Hello, friends! We finally close the books (literally) on 2024 with my End-of-Year Book Celebration, in which I round up notable reads of the last six months and see how I did on my reading goals. One last time, if you want the short-and-sweet best-of rundown, you can hop over to Light and Shadows to get that list — but if you want a more in-depth look, stay here and keep reading.

As a reminder, since this post wraps up 2024 for me, this will be my final official post on Dreams and Dragons. After this, I'll no longer be posting on this blog, though I will leave it up for anyone who wants to go back and look at past posts. However, we need to finish this book celebration first, so let's get going!

2024 End-of-Year Book Celebration

As always, of course, we start things off with statistics and a review of my reading goals! According to Goodreads, I read 95 books and 25,068 pages in 2024, which is about half of what I read in 2023, but not surprising given that I've been reading more slowly this year than I have in some past years. Most of what I've read has been in the range of 100–400 pages, with an average page length of 263 pages, but I have read some longer books as well. My average rating is the same as it was at my mid-year celebration: 4.3 stars. Not bad, honestly.

As for my specific goals . . . Well, I didn't exactly meet most of them, but I did work towards most of them.

• The one specific goal I did achieve was to read 12 books published (or written) before 1975 (at least nine of which were aimed at adults). I read fifteen books this year that were written or published before 1975, nine aimed at adults and six aimed at children. So, yes, I just barely squeaked past, but success is success. Most of these were rereads, but one of the notable exceptions that I read this half of the year was Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, an adventure story that was pretty exciting.
• On the other hand, my goal of reading 15 non-speculative fiction books . . . did not happen. In July, I had read six non-spec-fic books, and I only added two to that number: a reread of Furiously Happy (a memoir by a popular 2000s/2010s blogger) and Moby Dick, which I have technically been reading for a few years now but finally finished this year. Oh well.
• As for decreasing the number of physical books I own but haven't read, I have been reading a lot of ebooks, which . . . is not really helpful in this regard. Still, I did read another of Sanderson's Secret Projects, Bryan Davis's Time Echoes trilogy, and a few others, so I made progress! Just not quite as much as I intended.
• I did not catch up with the Cosmere and Sanderson's Secret Projects. I read Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, and that was it. At least I stayed caught up with the SVR-verse, so . . . there's that.

As always, if you want more statistics or the full list of everything I read in 2024, check out my Goodreads Year in Books or my tracking form results. But if you'd rather just hit the highlights, let's get going with some specific book categories!

Best book you've read in the second half of 2024:

Unsurprisingly, this spot goes to a W.R. Gingell book, specifically Splintered Mind, the first book in the new Shattered Worlds series. I loved getting a fresh perspective on Behind and Between, and I quite enjoyed meeting the new characters, particularly our lead, the caring, practical, and determinedly normal Viv. And, of course, the mystery element was fun!

 

The runner-up in this category is What Comes of Attending the Commoners Ball by Elisabeth Aimee Brown. This was a delightful romantic romp with fae and fairy tale vibes; it's funny and charming and marvelously clever in the end. It also gave me the vibes of Emily Wilde crossed with Dragon Slippers, so if that sounds like your cup of tea, definitely pick up this book.

Best sequel you've read in the second half of 2024:

This is an insanely difficult decision because the last six months included so many good sequels. However, I think this spot goes to H.S.J. Williams's Collusion, the second book in the Kings of Aselvia series. This book was worth every minute of the four-year wait; I loved the characters and their arcs, the way Hannah has developed the world, the existence of so many actually-married couples, the emphasis on family and community . . . it just has all the good things, y'know? And, like Moonscript, it also touches on some not-so-good things, on trauma and the evils of the world, but it does so in a way that keeps hope in sight.

We do have some very close runners-up, though! Valley of Dragons, the final book in Christina Baehr's Secrets of Ormdale series, very nearly took the top spot! I talked about this book when it first came out, but to recap, this book wraps up the story in a way that brings everything full circle but also spotlights the growth of the various characters. I loved the way everyone had a little time in the spotlight, the fact that the story has so much compassion for the antagonists — especially those who are themselves the victims of lies and cycles of hurt — and how Baehr worked out the relationship between Edith and Simon!

Speaking of relationships working out: A Stab in the Dark is the latest (but, it seems, not the last after all) in Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Dark series! In it, we find Molly and Vasily figuring out who they want to be, both individually and together, as well as some questionable progress for Nijam and Schmidt . . . while, of course, running a con and dealing with an opera house full of ghosts, murdered ballerinas, mysteries, and secrets. You know. As one does. It's the best yet in the series, and I had such fun reading it!

Best book you've reread in the second half of 2024:

I reread Moonscript in preparation for the release of Collusion, and it was so good. In some respects, it was better on the reread, as I could better appreciate some of the character arcs (and trauma). Besides that, though, it was just a delight to reacquaint myself with this world and these characters.

New release you haven't read yet but want to:

Wind and Truth has been out for a month now, and no, I have not read it yet. As mentioned previously, I am behind on all the Cosmere stuff. I want to fix that sooner than later, but I have been more invested in other stories (no pun intended).

Most anticipated release for the first half of 2025:

Dates are weird with Kickstarter books, but Splintered Life, the second Shattered Worlds book, is expected to reach backers and become available for general purchase sometime in the next few months, and I am very excited to find out what happens next with Viv, Luca, Jasper, and the rest. Based on snippets, I think it's going to be so good.

Biggest disappointment:

I read Artemis Fowl in September for the Silmaril Awards, and . . . look, I know a lot of people enjoy this series, and it does do some things well, but I am simply not impressed by book one. The concepts are cool, but the execution is hindered by the fact that I didn't actually like any of the characters. I did have hopes of enjoying the story, but it just didn't do it for me.

Biggest surprise:

I don't know if this really counts, given that I was pretty sure I would like it, but I was impressed by how good Aeronwy's Stolen Child, a newsletter freebie from Claire Trella Hill, is. This is a lovely twist on the classic changeling tale, focusing on the parents of the lost children, and it's probably my favorite of Hill's short fiction.

A book that made you cry/A book that made you happy:

These categories are being combined because the same book fits both of them. Rescuing a Supervillain is super sweet, and I loved the dynamic between Bea and Sam and, of course, all the cats . . . but there's also one specific scene involving a kitten that made me actually tear up (if I recall correctly) because of how sweet and lovely and sad it is.

Also, shoutout to Collusion again. I don't remember if I actually cried or not, but it definitely gave me all the emotions, both the happy ones and the sad ones.

Favorite post you've done this half of the year:

Definitely I've Heard This One Before: A Study in Church Music Repetition, in which I went over what I learned from a year of recording and analyzing weekly music choices at a selection of churches! My goal was to figure out if less traditional churches repeated songs more (partially because I was grumpy about how often we sang particular songs at my home church); as to what I learned . . . well, go back, read the post, and you'll find out.

There's my wrapup — now, tell me about your second half of 2024! What are the best books you've read or reread in the last six months? What should I add to my TBR for 2025? Tell me in the comments!

Thanks for reading!

