper: Wolf of Oren-Yaro
Ebook: The Disappearence of Winter's Daughter
Audio: Oathbringer
Computer game: Mario Odyssey
Boardgame: Colt Express
DnD Campaign: Curse of Strahd
Sleep: Sleep?

Hi all! I'm Dyrk, just a Midwestern boy who spent some time in Hollywood. I teach film courses, geek out on movies and books, and write about regular folks and their trouble with monsters.

Greetings all!
My fantasy name’s Tim And Ra ... I‘m a writer, and I’ve contributed to this amazing anthology in fact! (I‘ll just skip commenting on my own unless you have questions)
But! I’m excited to go through these stories one by one and readalong because my first love has always been reading.
I‘ve currently put myself on a novel reading ban because I‘m finishing up the rough draft of Mother of Slag and when I read too much, it makes it harder to get back into my own writing. Short stories though? I‘ll make an exception 😁

'Ow do, lads'n'lasses,

I'm a Northern (England) lad living in the Cotswolds, soon to be living North once more - so I've a lot going on.

I'm super excited about being included in this anthology and cannot wait to read my fellow contributors stories. I'm told there's an incredible variety, so lots to look forward to discovering.

Hi all! I'm Michael, obviously, and I'm the author of The Dragon's Blade trilogy. I live in the centre of London and like to escape the madness by getting sucked into a really great story. I'm sure my co-authors here will help me do just that.

Greetings, all! I'm Mike. I've been designing adventures and support material for the Pathfinder RPG since 2010. I'm now focusing on my epic fantasy trilogy "Iconoclasts." The first book is in the hands of a certain editor known 'round these parts and I've started the second book. I was lucky enough to get included in this anthology, the tale something of a prequel to my first novel, "Aching God." Excited to get a taste of each of these wonderful writers! God help me, I’m a desperately slow reader, but I’ll labor to keep up.

Current reading:

E-book: Touch of Iron (yes, Tim, still…) (https://www.amazon.com/Touch-Iron-Liv...)

Fiction: A Head Full of Ghosts (https://www.amazon.com/Head-Full-Ghos...)

Non-Fiction: The Tigress of Forli (https://www.amazon.com/Tigress-Forli-...)

Hey, Fellow Creatures! I'm Jeff. I've been writing in my world of Chilongua for sometime now, trying to mash together fantasy with the jungle for some fun results. I feel so fortunate to be apart of this anthology with so many great authors that have inspired me to publish.

I'm currently reading The Blood Meridian for the umpteenth time, but can't wait to switch and read the rest of the stories within LL with the read-along.

Hi all! I'm Travis, and I'm excited to read this with y'all. From the looks of things, I'm one of the only non-authors here, but I like to think of myself as a full-time fantasy fan.

Currently reading:

E-book: Art of War Anthology
Audio: The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
Print: The Half Killed by Quenby Olson

Travis! How's The Half Killed going? That's one of my must-reads this year :)

Hey Benedict! I'm actually only five pages in so far :)

It definitely looks promising, though. Very atmospheric and thoughtful prose. Print books just take me forever to start since I tend to get interrupted around the house.

Travis wrote: "Hi all! I'm Travis, and I'm excited to read this with y'all. From the looks of things, I'm one of the only non-authors here, but I like to think of myself as a full-time fantasy fan.

Currently rea..."

Hi Travis! Hope you enjoy the read. How is Claire North's audiobook? I had the pleasure of hearing her speak on elements of writing twice last year and she was fantastic. Been meaning to grab one of her books.

Hi guys!

Michael, the Claire North audiobook is excellent. However, if you're looking to check out her books, I'd recommend starting with The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August or Touch. Both are fantastic and narrated by Peter Kenny, who is just phenomenal.

Hi guys,

I'm Lukasz. I'm Polish and while in English isn't my native tongue I read mostly books written in it. I post on r/fantasy as barb4ry1.

The book is already on my Kindle and once I'm done with books I'm reading at the moment, I'll get to Lost Lore.

Currently reading: The Castle Doctrine by Craig Schaefer
Next one : Gateways to Abomination by Matthew M. Bartlett
After taht : Lost Lore
Currently playing: I don't play video games. If, however, there's a reversi (combination of chess and checkers) player in this group who would like to be destroyed on playok, feel free to drop me your nick :)

Hi, all! *waves* I'm Quenby. I live in Central PA (otherwise known as Amish Country) with my husband and four (soon to be five) kids. I write a bit, I rarely sleep, and I'm looking forward to starting on Lost Lore with everyone else. :)

Currently reading: Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mewed by Alan Bradley and also re-reading Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames and Heart of Stone by Ben Galley.

Up next: The ABC Murders by Agatha Christie and Uprooted by Naomi Novik.

