Bifur totally offered that sort of quiet to all of his niblings – when home got too noisy, Uncle Bifur could be counted on for a quiet talk and cuddle.

*clutches chest*

Unsociable little Bomfris, hiding in Bifur’s workroom, sulking. People are stupid. Ravens are much more sensible. At least they say exactly what they mean!

Barur escaping to Uncle Bifur’s place when the horde of people he has to feed every day only seems to get bigger, and the purse only seems to get lighter.

Baris singing quietly in her marvellous voice as Bifur gives her a bit of whittling or painting to do (because there’s just so much pressure, she never knew, never understood that there would be such pressure)

Bomfur sitting quietly, tinkering with a few of the toys absently, lost in thought. Then standing and announcing that he’s off to buy some green dye for his beard, and can Uncle Bifur please help him apply it? And Bifur patting his shoulder and nodding and smiling – and he’s the first one to call her Bomfa.

Alfur whining to Bifur as he moons hopelessly over Gimli from afar, his little crush in full-flight.

Alrur sitting for hours upon hours, just watching Bifur work. (Alrur runs as fast as he can one day, panting and stumbling and nearly glowing with happiness, to Uncle Bifur’s place. He has to tell him! He’s found his calling! He will be a toymaker too!)

Thank you for putting so many awesome ladies and lady friendships in Sansukh! It’s nice to see that not only are there lots of rad women, they actually interact with each other! And support each other!

It is my unashamed and total delight to do so, Nonnie. I am so fond of them all, seriously. The sibling relationship between Bomfris and Baris just makes me wanna roll around happily, as does Dis’ very different friendships with Orla and Thira. Heck yeah Dwarrowdams! 🙂

(my fave unexpected friendship is actually turning out to be Haban and Narvi!)

Is Baris a soprano? I would really love to audition for her but I’m an alto (albeit with a well-trained falsetto).

Oooooh, I think Baris has quite a large range tbh. But the song I mentioned in that anon-ask before would not. It would be a very soft gentle song, probably in the upper alto range.

(When I thought her up, I headcanoned Baris to have the kind of range that raises eyebrows: F3 – F6, 3 octaves. A big fat contralto down below, a full belt range, and A BLAZINGLY HUGE DRAMATIC SOPRANO.

Like, Jessye Norman huge, absolutely HUGE. Jessye is the gorgeous black woman in this production of Walkure, btw – utterly problematic opera, utterly jaw-dropping performance. Jump to 1:20 to be completely and totally floored.)

But! I’m not so cruel as to make people actually try to do that sort of thing! So don’t worry, Nonnie, your range is absolutely fine.

I’m thinking of auditioning for Baris, but I’m slightly nervous that you might someday write her singing. I’m a decent soprano for everyday purposes, but entirely untrained, and I certainly don’t have an dwarvish operatic range. Do you at least have any immediate plans to write her singing, so I can go try to cram a lifetime of vocal coaching into a few months?

I’ve actually got plans for her to sing quite soon? But it will not be an operatic performance. It’s rather more personal and emotional.

The emotion of it is 800x more important than your technical proficiency, for this particular moment Nonnie. So don’t be discouraged from trying out for Baris!

Do you have any fancasts of your original characters?

Oooooh, good question, Nonnie.

When I think up a character, I don’t really consider their facial features in much depth, to be honest. I concentrate far more on other attributes, such as relationships, behaviour, personality, likes and dislikes. Sometimes a prominent physical characteristic gets in there if it is relevant to who the character is (Barur’s giant moustache, Loni’s height, Jeri’s green beard) but mostly, I paint them in very broad strokes.

That said, there are a couple of actors who I consider very close to the characters! Perhaps only the hair or eye colour differs. No beards, unfortunately. They could all play the roles (in some cases, under a LOT of Dwarven padding and gear. Dwarven body ratios *headdesk*)

Orla – Grace Jones