Stay the Course? [2024 Recap//2025 Goals]

 

Hello, everyone! 2024 has officially ended, and 2025 is here. As always, that means it's time to look back at the past year and at my 2024 goals to see what I've done (and what I didn't quite manage to do), and it's also time to look ahead at the new year and think about what I might want to accomplish in 2025. 2024 wasn't a perfect year, but it was a sight better than 2023, and it included a lot of good things — excellent stories, lessons learned, time spent with friends and family, and a few milestones I didn't expect to hit quite so soon. I'm hopeful that 2025 will be more of the same.

One thing that I know will be different in 2025, though, is that I have decided to officially retire my Dreams & Dragons blog once I finish my 2024 close-out posts (those being this post, December 2024 Doings, and my 2024 End of Year Book Celebration). This is not something I'm doing lightly, as this blog has been a part of my life since 2011. It was one of my first opportunities to share my thoughts and stories online, and I've grown a great deal in the process of maintaining it. However, the Blogger platform is getting steadily more frustrating to work with, and the overall look and content of the blog is outdated enough that it either needs to be majorly overhauled or retired . . . and I am choosing the latter. To be clear, the blog and the posts on it will remain online for people to read! However, I will not be posting there anymore, and I will probably turn off comments on that site and put a note on it that it's no longer active. If you currently follow me on Dreams & Dragons, I encourage you to subscribe to my Wordpress blog, Light & Shadows, instead! On the other hand, if you mostly follow me on Light & Shadows, you'll see very little change except that my biannual Best Of reading lists will be replaced with longer Book Celebrations, which are more fun for me to write and allow me to highlight more noteworthy books, and my seasonal releases lists may expand past five more frequently. Hopefully, no one will be too disappointed by those changes — if you are, I apologize, but I do believe this is the best choice.

And now, with that announcement out of the way, let's take a look back at the past year and what happened in it.

2024 Recap // 2025 Goals

2024 Recap

Year of Staying the Course? (Not Quite . . .)

• My theme for 2024 was "staying the course" — in general, my goals were supposed to be about consistency, about continuing with what I was doing even when it was hard, unless I received a clear indication that doing so was the wrong choice.
• I do feel like I did a pretty decent job of sticking with that theme for the first several months of the year. I kept up with the vast majority of my commitments, whether those were writing, work, grad school, or social things.
• Unfortunately, I also was getting so stressed about all those things that I wasn't sleeping well and was making myself physically sick. Those things, plus reminders from multiple sources on the importance of rest and not over-committing or trying to do too much, seemed to be a pretty strong signal that I needed to make some adjustments.
• So, I did not accomplish all of my goals this year, and my theme kind of had a midyear switch to something more like "Rethink" or "Rest" — but I do not regret that as much as I might have otherwise.

Writing

• Once again, my goal for 2024 was to actively and regularly work towards specific writing goals in at least ten of the twelve months in the year. I would say I largely accomplished this — I had specific writing goals every month of 2024 except July — although I only really succeeded in those goals eight months out of twelve. I was writing very consistently! Just not always on the projects I intended to prioritize.
• My total wordcount for the year was 312,374 words, about 30,000 words more than last year. That doesn't include edits on Illusion's Reign, which would put the actual count even higher. All in all, a very satisfactory number — especially since I mostly did a much better job at keeping up with deadlines and not leaving things until the last minute! That allowed me to have a much less stressful release for Illusion's Reign, and it gave me some nice rest periods here and there when I could either take a break from writing or work primarily on just-for-fun projects.
• Of course, my biggest win of 2024 was when Song of the Selkies won Book of the Year at the Realm Awards! That's the kind of accomplishment that wasn't even on my radar as a possibility, and I am still in awe that it actually, y'know, happened.
• I also made it to two other book selling events, specifically a craft fair in spring and Eat Local, Read Local in October. Those both went fairly well. I didn't make it to Doxacon, but given everything else I had going on around that time, that's probably for the best.
• Regarding specific project goals:
  • I wrote, edited, and published Illusion's Reign, the second Daughters of Atirse book, with the 2024 Aristal Challenge Project. I did not finish drafting it by the end of March, but I did wrap it up in June, which isn't bad at all given how long it ended up being and how much mental energy grad school took up.
    
  • I also wrote and submitted a story for the first DOSA Files anthology. I wanted to write a sequel for the second anthology, but I ran out of time (partially because I deluded myself into thinking I'd have time around the holidays). Still, I'm pleased I managed the first one!
    
  • I started the planning process on a new story, Project Kingfisher. This wasn't in my original goal list for 2024, but I realized that it had an actual deadline, and I came up with an idea that I liked, so I decided to start it with the intent of having a longer planning period. Hopefully that'll make the actual book a little easier to write; we'll see if that works.
  • I did not write Bastian Dennel, PI #4. I apologize to those who were looking forward to it; it's still going to happen, but Project Kingfisher knocked it down a slot in the priority list. I also didn't get to another Daughters of Atirse book, though that was a long shot anyway.
    
  • I mostly kept up with my Defenders of Serys D&D campaign. Things got a little iffy in the last couple months, when my players caught up with my plot slightly faster than expected, but otherwise I mostly stayed ahead of what I needed to get done.
• As far as backlog posts and keeping up with my blogging/social media schedule . . . Well, I posted some of my backlog, but not all. And I mostly kept up with blogging, though I did take a few breaks here and there. I did less well with keeping up with social media, but honestly, I am not stressing out about that. I still do my weekly goal posts, and I am not going to fail as an author just because I miss posting Wednesdays several weeks in a row.

Reading (and Other Stories)

• As usual, I'll discuss my 2024 reading goals in my Best of/End-of-Year Book Celebration posts. If you want an early look, you can check out my tracking form results.
• In summary, though: I read 94 books, plus a few that I didn't record because they were beta reads, just making my goal of 93 books. I didn't quite hit most of my other goals (though I did make progress towards them), and I mostly did well with tracking what I was reading . . . until around the end of July, when I apparently forgot that I was supposed to be adding stuff to my Google Form? (And then I had to go back and put everything in this past week to make this post. Good grief, past me.)
• Thankfully, I kept up much better on tracking what I was watching and playing, again using Google forms. I watched far less stuff in 2024 than I did in 2023 — about 41 distinct movies, episodes, or videos. Roughly 66% of those were episodes of a TV or streaming show. And between Christmas movies and watching Yona of the Dawn, about half of what I watched happened in October, November, and December.
• The reason for that drop in what I watched was absolutely because I got into gaming instead — or, more specifically, I got into Honkai Star Rail and Genshin Impact because a couple of my friends kept talking about certain characters and I was Intrigued. This was, I believe, an excellent decision; I've had a grand time, and it has largely helped me lower my stress level and spend less time procrastinating on YouTube.