Games: I'm not much of a gamer, unless we're talking Super Mario and Kirby and Tetris and I think I just gave away how old I am.

And... that's about it at the moment!

Hi all!

I am Megan. I live in the Boston area and post on r/fantasy as u/fanny_bertram (non-fantasy book reference). Not an author (obviously), but going to join in on the read along. Put it on my kindle immediately.

E-book: Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
Print: Stardust by Neal Gaiman
Games: I do not play video games though I know way more than I should about them.

Up next: Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny
To Quenby: Agatha Christie is my all time favorite. I really like The ABC Murders.

Hello people!

I'm Timy from Budapest, Hungary, just a fantasy reader (and scribbler of some stories in my spare time), walking unknowingly into the den of the lions *snort* So I know some of the authors' work, and look forward to know some more. I'll be traveling for one week during the time of the read along, so I won't have much time to read much besides a short story a day. So yeah, this seems like perfect setting to me. Although I'm planning to take a small brake from fantasy, I can't resist this event.

I currently read The Six-Gun Tarot by R. S. Belcher and listen to Moonshine by Rob Thurman. I don't play video games, though back in the day I loved Need for Speed and Fifa. Now I only play hidden object games if I feel like it. I love boardgames but I don't have playmates sadly.

To the ladies above: I'm planning to get to know Agatha Christie in the near future. I never read anything from her. Yet.

Hi ladies and gents. I'm Kathryn. My posting name on r/fantasy is Tigrari. Seems like so far I'm the furthest west of the group geographically - I'm in southern California (San Diego county). Looking forward to this group read along, especially since I enjoy short stories but don't tend to seek them out, so anthologies are lovely.

I do the vast majority of my reading electronically so no print book going at the moment.

Last read: Traitor by Krista D. Ball (RRAWR January book)
Current read: Tea with the Black Dragon (Classics January book)
Next up: To Say Nothing of the Dog (SFF book club January book) and Lost Lore!

Games: Afraid I'm not too inventive here, I've been playing WOW continuously for an embarrassingly long time (coming up on 12 years). I don't tend to pick up other computer/console games too often.

I do board games too - my current favorite is Splendor and I'm looking forward to the expansion of that coming out this year. I heard from some gaming friends that Colt Express is awesome and we're adding it to our game closet soon - so it was nice to see it mentioned earlier in this thread!

Anyone who does board gaming in this group probably needs to check out Clank! too - it's about dungeon diving and avoiding waking up the dragon who will kill you defend his horde. It's pretty fun.

Clank! sounds pretty interesting, I'll have to check that out. I tend to hoard board games, though, so I'll have to find a place to fit it. My current favorites are Betrayal at House on the Hill, Small World, King of Tokyo, Dominion, and Power Grid.

Travis wrote: "Clank! sounds pretty interesting, I'll have to check that out. I tend to hoard board games, though, so I'll have to find a place to fit it. My current favorites are Betrayal at House on the Hill, S..."

I love Betrayal. My group's game of 2017, I think.

Our group plays a lot of Betrayal too (we normally just call it the Haunted House game though because the real name is too long). The Widow's Walk expansion is pretty good! Others with a lot of replay for us are 7 Wonders (the variation 7 Blunders was surprisingly challenging and hilarious) and Legendary (soooo many cards to put away though).

I've never played Legendary, but I think I have three different boxes of DC's deck-building game in my closet.

Heya! I'm David (DavuZ on r/fantasy) from Tbilisi, Georgia. I'm excited to join this readalong (my first one) and hopefully i'll be able to fully participate despite those horrible exams.

My last read was "Paternus: Rise of Gods" by Dyrk.
Currently reading: Oh boy, here we go. "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury; A Slip of the Keyboard by Terry Pratchett (nonfiction); "Man's Search for Meaning" by Victor E. Frankl (nonfic); Behave by Robert M. Sapolsky (nonfic); Men at Arms by Terry Pratchett (Audiobook). I have a small respite from exams so i'm trying to read as much as possible.
Up next: No idea really. I might read Martian Chronicles if I like The Illustrated Man by Bradbury or maybe Black Company by Cook.

Games: Unfortunately I don't spend as much time playing as I used to. But if I do then I might play Smite: Battleground of the Gods or Craft The World.

Hi everyone! I’m Diana, a southern girl at heart. I’m not currently reading any fantasy titles. The last one I read that I didn’t want to stop was The Shard Chronicles of Xax. Fantasy is my top choice of genre for books, but at just love the idea of reading everything in general.

I’m currently reading Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and A Stone In The Sea. I’m hoping this readalog will inspire to add a fantasy book after we’re done in rotation! Can’t wait!

Welcome, Diana - looking forward to kicking things off soon :)

Hi Diana! I think if a book has Vampire in the title you can call it fantasy if you want :) Seems like they shelve that one in historical fiction, but c'mon... vampires!

