December 2024 Doings!

Hello, all! Yes, we are doing two posts in one week, but I didn't want to drag out 2024 wrapup too long. So, next week will have my reading roundups for 2024, and this week, let's take a look at December's Doings!

Writing!

• Writing in December did not go as planned, by which I mean that it hardly went at all. The first half of the month, all my energy was consumed by my grad school class; the second half of the month, all my energy was consumed by work and Christmas.
• I did get a little writing done, but most of it was snippets of either Project Kingfisher character backstory or just-for-fun stuff. I managed a little bit more worldbuilding planning for Project Kingfisher, but not enough to start the book. I also started my DOSA Files story, but not in time to finish it before the deadline. (I do want to keep working on it, though, in hopes that Heidi does another anthology.)
• D&D writing has basically not happened at all; however, D&D sessions also haven't happened, so that's not a problem. Yet.
• I really should not plan on writing during the holidays, and I don't know why I deluded myself into thinking it would happen.

Reading!

• Reading, unlike writing, continued to go well in December and featured the usual mix of holiday-specific and non-holiday-specific reads. On the holiday side, we have three delightful rereads: A Superhero for Christmas, Christmas in Talesend, and my Christmas Eve treat, Twelve Days of Faerie Christmas. All of these were delightful, but Twelve Days was especially so.
• In non-holidays reads, I finished the Time Echoes trilogy by reading Fatal Convergence, which surprised me by having some substantial differences from the original version. To be honest, I'm not sure I love the changes — I can see why the Davis made those choices, and they still make for a good story, but I liked the way things originally happened too.
• On the other hand, two books I liked with no qualifications were What Comes of Attending the Commoners' Ball and Rescuing a Supervillain, both of which were absolutely delightful. Commoners' Ball was already on my to-read list, but it got bumped up in priority after multiple authors and the entirety of the W.R. Gingell Discord fan server raved about it. I'm so glad I read it; it's such a fun romp with two excellent, practical protagonists whose lives get upended by others' promises. Rescuing a Supervillain, on the other hand, is the latest of H.L. Burke's Superhero Romance Project series, featuring a cat-shifter thief on the run and a hero who's working through some trauma, and it's just such a sweet story of love and healing. I absolutely recommend it.
• My one other new read was Dogsbody, a Diana Wynne Jones book that had been on my to-read list for some time. That one was ok — it's a cool concept, and I liked the worldbuilding, but it's not my favorite DWJ by a long shot. I'm glad I finally read it, but I don't think I'll reread it particularly soon.

Watching & Playing!

• Amazingly, my friends and I managed to actually finish watching Yona of the Dawn before the end of 2024! I think that's the fastest I've gotten through any show since freshman year of college, honestly. (We haven't watched the untranslated extra episodes, but we're through the main show.)
• Overall, I really enjoyed watching Yona — the characters are excellent in terms of how they're portrayed, how they grow over the course of the story, and how their dynamics with one another play out. I'm particularly impressed with Yona's arc specifically and with the villain, who could so easily be a hero who I'd root for and even fangirl over were the story told from a different perspective.
• I do have to correct my prediction of last month, however, because Jaeha is absolutely, positively, without a doubt, my favorite of the dragons (and possibly also my favorite character in general). He appeared onscreen, and my immediate, out-loud reaction was "Oh, I like him." I don't think anyone should be surprised by that, though; he's very similar to some of my other favorite characters, and he's just fun in terms of personality. (And a little scandalous, yes. But that also describes some of my favorite characters.) Shin-Ah, the blue dragon, remains my second-favorite dragon, and I also still love Yun, Hak, and Yona herself . . . there's a lot of good characters; I'm going to have to read the manga so I don't have to say goodbye to them!
• I also watched some Christmas movies, but not as many as usual. Rewatches were A Christmas Carol, the original Grinch, and Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown; the one new Christmas movie I watched was We're No Angels, which was funny, but not a new favorite.
• Other than that, I have been playing some Star Rail and quite a bit of Genshin! That said, most of my Genshin time has been in service of building characters, as I finally got to pull on the limited banners (after saving for one in particular since I started the game), got some very good new characters (including the one I was specifically hoping for and several others I really wanted!), and then realized that I had virtually nothing with which to get them up to the level of the characters I already had (whoops). That's still been fun — I've done a lot of exploring, which has been nice — but I'm looking forward to getting back to story soon.

 Life!

• The dominant themes for December were, unsurprisingly, Christmas and my grad school class.
• Advent and Christmas materials — and the need to work ahead because I was taking time off around Christmas — kept me very busy at work. We had a few unexpected hiccups (including some communication problems and issues with deadlines, neither of which were my fault), but everything got done on time, and pretty much everything turned out quite well. I'm very pleased with the promo piece I made to hand out at the Christmas Eve services, and I also really like the overall Advent/Christmas visual theme I had this year!
• Wrapping up my grad school class also went fairly well; I was a bit stressed about whether or not my final project would actually fit what the professor was expecting, but thankfully, he liked my analysis. The final exam also went reasonably well . . . especially considering that some of the questions had to do with parts of the book that we were never assigned in class. (Thankfully, the exam was open-book, and I knew the rest of the material well enough that I had time to hastily find the info on the unfamiliar topics.)
• In the middle of all that, my D&D group started our new campaign! We've only had two sessions so far, but it's been fun. I think the new characters have some interesting dynamics, and I look forward to seeing where the storyline goes. I am happy with my character, Breena, a gnome warlock, so far — while I haven't gotten to test out many of her abilities, as a character I think she's fun.
  