Life

• I did three grad school classes this year, which is one fewer than I originally intended. I decided to take half of the fall semester off so I wouldn't have grad school work when I was busy with publishing Illusion's Reign. I think that was the right choice, especially since two of those three classes were rather frustrating (though for different reasons).
• Work continues to go well. We had some excitement this year in the form of our associate pastor being transferred to a new church and the kids' ministry director stepping into the associate pastor position, but that transition was pretty smooth.
• I kept up with learning German on Duolingo. Irish, not so much — I was getting confused by the grammar, so I kind of just dropped it. However, Duolingo introduced a music course, and I've been doing that! I think that's going well — I definitely feel like I'm learning something.
• I returned to Realm Makers, which was super fun and exciting even outside of the Realm Awards. I loved getting to see friends and spend time with fellow authors, and the speakers were all very helpful. In addition, one of my not-too-far-away friends and I have been a lot more deliberate about planning get-togethers, including visits to Longwood Gardens, the zoo, an escape room, and our annual Ren Faire trip.
• On the flip side, I ended my monthly board game Connect Group. Since about 2021, I've been running a monthly connect group/life group that mostly just meets to play board games. However, in the last year or so, it had become a source of more stress than blessing, especially as I frequently ended up with a lot of uncertainty around whether or not anyone else would show up. So, I made the decision to end it, and that decision was affirmed from several directions (which I appreciated).
• I successfully weeded and reorganized my bookshelves. Well, a lot of the organization remained the same, but some stuff has been moved around. And I did get rid of a whole box and a half of books. A lot of that was just deciding that I could give up my Wheel of Time books because I didn't think I was actually going to read them, but that's still progress, and it substantially decreased the number of books I owned but hadn't read.
• My D&D group completed the campaign we started back in college. It took us until September or so, but the villain has been defeated, and everyone got a good ending. We also had a mini-campaign run by one of the other players (giving our DM a chance to play), and now we've started a new campaign! We've only had two sessions of that so far, but it's been really fun.
• I made approximately one Baking Yesteryear recipe per month. There were a few months in which I didn't make anything, but I also had a few months in which I made multiple things, so I think those evened out. Also in the field of making things, I gave bookbinding and tablet weaving a try. Both are things I'd like to do more in future, though not as regularly as crochet, embroidery, and knitting — they are, unfortunately, somewhat less portable.
• As for my goal of finding a way to exercise once a week . . . that didn't really happen. I tried walking on the treadmill during D&D for a while, but then I needed that time for working on other things, and it just kind of fell apart. Ah well.

All in all, while this year wasn't quite what I planned, it was still a pretty good year, and I'm generally happy with what I accomplished. Now it's time to look forward to 2025 and think about what it might hold . . .

2025 Goals

Year of Adjust and Assess

• In setting my theme for 2025, I mainly want to carry over what I've already started doing in the second half of 2024: looking for things in my life that aren't working well or that could be working better and finding ways to improve them, especially in regards to balancing work and rest. While I think I'm in a healthier place now than I was at the start of 2024, I am aware that I may have swung the pendulum a touch too far in the other direction. So, I want to use this year to try to get back to a good balance between the two.
• To that end, the theme I'm using to set my 2025 goals is Adjust and Assess: make adjustments, see what's working, keep what's going well and fix or drop what isn't. In my head, this looks like a combination of the scientific method and the agile development methods I learned in college, but applied to habits and actions. In practice . . . we'll see how things go.

Writing Goals

• My overall writing goal for the past few years has worked well, so I'm keeping it with some tweaks: I want to actively and regularly work towards specific writing goals in at least nine of the twelve months of 2024. As per usual, these can be wordcount goals or project goals depending on what best serves what I need to get done. I am making one change here, though, and dropping the number of months with specific writing goals from ten to nine. My thought is that I can then take July and December (my two busiest months) as months in which I'm not focusing my energy on a specific writing goal, plus I'll have one extra rest month to use when I need it.
• Additionally, I want to test a few new things in my writing process, namely taking a longer planning period on new projects, allowing myself to write story-related things that aren't in the story, and having two or three active (non-D&D) projects at once, possibly in staggered stages of the writing process. Technically, I'm already testing these with Project Kingfisher and a just-for-fun personal project, but I'm making it official here. I usually have a very short planning period, stay very focused on the actual project while it's active, and try to stick to one project at a time, but I want to see if making some changes helps (by allowing more flexibility, especially when I'm tired) or hinders (by allowing more opportunities for distraction). Now seems like a good time to do it, since I don't have as tight a deadline as I normally do.
• As for specific project goals:
  • I want to plan, draft, and probably do a first edit on Project Kingfisher. This is already partially in progress, and it's supposed to be fairly short, so I'm hoping to have it finished by Easter. (Famous last words, I know.)
  • I want to plan, draft, and maybe publish Bastian Dennel, PI #4. This is a repeat goal from last year that I didn't accomplish, but BDPI is top priority after Project Kingfisher. I may try to work on it concurrently with Project Kingfisher, in accordance with my goal of testing some new things in my writing process.
  • I want to rewrite/edit Once Upon a Dream and prep it for publication. I've been meaning to get around to this for a long while, and I think 2025 might be the year. It's already a pretty strong story, if I recall correctly; I just need to expand and adjust a few things. My hope is that I can publish either BDPI #4 or Once Upon a Dream in October or November of this year.
  • I want to write some short stories for anthologies/writing challenges. If there's another DOSA Files anthology, I'll aim to put something out in that — I still have my story for the second anthology that I didn't quite finish, after all. Additionally, there's a yearly short story challenge in October that I've done the last three years, and I'd like to do it again if it runs in 2025. If other opportunities pop up that seem interesting, I may try those too!
  • I want to allow myself to work on just-for-fun writing projects more. This is something I started doing while I was in a break month in the last half of 2024, and I think it's been helpful to have something to work on that doesn't have a deadline, publication plans, or so on — something that's just for me to have fun with. Of course, writing about Bastian Dennel, Ceana and her family, and the Project Kingfisher cast is also fun, and I love working on those stories . . . but it's also nice to have something that's just for me and a friend or two, something that I know doesn't have to be perfect (and that I can work on at times when I might not feel comfortable working on an Official Project).
  • Finally, I want to keep up with my Defenders of Serys D&D campaign. I also want to do some less-complicated plots . . . the last few have all ended up being far more complex than I intended them or needed to make them, and with one exception, I'm not sure if it was worth it. But in any case, I need to get back to the place where working on D&D is actually fun again — it's my main opportunity to see these friends, and I don't want to burn out on it.
• I am not making specific goals about attending author events this year; while I think it was helpful last year, it's not something I'm going to prioritize in 2025. That's not to say it won't happen — at minimum, I hope to do Eat Local, Read Local again — but I'm not making it a major goal.