Kathryn, I agree but nowadays I’m lost and not sure where vampires stand cos they’re all over the place. Suppose it’s based on overall storyline. Who knows. I’m a big softie for werewolves and I will always love my elves and orcs.

Hey all! I'm excited to read this one! My name is Jessica.
Currently Reading: Range of Ghosts
Audiobook: About to start The Left Hand of Darkness
Next Read: Black Company, then trying to decide between Graceling and The Court of Broken Knives (pretty sure I'll read all them, hopefully I can finish all three this month for the various book clubs, we'll see...)
Games: Haven't played many board games recently but I've been playing a crazy amount of Rocket League, such a fun game!!!

Hi everyone,

This sounds like a great idea so I'll definitely give it a go although I'm a bit busy at the moment. I've been hankering for some good short stories recently so I'm sure this will satisfy that itch!

As for me I live in the UK and love fantasy, is there anything else that needs to be said?!

Hey guys! I'm Kristen, a book blogger and fantasy lover from Canada who lives in Texas. :D

I'm looking forward to the discussions :) This one is full of some great stories!

Hello everyone!

I'm Phil Tucker, author of The Chronicles of the Black Gate and the Godsblood Trilogy.

My current jams:
Dead paper: October, by China Mieville
Ebook: Just finished The Dream-Quest of Vellit Boe
Audio: Listening to a long episode of Hardcore History
Computer game: Witcher 3 (it takes bloody forever to finish this thing. Luckily.)
Boardgame: None! Alas! Curses!
DnD Campaign: Curse of Strahd, as DM'd by the wonderful Benedict Patrick :)
Sleep: Sleep? Nobody sleeps with toddlers and babies in the house.

Hellooooo! Thanks for the invite, and I'm looking forward to reading the anthology and participating in the discussions. I'm Harlow, indie author of a fantasy duology and the first book of a post-apoc trilogy. I also have several short stories in various anthologies.

Just finished reading Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Awesome book.
Currently reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Really enjoying it.
I'm a voracious reader of fantasy and science fiction of all kinds.

Hi, all. I was invited to this gathering by Benedict (thanks — big fan of They Mostly Come Out At Night!). My name's Joe, and some of you might know me as the former publisher of Ragnarok Publications. Depending on which side you fall, you might think that's cool... or you might not. As a publisher, you tend to make great friends, but not of everyone, and a few authors have their side of the story to tell. There were LOTS of nuances to my departure from Ragnarok.

But alas! That said, I'm focused on the writing and editing life presently. I'm the co-author of the Dead West Omnibus One and editor of a very similar tome to Lost Lore called Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues. In fact, I think these books share the same designer, Shawn King, who was my on-staff designer at the ROK.

Personally, I've taken over the writing chores entirely on my current WIP, the Dead West: Omnibus Two (rough first draft is finally complete, but it will need to be re-submitted to the market since I took over the rights to the series, thus Ragnarok won't be publishing them anymore).

Current reads:
■ The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Chris Healy
■ Player's Handbook D&D 5e
■ SNAFU: Survival of the Fittest (I co-wrote a Viking story in this one)
■ Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man, Vol. 1

On deck:
■ The Wee Free Men by Pratchett
■ Where the Waters Turn Black by this group's own Benedict Patrick
■ Lost Lore: A Fantasy Anthology Yay!

Thanks for inviting me here. I'm looking forward to the read-through.

—Joe

P.S. I really enjoyed reading everyone's intros. A great group of folks here. I hope to make some new friends and future colleagues here.

P.P.S. Video games are a writer's bane. I play too much Out of the Park Baseball and Divinity: Original Sin. Ugh!

Hi everyone! Jennifer here (jenile on reddit), I'm up in Northern BC if you were to drive to Alaska you'd be able to stop in for coffee.

Currently I am working on Ararat by Christopher Golden for Bingo's horror square.

Thanks for the invite! I will do my best to keep up. I am excited to try out a few of the authors that I haven't read in this collection and hear what you all thought about them.

Hello everyone! I'm Tracey, I live in in not-so-sunny northeast England. Thanks for the invite T. L. I'm very excited to get started!

Currently listening to: The Legion of Flame
Currently reading: Kings of the Wyld

Hi everyone! I'm Petrik. A reviewer on Goodreads and Booknest. Currently I'm reading my last SPFBO book, Sufficiently Advanced Magic and then will be reading Iron Gold.

Thank you for the invite T.L! (I have you and Tim's trilogy in my TBR for this year!) I've read this book and all the story here but I'm going to follow the discussion! :)

Hope all of you enjoy it!

Hey everyone. I'm Chris, avid fantasy reader. Looking forward to this one...