• The payoff for all my stress earlier in the month was that I took the week of Christmas and most of the week of New Year's off from work, which was lovely, albeit busier than I intended it to be. I did quite a bit of baking and made two new recipes: pecan dainties, which are basically candied pecans in cookie form, and potato candy, which is a rolled candy made with peanut butter, a little bit of mashed potato, and quite a lot of powdered sugar. It is delicious, and I want to make it again (and try to do it better next time; I think I used too much peanut butter). I also tried a new sourdough roll recipe for Christmas day, one that allows for an overnight rise (which meant I could make the rolls Christmas Eve and bake them Christmas day).
• My sister came home for Christmas week, and getting to see her was lovely. We got to hang out, chat, and play plenty of board games, both on our own and with various friends (either over the internet or in person). We also visited my grandpa briefly the weekend after Christmas, which was nice — I haven't been up to see him in several months.
• As for Christmas itself, we had a very nice holiday. Our church had its Christmas Eve service on both Sunday and Christmas Eve proper, so we actually went to the church where I work on Christmas Eve. It was quite lovely to experience that service for myself and for my family to see where I work and some of what I've done and meet several of the people I work with. Then we had a fairly chill Christmas day in which we didn't get around to actually opening gifts until almost noon . . . which, to be honest, is pretty in character for us. People seemed to like what I gave them, which was good, and I got some gifts I'm pretty happy about. We ended up with an accidental theme of everyone but my dad receiving kitchen stuff in their stocking, which was funny.
• And, of course, we finished up the year by celebrating New Year's Eve with our Bible study. As always, that was a fun time; I loved getting to see some people who've left the area but are back for the holidays, and there was plenty of good food and conversation.
• Then we took the Christmas tree down on January 1, and the holidays are officially over. After all that, going back to work on January 2 was . . . rough. Hopefully next week will be better.

January Plans

• January should return us to the usual routine — work, grad school, and writing. I'm hoping that work will quiet down in the next couple months after the hecticness of Stewardship and holidays, but there have also been rumors of trying to change things with the livestream, so we'll see what happens.
• I have accidentally left grad school registration for this semester until the very last minute (in my defense, I thought I had another week), so I don't know for sure which class I'll be taking next — I have a required class that will probably be difficult and frustrating, though it may also be occasionally interesting, and I have an elective that should be pretty chill but I'm not especially excited about, and I'm not sure (as of writing this post) which one I'm doing first and which I'm doing second.
• As for writing: I plan to use most of January for continued planning on Project Kingfisher, additional work on my unfinished DOSA Files story (in hopes that I can have it ready and waiting if there's another opportunity), and D&D writing (since we will hopefully be getting back to regular sessions soon). If the timing works out, I'll also start drafting Project Kingfisher this month — though it might be the very end of the month. Additionally, as I mentioned in my last post, I will be wrapping things up on Dreams and Dragons so I can retire that blog.
• I talked about my reading goals in my 2024 recap/2025 goals post, and I hope to get a good start on those in January. I have a stack of Peter Wimsey library books that need to be read, so that might be a good place to start . . . Plus I intend to start reading the Yona manga where the anime left off.
• And, of course, I am very excited for the start of a new storyline in Star Rail! This one sounds like it's going to be absolutely epic. (It also sounds like it will potentially tear my heart out and rip it into pieces with feels, but y'know. Isn't that what a lot of great stories do?)

How was your December? Any plans for January? Did you make any resolutions or goals for the new year? If you did Christmas baking/sweet-making, what was your favorite thing you made? 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!

February 2023 Doings!

February is over at last — thank goodness. February is rarely as bad a month as I think it'll be, but it's also never the best month, and I tend to be generally more tired and irritable during this month than most of the rest of the year, even when I actively work to get rest and keep a good attitude. But! February is over, spring begins this month, and I am actively ignoring my sister's predictions that we'll have a cold snap and possibly snow in the next month or two.

Writing!

• This has been a pretty productive writing month! I spent most of my writing time working on my semi-secret selkie story, which has a current wordcount of about 25K and a good bit of story left to go. I mentioned this project in my recent Taleweaver's Desk post, but if you missed that: the semi-secret selkie story is a roles-reversed Little Mermaid story, but, you know, with selkies instead of mermaids because selkies are infinitely cooler and I've loved them ever since I was eight-ish and discovered their existence in one of the Magic Treehouse books. And now I get to write about them! It's delightful.
• My other main writing project was, of course, my D&D campaign. I didn't get as much done on this one as I wanted, since other things ended up taking up a lot of time, but I was able to have this month's sessions prepped on time, plus one more session's worth of material that I thought I'd use but ended up not needing.
• The other reason I didn't do more D&D prep is that the party is about to hit Pelennor Fields . . . which means that we're also at one of the two points where the incident that started this whole LOTR adventure (the party preventing Boromir's death and Merry and Pippin's capture) has a greater impact on how the story goes. So I've been trying to work out what's going on with Gondor, specifically with Denethor and Faramir, since Boromir's still alive. It's been an interesting thing to think through, to be sure.

Reading!

• So, remember how I decided to read the entire City Between series back in January? Yeah. I stand by that as an excellent decision, but it did result in two more questionable corollary decisions . . .
• The first of those decisions was following City Between up with Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. Neverwhere is also a good book, but as a chaser for W.R. Gingell's magnificent series, well . . . it pales a bit. The quality of writing and language is technically a bit better, but the themes of City Between are, I think, superior — and as main characters go, Pet is decidedly preferable to Richard.
• The second questionable decision was not so much a willful choice as a series of non-decisions, which is to say that I left off reading On Earth As It Is in Hell until kind of the last minute. I posted my review of the book a couple weeks ago, so I won't rehash those here, but in general, I thought it was a good conclusion to the series, and I enjoyed the fact that it was very family-centric, though there were a couple things I thought could have been done better.
• Besides On Earth As It Is in Hell, I also checked a few more new releases off my to-be-read list! I started A Whisker Behind, the first City Between spinoff, on the very day it released, and I very much enjoyed it. Athelas is one of my top three favorite characters from the original series, so I was pleased to see him again and to get back to the world of Between and Behind. The vibe of the story with him at the helm is rather different than the vibe of City Between, but not at all in a bad way.
• In addition, I read Moira's Pen, a book of short stories from the world of The Queen's Thief, and Mysteries of Thorn Manor, a sequel novella to Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson. Both were excellent; Moira's Pen had more new stories than I expected, and Thorn Manor was just a lot of fun. I love Nathaniel and Elizabeth's dynamic, and now I kind of want to reread Sorcery. Not that I have time for that . . .
• My final new read of the month was How to Be a Good Creature by Sy Montgomery. This was my sole Blind Date read for the month — by the time I got to my library, the selection of blind date books was a bit abysmal, and every single one of the speculative fiction reads remaining had either "horror" or "LBGTQ+" as a defining characteristic, or else was something that I could easily identify as a book I'd read and didn't care to reread at the moment. So, I fell back on "Memoir, Animals, Nature, Science." The resulting book was an enjoyable read and reasonably light. I don't think it's something I'd revisit over and over again, but I'd probably consider rereading it in the future if I came across it again.
• Finally, we have the rereads. I've been rereading The Fellowship of the Ring via email subscription since last September, and that finished at the end of February. I also reread The Last Battle because I didn't get to it last summer and I was, at the time, extremely stressed and in need of something familiar and comforting. I know, one would not think that the end of a world would be comforting, but as it turns out, a reminder that all will one day be set right is, in fact, extremely helpful when one is stressed. Also, it's Narnia.
• Oh, and I reread Blood in the Snow because I wanted to remind myself of how particular bits went. It was enjoyable, and I was pleased to find that I still enjoyed it. Alas that I cannot get back to actually writing in that world for a while yet . . .

