March 2022 Doings!

A third of the year is already gone . . . hard to believe, isn't it? It's been a busy month for me in many ways, but a restful one in others — and a good month, I'd say, all round. Let's get on with the Doings so you can see what I mean!

Writing!

• This has been another busy writing month! A little less so than February was, but still very busy and very productive.
• I spent the first week and a half of the month hard at work on my Super Secret Mystery Project (TaSG), averaging about a chapter a day — except on the day I spent mostly in the car and the day I finished the draft, on which I got several chapters written. It's been a while since the words flowed that readily on any given project. I think it was a combination of a tight deadline and low pressure — TaSG isn't directly connected to any of my previous projects, and I hadn't fully committed to anything with it, but I did need to get it done by a particular point in time for what I wanted to do with it.
• After finishing the Super Secret Mystery Project, I took a bit under a week off while I waited for the last of my Mask of Scarlet beta feedback to drift in, and then I dove back into edits on that project. I've been working on that on and off through the second half of the month — I'll finish a round of edits, take a few days, then edit again. At this point, I'm at the ebook formatting stage, which is exciting. I'm testing a new method of doing chapter headers that I hope will make my life a little easier. (Also, I remembered to start with ebook formatting this time rather than print. Thank goodness.)
• On that note, there's still time to sign up for an ARC of Mask of Scarlet or the other Midnight Curfews, Crown and Cinder and Cindy Ellen! The goal is to have ARCs available sometime the week of April 10.
• Outside of my novels, I've been working writing the next adventure for my Defenders of Serys D&D group. That's going a bit slowly because I don't have a ton of time or energy to put to it, but I do have the next couple sessions ready, and the fact that we basically didn't meet this month meant I had some extra time to plan. If worst comes to worst, the nature of the next adventure means I already have a good framework and plenty of pre-made NPCs to improve with, and a very limited number of options for enemies if I need a combat scenario on short notice.

Reading!

• Ugh. This month started out really well in terms of reading and then everything just . . . fell apart. It's starting to look back up, but yeah.
• I started out by steaming through three more Discworld books, two of which were new to me and one of which was Making Money, which, while not on the same level as Going Postal, is still excellent-quality Moist von Lipwig content. The two new ones were good as well, particularly Thud!, though not anywhere near my favorites list.
• Then I switched over to arguably my favorite book I've read this month, Cinderella Must Die by W.R. Gingell. I posted about how much I loved this one earlier this month, so I won't repeat myself except to say that it was an absolutely delightful romp of a fairytale murder mystery.
• Back to Discworld, I read Snuff, the last City Watch book. And it was . . . fine? It was a very good book. But it lacked some shine or spark that had made me love the other Vimes books, and I couldn't quite put my finger on why. It wasn't that Vimes was out of the city — The Fifth Elephant is one of my favorite Discworld novels. It wasn't that there wasn't stuff happening. It was just . . . missing something.
• At this point, I was starting to think that maybe I was reading too much Discworld, and I'd remembered that I had a Kindle Unlimited subscription that would expire in a month and a bit that I needed to use. So I worked through a few indie reads — Sorcerer and the Swan Princess was an interesting take on Swan Lake, though it wasn't as substantial as it could've been, and Stolen Mayfly Bride featured a properly Other take on fae — before realizing that if I wanted to do a Discworld post in March, I needed to get busy.
• And so I started Raising Steam . . . and that's where it all fell apart because I could just. not. get into it. I should've been all over it, because it's Moist von Lipwig and Vetinari and so on . . . but it just wasn't doing it for me. Eventually, I realized why: I'm a good third of the book in, and it still doesn't feel like there's real stakes. There have been challenges, but it's nothing the main character can't deal with and hasn't dealt with before. There's not even the usual risk to Moist's life, since he got himself into the current situation. And I think it's the same problem I had with Snuff; while there was action and mystery enough, I rarely felt like there was any risk of the conflict not being successfully resolved.
• Anyway. Raising Steam is currently on hold while I read my ARC of Tall and Dark, the first in Suzannah Rowntree's successor series to Miss Sharp's Monsters, and I'm enjoying that very much thus far. So at least the month's ended on a high note.

