Hey all! I'm TO, and I was wondering if you guys could possibly help me out on a few questions I had for the novel I'm writing.

It's set in a boarding school, which has gotten a reputation for "the place rich people send their problem children" in Massachusetts. The only problem is, I've never actually attended a boarding school, and while I have a good enough idea about how they work, I feel like I'm going to slip up on the little things and that drives me crazy.

So I was wondering - have any of you ever attended a boarding school? And are there any little experiences, rules, quirks, that you would mind sharing with me, so that i can make the school in my novel as realistic as possible? That would be a huge help to me, and I'd really appreciate it.

My main concern is my need to justify a large, "high school party" early on in the narrative. You know the type, where the music's a little too loud and there are several not quite completely legal substances circling amongst the minors. Unfortunately...it's a boarding school, and I know that that kind of party would be difficult to pull off in that environment. So if somebody could help me with that I'd be beyond thankful.

Thanks so much for your time!

So I've been working on this fantasy world for a while now. I'm trying to move away from the typical fantasy feel of the genre and move into a bit of a more down to earth thing modeled after a more urban fantasy. No world saving for my characters, just a prima donna, wanna be sorceress and her group of basically conscripted slaves as they march along the countryside, trying to prove she can handle magic and responsibility as well as anyone. That way the human system of government won't execute her for crimes against humanity

See, in my world, humans are the only race that can use magic. It was given to them by their God in an attempt to allow them to compete with the more physically fit species of the world. Only problem is that Sorcerers, being the greedy bastards they are, claimed their "God given" right of superiority over the rest of humanity, and now the rest of the race are second class citizens.

My main character really fucks up her first assignment and kills a whole bunch of people, including her master. The ruling body in the land gets wind of it and gives her two options: Death, or an essentially suicide mission against a small dukedom that's rebelled against the current rule (bloody civil war, you know the drill) So my MC rounds up a few of the survivors of her massacre and forces them to follow her into the mouth of Hell. Fun huh?

I've got most of the races set up in an interesting way, something that kinda-sorta breaks the mold, at least enough to make them interesting. I have a new race in there, which is fun for me. But I'm having trouble with 2 things: Firstly, the Dwarves. And Secondly, human subgroups.

1. Dwarves: I can't think of any way to make them original. They sit in mountains. They drink beer. I guess that's been so ingraned in my mind (and hasn't been warped with my eternal hatred, like what happened to the elves  ) that I can't think of any truly interesting way to make them different. Any suggestions?

2. The humans. I'm really struggling here. I'm thinking of dividing them into 3 major kingdoms, each with Sorcerers at the top. But what I'm really aiming for here is something Dresden-esque; there's all these different factions running around that Harry has to negotiate through, and I can't think of anything.