Watching!

• I said at the start of the year that I wanted to start doing a better job of tracking what I was watching, in the same way that I was tracking what I was reading with a Google Form, and I feel like it's been helpful. If nothing else, I have a useful record that I can go back and look at without just having to guess.
• Not that I've had much to track, of course. Just a couple more episodes of Leverage Season 2, specifically "The Tap-Out Job" and "The Order 23 Job," both of which I really enjoyed. "The Tap-Out Job" was very Eliot-centric, and Eliot is high-key my favorite character in the show. And then "The Order 23 Job" was just exciting and twisty and had a brilliant con and so much going on that all came together brilliantly in the end . . . and also an Eliot subplot that made me quite happy. It was great.

 Life!

• For being the shortest month of the year, February is awfully long. You know what I mean?
• Work this month was very busy — you would think that not much would happen in February, since it's usually cold and grey, but there were actually a fair number of projects and events. The month started with the Lenten newsletter — a project that I enjoy, but which takes a good bit of time — and ended with rapidly designing branding for a new workshop series so we could start promoting it on time. And in between were Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent . . . which is a two-service, two-bulletin week that happened to also fall on a short week. And I didn't actually realize this until near the end of the week before, which meant that I didn't work ahead as much as I should have. So, yeah. That was stressful.
• This month was also the start of the Big Thing I’m Not Talking About Yet . . . which I'm sort of talking about now but am still not going to properly name because I've had one good week in it (the week of Valentine's Day), one flat-out awful, actual-tears-and-crisis-of-identity-and-self-worth week (the week of Ash Wednesday), and one week that's been half neutral and half emotional remnants from the bad week. So, I'm going to wait one more month, and in my March Doings I will either give proper details on what's up (because the bad week turned out to be a fluke) or inform y'all that it is a Thing Which Shall No More Be Spoken Of (because the bad week was the standard and what I am going to get out of it is not worth multiple years of dealing with . . . that).
• On a more cheerful note, I finally acquired a treadmill desk! I mentioned towards the start of the year that I wanted to find ways to exercise while doing other things that aren't just watching shows, which mainly means writing/blogging/browsing the internet, and the most effective way to do that seemed to be acquiring a desk attachment for the treadmill. I've used it on and off since getting it, and I'm pretty happy with it. I haven't tried novel-writing while walking yet, but I've written other things with a fair bit of success. I don't think I could edit or do anything polished — not until I'm more practiced, at least — but for drafting, it works quite well.
• I also got a new desk chair, which is very exciting — seriously, it is. I've spent most of my life using either spare dining room chairs or, most recently, my mom's old desk chair, and they all worked, but they tended to be lacking in the area of back support. And then last month, a review program I'm in had a really nice desk chair available for request, so I snatched it up, and it is so comfy. It reclines, y'all. So when I've been sitting long enough that my back is starting to hurt, I can take my hands off the keyboard and lean back, and it's so nice. Of course, it also has proper back support, so that helps.
• What else? We did get snow on the first day of the month, but only briefly, and not enough for many, if any, schools to cancel — which, given our area, shows just how little it was. If that's the only snow we get, I will not complain. (On the other hand, if we do get more snow, I'd like just enough that I get a day off of work, please and thank you very much.)
• Oh! I did more embroidery! February is National Embroidery Month, so I decided to try my hand at embroidering script, since I want to eventually create some pieces using song lyrics and book references. The pattern I used is neither a song lyric nor a book reference, however, because I wanted to make sure my first attempt was with something that an expert had already tested and knew could turn out well. I'm pleased with the end result (pictured at the start of this section); I just have to wash out the stabilizer and figure out what I want to do with it now. I'm hoping to do something that can be hung or displayed, but I'm not sure I left quite enough on the edges to keep in a hoop long-term. I'll figure something out, though.

March Plans

• March is shaping up to be another busy month, that much is certain.
• On the upside, my sister will be home for part of it! Only for a week — for spring break — but I'm excited to see her again.
• I would like to finish the Semi-Secret Selkie Project in March; at the very least, I need to be mostly done with it by the end of the month. It's kind of looking like it might be longer than I originally intended it to be. (Whoops . . .) And, of course, I'll still have D&D writing to do.
• Work will also be busy because Easter is coming, and that always has a host of associated events and activities. It should be less stressful than last year, though, since I won't have fourteen banners and a devotional book to design and either make or order! (That's not a complaint; it was an exciting project, and I liked getting to apply my book design skills. But it was a lot at times.)
• On the reading front, the second Miss Dark book is coming soon, and I'm on the list for an ARC — very excited for that! Otherwise, I'll either continue playing catch up or get distracted by rereading Lockwood & Co because half my internet social circles are talking about the new show and, in so doing, both rousing my curiosity and making me miss the characters. I don't have Netflix (and also don't have time to add ANOTHER show), so rereading the books may be my best option. Oh, and I acquired more Brother Cadfael Chronicles, so I may read some of those. We'll see.
• That should be everything worth mentioning. I have some other plans regarding baking and a few thoughts about what craft project I want to work on, and, of course, the Big Thing continues, but this post is long enough as it is, so I'll leave things where they are.