Watching!

• If this month was a bit of a slump when it came to reading in some ways, I made up for it in what I watched! I spent a lot of time in the car at the start of the month, plus I've been making an effort to use the treadmill a couple times a week, so that's given me a little more space where I don't feel guilty about watching longer stuff rather than writing, editing, blogging, or doing something else "productive."
• I actually watched three whole movies this month! Most exciting to me was finally seeing Encanto, which was a lovely movie. I'm not sure if it was quite as amazing as everyone hyped it up to be, but it was still excellent. I do love a good family story, and a magical family story in an equally magical house is even better. I have to say, though — why's everyone so obsessed with not talking about Bruno when "Waiting for a Miracle" is right there? Y'all are sleeping on the good stuff.
• Anyway. I didn't love the other two movies, though for different reasons. Meet Me in St. Louis is an older slice-of-life-ish musical, and, it was . . . fine? I spent most of it mentally shaking my head at the characters. As for No Time to Die, the new James Bond . . . well, let's just say that the title is inaccurate on multiple levels. I will give it credit for good costuming (the major female characters are in actual practical clothing!) and for character depth and having family actually be a good thing and a motivating factor? But it was so long.
• Outside of movies, I fit in another episode and two halves of Critical Role (bringing me up to midway through Campaign 3 Episode 8 and introducing me to Chetney. I also started watching No Evil, which is a YouTube animated serial featuring mythology and legends from North and Central America. I didn't expect to love it, but I've gotta say, I'm kinda hooked.

Life!

• The highlight of the month was, of course, my sister being home for spring break for a week at the start of March. The whole family drove up to pick her up, which was a lot of time in the car — but, as I said, it was some good quality writing time, and we got to meet one of her friends, so that was fine. We didn't do a lot during the week, but we did watch a movie and play a couple rounds of Sentinels, and we finished out her break by visiting my grandpa in Pittsburgh . . . where it snowed. And was cold. But getting to see him was still nice.
• Since then . . . most of the excitement is stuff I've already covered in other sections. I will say that work has been very busy, as I'm knee deep in materials for the church's Good Friday event, other Lenten and Holy week materials, and trying to solve problems of signage around the church on top of my normal work. It's . . . a lot. I'm not complaining by any means, but yeah.
• Pi Day was a nice bright spot in all the stress, though! We celebrated with spaghetti pie and strawberry mallow pie, both of which were DELICIOUS.
• We did finally get some warm spring weather, which is just . . . hallelujah thank you God. And then it promptly froze again the next couple weeks. But now it's warming up again! I'm wearing short sleeves (under a cardigan, but still)!
• I also got new tennis shoes, which are slip-ons instead of traditional lace-up shoes, and I am delighted.
• So, yeah. It's not been a quiet month, but it has been consistent in its business, so I won't complain.

