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!

January 2023 Doings!

Hello hello hello! We're one month into 2023, and it's time for the first Doings! post of the year. This has been another busy month, especially on the writing front. It was decidedly not chill except in the sense of being far colder than it had any right to be, despite my best hopes, but that was what I kind of expected. So, let's get on with the post and see what actually happened.

Writing!

• My January writing has been a lot more varied than many months have been of late. Whether or not that's a good thing is . . . debatable.
• Most of the month was spent continuing Bastian Dennel, PI #4. I made some changes to the storyline that I think will produce good results and give one of my POV characters more to do and a stronger climax to her particular character arc. Of course, that meant re-outlining the remaining chapters in the book, especially since I knew I was going to have to pause work on the story for a bit to focus on projects with a closer deadline. I think my new plan is going to work, but the whole book is going to take a good bit of editing.
• My second project was outlining, drafting, and editing a short story submission for the Fellowship of Fantasy Magical Dogs anthology. I'm reasonably pleased with how it turned out, though I'm not quite sure whether or not the anthology editors will go for it. We'll find out.
• My final major project, which was spread out throughout most of the month, was planning, outlining, and starting the first draft of a new, currently unnamed, semi-secret project involving selkies. If you remember what my last few "secret projects" were, you probably have a good guess about what this one is going to end up being . . . but I should be able to tell you for sure in next month's Taleweaver's Desk update. I hoped to have it at least half drafted by the end of the month, but the magical dogs story took longer than I expected.
• And, of course, my D&D campaign is still going. At the moment, though, prep for that is pretty chill, so I'm able to just take an hour or two either on session days or the day before the session to write what I need.

Reading!

• . . . I made a choice this month. More specifically, I made a choice at midnight on New Year's Day (as in, first hour of the new year), which was that I was going to reread Between Jobs, and things progressed from there, and so I have read nothing except City Between and beta-reading projects all month — literally. I started, as I said, in the first hours of January, and I finished the series in the last hours of the month. I have no regrets. Well, one regret, which is that I kinda got behind on ARCs and last year's releases that I was supposed to catch up on, but it's fine.
• And, honestly, I think that City Between is the kind of series that you have to read more than once. You read it the first time to fall in love with the characters and be astounded by every twist and turn of the story. And then you read it a second time because you miss the characters and the world and so that you can gasp and say "Wendee, you didn't" every so often because some line or comment or detail has taken on an entirely new meaning now that you know what you should have been looking for.
• So, yes. 10/10 experience, would 100% recommend. And if you start now, you might still finish before A Whisker Behind comes out in February!

Watching!

• It will surprise absolutely no one that I haven't really had a lot of time to watch stuff this month.
• I did finally finish season one of Leverage, though, and I started season two. I very much enjoyed both episodes and the element of this group just being unable to (A) leave an unfinished job alone, (B) leave each other alone, or (C) go back to their old lives now that Nate's shown them something better. It's a delight, and I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the season . . . sometime.
• I also rewatched a little more Fairy Tail because, you know, they're short episodes (and therefore easier to squeeze in) and I already know what happens, so it's pretty relaxing. I'm currently on the arc that introduces Gajeel, and it's interesting to go back to when he was still an antagonist.

 Life!

• January is a weird month. You're coming off December, which is all holidays and odd schedules and, at least in my case, a good bit of time off. And then you're trying to get back to normal, but you have random Mondays that are actually either Saturdays or Sundays (depending on your perspective) that are nice but also not conducive to reestablishing a standard schedule, and it's grey and cold and you're tired half the time . . . yeah. If you can't tell, this is not my favorite month. Still better than February, though.
• The first week or so of the month was pretty decent, in that my sister was still home and I got to spend time with her a little bit more before she went back to college. That's always nice.
• Work, at least, has been fairly quiet. January usually is, since everyone is recovering from Advent and Christmas, and this year we didn't even have staff changes or an organ donation campaign to throw things off. Actually, I think this January may have been even quieter than it normally would be, as at least one or two staff members were out of the office — traveling or sick or on a mission trip — pretty much at all times. Mostly, I was just cycling through the usual weekly tasks on a slightly shortened schedule until Lenten newsletter time rolled around.
• Outside of work, I spent a good bit of time figuring out stuff with the Thing I'm Not Talking About Yet, which I discovered could start in February instead of January and decided to put off until then so that I would have more writing time. We'll see if that backfires on me or not. I also got to deal with car stuff, so . . . yay? (Nothing as serious as what happened back in summer, just regular maintenance, but it was frustrating due to various reasons.)
• On the upside, I'm officially registered for Realm Makers in July, and I am HYPED. Last year was such a good experience that I decided that the stress and expense of having to fly to this year's conference would be worth it. I'm very excited for several of the speakers — though I'm a bit disappointed that the Donald Maass breakout sessions are currently scheduled for the same time as the two most interesting one-off sessions. Alas. I'll have to be more proactive about watching the session recordings after the conference, I suppose. (Also, am I already brainstorming costume ideas for the Awards Banquet? You BET I am.)
• I also acquired some very shiny new dice via a program where you can request products for review — this is my first set of metal dice, and I'm very pleased with them. They're very weighty and fancy, and they've got this lovely dragon theming and copper-blue color scheme going on.
• Oh, and I finished the hat that I started after Christmas! This is a pattern that I made once before and messed up — the result was still very much a hat and very wearable, but I wanted to to try doing it right. I'm pleased with how it turned out, and it was nice to do such a quick, straightforward project after a lot of lengthy or complicated ones. I think I may switch back to an embroidery project next, but we'll see.