How was your February? Anything you're looking forward to in March? Are you ready for spring? Have you ever had the experience of enjoying a book less (or more) than usual because of what you read directly before it? Do you think The Last Battle can be a comfort read? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, all! If you've been following Bryan Davis's Oculus Gate series, you may already be aware that the final book, On Earth As It Is in Hell, released this month. This series has been such a wild ride, and I'm sure plenty of people were eagerly waiting to see how it would all wrap up. I'm here to provide my thoughts on the story and its ending — and, if anyone is on the fence about picking it up, to hopefully nudge you one way or the other. Of course, if you've already made up your mind, you can go order it on Amazon or add it to your Goodreads shelves.

Thoughts About On Earth As It Is in Hell

1. This is a story with family at its core. That's the case with most of Davis's books, which I think is a big reason why I enjoy them. It's especially true of this one, where father-daughter relationships (or, more loosely, parent-child ones) really form the heart of the story and drive the narrative. We have Leo and Ben both putting everything on the line to protect and guide Iona, as they have many times before, and we have Iona grappling with her relationship with the man who raised her and some revelations about the kind of person he was. It all comes together into a really excellent theme.
2. This one definitely feels darker than the others in the series. I think it's because, rather than dealing with a single villain or even single group of villains, a lot of this book is confronting the sin and darkness present in the world as a whole, including human trafficking, abortion, and various forms of abuse, both overt and more subtle. As usual, Davis handles the topics well, but he also doesn't shy away from showing these tragedies or their effects, which means this may be a hard book to read at times — though it's certainly worth reading if you can handle it.
3. I really want to go back and reread/finish reading the Reapers trilogy. I never actually finished reading the Reapers trilogy due to it coming out while I was at Cedarville and was therefore falling behind on 90% of new releases (plus the fact that I didn't love the first book as much as some Davis books, and therefore had lower motivation to read the rest of the trilogy instead of reading other new books that I was more excited about). But reading the Oculus Gate series, especially this one and Heaven Came Down, make me want to fix that — not because I'm confused for lack of knowledge, but because the stuff being drawn from that series strikes me as cool and means I'm more interested in going back to it. (The series also makes me want to reread Time Echoes, but that's pretty much normal regardless of what I've been reading lately.)
4. As with Heaven Came Down, this is probably best enjoyed if you reread the rest of the Oculus Gate books before you read this one. Had I been a bit smarter, I would have remembered that and refreshed my memory just so I didn't end up scrambling in some cases to remember the significance of particular things that happen or are referenced. These books are so packed with twists, turns, and everything happening all at once that sometimes things get lost. It's still enjoyable even if you don't have time to go back and revisit the rest of the series, though, so don't let that stop you from picking it up.
5. I do think that the denouement could have used a little more breathing room so that certain things didn't feel quite so convenient. This may be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, and there were definitely some elements of the story's end that I very much appreciated. However, there were also a few developments that felt a bit like Davis was just trying to wrap up plot threads as quickly as possible so he didn't accidentally end up needing to write another book. It's not a huge issue, and it does work, but it is something I think could have been done better.

Have you been keeping up with the Oculus Gate series? Are you excited for the series conclusion? Do you tend to prefer long or short wrap-ups? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Winter 2022–2023 Reads

Oh, look, a seasonal post is going up on time! In fact, it's going up early! Though not as early as it would have had I not realized that last Friday was, in fact, December 9, not December 16. (This is what they don't tell you about working at a church, y'all! You kind of end up living in two weeks at once, especially around the holidays.) Anyway. This winter has some releases I am immensely excited about — but before I get into that, don't forget that there's still time to preorder Through a Shattered Glass (and the rest of the Broken Mirrors releases) and request your set of character art stickers! Ok, advertising aside, let's get on with this season's most exciting (to me) releases.

Friday 5s: Winter 2022–2023 Reads

1. Illuminare by Bryn Shutt (December 9). I've actually already read this one — I did so within a few days of its release — and quite enjoyed it. The author promotes it as a readalike for Discworld and Six of Crows, and I could definitely pick up the influence of both of those series. Also, I vibed quite a lot with Desmond Edenry, arguably the main main character. Definitely a book I'd recommend.

2. Snowfield Palace by Kendra E. Ardnek (December 19). The first of the Broken Mirrors releases and another book I've actually read before writing this post! You'll get my full thoughts come Monday, but suffice it to say that if you liked the rest of the Austen Fairy Tales, you'll love this one — a blend of The Snow Queen with Mansfield Park — just as much.

3. Shattered Reflection by Madisyn Carlin (December 21). The second Broken Mirrors book! I'm probably in the middle of reading this book by the time you read this post — but as of writing, I'm still waiting on my ARC. In any case, I will say that this story sounds fascinating. It sounds like Madisyn will be making the Snow Queen more of a sympathetic character, and I'm excited to see how that works out. I'm also predicting now that Breac is going to end up my favorite character, but we'll see what happens.

4. Of Ice and Roses by Heather M. Elliot (December 22). Another Broken Mirrors release! Again, I'm excited to see what Heather does with the fairy tale. It sounds like we're getting intrigue, prophecies, a quest, and a heroine who starts the book married, all of which hold quite a lot of promise.

5. Through a Shattered Glass by Sarah Pennington (December 23). It's me! And my book! I'm super excited to share Through a Shattered Glass with y'all. I honestly think it's some of my best work . . . and I'm not just saying that because it's essentially an after-the-portal-fantasy story (which I really enjoy) or because I loved getting to revisit Wonderland and give it my own spin (which I did) or because it involves a magical cat in the form of my version of the Cheshire Cat (which it does). Again, there's still time to preorder if you haven't already!

6. Christmas Games by Erudessa Gentian (December 24). This is the final Broken Mirror releasing next week, and while I haven't read the series that this short story is part of, I'm excited to venture into a new world — and a new genre. I tried to write my own trapped-in-a-game story years ago (and failed), so I'm excited to see what Erudessa does with it and how she'll use the Snow Queen elements in a more sci-fi setting.

7. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson (January 1). Like every other Sanderfan on the planet, I was SO HYPED when Brandon Sanderson announced his Secret Projects. (The man wrote FOUR WHOLE BOOKS without telling us, WHILE working on Stormlight and Mistborn and everything else. HOW.) Tress of the Emerald Sea is probably the installment in the series that I'm most interested in, so I am, of course, very much looking forward to my copy arriving in January. (If you missed the Kickstarter, though, I have heard that the books will be available to buy at some point.)