April Plans

• Mask of Scarlet comes out THIS MONTH, y'all! If you want to get in on helping with the tour, keep checking my spaces — Kendra and I will be releasing details on how to get involved soon. And, of course, you can still preorder the book.
• I also plan to edit the Super Secret Mystery Project, so that'll be fun.
• I am not doing Camp NaNoWriMo. It's just not the place I'm in, and I don't feel like I need the extra motivation.
• Of course, I'm looking forward to Easter. Our Bible study is planning the usual Easter lunch gathering, and I'm thinking about what I want to contribute. I may attempt coconut cake using the recipe that my supervisor gave me before she retired. We shall see.
• On the work front, I don't anticipate life getting any less busy anytime soon. Even once Holy Week is over and done, we'll have summer to prepare for . . . and we're thinking of redoing some of the church signage, which means I get to do a bunch of research to figure out what that even looks like.
• I'm not even going to try to plan out my reading, other than the fact that I'll have several books to read or finish for review and I want to get some more mileage out of Kindle Unlimited before it goes back to full price and I cancel the subscription. I'm too tired to be anything but a mood reader.
• I want to keep using the treadmill semi-regularly. You might be saying, "But Sarah! It's spring! Go outside!" and to you, I reply: I do not like walking on the road. If I liked walking on the road, I would not have spent time and effort campaigning for a treadmill. I do hope to go outside and read, ideally in a hammock, and I will almost certainly end up outside to help clear up the tree that fell down in our yard the other day. (Don't worry! Nothing was damaged! It's not even a really big tree, thank goodness, and we knew it would come down eventually.) But I like to do my excercise where I can pair it with Critical Role or Leverage or another show. 
• I also kind of want to get better about stretching regularly so I don't end up with really bad consequences from sitting and staring at screens all the time? But I have to do research before I can properly commit to that. I'm just saying it here now so I'll have extra motivation to work on it.

How was your March? Any exciting plans for April? Have you preordered Mask of Scarlet and/or requested an ARC yet? Are you happy about spring's arrival? And do you prefer to do excercise inside or outside? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

February is Fantasy Month: Fandom VS. Fandom

 

So, today's post (and last week's post) was supposed to be about spoilers. Specifically, it was going to be about how spoilers affect how much someone enjoys a story. I did not finish writing that post. Instead, I started second-guessing myself, and in the end, I came to the conclusion that one analysis-type post in a month is enough and that the spoiler thoughts can wait until I have my thoughts in better order.

Instead, I'm tackling two of the Fantasy Month prompts at once and taking on some of the biggest battles in fandom — or, rather, between fandoms. We've probably all had to answer the Marvel or DC or Star Wars or Star Trek question or something similar at some point. And for this week's post, I'm taking on five such questions (three of which were helpfully supplied by my wonderful friends via text and Instagram), rapid-style. Which fandoms will prevail? Let's find out!

 

Fandom vs. Fandom

1. Marvel vs. DC? In most cases, I am an MCU girl through and through. I don't have time for unending angst and grittiness in books, much less movies, and Marvel gets that. Plus, they have Thor, Captain America, and Doctor Strange, who happen to be my three favorite superheroes. The exception? If you compare the two fandom-favorite "families" — which is to say, Irondad/Spiderson and the Batfam, the Batfam wins every single time by virtue of having a reasonable amount of canon backing and being delightfully chaotic and dramatic. (Granted, I've never actually picked up a Batman comic book or watched the animated series, so it's technically a secondhand fandom, but I've read enough of the actual comics reposted to various internet sites that I practically feel like it should count as a proper one of my fandoms at this point.)
2. Star Wars vs. Star Trek? Firefly. The answer is Firefly. Is this a cop-out? Maybe. But Firefly is my story, and I'm sticking to it. And it basically has the elements I like best from each of the other stories (the unpolished-ness and adventure and action and underdog/rebel narrative of Star Wars; the variety and exploration and some of the philosophicalness of Star Trek) wrapped up together with heists and found family — and, look, Han Solo is awesome, and I like Jean-Luc Picard, but Captain Mal Reynolds is where it's at.
3. The Lord of the Rings vs. Narnia? First off, I didn't think this was a competing fandom set, but it was suggested to me twice, so I'm going with it. Technically, I should probably say LOTR — when people ask me for my top three favorite series, LOTR is always in my answer, and Narnia is almost never. But I've also lived much more in Narnia than I have in Middle Earth, in that I've known it longer and read and listened to Narnia many more times. I suppose I'd have to say that LOTR is my favorite in terms of story and world — but Narnia is still, in many ways, home.
4. Disney/Pixar vs. Dreamworks? I wasn't going to do this one because I couldn't think of any Dreamworks movies I'd actually watched. And then I decided to double-check that and realized that wait a moment, Dreamworks did How to Train Your Dragon??? And that put enough weight on Dreamworks' side of the scale that the question was worth answering. Disney/Pixar still wins by virtue of Tangled, Beauty and the Beast (the original one, not the live-action one), and Big Hero Six. Also by virtue of not being responsible for a certain stupid movie about snails. But, if I actually watched all the animated movies I've been meaning to see for, oh, going on ten years now*, Dreamworks would have a very good chance.
5. Harry Potter vs. Percy Jackson? I'm pretty sure these aren't competing as much as they did similar things for consecutive generations, but I do know that both fandoms are still very active, so! I prefer Percy Jackson (specifically, Olympians and Heroes of Olympus; I didn't read anything after HoO ended) . . . mostly because Harry Potter uses a particular trope that just rubs me all the wrong ways, while Percy Jackson got an initial boost from my enduring love of mythology. Plus, I just like the PJO/HoO characters better than the Harry Potter characters. 