Reading Goals

• My 2025 reading goal is 93 books. This was a good number for 2024, so I'm going to stick with it.
• I always set a goal about reading a certain number of older books and non-speculative fiction books, and this year is no exception, but I am doing something a little different. For 2025, my goal is to either read 12 books written before 1975, at least nine of which were originally aimed at adults, OR give the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries a fair trial, read at least one Chesterton novel, and read the Brother Cadfael books I currently own and have not previously read. For purposes of being specific, "a fair trial" is here defined as "getting far enough in the series to meet Harriet Vane." While my alternate goal will mean I read a lower number of pre-1975 books than I otherwise would (particularly because Brother Cadfael was written post-1975), I think it will accomplish a similar end result while also clearing some things off my to-read list.
• (I would normally set a goal here about the number of non-speculative-fiction books I want to read; I'm not going to do that this year. I think I am sufficiently in the habit of at least considering non-spec-fic books that I can let it go.)
• Finally, in 2025, I want to either to catch up with Sanderson's Cosmere and Secret Project releases OR try books in three new non-Sanderson epic fantasy series. I intended to catch up on Sanderson in 2024, and it didn't happen, though I did read some. Whichever version of this goal I go for, this would come out to reading either three or four epic-length fantasy books, which I think is reasonable. If I could accomplish both, that would be better still, but we'll see.
• I want to keep tracking what I read, watch, and play. Tracking what I watch has gone fairly well. I may experiment with StoryGraph for tracking what I read in more detail than Goodreads allows, but at least for the first month or two, I'll also be keeping up with a Google form (though I may streamline that form a bit). And I hope to improve my gaming form to provide more useful statistics about what I actually do.

Life Goals

• I need to finish another three grad school classes. I am planning to repeat what I did in 2024 and only doing half a semester in fall, since that's often busy with both book releases and holidays; hopefully that works out well. (I also still need to register for spring classes, oops . . .)
• I want to keep up with learning German and music on Duolingo. This is pretty achievable, and I'll probably do it whether or not I include it on this list, but the same can be said of my goal of reading a certain number of books by the end of the year.
• I want to return to Realm Makers and continue making a point of planning offline get-togethers with friends. These were highlights of 2024 for me, and I want to do more of them. Sometimes the planning part can be frustrating, especially when ideal visit time overlaps with a busy season . . . but getting to see friends in person, not just online, is worth it, and I need to remember that. (Also, I need something that will make me Go Places and Do Things instead of just spending all my time in the same places, doing the same things.)
• I want to try one new recipe, craft/craft technique, or design/photography technique per month. I set a similar goal last year (with my Baking Yesteryear recipes) and in 2022 (when I aimed to learn three new skills in various areas over the course of the year). I think this will give me some good motivation to (once again) try new things while allowing flexibility for months in which I don't have a lot of time to bake but I do have time to craft, or so on.

What were your 2024 highlights? What goals, themes, or resolutions do you have for 2025? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hi all! My brain has been mostly drowned in Christmas preparations (and the bit that's staying afloat is clinging to my and my friend's writing projects for dear life), but winter is here, or will be tomorrow, and that means it's time for a new season of reads.

 

Winter 2024–2025 Reads

1. Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson (December 6). In other years, this might've been my most-anticipated read of the season, and I quite possibly would've already read it (or would be ravenously watching the library listing in hopes that it would come in sooner rather than later). Because I'm kind of behind on Sanderson books, I'm less hyped at the moment, but I am still excited to read this once I'm properly caught up! I have heard mostly good things from the friends who have read it, and I'm looking forward to finding out where the rest of the story goes.

2. Rescuing a Supervillain by H.L. Burke (December 23). In contrast to Wind and Truth, I already have read this one, since I got an early copy from H.L. Burke's recent Kickstarter. This is such a sweet, fun story; I absolutely loved it. Sam (a temporarily-benched superhero) and Bea (a cat-shifter thief trying to escape her former team) are such good characters, and I like their arcs both individually and together. Also! There are cats! Who doesn't love cats?

3. Captive Dance by Kendra E. Ardnek (January 10). This is the sequel to Pumpkin War, but I am much more excited about Captive Dance than I was about its predecessor. Why? Because it's a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling with what sounds suspiciously like an antagonists-to-lovers romance, and I think it's going to be so fun. After all, the Twelve Dancing Princesses is one of my favorite fairy tales, and I'm very much looking forward to seeing what Kendra does with it!

4. The Shapeshifter Drives a Bargain by Claire Trella Hill (February 3). This is another Tales of Karneesia story, a short romantasy from the world of The Erlking's Daughters. This series is a little hit-or-miss for me — some I really enjoy; some I'm a bit meh on. That said, this combination of Beauty and the Beast with Rumplestiltskin sounds interesting; I'm interested to see what Claire has planned for that. Hopefully it'll be good!

5. Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett (February 11). Confession, I still need to read book two in this series . . . but I very much liked book one, and I'm looking forward to seeing our prickly, nerdy scholar friend navigate the challenges of Faerie. Hopefully I'll be caught up with the series by the time this comes out!

What book releases are you excited for this winter? Am I missing any? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

November 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! We are officially in the Christmas season, and 2024 is nearly gone. November and December are always my busy months, and this year looks like it'll be no exception — this past month certainly wasn't. So without further ado, let's dive into November's Doings!

Writing!

• I've mostly been working on more prep for Project Kingfisher this month: developing characters, building the world, and writing backstory snippets to explore character dynamics. This is a different approach than I normally take, but it seems to be working for me, and I hope that it'll have good results. I am definitely enjoying the fact that I gave myself permission to write snippets even if they aren't "necessary" for the story. That's been a lot of fun, and the short pieces are a nice change of pace from novels.
• I have also done a little work on my D&D campaign — not enough to finish this storyline, but enough to keep ahead of the sessions. My group seems to be having fun, though we didn't get to play much this month because of various people having busy schedules.
• That about covers it in this category. Writing has been a bit on the backburner this month, both because I'm in the planning stage on a story and because my time and energy is going elsewhere.

Reading!

• This month was a blend of ARCs and miscellaneous rereads. The highlights of the month were, without a doubt, Valley of Dragons (the final Secrets of Ormdale novel) and A Stab in the Dark (which is not the final Miss Dark's Apparitions novel!). I already reviewed Valley of Dragons, but to recap, I thought this was a splendid ending to the story, and I loved how Baehr brought the story full circle and wrapped up the various character arcs and plot threads. As for A Stab in the Dark, it's full of all the things I loved about the rest of the series, with the added bonus of being a Phantom of the Opera story full of secret passages and murders and ghosts, which is absolutely delightful. I was not as big a fan of the other ARC I read, The Death of Clara Willenheim, as it got really dark in the second half, but I think it just also . . . wasn't my genre.
• Other than that, the main notable reread was H.S.J. Williams's Fairest Son, a genderbent fae Snow White retelling. I honestly liked this one better on the reread than I did the first time around, though I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's because of different expectations? Who knows.
• I wrapped up the month and started December by reading Time Echoes, Interfinity, and Fatal Convergence (currently reading, will probably finish this weekend), which simultaneously are and are not rereads because they're rewritten versions of the Echoes from the Edge series. The new versions are in a different perspective and have some tweaks to prose and description, but the narrative is the same. I think I like them roughly as much as the original; the POV change makes sense, and I still enjoy the story. I don't love them quite as much as I did originally because some aspects now seem very heavy-handed, but they're good all the same.

Watching & Playing!