Right now I'm reading Tower Lord and current audiobook is Iron Gold

Hi guys. My presence here tells me you should be choosier. I'm a fantasy writer/reader + liar/Canadian. I think I'm on about...story 4? of the anthology, so I've got a head start. When done I'll for sure pick my favorite 5 and review.

Hi all! Johnny here! I'm thrilled to be a part of the discussion.

I squeeze in tv when I can, am an avid reader and an obsessive runner, but my real joy in life is my 15 month old daughter.

Currently I'm into:
Graphic Novel: Ocean - Warren Ellis
Reading: On Sundays We Go Long - Ty Strange
Reading (on Serial Reader app): The Book of Dragons - Edith Nesbit
Reading (to my daughter): Coraline - Neil Gaiman
Audio: Perdido Street Station - China Miéville
TV Show: Wolf's Rain (anime) - rewatch

I average about 40 miles weekly, most of those are used to consume Audiobooks. I swear I'd run half as much as I do now if I didn't have a seemingly endless to-be-read pile. =)

What a great idea this group is, I'll join in when I can, though with a 10-week-old baby that might not be as often as I'd like! Getting through a decent amount of reading on the kindle though, it's compatible with holding a tiny sleeping person :-)

Current paperback: The Eye of the World (yes, I'm late to the party!), also dipping into Chuck Wendig's books on writing and The Mammoth Book of the Best of the Best New SF
Current ebook: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits and a steampunk anthology
Next book: probably The Age of Daredevils
Console game: Zelda: Breath of the Wild
PC game: Mass Effect (the first one, I'm a slow gamer...)
Boardgame: favourite has to be Pandemic but happy to try anything except Risk

Nice to meet you all!

Edit: oh, and I'm based in Edinburgh, in sunny Scotland. Ok, mostly not so sunny but I'm an optimist!

Whoa, hi to all the newcomers - great to see so many familiar faces! (Vinca - loving Breath of the Wild right now too! And Joe, thanks for the shoutout :)

Vinca - thanks for telling me about this group...

Looking forward to reading some short stories. Usually, I read long and involved in fantasy. Favorite author being R. A. Salvatore - Drizzt rocks!

I am from the Eastern US, sunny balmy Buffalo NY. I read constantly and joined GR to get some new ideas on authors. You should see my TBR now - fun fun fun.

Current Book: Legend I won't mention the other genres I am currently reading ;-)
Ebook - Truthwitch and now Lost Lore
Next Book: The Eye of the World for a BoM.
Games: Mostly ipad
Audio: at home Manners & Mutiny next up Simon Bloom, The Gravity Keeper
Audio: in car - White Night next up A Clockwork Orange

Hey all. I'm Bryan, TidalPawn on r/fantasy. Looking forward to reading stories from authors I know and those I don't.

Last read: Fugitive by Krista D. Ball

Currently reading: Cold Spectrum by Craig Schaefer
Evil is a Matter of Perspective: An Anthology of Antagonists

Currently playing: Stardew Valley

Sandy, you had me at Legend. David Gemmell is one of my heroes.

J.M. just starting but already liking the story. Looks like I have lots to go too :-)

Hi I'm Lieke and I'm from the Netherlands.
This readalong was mentioned in another GR group and I was curious so here I am :)

Currently reading: De gouden nar by Robin Hobb

Hi! My name is Emma. It's been a while since I read an anthology and I'm looking forward to it. I'm currently on vacation, so it's the perfect time to read short stories!

I am about to begin reading Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. I've heard his standalone novels are great.

Hi everyone!
I'm Samir from Zagreb, Croatia.
I spend most of my free time reading fantasy with an occasional venture into sci-fi and thrillers. I also dabble in writing reviews.

Currently reading: ebook: Deadhouse Gates, paperback: Dragon Hunters and hardback:Oathbringer.

Currerntly watching: Star Wars - The Clone Wars tv show
Currently playing: The Witcher 3

Looking forward to reading this anthology because I have almost every author on my tbr list.

Hello everyone!
My name is Jody and I live in northern Georgia. I mainly read fantasy and sci-fi, but occasionally delve into other genres. I write reviews like my mate Samir who was gracious enough to inform me of this group read.

I am currently reading: A Plague of Swords by Miles Cameron.

I have been anticipating this release and look forward to discussing these stories with everyone.

Hello!
My name is Jenny and I live in Michigan (howdy, neighbor Dyrk!) with my husband and our three children. My kids are super young (ages 3, 15 months, and 4 months), so I don't have much time for reading or writing, but I'm going to try and keep up with this read-a-long. Pretty much every newish author I'm interested in has done something for this anthology, so yay!

I am currently reading fifty billion things, but mostly Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson.

I am currently watching The Fellowship of the Ring on Netflix.

And I am currently playing no board games or rpgs because I have no time. But if I were playing something, it would be Scythe (which we got for Christmas and still haven't opened).