What's your position on any or each of these debates? Are there any big fandom vs. fandom questions that I missed? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

*This is list is also known as "All the movies that my friends/the internet were obsessed with back in 2013 or so.

September 2018 Doings!

Hey'a, everyone! To start off, I'm going to make something official that I've been doing unofficially for a while. Going forward, Doings! will be posted the first Friday of every month instead of the first day of every month. I hope that this will help with blog scheduling (since I won't have to worry about what to do when the first is a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday) and that it'll reduce my stress level a little (because I won't have to worry as much about not getting Doings! up on the first day of the month). Thanks so much for understanding and for sticking with me.

So, now that that's out of the way, let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• The main thing I have to say about writing this month: thank God for the Inklings. (Not the Lewis-Tolkien-and-co writing group. I mean, thank God for them too, but not in this case.) When I joined the Inklings Writing Org, I wasn't sure how it would go or what it would look like, but so far it's been seriously awesome. And by that, I mean that I get an hour and a half every Wednesday to sit down and work on whatever writing project is in front of me, with other writers around me who are also writing and therefore providing extra motivation solely by their existence in the same space as me. It's fabulous.
• Also thank God for my creative writing hall-friend who helped me whip one of my Actual Writing Job short stories in shape, even if whipping it into shape meant totally rewriting the story from scratch. The new version is definitely better than the original that I was struggling with in my last Doings! post.
• In other news, it's release month for Blood in the Snow and the other Magic Mirrors stories! I'm super excited! I finally figured out ebook formatting, so huzzah for that! We're still looking for people to join in the blog tour, so if you have a blog and you're interested in helping out me and my five fellow awesome authors, feel free to sign up! You can interview an author, shine a spotlight on a character, feature an author guest post, or review a book. It's going to be super awesome and y'all should join in.
• On the topic of the blog tour: I commissioned character art for three of my characters, and I'm SO EXCITED. Like, I might be almost as excited for the art as I am for the actual book release. That might be because I still have work to do before the book release and I don't have to do work on the art, but y'know.
• Also: I have an official author website and an author Facebook page! Feel free to check both out and like, follow, all that! No worries; the website doesn't mean I'm abandoning or moving my blog. Dreams and Dragons is staying right where it is, at least for the moment. But I want to start off with an official site instead of waiting to create one. I also have an official author photo, which means y'all get to see my actual face instead of the back of my head. I think that's exciting, but I'm not completely sure.

Reading!

• . . . Well. That was spectacularly unimpressive.
• I don't even know why I read so few books. I know I could've fit at least one more in there. Oh well.
• I enjoyed everything I read, at least. Specter was a fun return to Savannah Jezowski's Neverway stories, though I didn't like it as much as Briarstone Abbey. A Thousand Perfect Notes, Cait Grace's new book, was one I'd been looking forward to for a while, and it was really good, though also pretty heavy. And The Electrical Menagerie was just as fun and exciting and steampunky as I hoped it would be, with a splendid mystery as the cherry on top!
• Not pictured is my current read: Hank Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing. I just started it yesterday, and so far, I'm not sure what to think. It's definitely very different from most of what I read, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing.

