The Summer Camp '22 Reading Challenge!

"One badge, please!"

An Explorer, Researcher or other character motivated by discovery.

Talak the Devourer

Librarian Stitchscar

Ghosts of the Harvest

More than one beautiful world has come up with its own version of halloween. Yet AutumnKtisune's Ghosts of the Harvest celebration does one of the best renditions of the fall festival. It is simple, yet perfect in the children's determination to save the town's harvest. Festivals do not need auspicious beginnings, but can often be born from the humblest and most innocent of intentions.   I wonder if the kids try to one-up themselves year after year? And I wonder why ghosts like pumpkins so much?      

Troubles in the Town

    While it is true that myth often derives from truth, it rarely dovetails so neatly as it does in the village of Feybridge Crossing. Almost any inconvenience is blamed on the gremlin known only as 'Grouch'. And while Grouch really does exist, he is not to blame for the town's general clumsiness or inability to take responsibility for themselves.   People are superstitious to a fault, and even the most cynical of persons has some irrational belief in a tradition or creature. It is easy to put blame on the unknown and unseen, and create ghosts and monsters out of the shadows of a night-time alley.   This being said, the shadows actually inhabited by some strange creature are another matter entirely.      

The Night Peddler

Travelers to the road are no stranger to unseen dangers, but none are so innocuously creepy as the Night Peddler. This strange being clad in robes is often encountered on the highways after dusk, and always seem to have something that the traveler may wish to by. However, the one thing the article did not mention is what happens if nothing is purchased from the Night Peddler. There are vague hints, but nothing concrete to suggest anything beyond a disconcerting appearance.   Myths have their roots in the Truth, and while gossip can turn a molehill into a mountain, it must first have a molehill to start with. Perhaps if there were disappearances, body parts or possessions of those who did not buy anything amongst the wares, the rumors and fear of the Night Peddler would hold more water.  

---

A Settlement that Leads the Known World in Something

I feel like this one's cheating a bit because I had to read all 299 (okay, 297, one flat out vanished and another was mine) articles that were submitted for this prompt. 297! It's not on par with the geographic expanse prompt (over 600) but it's still a LOT!   It took me a week to narrow down almost 300 entries down to my personal favorites. While I'm not going to tell you who the winner is here (That would be cheating!) I am going to share some of the ones I learned from the most, good and bad.      

Treex Aaf

  Treex Aaf is probably one of my most favorite articles out of the entire bunch. This short but sweet (literally) Article reveals the origins of the Toffee-producing village and how it has come to influence the world today. However I realized while reading it that I don't actually know what Treacle is, how it's mined, or how it's processed to Toffee. I had thought that, as the only other place I've seen it mentioned was Discworld novels, that is was a fantasy-type mineral that Sir T. Pratchett had created to make the world more unique. It's easy to assume that your reader is automatically going to know the 'base' facts of whatever resource your settlement makes, and sometimes the more unique sources, such as Treacle, slip through the cracks.   Is Treacle mining a Europe-specific thing that I, as a stupid American, am never going to understand? Or am I too lazy to use a search engine right now?     It's probably the latter.  

The Plentitude Galactic Mall

    I'll admit, I hadn't been entirely sold on the Galactic Mall at first; the article was bare-bones and didn't offer much in the way of how Plentitude was different from other malls. Then I reached the very end of the article and its associated footnotes. One footnote (which I will let you go read) was all it took to make me laugh, and tie the planet's mindset together in a cohesive way. The mindset of a settlement and how they view survival/prosperity can speak a lot for a settlement, and how it continues to develop itself. A Place like Plentitude might focus on indulgence and consumerism, whereas a small village hidden in the mountains might value a connection with nature and taking only what is needed from the land. A settlement is made of people, and it is those people that determine the outlook of the settlement.    

Merdia

     

---

So where do I go from here? As far as World Anvil's concerned, I'm not sure yet! As much as I'd like to go back and clean up articles, and maybe write some new ones, the next couple of months are going to be extremely busy and I need to sleep at some point. I have a couple big projects gearing up, including this year's NaNoWriMo challenge! To challenge myself this year I'm writing not one, but Three Books! Three 50K novels isn't the challenge, btw. The books are only 20K each. The challenge is to write concisely, something I've always struggled with. My goal is that by writing books for the 5th grade reading level I can push my writing in new directions. And maybe placate Nana Johnstone by finally writing some of her stories...