February Plans

• February is, surprise, surprise, looking like mostly spillover from January.
• As I already mentioned, the Thing I'm Not Talking About Yet has been pushed back to start about midway through this month. I haven't decided whether I'm excited or nervous or too tired to be either.
• Writing-wise, I'll probably be focusing mainly on my semi-secret selkie story and my D&D campaign this month. The semi-secret selkie story has a deadline that's coming up pretty quick (a lot quicker than I'd like), so that needs to take priority. And my D&D campaign is in a place where I can probably draft out the rest of this adventure without setting myself up to have wasted a bunch of time and energy on a path people aren't going to pursue. That'll also give me the ability to start working on the next adventures, both of which I've been excited about for quite a while and really want to do stuff with.
• On the work front, February is the start of Lent, so that'll dominate a fair bit of my time and attention. Not quite as much as last year, but still a good bit. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to wrap up some of the projects that keep getting delayed, but at this point, I'm not holding my breath.
• In terms of reading, I expect to be playing catch-up on all the things I meant to read in January but didn't because I was too busy adventuring Between. That'll mean some Sanderson, a little Megan Whalen Turner, and Bryan Davis's new book, along with — hopefully — more Fullmetal Alchemist.
• I want to try to get hold of a desk attachment for the treadmill so I can hopefully start walking while I'm doing stuff on the computer. Ideally, I'd like to be able to write and walk (slowly) at the same time, which may take some practice, but I know other people manage it. And even if I can't do actual novel-writing on the treadmill because it's too much at once, I may be able to do blog and social stuff (which takes less brainpower).
• I think that about covers it! I'm sure I'll remember something later that I should have included in these plans, but oh well. Mostly I just want to keep from falling further into the winter blahs.

How was your January? Any exciting plans for February? What's your best method for fighting back the winter blahs? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, everyone! So, I recognize that it's a touch early to do a seasonal reads post (winter doesn't officially begin for another week and a half), but I want to do Christmas stuff on the blogs next week if possible, so . . . here we are!

Winter 2021–22 Reads

1. Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams (December 7). This one just came out this past week, but it wasn't in my fall reads list, so I'm including it. From the sneak peaks Gillian's shared both publically and with her street team, this looks like it's going to be so good: magical horses, epic conflicts, tragic heroes, the works. Early reviews are also suggesting that it's light on romance, so — hallelujah.

2. Wrought of Serpent and Snow by E. J. Kitchens (December 9). Another book that just came out this week! I confess that I do not love the cover . . . but I did love Wrought of Silver and Ravens, the previous book in the series, which was one of my favorite of the Tattered Slippers releases, and I'm excited to see what happens next!

3. The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman (December 28). I confess that I'm not entirely caught up on the Invisible Library series — The Dark Archive slipped out without my noticing, and while I do have it out from the library, I haven't gotten around to reading it. But with the release of The Untold Story at the end of the month, I think The Dark Archive will have to move up the list. Both stories sound like they'll have a greater focus on Alberich and the fae, which is exciting. (We all know how much I love the Invisible Library fae, after all.)

4. Between Kings by W.R. Gingell (December 31). I am simultaneously SO HYPED and UTTERLY TERRIFIED for this. It's the end of the City Between series (though the author has promised spinoffs), and I'm so sad that I'll be saying goodbye to Pet, Tuata, JinYeong, Zero, North, Athelas, Morgana, and the rest. But also, the last book ended on such a cliffhanger, and I desperately need to know what's become of everyone. Out of everything on this list, this is definitely what I'm looking forward to the most!

5. A Conspiracy of Prophets by Suzannah Rowntree (January 6). So, yes. I had very mixed feelings about the first book in the series. But, I was told that I might like other books in the series better (especially since they focused on other protagonists), and I've loved Suzannah's other books, so I'm not taking this off my TBR list yet. And even if I'm not a fan of Lukas Bessarion, this installment sounds pretty epic.