• My friends and I have made it all the way to Episode 14 of Yona of the Dawn, and I continue to enjoy the show more and more! So far, I have met two of the four dragons, and I am calling it now that the blue dragon will be my favorite of them all. (He falls into the category of "characters who have experienced so much pain and choose to be kind anyway," and I love him.) I also really love Yun, partially because he's fun and partially because he and I are so often on the same page. And, of course, Hak and Yona continue to be excellent characters . . . really, all the character arcs in this show are excellent so far, and I have every confidence that they'll just get better.
• My family also launched into the start of the Christmas season with, of course, Christmas movies! Specifically: The Lemon Drop Kid and White Christmas, as those are the movies that are on both my and my sister's high priority lists. I don't have much to say about them other than the fact that I continue to really enjoy them.
• Aside from that, I continue to enjoy both Star Rail and Genshin. The next Star Rail update dropped this week, and I have therefore spent the last month or so internally screaming for two reasons: for one, we're getting an epilogue to the Penacony storyline; for another, Jing Yuan (aka, the character for whom I started playing the game) is rerunning, and I was not prepared for either of those things. That said, I still got some incredibly lucky pulls (which produced more screaming, but in a delighted way). As for the new story? I'm about halfway through it, maybe a little more, and I'm quite enjoying it. This story brings back two past characters who are both embarking on a new life of sorts, and I like how their arcs have been handled so far. One, a former antagonist, is making a last visit to his homeland to say goodbye and try to make amends, and he is very convincingly (and realistically) regretful. The other was on the verge of death and now has to figure out how to live when she's lost so much of her old life, as well as dealing with the pain and wounds (physical and mental) caused by all she went through. It's really good, and I'm excited to discover the rest of the story.
• Also in Star Rail, I've finally started really exploring different endgame mode challenges, and I've discovered that they're a lot more fun after you understand stuff about team compositions and character builds and when you have a decent number of characters as options. It's very satisfying each time I manage to beat another difficulty level!
• That aside, until this past week, I have actually been playing more Genshin than Star Rail. I wrapped up the Liyue quest (I know what Zhongli's deal is now!) and did some interlude storylines that revealed lots of lore . . . albeit in a way that raised as many questions as it answered. My approach to Genshin lore tends to be a lot like my approach to Cosmere lore: I like discovering it, but I'm not delving into all the theories and digging for tiny details in every corner (though I'll happy listen if someone else wants to share, and sometimes I'll grab onto some aspect or detail that I think is really cool and get a little more into that). I'm just along for the ride, really, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself.

Life!

• While November was, as I said, very busy, most of the busy things weren't exceptionally exciting. Work was full of wrapping up Stewardship, putting together the Advent newsletter, and preparing for Advent itself — which remains my favorite graphics season, but also has the challenge of "how do you put a new spin on this thing for the fourth year in a row." And now we're in Advent, and I'm about to have a very full two weeks as I prepare everything for Christmas before I take some well-earned time off At least I got enough prep done that I'm not too stressed, and holiday services tend to be very similar year-to-year, so I know what to expect. I'm also very pleased with the new church promo piece I put together to distribute at Christmas Eve, which I think turned out wonderfully!
• Grad school is also keeping me plenty busy, though I'm almost done with the current class. Advanced English Grammar continues to be way more technical than what I expected, and it's also a lot of writing down rules to explain things most people know instinctively, which . . . is not my favorite type of subject. It's also clearly aimed more at people planning to teach English than at general-purpose writers. Still, like I said, it's almost over (I submit my final project this weekend and do my final exam next week), and it could have been much worse.
• On a happier note, November brings with it both my birthday and Thanksgiving! We celebrated my birthday with lunch out at my favorite Mexican restaurant and dessert at Bible study; my mom made cheddar apple pie (tasty) and praline pecan pumpkin pie (DELICIOUS). The latter was something I'd wanted to try for a while, and I definitely hope we make it again. It has the best aspects of both pecan pie and pumpkin pie in one dish; what's not to like?
• At Thanksgiving, my sister got to come home for the weekend, which we were all very happy about. On Thanksgiving day, we set up (but didn't decorate) our Christmas tree and, as usual, celebrated with our Bible study group. Then on Black Friday, we decorated the tree — we used to do all the Christmas tree stuff on Friday, but last year we decided that spreading it out worked better and didn't really violate the no-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving rule.
• On the baking front, both November and December began with cake. November opened with an election cake from Baking Yesteryear, which is a kind of bready, fruity cake made in a Bundt pan. It's named as such because people in New England used to serve it on election days, back when those were practically holidays. It was tasty, though I don't plan on making it again. Then in December, I made a chocolate cake with ganache for a coworker's birthday; I had a little trouble getting the ganache to thicken properly, but it tasted delicious.
• In D&D, we wrapped up our mini-campaign that we were playing between sessions. Though it was a short campaign, it was a lot of fun; the DM did a really good job with making the NPCs interesting and complex, and he included a lot of interesting environmental aspects in the combats. For example, one fight was in a hall that had been lit on fire, so we had to deal with the fire and smoke as well as the enemy, and the final fight was in a room that was very tall and vertical, and we had to work our way up to the enemy. It was all really cool (albeit stressful in the moment), and I hope to be able to use some of those concepts in my own DMing in future.
• As for crafting, I'm still working on Christmas presents, and I have made very little progress on my new cape. I have discovered that, until you get down into the 30s and below (and maybe even to some degree in the upper 30s), capes are far superior to coats in some ways — notably, they're more comfortable, less confining, and generally more fun. At the moment, I have two capes that are both about hip-length and aren't cosplay specific, and I've been wearing those a lot. I have to say that doing so makes colder weather much less unpleasant!

December Plans

• Obviously, most of my December plans revolve around Christmas in some fashion, whether that's making Christmas gifts, baking cookies, or celebrating with various people in various ways. One notable thing that's happening this year is that I'm in charge of revamping our Bible study's Christmas play into a dramatic reading (because we're severely lacking in kids to do the play), and that's been an interesting endeavor. I'm also hoping to try a few new cookie recipes, including some from Baking Yesteryear, which should be fun.
• On the grad school front, I have one week left in the current class, and I am so ready to be done. I'm turning in my final project this weekend, and then I just have a few more chapters of reading, a last discussion, and the final exam before I can call this class finished. And while I do need to figure out what I'm doing next, I will take a great deal of pleasure in having a few weeks off.
• I really need to sort out an idea for the DOSA Files anthology; I'm down to three weeks to write, edit, and submit it if I'm going to make it happen. The problem is that work and grad school have taken most of my energy up to this point, and other creative projects are a lot easier to work on. Still, I hope that I'll be able to sit down and put something together once my current class is done. I also plan to continue Project Kingfisher prep with the goal of starting the actual draft either at the end of December or the beginning of January.
• I am taking a good chunk of time off around the holidays, and I'm looking forward to that, both as an opportunity to get some work done on creative projects and as a chance to rest and spend time with family and friends. Of course, it will almost certainly go by way too fast.
• I'll wrap this up with a fun, non-holiday thing I'm looking forward to in December: the start of a new campaign with my D&D group! It's going to be weird to play a whole new character and a very different class — I'm going full spellcaster this time — but I can't wait to find out what our DM has planned for us and see where our characters' stories lead.