Watching!

• Whooooo. This has been a busy month in terms of what I've watched, unlike what I've read. It's also been a month full of a lot of new things, which is awesome!
• First and most important: I've finally watched some Doctor Who. And by "some" I mean episodes 1, 2, and 4 of season one. Several of the other girls were getting together to watch it because another girl hasn't seen any of it, and I had nothing else to do those nights, so . . . yeah. I can see why everyone loves it so much, though I don't think it's my favorite show I've ever watched. I'm also not sure why I hear so much about people not liking Nine, because so far? I quite enjoy him.
• On the anime front, my roommate and I made it through the Eclipse Spirits arc of Fairy Tail. I . . . did not entirely enjoy the arc. Like, there were some pretty cool scenes? But it ended up being one of those "If you would've actually TALKED instead of just throwing punches, you could've solved this problem much more easily!" situations. So, yeah.
• That said: Cana's card battle with Scorpio? LOVED it. That was probably my favorite part of the whole arc. And I'm reasonably satisfied with the ending, so there's that.

• Now we're taking a break from Fairy Tail and watching the first season of Sword Art Online, which is basically the roommate's all-time favorite anime. We've made it through the first three episodes, and I think I like it? It's definitely a very different tone, art style, and overall feel from Fairy Tail, which isn't a bad thing but does take some mental adjusting. I have to say that the artwork is gorgeous, and the concept and ideas it explores are fascinating. I'm just not sure about the characters, basically, or the lack of humor. I mean, can I at least get a properly snarky character or two? Is that so much to ask?
• I've also watched some stuff sort-of on my own, for once! My current 2D Design project is basically creating a bunch of paint swatches (which I'll then turn into a color wheel and a bunch of color progression stuff), which means hours and hours of sitting, mixing paint, and painting squares of color. It's a pretty mindless task, which means it's an excellent opportunity to watch stuff. I started by getting caught up on Overly Sarcastic Productions (sarcastic recaps and explorations of various myths, legends, and literature; I highly recommend it), but then I moved on to . . .

• Miraculous Ladybug! I've heard so much about this show from my friends and Pinterest that I was starting to get really curious, and since I had time, I decided to give it a try. The first episode nearly turned me off — I liked the powers, and I always love a good superhero story, but I wasn't so sure about the animation style or the characters themselves. But I decided to give the second episode a chance . . . and then the third . . . and the next thing I knew, I'd watched six episodes and probably would've watched a seventh if I wasn't so close to being done for the day. So, yeah, that's a thing.
• I also finally watched Mulan all the way through while working on the same project. Some of my classmates started playing it on the classroom TV during our actual class time (the professor wasn't there since it was just a workshop day), and, storms, why did I not put in the effort to watch the whole movie before? Great story, great characters, great everything really, and way fewer secondhand embarrassment scenes than I expected. I love it. What even.
• . . . Aaaaaand then my classmates decided to put on Shrek when we finished Mulan. So now I've seen the first twenty or so minutes of that, and let me tell you, I'm not terribly impressed. I'll probably end up seeing the rest of it during the next class, assuming that we just get another workshop day, but I don't anticipate liking it terribly much. I don't think it's my type of movie.
• But, y'know? I think Shrek is still outweighed by all the fun stuff I've watched this month, so I'm not complaining at all.

Life!

I did napkin-holder art and I'm very pleased with it.