8. The White Queen's Spell by Wyn Estelle Owens (January 19). This was meant to be the second Broken Mirrors release and the sequel to The Dark King's Curse, but Wyn had to push it back (alas!) due to timing concerns. Granted, I'm an alpha reader on this one, so it's not like I have to wait any longer to read the story than I otherwise would have to . . . but also, what I have read of the story is so good, and I want to talk about it so storming much. Help.

9. The Dragon's Princess by Kendra E. Ardnek (January 19). Kendra keeps sneaking out these short fairy tale retellings that swap the hero and villain. This is actually the third in the series, and it's based on St. George and the Dragon, which is not a legend I see many people retelling. I have a good guess about how Kendra is going to approach this one, but I'm excited to see if I'm right or not.

10. On Earth as It Is in Hell by Bryan Davis (February 3/15). This is the final book in Bryan Davis's Oculus Gate series, which should be exciting. I'm looking forward to seeing these characters one more time and finding out how they're going to get themselves out of the mess we last saw them in — which, if you'd forgotten, had several of the characters plunging into hell, either captured by or in pursuit of a thoroughly evil villain. Fun stuff. Anyway, this is coming in February; release dates are weird because the paperback and the ebook become available on different days. Keep an eye out for my review sometime in that span!

11. A Whisker Behind by W.R. Gingell (February 15). CITY BETWEEN SPINOFF. Not only that, a City Between spinoff focused on Athelas, everyone's favorite twisty lavender-grey fae! Athelas is absolutely my favorite character from the original series, so I cannot begin to express how much I'm looking forward to this. This spinoff also shifts settings from Australia to South Korea, which I think will be cool. But mostly I'm just looking forward to spending more time in the world of Between and Behind.

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

 

Mid-Year Book Celebration 2022

Hey'a, all! As a reminder, I will be on blogging hiatus for most of July . . . but! I can't have a July without a Mid-Year Book Celebration, even if that would make my life much easier. So, here we are! As per the usual, I'll post the short-and-sweet Best of 2022 (so far) over on Light and Shadows. But if you want all the different categories . . . read on!

Of course, we can't have a book celebration without statistics. I've read 63 books (or 64, depending if you count my copy of both Alice books in one volume as one book or two) and 16,267 pages so far in 2022, which means I'm well over halfway to my goal of 99 books. Interestingly, while this is almost 20 more books than I'd read at this time last year, but it's only about 700 more pages. My average rating is about the same as it was this time last year: 4.3 stars. While every book hasn't been a winner, most have been, plus I've been rereading a lot.

Now for some more specific reading goals . . .

• I have successfully tracked my reads beyond just using Goodreads. I switched over to using a Google form based on the one Kendra E. Ardnek uses (literally; she let me copy hers, and then I modified some questions). It's much easier than the spreadsheet, though there are still some things I want to adjust. (For instance, my decision to track particular tropes was . . . frankly unnecessary. I'll finish it this year, but I don't think I'll do it again next year.)
• Towards 12 books published before 1975, I have read seven books. Three of them are Narnia; two are Lewis Carroll. But the other two are Chesterton and medieval poetry, so it's not all rereads. Plus, I'm in the progress of reading Dracula via email subscription.
• Of my goal of 15 non-speculative fiction books, I've read either seven or nine, depending on whether or not you count books of poetry. That puts me at either halfway through or a bit over halfway through, so I think that's pretty solid.
• As far as catching up with the Tor.com Wheel of Time reading series . . . I have managed maybe two chapters of The Great Hunt? It's a very frustrating book. I can probably still meet my goal if I really get with it, but honestly? I will be pretty pleased with myself if I just finish this one book by the end of the year.
• And finally, we have my effort to read more poetry. This has had mixed results? I haven't quite managed once a week like I originally intended, but I've made up the weeks I've missed with some weeks in which I read a whole book of poetry. Most of what I've read has been out of a book of George Herbert's poems that I got for a class at Cedarville, but I've also read one of the Ticket to Write anthologies, Tolkien's translation of Gawain the Green Knight, and some miscellaneous poems by Poe, thanks to another email subscription.

All right! Overall, I think most of my numbers are looking shiny . . . but not as shiny as the books, so let's get on with it.

1. Best book you've read so far in 2022:

 

A lot of my reads this year have been rereads . . . but even if they weren't, the answer to this category would probably still be a tie between Cinderella Must Die (W.R. Gingell) and The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison). These books are vastly different; one is a Cinderella retelling featuring a villainous Cinderella, a very clever pair of stepsisters, an indomitable aunt, and some very clever magic. The other is one part epic, one part political intrigue, one part mystery, one part character drama, and, inexplicably, one part feel-good fantasy even though it should not, by all rights, be as heartening as it is. But they're both excellent, and I love them immensely.

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2022:

We have another tie here, this time between My Soul to Take (Bryan Davis) and Crown and Cinder (Kendra E. Ardnek). Again, these are vastly different books, but both very good. My Soul to Take is a worldhopping post-apocalyptic fantasy that leans a bit dark, but also has some wonderful family themes and an uncrushable hope. And Crown and Cinder is what happens when Pride and Prejudice and Cinderella mutually derail each other, plus fire magic and Kendra E. Ardnek's signature humor and style — I would argue that it's one of her best books yet.

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

There are so many that could fit this category. I am doing terribly at keeping up with new releases. But the specific ones I'll call out are Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams (which I did buy in hardcover earlier this year, so there's that!), The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman (which I've kept getting distracted from reading), and The Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar (which just came out, so I think I have an excuse.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

I mean, I'm hoping to get Through a Shattered Glass out this year . . . and I hear Wyn Estelle Owens is working on another book . . .

 

 

But if we want a book with an actual cover? The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. I'm super excited to return to Scadrial and the adventures of Wax and Wayne. Plus, it sounds like we're getting a lot more Cosmere connections with Marasi! So much to look forward to!

5. Biggest disappointment:

I don't know why I finished A Wild Winter Swan (Gregory Maguire). Probably because I was procrastinating on something. But it was deeply frustrating. Not as much so as some other books I can think of, but still . . . not great.