How was your November? Any plans for December? Are you ready for Christmas? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Black Friday Book Sale 2024!

 

Hello, all! Happy day-after-Thanksgiving!

As per the usual, I'm here to let you know that all of my books are on sale in ebook form for just $0.99 as part of the Black Friday Book Sale! This sale runs from Black Friday (today, November 24) through Cyber Monday. In it, you'll find literally hundreds of clean and Christian indie reads from authors like Kendra E. Ardnek, Sarah Beran, H.L. Burke, Savannah Jezowski, H.S.J. Williams, myself, and many others. The sale includes free and $0.99 ebooks, as well as some special deals on print and audiobooks. I've put links below that will take you straight to my sale listings, but you can also click here to browse the whole sale.

Blood in the Snow

Mechanical Heart

Through a Shattered Glass

Bastian Dennel, PI:

The Midnight Show

Gilded in Ice

Mask of Scarlet

Daughters of Atirse

Song of the Selkies

Illusion's Reign

Have you checked out the Black Friday sale yet? Which books in it are you eyeing up? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello, friends! Today is release day for the final Secrets of Ormdale novel, Valley of Dragons. I was once again able to get an ARC of this book, and let me tell you, this is such a good conclusion to the series. I may or may not have stayed up until after one in the morning the night I finished it because I got so invested in the story, and that's something I haven't done in a long time. So, obviously, I have to share my thoughts!

Thoughts on Valley of Dragons

1. The story came full-circle in the best possible way. Secrets of Ormdale closes as it opens: with Edith learning something about her family that she never would have imagined, discovering the darkness hiding behind "the way it's always been," and choosing to find ways to push back against that darkness. However, the story still feels as fresh and exciting as it did in book one, and Baehr ties all the plot threads together marvelously.
2. As always, I love the blend of cozy vibes with intrigue and Gothic adventure. While the stakes are as high or higher than they've ever been and Edith and her friends and family still face danger, Baehr maintains a sense of warmth and coziness throughout the story. We still have the love and support between family members and friends; we still have humor to lighten dark moods; we still have kindness on display and confidence that good will win in the end. That coziness doesn't undercut the danger and excitement at any point (again, I read this into the wee hours of the morning because I had to know what happened next), but
3. It's lovely to see how the characters have changed since they were first introduced. As the last book in this series, Valley of Dragons has to wrap up all the character arcs satisfactorily . . . and I'm happy to say that it's not just satisfying; it's downright delightful. All of our favorites have grown so much, and while I'm not going to spoil anything, I will say that the end of this book finds them all flourishing, freed of what once bound them and able to pursue both new dreams and new responsibilities. I especially loved how Baehr worked out the arcs for Edith's cousins and for Simon Drake. They arguably had the most weighing them down and forcing them into particular molds at the story's start, and now we see them becoming who they were always meant to be. And speaking of that . . .
4. Edith and Simon continue to be the best couple. Their feelings may be out in the open now, but that doesn't mean their journey is any less difficult, as they both (but especially Simon) wrestle with the tension between love and duty. Baehr portrays that conflict and dynamic in a very realistic way, and I genuinely wondered how she was going to resolve it. Again, I won't give away any secrets, but I will say that I really liked how it was handled and how the characters dealt with certain related events and discoveries.
5. Even the antagonists are treated with compassion. Aside from the character arcs, this may be one of my favorite things about this book. Over and over again, Baehr and her characters find the balance between compassion and justice — appropriately, as so many of the antagonists in this series are victims of the same lies, traditions, and cycles of pain they've used to hurt others. Where redemption is possible, it's offered and often pursued, and I loved the fact that this made for so many happy endings. But those who refuse still face the full consequences of their actions, and that's equally satisfying.
   

I can hardly believe this series is over . . . but, happily, Baehr has teased that more stories from Ormdale may be on the way! I can hardly wait to find out what comes of that. In the meantime, are you excited to read Valley of Dragons? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello! First up, a quick reminder for my friends in the Northern Virginia area: tomorrow, October 19, I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at Cascades Library! The event runs from 10:00am to 2:00pm and includes loads of local authors, food trucks, live music, and fun. I'll have copies of all or most of my books, including Song of the Selkies and Illusion's Reign available for purchase, and I'll also be signing previously-purchased books if you bring them by. I hope to see you there!

Now, moving on to the actual post topic: while I don't celebrate Halloween (except, occasionally, as an excuse for cosplay), I do very much enjoy the opportunity to indulge in some spookier reads. I've always enjoyed books that have at least a little edge of creepiness, and that's become even more true in the last couple years as I've gotten into some Gothic-inspired (and actually-Gothic) stories. Besides the fact that it can be fun to be scared at times, these stories (the well-written ones, at least) are often astonishingly hopeful, celebrating not death, not the dead, but death's defeat by life. And as we're now solidly in spooky season, now seems like an excellent time for me to recommend some of my favorites.

Spooky Season Reads

Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud. This series has pretty much everything you could ask for in a spooky season story: truly terrifying ghosts, dangerous mysteries, secrets, people tampering with that which man should not, and a conclusion that affirms life's triumph over death. As a bonus, we have truly excellent characters (and character development), humor to keep the darkness from becoming overpowering, and an equal balance of friendships and romance. Also, while this is a mainline-published series, the themes and conclusion make it an astonishingly Christian in the best way.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. This list has to include at least one of the classics, and no one should be surprised at which one I chose. My enjoyment of Dracula is well-established by now — I love the characters, the creeping terror and slow-growing realization of wrongness, the sacrificial love displayed by so many of the heroes . . . it's just so good. Granted, I firmly believe that the best way to read this book is the Dracula Daily method (or the Re: Dracula method if you prefer your books in audio form), but reading the whole thing at once is also a good option.

Black and Deep Desires by Claire Trella Hill. This is probably my overall favorite book on the list, and the only reason it's not at the top is because Lockwood & Co and Dracula have more of what I like about spooky season reads specifically. However, Black and Deep Desires is delightfully creepy and Gothic, full of crumbling houses, monsters, mysteries, midnight ventures through secret passages, haunting dreams, and so forth — plus a story of love, friendship, and healing from trauma and abuse, plus a stubborn, bookish, Shakespeare-quoting vampire. It's a delight, and I'm currently planning to reread it as soon as I finish my current read.

The Abhorsen original trilogy by Garth Nix. I am disregarding everything except the original three in this recommendation — the other books are fine, but the first three are the best. (And the first book is my personal favorite, though some of my friends prefer the second book . . . I digress.) These don't have quite as much of a creepy edge as some of the others on this list, despite being basically a zombie story in a fantasy setting, but the storyworld and the themes still make them a good choice for a spooky season read.

 

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. This book shares some similarities with the Abhorsen books, especially Sabriel in terms of the world and magic system, which is delightfully spooky and dangerous. It doesn't go quite as hard on my favorite themes of this season, but it's still a good ghostly read.