• College as usual. Classes are keeping me pretty busy. On the upside, I've gone through two 2D Design projects and enjoyed both of them! Plus, I got to make basically a mini escape game for Marketing Communication and it was one of my favorite projects I've ever done. (Except for the bit where a 3D graphic element took literally seven times as long as it should've to come out right. That was annoying.)
• The main downside of this semester is that I have more group work now than I've had in the last two years put together. By that, I mean that three of my five classes involve some sort of semester-long group project (broken up into smaller projects due over the course of the semester). It's . . . challenging. I mean, none of the groups are horrible, and one of them is actually pretty great. But I haven't worked with the people in the other two groups before, so figuring out how to function well together and how to reconcile our different perspectives on some of the projects will take some time.
• On the upside, orgs are going swimmingly. I already raved about the Inklings, but the Studio org is also pretty awesome. It's basically an hour to work on 2D projects while surrounded by other (much more skilled and experienced) art and design people, and yeah. It definitely helped me through those first two projects I mentioned earlier. And, of course, the Honors org is as awesome as ever. As I mentioned last month, I'm the org's secretary this year, and it's basically the perfect position for me? I have a decent say when we're planning events, but I'm not in a really noticeable role like the president or freshmen integrators, and I get to use some of what I learn in my major classes! Yeah, it's pretty great.
• I also have the opportunity to join a D&D group, and I'm seriously thinking about going for it. D&D is something I've wanted to try for a while now, but I always end up a step or two removed from any groups. The only problem is that this particular group meets right after Honors Quizbowl, which means I'd have to stop eating dinner with the Quizbowl gang and that I'd miss at least an hour of D&D the last Friday of every month (when we have Honors org dinner). I'm not terribly stressed about the time commitment; I don't usually get a lot done on Friday evenings, and I just have to make sure I have Friday 5s up and ready on time. And, I mean, that's doable. This post was ready pretty well ahead of time; the only reason it's going up so late is that I wanted to announce my author website. But I'm not a fan of ditching my Honors friends if I can avoid it.
• In other news: so, freshman year, there was this little bakery in the town of Cedarville. They made quiche and scones and pastries and cookies and desserts and all sorts of delicious things, and my roommate and I loved the place immensely. Unfortunately, last year, one of the owners became seriously ill, and the bakery closed. We thought it was gone for good . . . until this month, when we discovered that the bakery is back under new ownership! We're both super excited, as you can imagine. (Also, this means that going into town on the occasional Saturday for breakfast will probably involve stops at every breakfast-related eatery in town — I love the chai tea and smoothies at one coffeeshop, my roommate prefers the coffee at a different shop, and we want breakfast from the bakery. I'm not complaining, but I do find it amusing.)
• Also: Jazz Band continues to be the best. That is all.

October Plans!

• Most of October will probably be occupied by three things: classes, publishing, and editing Mechanical Heart.
• On that note: Blood in the Snow comes out on the 26th! AHHHHHHHHH. So excited!
• I also want to try to read and review at least some of the Magic Mirrors books before then, but we'll see if that happens or not.
• But I have Fall Break before that! I'm planning to go to my roommate's house again, and there has been talk of much Marvel-movie-watching. Specifically, Black Panther–watching. (And also Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp, but we all know which of those I'm most excited for.)
• I also need to really get busy with figuring out a costume for Halloween. I've had ideas for months, but which of those ideas are doable remains to be seen. Part of the problem is that I want to go as someone or something recognizable for my major's Halloween party because I'm tired of putting together awesome costumes that garner only blank, vaguely impressed looks. (I'm thinking about trying to do something based on a writing pun at this point? But I'm blanking on ideas. It's very frustrating.)
• And, of course, there'll be reading and watching-of-awesome-shows. It'll be a good time, hopefully.

That's it for my month. What about yours? How was your September? Any fun plans for October? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

August 2018 Doings!

Hello, everyone! August has been over for a week now, so I think it's high time that I post my Doings! On a side note, do you like this format for my monthly update posts? Do you think there's a good balance of topics in here? Sometimes I feel like I'm sort of just talking into the void with these posts, and that's fine, but if there's a way I can improve, I'd like to do that.

Writing!

