A merry Christmas or Hanukkah to you all! If you celebrate neither of those holidays then  happy Wednesday. Our opening liner is a bit different today. Adultfiction brings you our final Book of the month for the end of 2024. Its been a joy presenting amazing authors to you month after month. This one is no different, to guide into a new era we bring you  Specific Speculation: 2024 Smack Down Anthology by FifthMusketeer.

This feature is a bit different, this novel consist of a collection of short stories expertly delivered based on the prompts provided. Formulating this book review was an interesting one. The hope is to give you just enough to entice you to read, without giving it all away, like a sheer blouse... but with an undershirt of course.

Each chapter offers a short but entertaining short story, one in particular that clung to me would be the story about a little wide eyed curious wannabe weaver, who starts of knitting.

If you like being able to have a quick read that encompasses a good plot this is for. Quick and sweet. Theres a little something for every reader in this book. FifthMusketter tackled each prompt head on, taking full charge of her story giving each a unique twist to set it apart. 

Here interview may help you understand a writing a bit more, meet the author and her work.

Interview

We always like to start with introducing who you are as a person?

Well, I am Ilze, but I go by the name FifthMusketeer on the internet. Born and raised in the Netherlands and have loved creating stories ever since I was a little kid. Currently, I am 23 years old and very busy with my bachelors degree in Biomedical Research. So although I am not busy physically writing stories anymore -because my brain is still actively busy creating plot points, characters and storylines-, I am very busy writing lab reports, which are much less exciting.

What genre of writing do you enjoy exploring the most ?

I really love writing fantasy and science-fiction. For both genres, you really can explore the world in depth, and how it influences the characters. It really is more than just writing a story; it is creating a whole universe.

What motivates you to write?

I've always loved creating stories, but my brain is scattered and an unorganised mess. So jotting it down in some form has helped to get my brain to focus on only one thought, on one task. Creating the story calms my brain a little. But we also need to stay motivated, of course, which is sometimes a bigger challenge, haha.

When it is about creating anything, it doesn't matter what artform, I can be a little perfectionist. So when things don't go the way I envisioned, it can be counterproductive. For writing, what helps is that I have to remind myself that it does not have to be perfect. Especially the draft. The only thing that a draft has to do, is exist. All your story has to do is exist. All else can be done in the editing, and even that does not have to be perfect. Because perfection does not exist. And this helps me to refind my joy in writing.

But I must also say, participating in the Smackdown the first time around in 2023, really opened my eyes to what a writing community can do to motivate as well. Everyone is so kind and supportive, and reads each other's stories. Although this year I am swamped with work due to my internship and can't really find time to write, I do manage to still hand in all the assignments (barely) on time. But it is quite unfortunate that I can't read the other competitors' stories, because they deserve just as much love and support as they are giving.

Do you have any rituals or habits that can help place you in a writing mood

I don't have many rituals or habits. Generally I just open Wattpad, or another writing program depending on what I am writing, and start. Most of the time I also put on some music, so that my brain does not get a chance to race and it quiets down a little. This year I started making a playlist for specific genres as well; I was working on a new fantasy project in the beginning of the year, and noticed that my general list didn't really work to get in the right fantasy mood. So now I have a playlist for a fantasy story with some ancient Greek tones as well, which is mostly just game music.

How did you formulate the stories for Specific Speculation:2024 Smackdown Anthology

I have to admit, most of the stories I wrote last minute, thanks to my internship. Which meant that I did not have time to properly think out the stories and had to go with my first instincts. But I must say that so far that actually has worked in my favour. Because that gave me the chance to write things I might not think of normally.So everything I write is immediately the final product, everything is directly formulated from the brain. This, of course, also means that there are still spelling and structural errors present, but that is something I'll simply have to accept.

Is there any piece of writing that you have done that you consider your personal favourite

Funnily enough, both answers were written for a school project from secondary school. One is a short story I've written for the subject 'Cultural and Artistic Development'. Everyone had to do something that had to do with 'perishable/shelve life'. I decided to write a short story on how feelings can be perishable as well, and a lot of flowers were involved as well. It is written in a more poetic way, which I hadn't done before. I really could play with the formatting, how to structure sentences, etc. It was one big experiment, and I am really proud of the end result. There is one physical copy of it as well, that I printed and bound myself as well, had some traditional artworks at the end of the chapters, and a lot of pressed flowers.

The other one was what we call in Dutch the 'profielwerkstuk'. It is a project where you have to set up your own research related to a school subject of your own choosing. My friend and I decided to write our report as a story, since our research had a bit of a futuristic setting and has not actually been researched yet, and neither was it possible to do our own research on it. So all our research was from literature. But although the actual subject of our choice was Biology, school decided to change it to Dutch since we wrote it as a story. While writing, I quickly realised it wasn't my best work, but I really enjoyed writing it and quickly became attached to the characters. So when the story was finally finished, I started to miss them and within a month, my friend gave me permission to adopt her characters and rewrite the story. I am still working on it at a very, very slow pace (a snail would be faster), but it is shared here on Wattpad. But unfortunately it is in Dutch as well.

Is there any writer or author out there that you look up to, tell us your personal favorite book

The Three Musketeers, by Alexandre Dumas. I watched a quite terrible, yet amusing movie adaptation of it (The Three Musketeers 2012) and the characters and premise seemed interesting, and then I remembered I had the actual book somewhere on my shelf. It took not even two pages and I was hooked. Dumas has such an amazing way of writing. It is as if you are spectating the events with him by your side. And then the characters. Somehow he manages to write them in such a way that all of them are interesting, they are all written with such a depth no matter how significant that character is to the actual story. They are actual people.

So yes, Alexandre Dumas quickly became my favourite author.

If you had the opportunity to transform into any character currently existing who would you be and why?

I don't have any specific characters in mind. But I think turning into an actual mad scientist would be quite fun, and probably fit me best considering what I am studying, hahaha!

Or maybe the lab assistant of a mad scientist, so I am present during all the interesting experiments but can lay back and watch the unavoidable hubris of the scientist's actions unfold with a bag of popcorn.

Do you have any new ideas in the pipeline that you would like to share with us?

I do! In the beginning of the year I started working on a manuscript for a writing contest where the winner was awarded with a contract at that publishing house. I didn't make the cut, but luckily that gives me more than enough time to translate the story into English, and work out some plot points better. But then the internship had to come and ruin all those plans.

Once I have enough time, I'll translate the first three chapters, so be on the lookout for a fantasy novel containing powerful gods having a petty feud, a rich and spoiled girl planning on joining the circus, a seer who only sees 30 seconds into the future, and a minor deity with an existential crisis. Although the start has a more medieval setting, as the party travels more and more influences and inspiration from ancient Greece will appear. I really hope you guys will like it.