Do you enjoy Gothic or spooky reads? What are your favorites? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello everyone! You may remember me raving about H.S.J. Williams's wonderful novel Moonscript when it released a few years ago. You may also recall that the sequel to Moonscript, Collusion, finally came out just over a week and a half ago — and that I was absolutely hyped about it. I was so excited, in fact, that I started reading it the very day I got my paperback (putting a Sanderson novel on pause, which I very rarely do), and now I'm here to tell y'all that it is so, so good and y'all need to read it. Well, if you haven't read Moonscript, you should read that first . . . but then you should read Collusion (and, naturally, I'm about to tell you why).

You NEED to Read Collusion

1. The characters are excellent — especially Errance. I raved about this in Moonscript, and I will rave about it here too. Collusion holds so many amazing characters, and even the minor ones shine. However, Errance is the best of them all. He's still healing from all he went through in the first book, and Williams handles that trauma well . . . but at the same time, for all his doubts and fears, all the points where he's broken, he's also courageous and loving and determined to take care of his own, and he holds to what is true even when he's struggling in his faith. I love him so much, and I loved seeing his growth over the course of this book. That said, Errance isn't the only star here. I still love brave, resilient, loving Tryss (and I maintain that we would be excellent friends were she real). And, of course, Coren is absolutely my favorite character after Errance — still as clever and as much of a schemer and talker as ever, and still using his cleverness (and his wisdom!) for the good of others.
2. The antagonists are wonderfully complex. One of the biggest changes from Collusion to Moonscript is the nature of the antagonists. Both have excellent villains, but where Moonscript gave us the utterly evil and terrifying Voice of the Darkness, Collusion's villains are a bit more human, a bit more tangled, and a bit more like people you'd see in our own world. They're just as well characterized as the more heroic figures, and at various points, I found myself wanting to stab them for what they'd done and desperately hoping they might get a redemption arc (if not in this book, in a future one). I can't say more without spoilers, but I think you get the idea.
3. There are so many actually-married couples.  I've been saying for at least a few years now how much I want to see (and like to see) stories that don't stop just because the main couple got married. Wonderfully, Williams has given me (and like-minded readers) exactly what we wanted. Most of the major couples we met in Moonscript are now married, either with kids or thinking about kids, but that doesn't stop them from having adventures and being amazing. In fact, those relationships are, in multiple cases, where they find the support and encouragement they need to keep going on the right path and to be who they're meant to be — and I absolutely love to see it. And, on a related note . . .
4. Family is front and center. Y'all know that family-centric books are like catnip to me, and we see so many different family relationships highlighted here. Errance and Tryss are looking towards parenthood and figuring out what challenges that might hold (with Errance, naturally, worrying about how to be a good father when he's so broken), and we also have Leoren being an Awesome Elf Dad (I would say "best elf dad" but there are too many people in the running for that role for me to actually pick). Errance and Tellie have maintained a sibling-ish relationship even as they've grown, which is lovely to see. The best of the family relationships, though, is Errance and Coren, who spend a lot of the book in each others' company and have some amazing interactions. They make me very happy.
5. The story takes on dark topics without losing sight of the light. I've already touched on Errance's trauma, and I will say again that Williams handles that very well. A lifetime of pain and suffering will take its toll, and many of the internal scars Errance bears have yet to fade. However, healing is still possible, and we see that again and again through this book. On a broader view, Collusion deals with many societal evils, ones that plague our world as well as the storyworld, notably issues of trafficking and sexual slavery. Williams doesn't shy away from the darkness of these issues or the complexity of solving them, but she also handles them tastefully and makes sure to keep hope in sight. Again and again, this story reminds us that whether we're dealing with a broken heart or a broken world, that which is shattered may yet be mended by the One who made all things.
   

Have you read Collusion yet, or is it on your to-read list? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

September 2024 Doings!

Hello, all! I will be honest; after a month of a really weird blog schedule, I completely forgot that Doings! was a thing until about two days ago. (The fact that this past week of work has been really chaotic and busy did not help matters.) Thank goodness I remembered Wednesday morning instead of Wednesday night so I could still get this out on time!

Also, just as a quick heads-up for those in the Northern Virginia area: my books and I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at the Cascades Library in Potomac Falls on Saturday, October 19, 11:00–2:00. The event will also include many other authors, food, and live music, so come stop by, check out the tables, pick up some new books, or just say hi! I hope I'll get to see you there!

Writing!

• In case you missed it: Illusion's Reign officially released on September 27 and is available for purchase on Amazon in both ebook and paperback forms.  Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful reception you gave this book — all the excitement and encouragement was such a joy! I've seen a few early reviews and a few people saying that they're reading and enjoying the book currently, which is also delightful.
• Just as a reminder, if you didn't preorder the book but you were thinking of buying the Kindle edition, make sure you do that soon! The ebook price will rise from $2.99 to $3.99 next week.
• Most of my writing-related work this month was, of course, on Illusion's Reign: proofreading, formatting, and putting together promo stuff for it and the other Lost Kerchiefs stories. All that went very smoothly, though, with the exception of some delays on blog tour materials, so it was a surprisingly calm release month. I will say that I was very glad to be done with the final round of proofreading, though.
• Also writing-related: September was, of course, Silmaril Awards month! I hosted the Silver Tongues category this year, and I was very pleased that someone I've spent years rooting for took home the Silmaril! If you missed the Awards, you can still find links to all the ceremonies on the official website. I highly recommend checking them out! (On a side note, Athelas from City Between has cameos or actual finalist appearances in so many of the awards ceremonies this year, and that delights me to no end.)
• Additionally, in case anyone missed it, Song of the Selkies and I were featured on Tricia Goyer's Avid Readers of Christian Fiction blog and podcast! Go check those out if you haven't already; I really enjoyed getting to chat with Tricia about my writing journey and my books.
• As for D&D writing for my campaign . . . I admit to slacking a bit on that front. I also admit to once again underestimating the complexity of what I decided to do. Still, I am making progress in bits and pieces, and as long as I'm maintaining a buffer, I'm fine.
• I've also been doing some writing on a side project, but that is entirely for fun. Basically, it's an opportunity to recharge with a story that I know won't be published and that doesn't have deadlines, so I can keep in the writing habit without the pressure of an "official" project. (That's not to say anything negative about my published books; I love working on those too. But I've learned too that sometimes it's nice to write something that's just for me.)

Reading!