• So, yes! If you missed it, I'm publishing Blood in the Snow as part of the Magic Mirrors group release! It comes out October 26, and I'm quite excited. Also nervous, because this is a big step, but mostly I'm excited.
• The first half of the month, I kept busy finishing up Mechanical Heart. I had to change the ending pretty substantially in order to be satisfied with it, but I think I got it figured out. That's not to say that the rest of the story won't need another hefty rewrite in some areas, but it is what it is . . . at least it's on the computer now, which means it's easier to cut out certain bits and put in new scenes.
• The other half of the month, I worked on two contemporary short stories for an Actual Writing Job. One is drafted and just needs to be edited. The other one . . . I've been working on it, but I'm struggling. I think I got the pacing wrong or something? It's going to need another serious rewrite.
• Other than that, I spent a good bit of time working on formatting for Blood in the Snow, only to discover that InDesign doesn't work half as well for formatting eBooks as I expected. Honestly, I think I would've been just as well off to do it in Word, and I honestly might do that going forward . . . At least I have an idea what I'm doing for the paperback. That's something.

Reading!

• GUYS. OBSIDIO. I HAVE NO WORDS.
• I love it, ok? Abso-storming-lutely love it. I saw next to none of the plot twists coming. The characters were awesome as ever. The relationships were great. (I especially love Nik and Ella — we need more fabulous siblings — and how Isaac tries to parent everyone — spec fic needs more parentals like Isaac, ok?) The ending — THE ENDING. The ending was amazing. Waaaaay less depressing than I expected. And AIDAN . . . AIDAN is something. I still don't know how I feel about him, but he's a thing, and I think the author handled him well.
• In other news, The Worth of a King is still amazing, and I love it, but if you were paying attention to the blog tour, you knew that already. I mean, I certainly screamed about it a lot. (Not enough. I cannot scream about Worth enough. Y'all should buy it and read it because it's amazing and Delaney is the actual best.)
• Isle of Blood and Stone was another good book, though not as good as Obsidio and Worth. It was less high-seas adventure and more mystery than I expected, but y'know what? I'm definitely not complaining. I'm always down for a good fantasy-mystery, and this one totally qualified. The main character was ok; the side characters were fascinating; and the villain was . . . not who I expected. Let's say that. I have a couple small quibbles with the book (like one particular aspect of the ending), but I'm not complaining.
• I read two anthologies this month. The first is Tales of Ever After; the second, The Madman of Elkriahl and Other Stories. Ever After is the latest Fellowship of Fantasy anthology and contained the usual mix of excellent, average, and meh. Madman is by my friend Emmarayn Redding and contains stories that feel very much like original Grimm fairy tales (including some darker elements). I'd recommend both books.
• And, as you may notice, I've picked up the Harry Potter series again. I'm no longer reading it at the same time as the roomie (because that failed last year), so I should be able to make it through the rest of the series this semester, even with review books and everything else I need to do. Anyway, Goblet of Fire was definitely the best yet, and I enjoyed the storyline . . . even if certain things do make me sad.
• And now for a few good-but-not-amazing books: The Spirit Well is the third Bright Empires book and involves my usual quibbles with the series . . . but did feature more Wilhemina than other books, which I was very happy about. Eliza and Her Monsters was good and featured delightful online friendships, but I found myself unable to understand why Eliza made the choices she did as often as not. And Spice Bringer was interesting, but I also had concerns about certain elements of the story and worldbuilding.

Watching & Listening

• So, I finally finished the Grand Magic Games arc. Finally. Pro tip: don't stop an anime arc five episodes before it ends and then pick it up again two months later. You'll get there and realize that you remember unfortunately little about what happened last. And then the first two episodes you watch will be super depressing and you'll be internally screaming and your texts to your roommate will look something like this:

• So, yeah. That happened. And no, I don't normally send my roommate long text strings like that, but this was a special circumstance. The rest of the arc was good, though! And now we're watching the Eclipse Spirits arc, and . . . well, at least I don't think it's another save-the-world story? It's more personal, which is nice. But I'm very upset about things all the same.