6. Biggest surprise:

 

I picked up Stolen Mayfly Bride (Sarah K. L. Wilson) with low, low expectations. The other book in the collection I'd read was, to be frank, a candidate for the last question I answered. But once I got into the book, I was entranced. Wilson knows how to write fae, she knows how to write romance, and the writing style was marvelous and poetic. This was a KU read, but honestly, I think I'm probably going to end up buying a copy.

7. Newest favorite character:

While I've met a lot of great characters so far this year, there's no question who my new top favorite is: Maia Drazhar (The Goblin Emperor). I love him so much, y'all. He starts out the book awkward and anxious, a cast-off, half-foreign emperor's son who's grown up far from the court and without many people to love him, who wants only to avoid offending or causing trouble for anyone and who's so genuinely and helplessly kind and caring. And he grows into an emperor who truly wants to serve his subjects, who learns to stand up for himself and others, who uses his position and power to help those he can (even those who would be overlooked). He's just wonderful.

 

And on the topic of The Goblin Emperor . . . while I don't love them quite as much as Maia, several other characters also make the favorites list, specifically Csevet, Cala, Beschelar, and Csethiro.

8. A book that made you cry:

I don't think there were any actual tears, but The Goblin Emperor did produce a lot of Emotions, so . . . there's that?

9. A book that made you happy:

 

 

Search for the Astral Dragon (Bryan Davis) didn't quite make my "favorite book" choice . . . but it felt a lot like Davis's Dragons in Our Midst series, which meant that, in a way, it also felt like coming home.

10. Favorite post you've done so far this year:

I am very pleased with my "Writing Tips and Tricks (That Shouldn't Work as Well as They Do)" post that I put up back in March. (I'm toying with the idea of doing more posts about writing craft . . . thoughts, anyone?)

11. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

All of them, haha. But specifically . . . several Wheel of Time novels, The Untold Story, The Lost Metal, and Bryan Davis's Song of the Ovulum series (as a reread). Will I get to any of them? Who knows. I certainly don't.

 

Well, that's my celebration! How about you? What were the highs and lows of your last six months, reading-wise? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

My favorites list, whether speaking of authors or series, has changed quite a few times since I first got into fantasy. Wayne Thomas Batson, once in my top three favorite authors, now doesn't even make the top ten. J.R.R. Tolkien stood alone at the highest rank — until Anne Elisabeth Stengl and Brandon Sanderson proved themselves worthy to join him. I spent a heady six months obsessing over Ted Dekker's Circle Trilogy, only for it to fall dramatically out of favor when I tried to reread it a few years later.

But amid all this, there are some authors and books that have consistently remained — well, if not in my top three, at least in my top ten. Chief among them (aside from Tolkien again) is Bryan Davis, particularly with his Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire series. These were two of the first non-classic fantasy series I fell in love with — and I think it's fair to say that I was really, really into them. I reread them multiple times; I even memorized some of the poetry. And about seven months ago, I decided to return to the two series, reread them, and see how they stood up to the test of time. For the results, well, read on.

 

On Rereading Dragons in Our Midst

1. Most of it is as good as I remembered . . . and some bits are better. I'm not going to claim that this series is the pinnacle of literary art, but it remains a genuinely enjoyable, exciting story with a lot of emphasis on family and some very deep, powerful themes. The things about the book that I loved originally, I still love. I also found that I could appreciate some elements of the book that I didn't really get (or didn't love) when I was younger. This is particularly evident in The Candlestone and Enoch's Ghost, which used to be my least favorite books in the double-series and are now . . . well, neither one is my new favorite (I still love Circles of Seven best), but they're both several places higher on the list because I finally get what the author was trying to say with them.
2. There's so much less angst and edginess than there could've been. I didn't appreciate this enough as a preteen/teen originally reading the series — but, of course, then I didn't have all the experience with other YA (particularly secular YA) to compare it to. Davis gives quite a few members of his cast enough tragic backstory to make the edgiest D&D rogue's story look like a comedy, so he'd be well within his right to make them equally angsty, and he just . . . doesn't. Is there introspection? Emotion? Of course! Do characters hit some pretty low lows? Absolutely. But it doesn't saturate the characters or the narrative, which is really nice, and the characters who would have the most reason for angst (namely, Bonnie, Sapphira, and Elam) end up the exact opposite character type. Granted, that can be frustrating for different reasons, but it's less frustrating than the alternative.
3. It's really fun to go back to a series that's so family-focused. Very family-focused indeed, actually, given that DiOM/OoF give Kendra E. Ardnek's Rizkaland Legends a run for their money with how large a percentage of major characters are related. And whatever else you say about this series, you have to appreciate how Davis makes a point of writing active, healthy parent-kid relationships into the story and having multiple generations taking on adventures, challenges, and battles together.
4. Bryan Davis really just does what he wants, doesn't he? This was less evident when I initially read the series, since (A) the YA fantasy genre and its conventions were still somewhat being established and (B) I hadn't read enough to really be aware of what conventions there were. But on rereading the series, it becomes very clear that Davis is a man who looked at trends, said "Nah," and proceeded to make a career out of writing what he thought would be cool. And so, in this series — You have dragons and King Arthur in the modern day. You have multiple variations of an afterlife and interdimensional travel between them, along with so many resurrections. You have sci-fi-ish stuff like Ashley's inventions and her supercomputer/AI, as well as (arguably) two different completely unrelated variations on people being grown in plants. You have everything about Abaddon's lair. And you know what? It works. And it's wonderful. (I would even argue that it works because everything is so all-over, but if I get into that, this point will end up being its own blog post.)
5. This is, if possible, even more spiritually in-your-face than I remembered. No one can deny that the way Christian fantasy is written has changed since the 2000s when these books were published. Even if you look exclusively at Davis's books, you'll see that over time, the stories lean less into allegory and get more and more subtle with their spiritual messages. So, going back to Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire, two series which I remembered as being extremely heavy on the Scripture and spiritual stuff even compared to the series' contemporaries, was a bit of an interesting experience. On one hand, the heavy-handedness of some sections and elements (and the emphasis on purity) can pull you out of the story . . . but on the other hand, it was honestly refreshing to read something that's so up-front about being based in Christianity and so saturated in Spiritual truth.