And that about covers it! A little sparser than some of my seasonal release roundups, most of my favorite authors released something in summer or autumn, so this is a more quiet season. Still, what is there looks pretty good. What book releases are you excited for this winter? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

 G'day, all! So, this week, I have learned two very important things. One, it is, in fact, possible to drink too much tea. Two, W.R. Gingell's City Between series is MAGNIFICENT, and I wish I'd read it sooner. I mean, I did read the first two books a while back, but then I just . . . stalled? For some reason? (Probably because something else was higher-priority when it came to spending my book money.) But then I binge read the entire eight-novels-and-two-novellas lot over the course of the last week, and so now I'm here to ensure that you don't make my mistake — by telling you all the reasons why you might need to pick up the City Betweenbooks as soon as possible.

 

You NEED to Read the City Between Series If . . .

1. You loved The Werewolf of Whitechapel, Jackaby, The Invisible Library, The Dresden Files, or The Midnight Show and you're looking for your next urban fantasy mystery fix. Alternately, if you wanted to read The Dresden Files but you were scared off by the level of Questionable Content, these are an excellent, arguably more enjoyable, alternative. The City Between series follows the adventures of two fae, a vampire, and one rather unique human girl as they solve the more magical mysteries that crop up around Hobart, Australia — both on the human side and in city Behind and Between. If you remember me raving about Masque, you know that Gingell knows how to write a good mystery . . . and she proves it again and again in this series, with stories that I literally could not put down. (I had to go to bed early more than a few nights just so I could make sure I wouldn't miss out on too much sleep when I inevitably got caught up!)
2. You can't get enough of narrative voices with character or clever, sarcastic leads with more courage than is probably good for them. The series is narrated by Pet — a function, not a name, but she adopts it as her moniker early in the first book. After all, when you're dealing with the fae, handing out real names is a dangerous thing. And while I love a lot of characters from this series, it's not a stretch to say that Pet is my favorite. She's spunky and sarcastic and clever (which makes her voice a delightful one for telling the story), quick to care for others and quick to stand up for those who she sees are lacking a voice — in this case, the humans who get caught up in the machinations and murders of the fae and other Behindkind. You can't help loving her . . . and, quite frankly, neither can a lot of the other characters (often against their better judgement).
3. You love a colorful setting and wish reality had a lot more magic to it. I'm reasonably certain that Hobart, Australia is either the author's hometown or somewhere she lived and loved for quite some time, because the city comes alive under her pen — both the human side and the magical side. As we learn in the first book, there's the human world, and the magical world, and there's the bit where the two merge together — the bit that curls into reality in the corners of your eye. The three "worlds" are distinct, and yet they're one almost living thing, and the story slips between magical and mundane as seamlessly as the fae themselves do. 
4. You want stories and characters that can make you laugh . . . but will also stab you in the feels. We already talked about Pet, but there's so many characters to love here, from the overly dramatic Korean vampire JinYeong to mysterious, morally grey fae like the deceptively-genteel, tea-loving Athelas (arguably my second-favorite after Pet, though it's a close race) and the stoic Zero to the in-over-his-head, why-do-I-keep-getting-dragged-into-this Detective Tuata and more (who I can't mention because spoilers). The characters all, if you'll excuse the cliche, seem to leap off the page, sharp-edged and broken in ways they're slow to admit, becoming friends and family in ways they're equally slow to admit — honestly, it's kind of funny how reluctant they are to allow any affection. Or, that is, it's funny until you discover why they're reluctant. As I said, these stories will stab you in the feels — and Gingell knows that the course of character growth never can run smooth.
5. You want a highly bingeable series that still has a nice bit of meat to it. Like I said, I read eight novels and two novellas over the course of about seven days. All the published books in the series are available on Kindle Unlimited if you have that, and if not, they're pretty reasonably priced if you have money to spend. And let me tell you, once you start the series, you won't want to stop, especially not once you get to book three or so. (Plus, if you start now, you'll won't have long to wait for Book 9 to release — which will be lucky for you, because even the nineteen days that I'll have to wait feels like an eternity.) But despite being reasonably quick, addictive reads, there's plenty of substance here. There has to be in order to have a good mystery — but besides that, you have hurt and heartbreak and trauma to unpack and messy character relationships and revelations and just so much goodness.

Are you convinced yet? If not, let me offer one more compelling argument: these stories are probably as close as we're ever going to get to if a modern-day Diana Wynne Jones wrote a YA urban fantasy mystery series, and I don't say that about just any book. It's just that good. Alternately, if you've already read the City Between series, what do you love best about it?
Thanks for reading!