• This was another slightly lighter reading month (two of those seven books pictured are short stories), but it included lots of excellent stories! I can hardly pick a favorite!
• Splintered Mind was probably my most highly-anticipated read of the month, and it was every bit as excellent as I hoped it would be. Seeing a different side of Between and Behind was fun, and I also liked the new lead character. Viv is decidedly, determinedly normal, and she is much more reluctant to embrace the new, mad world she's been pulled into than certain previous protagonists — but I can't blame her. Plus, she's also caring and practical and Doing Her Best, and her new perspective gives this book a very different vibe than the previous books in this world. (Also, because Viv is coming into this cold, this is an excellent starting point if you want to give the Between and Behind books a try but are intimidated by the ten-book commitment of City Between!)
• Another world I enjoyed revisiting was H.S.J. Williams's Aselvia! I reread Moonscript and read Crown of Sand and Sea in preparation for Collusion's release, and both of those were excellent. Hannah is magnificent at balancing heartbreak and hope, facing the darkness without succumbing to it. I've said before that her books remind me of Goldstone Wood, and I stand by that now. (On a related note, I'm currently reading Collusion, her latest release, and it is excellent.)
• On the shorter side, we have Claire Trella Hill's Come by Water and Aeronwy's Stolen Child. Come by Water was a cool take on Tam Lin, and Claire does a good job at deciding what to show from the original myth and what to leave out. It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still a good read. Aeronwy's Stolen Child, on the other hand, is definitely in my top three favorites of Claire's works! It's such a clever reimagining of a changeling story, one in which the faery child might not have been so willingly given and a faery mother is desperate to get her baby back. I absolutely loved it!
• Moving on, I read the first Artemis Fowl book as research for my Silmaril Awards ceremony. I almost got into this series at one point when I was much younger . . . and, to be honest, I am not upset to have missed it. To be clear, the author does some interesting things with worldbuilding, the story is exciting, and Artemis is an interesting character, so I see why the series is so popular, but I did not vibe with it.
• Wrapping up this month, I finally finished reading Moby Dick via the Whale Weekly Substack! It was . . . definitely something. I admit that, even in email form, I was definitely skimming a lot by the end. This falls solidly into the category of "I'm glad I read it, but I sure hope I don't have to do it again."

 Watching & Playing!

• I am actually caught up on Star Rail main story content, and it is the weirdest feeling. What do you mean, there's not another big story mission for me to do? What do you mean, I just have to sit here and wait for months to find out what happens next? That can't be right, can it? (It is, apparently.)
• So, yeah. I finished the Penacony story and jumped straight into the Wardance, and storms was that intense and amazing. I finished the first part about three days before part two dropped, and the agony of that cliffhanger — I don't know how people who had to wait the full time didn't go crazy. But that whole storyline was amazingly well done. I loved the new characters, and I also loved the way many established characters' arcs continued, both in the main story and the event quests. The Xianghou continues to have some of my favorite characters and my favorite storylines; it's just the best.
• And now I'm just waiting for the next update to drop . . .
• Or, rather, I would be just waiting, except that my friends who got me into Star Rail talked me into starting Genshin Impact. Which, to be fair, I planned to do eventually, but they were very persuasive in getting me to move that timeline up. And by "very persuasive," I mean that they filled our group chat with pictures and discussions of all the cool characters in Genshin, and they also pointed out that a character they thought I would love (both as a character and in terms of gameplay) was going to be available to pull fairly soon. And given that it probably was going to be the best time for me to start a new game for a while (in that I was entering the gap between Illusion's Reign being done and my next grad school class starting) . . . I really couldn't argue with them.
• So, yes, I'm playing Genshin now. It is going very slowly (I just finished Act II of the prologue), and I am still very bad at the combat (I keep forgetting to switch characters and shield), but I'm having fun! The storyline is interesting, and I like the characters I've met so far. The fact that the main story quests are level-locked is a little frustrating to me, but from a gameplay and game design perspective, it makes sense. And it probably isn't a bad thing that I have to wait a little to find out what happens next . . . After all, patience is a virtue.

 Life!

• September started with a Bible study retreat up at White Sulphur Springs. This was, again, a joint retreat between our study in Virginia and another study group in Ohio that my sister and many of our friends attend. Getting to spend time in one of my favorite places in the world with some of my favorite people in the world was absolutely lovely, as always! We played board games, went up to the shooting range, explored the small town near the retreat center, did square dancing, and just spent a lot of time hanging out and talking. I also got to do a lot of just-for-fun writing on the porch with a gorgeous view of the mountains (which are beautiful no matter the weather). Saturday also came with a magnificent thunderstorm . . . which did put a damper (pun intended) on a lot of outdoor activities and briefly knocked out the power, but I still enjoyed it.
• The retreat was a nice break, which was good, since the rest of September was pretty busy. Besides book releases and Silmaril Awards, I had a lot to do at work to get ready for our Stewardship campaign and start of fall programming. Granted, a lot of it was in the vein of "hurry up and wait" because I'd get my part done, then have to wait for the relevant person to review what I'd done or give me more information . . . but that describes many of my busy seasons, to be honest.
• D&D was pretty eventful this month. I mentioned back in my August Doings that we'd reached the climax of the campaign and had played the first stage of the final confrontation with the villain. This month, we had the rest of that confrontation, battling the antagonist himself (not just his armies). That was every bit as epic as I expected. Our DM did an amazing job with the setup of the fight, both narratively and mechanically, and everyone had their moment to shine in the battle and in the aftermath. After that, we had one more session as an epilogue to wrap up our characters' stories and figure out what they're doing now that their adventure is over. That was also lovely — bittersweet in that we were saying goodbye, but more sweet than bitter. Pretty much everyone got a happy ending, one way or another, and so I am more than satisfied.
• I'm also looking forward to our next campaign, though right now we're doing a mini-adventure DMed by one of the other players in the group. I'm playing the sister of my main campaign character, who is rather different from both her and me personality-wise, so that's been interesting. She's also a paladin/sorcerer multiclass, which means combat is a lot more complicated than it was previously. She's fun, though, and I'm enjoying this new story and the other player's DM style.
• We wrapped up the month with another Bible study event, specifically a campfire get-together. Getting to see people there outside of the study, and I successfully made a mountain pie without either burning or underheating it, so yay for that.
• That covers pretty much everything — this September was a lot more chill than a lot of others have been, and I am grateful for that.

October Plans

• The big thing for October is the start of a new grad school class — my extended summer-and-early-fall break has come to an end, and it's time to get back to work. I admit that I'm not excited, but hopefully it won't be too bad either. This class is on advanced English grammar, so I suspect that either it's going to be chill or it's going to be really technical and frustrating. We'll find out which in a couple weeks!
• I plan to spend most of October working on shorter stories for anthologies and writing challenges rather than jumping back in on another Bastian Dennel book. However, there is the chance that will change depending on my mood and inspiration. I do know that I want to write something for the next DOSA Files anthology, though, and it would be good to do that before I start another novel.
• As mentioned earlier, I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at the Cascades Library in Potomac Falls on Saturday, October 19, 11:00–2:00! As long as nothing goes wrong, I should have paperback copies of Illusion's Reign there, as well as most of my other books. If you're in the area, I'd love for you to come say hello!
• Since I didn't end up going to the Renaissance Faire in September, I'm hoping to make it to one in October instead — ideally with a friend, but I'll go alone if I have to. Scheduling that has been a pain so far, though, so we'll see what happens.
• Aside from those things, I expect October will be business as usual. I hope so, anyway.

How was your September? Any plans for October? What's the best for-fun decision you've been talked into by someone else? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!