Whew! That was a bit longer than I intended. I had fun both returning to an old favorite and analyzing how I feel about it now, though. If you're still reading, please tell me in the comments what your favorite Bryan Davis book or series is (or which of his works you think looks most interesting). Also tell me if you'd be interested in that blog post about why I think the way Davis mixes so many different elements into his story works so well; I kinda want to get more into this now.
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

Hello hello! As I've mentioned several times, today I'm sharing my thoughts on Bryan Davis's latest release, Search for the Astral Dragon. I remember reading an early version of the first chapter years and years ago, when Davis was still doing writing advice and critiques on his blog, so it was cool to get to see the finished story now. I can tell you up front that it's a story well worth picking up — read on to find out why.

 Thoughts on Search for the Astral Dragon

1. This story has the same vibes as Dragons in Our Midst, and I'm here for it. I keep trying to figure out how to explain what I mean by this, and I don't think I'm going to be able to articulate my precise thoughts, but — reading Search for the Astral Dragon feels very much like reading Dragons in Our Midst, even though the stories and characters are quite different indeed. I don't think that feeling is just because this is a middle grade/early YA novel (versus the adult works Davis has mostly been writing lately), nor do I think it's just because of the comparative ages of the characters. The fact that it's less gritty than Reapers or Oculus Gate probably does have something to do with it, but I think it's also the themes and the general "attitude" of the book. Whatever the source, I very much appreciated it.
2. Davis does space adventure quite well. Bryan Davis has plenty of experience in sci-fi writing — even his fantasy series have a healthy dose of science-fiction elements. However, this is the first time that he's taken his stories into space, and he does an excellent job of it. The space travel and space combat elements felt believable, and we have a nice variety of planets and beings living on these planets. (I will say that I had trouble differentiating or, to some degree, picturing some of the alien races, whose names I can't currently remember . . . but that may also be a me problem.)
3. I liked the characters, though I didn't get super attached to them. I mean, I very much cared what happened to them and whether they made it to the end of the story, but I don't think any of them will be living rent-free in my head. Megan Willis is a spunky, determined lead who feels pleasantly different from any of Davis's previous protagonists. Oliver, Crystal, and Dirk were all interesting in their ways, and Perdanthus was probably my second-favorite character (though I don't think I could put my finger on why).
4. Some of the "humor" was pretty juvenile. Humor, for the record, is in quotation marks because I didn't find the bits I'm referring to particularly funny. Davis is usually pretty good at including lighthearted moments in his stories, typically via friends teasing each other or, if the situation allows, being goofy as friends often are, and these moments generally feel pretty natural. However, there's a particular running "joke" in Astral Dragon (at least, I assume it's meant to be funny) that made me groan each of the half-dozen times it came up, and not in the "That pun was so bad it's good" way. It's not offensive, it's just . . . not funny to me, and probably not to anyone except maybe a preteen boy. (I remember having a similar problem in Wanted: A Superhero to Save the World, so it could just be a thing with how Davis writes for younger audiences.)
5. The themes were excellent. A common theme in many of Davis's books is the tension between justice and mercy, and that's particularly evident in Search for the Astral Dragon. Davis encourages readers to ponder along with Megan when and if it is right or wrong to take a life — even a villain's life — and what an "acceptable sacrifice" really means, if it exists at all. Weighty topics for a middle grade novel, but Davis handles them well, with enough nuance for adult readers and enough sensitivity for younger ones.

Does Search for the Astral Dragon sound like your cup of tea? If so, you can pick it up on Amazon or on the author's site — and please tell me in the comments what element of the book you think sounds most interesting! If you've read it already, do you know what I mean about it feeling like Dragons in Our Midst?
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

Hey'a, everyone! A couple years ago, I reviewed Bryan Davis's Heaven Came Down, the first in the Oculus Gate series of post-apocalyptic fantasy novels. Recently, Mr. Davis was kind enough to pass along an ARC of the latest book in the series, My Soul to Take, which releases today on Amazon. Mr. Davis has said he considers this the best book in the series, and while I'm not sure if I prefer this or Invading Hell, it is pretty great.

Thoughts on My Soul to Take

1. Worldhopping Davis books are the best Davis books. It's no secret that my favorite Davis books tend to be the ones where the characters spend a lot of time hopping world-to-world or dimension-to-dimension — books like Circles of Seven, the Time Echoes series, or the previous Oculus Gate book, Invading Hell. As in that previous book, the storyline is spread over three different worlds, with characters trying to escape one and save two others. It's pretty great.
2. The family element is awesome. One thing I love about Davis books in general is that he often has families — found and natural — working and fighting side-by-side, supporting each other in the direst of circumstances. This book is no exception.
3. The crossover is strong with this one. If you read Invading Hell, you know that the Oculus Gate books fit in the same storyworld as Time Echoes and Reapers. While there were a few crossover elements in that book, the crossover and references are much stronger here, and it was really fun to be able to say "Hey! I recognize that!" That said, if you haven't read the other series (or you've started them and haven't finished them), you can still enjoy this story. Anything you need to know is explained in text. (That said, you should absolutely read Time Echoes. It's great.)
4. You definitely want to reread the previous Oculus Gate books before picking up this one. There are some series where it's easy to just pick up the latest book and fall naturally back into the narrative. Oculus Gate is not one of them, or at least it wasn't for me. While I wasn't outright bewildered at any point, there was more than one instance when I found myself trying to remember who or what something or someone was or whether or not a particular comment was a reference to a past Oculus Gate book or to something that happened in one of the other connected series. A caveat here: I read about 50% of this book after 11 PM (and I finished the book at 3 AM-ish after waking up in the middle of the night because allergies), so my brain was not exactly functioning at top capacity. That said, I do think it has a lot to do with the fact that Heaven Came Down is a rather different story than the other two books in the series — same characters, yes, but very different problems.
5. That ending, though. Obviously, I can't say a ton without giving away spoilers. But I will say that I got to the end of the book and I couldn't believe there weren't more pages — I literally tapped the next page function on my Kindle several times trying to figure out where the rest of the book was because I needed to know what happened next. And that's not a reaction I have terribly often.

On a related note, y'all might want to know that in May, Bryan Davis is having a contest to celebrate twenty years of writing — which, look, y'all. That's super impressive. Anyway, you can earn points by sharing about the books on various social media, and the prizes for those who earn the most points are pretty shiny. Click here for all the details if you want to check it out.

Have you read the Oculus Gate series? If so, which book is your favorite? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

End-of-Year Book Celebration 2021!

Hello, hello, hello, my friends! The time has COME for me to review the second half of my 2021 reads! As you may remember, back in June, I rebranded these posts as End-of-Year (and Mid-Year) Book CELEBRATIONS. I mean, I'm not freaking out, but I am getting very exciting and celebrating all the goodness. If you want the short and sweet version, head over to my other blogs for my Top 5 Reads of the second half of 2021. Otherwise, for all the details, read on!

2021 End of Year Book Celebration

As per the usual, let's get the statistics out of the way first. I read 122 books and 37,923 pages in 2021, well over my goal of 77 books and only a little under my total for last year (126). 78 of those have been read since my mid-year post, so it's safe to say that the second half of 2021 included a lot more reading than the first half did. In all fairness, the first half of the year also involved much longer books than the second half. If you want some additional stats, you can check out my Goodreads Year in Books. As for my more specific goals:

• Starting at the end: I have successfully kept a book tracking spreadsheet for the last few months! Making sure it was bookmarked in an easily-visible location helped quite a bit, since it served as a little reminder every time I saw it. Plus, once I built up enough momentum, I didn't want to give up on it. (I am very much a completionist, haha!)
• I read 7 books published before 1975, which is a bit short of my goal of 12 such stories. Part of the problem is that I intended to read more C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, and then I just . . . didn't.
• We get a cheerier result in books that aren't speculative fiction. Out of my goal of 12 books, I've read either 11 or 12, depending on whether or not I count Isle of Swords. Eight of those are even nonfiction, which I feel I can be reasonably proud of.
• On the flip side, we have my goal of 1 epic-length Tolkien or Jordan fantasy novel every two months, which . . . did not happen. On the upside, I did finish rereading The Lord of the Rings, and I started rereading The Wheel of Time, which was the point of making the goal, so I count that as a win.
• 1 epic-length Tolkien or Jordan fantasy novel every two months, which . . . did not happen. On the upside, I did finish rereading The Lord of the Rings, and I started rereading The Wheel of Time, which was the point of making the goal, so I count that as a win.

And now, let's get to the bit y'all are probably interested in: the highs and lows of the second half of 2021's reading! As a note, I am adjusting the list of questions to remove the ones I don't really have an answer for or tend to answer the same way every year. They'll come back if I have a good answer for them.

1. Best book you've read in the second half of 2021:

 

HELLO Vespertine (Margaret Rogerson)! I was so hyped for this book (hyped enough to buy the OwlCrate special edition, even), and it absolutely did not disappoint. It had big-time Sabriel vibes, some magnificent antagonist-to-friends dynamics, and LORE, all wrapped up in an excellent storyline. I haven't been the best about keeping up with new releases, but I'm so glad I caught this one.

 

2. Best sequel series you've read in the second half of 2021:

 

(It's my post, I can change questions if I want to.)

 

The City Between series by W.R. Gingell was absolutely one of the highest points of my reading year — maybe even the high point, even if I read it at a time when I was feeling rather low otherwise. The books are short-ish and highly addictive in both how fun they are and how thoroughly the characters make themselves at home in your heart and then give you all kinds of emotions when tragedy strikes. (I wasn't being dramatic when I said I was undone by the ending of some of the books, y'all. Well, ok, I was, but it was necessary drama.) The last book releases at the end of the month, and I don't know what I'll do without my magnificent Aussie urban fantasy now that I've discovered it . . . thankfully, the author is going to write spinoffs, so hopefully I won't have to find out!

 

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

 

 Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams just came out earlier this month, and I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so! (We'll see if I end up buying it myself or if the library will come through and get it.)

 

4. Most anticipated release for next year: 

 

Apparently we're getting The Lost Metal next November, so I'm definitely hyped for that! I'm also looking forward to Kendra E. Ardnek's Crown and Cinder, which is Pride and Prejudice crossed with Cinderella.

 

5. Biggest disappointment:

 

T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy mystery set in Scotland, and it had so much potential — something like a cross between Jackaby and Sabriel. Instead, it was just frustrating and disappointing and vaguely confusing. Alas.

 

6. Biggest surprise:

Romance-heavy, slow, character drama with light enough fantasy elements that, were it not set in a somewhat different world than our own, it could pass for magical realism? Not the type of book I'd expect to fall in love with. But I loved W.R. Gingell's Lady of Dreams and its sequel Lady of Weedsintensely, and I look forward to when I get to reread them.

 

7. Favorite new-to-you author:

 

I'm not sure if this counts, since I've only read one of her books, but I did love Sarah K. L. Wilson'sHeart of Shadow, and I'm looking forward to both reading the sequel and picking up some of the author's other works!

 

8. Newest fictional crush/ship:

 

Just . . . all the W.R. Gingell couples, but the ones I love most are spoilers and therefore cannot be spoken of.

 

Also, on a related sidenote, I would rather like a sword like the one in Heart of Shadow. That is all.

 

9. Newest favorite character:

 

Too many to list! Most of them, again, from W.R. Gingell books. But since we said newest: Artemisia and the Revenant from Vespertine are both fabulous, and I love them.

 

10. A book that made you cry:

 

Between Cases — cry isn't quite the right word, but there was internal wailing and undone-ness (as I believe I've mentioned).

 

11. A book that made you happy:

 

I read the full version of The Story Girl (Lucy Maud Montgomery) for the first time this year, and it was absolutely delightful. I don't know why more people don't love it.

 

12. Most beautiful book you've bought/received this half of the year:

 

I mentioned I bought the Owlcrate edition of Vespertine, yeah? It is very pretty. That is all.

 

13. Any other books you want to babble about for any other reason?

 

I did a ton of rereading in the last six months, and the highlight of that was probably revisiting Bryan Davis's Dragons in our Midst series. It used to be one of my favorite series, but I haven't read it in ages. It is just about as good as I remembered — though it took until now for the realization to hit that several characters probably do have a West Virginian accent, which is just kinda . . . huh.

 

Well, there's my celebration! How about you? What were the highs and lows of your last six months, reading-wise? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!