• I also finally watched Thor: Ragnarok! It wasn't quite as amazing as the internet claimed, but it was still pretty awesome. I love a good sibling story, and Thor is probably one of the most sensible characterss in the MCU at the moment. So that was pleasant. Valkyrie's pretty fabulous too. And the final battle? 100% just as good as everyone on the internet said it was. I literally had to go look it up on YouTube about a week ago just so I could watch it again.

• And my family watched Mary Poppins the weekend before I went back to Cedarville, and oh storms I had forgotten how much I enjoy that movie. Pretty sure it used to be my favorite Disney movie, or at least in my top five, and it's definitely back up there again. But it seems to have gone out of fashion with a lot of the internet since I never see anyone talking about it except for "Mary Poppins was secretly a _____" crossover headcanons with other fandoms. And that's sad, because, yes, it's a fun movie, but it also has a message that I think we need more than ever now, and I'm not talking about the bit about cheerfulness. Because, yes, Mary Poppins has a lot to say about that, but the truer message is the need for families to support each other, to come together. Mary Poppins didn't come to the Banks family just to sing a song or two about cheerfulness and ridiculous words and spoonfuls of sugar. She came to make the family start acting like a family; to cease being wrapped up in their own worlds and to recognize the need to help and support one another — all of them! And that's a message always worth hearing.
• (And, as pointed out by the closest thing this movie has to an antagonist, "While stand the Banks of England, England stands. When fall the Banks of England, England falls!" True, he was talking about the institution, but it's by the Bankses, the ordinary families, that England and any other county stand or fall.)

Doings!

• The main event of the month was the return to college, of course. I've been back since the 17th and so far everything's going smoothly. I'm enjoying most of my classes, even the ones I was stressed about. 2D Design doesn't involve nearly as much actual drawing as I expected — thank God for that! The first few projects are all fairly abstract, which I can definitely handle. I mean, the objective is to make things that don't look like real things. That's not a problem. The problem is when I have to draw realistic things.
• I will admit that Instructional Design (the class I was most excited for before the start of the semester) isn't quite as awesome as I hoped. Right now, it's a lot of theory and process and not a lot of actual writing and design, so . . . yeah. That's a bit annoying. I'm trying to reserve judgment, though, because it's a two-part class, and I think that the stuff I'm excited for is mostly in the second half.
• The rest of my classes are good, though!
• I'm also the secretary for the Honors Org, which is interesting. So far, the most challenging thing has been figuring out lists on MailChimp (because I royally messed up several times and had to make whole new lists twice). But I have it worked out now! And the rest of what I do isn't terribly difficult; it's mostly emails and meeting notes and updating member lists, all of which are quite manageable.
• And that's a good thing because Cedarville has gone from no creative orgs to all the creative orgs. And because none of them require dues or extremely consistent attendance, I've basically joined all of them. There's The Studio (art and design; their sketch nights are delightful), The Inklings (creative writing; no points for guessing where they got the name), Photography Club (I couldn't make it to the first meeting, but I'm excited!), and C3 (Creative, Collaborative, Community; basically an org for all creatives, no matter their medium). With those, Honors, my hall, and whatever exercise stuff I decide to do, my evenings are going to be pretty full . . . but I'm not complaining. Honors is the only org that I can't skip if necessary, and I think the other orgs are going to be super helpful for staying motivated with various creative things.
• Oh, and there have been excursions! Our first full weekend back, my roommate, her parents, a few friends from the hall, and I all went to King's Island, where I discovered that wooden roller coasters are the actual best. (I went on three — three! And I would've gladly ridden any of them again.) I also went on my first looping/upside-down rollercoaster, the Firehawk, and have decided to never repeat the experience. I mean, in hindsight, I'm glad I did it the once, and I hope to draw on the experience as story research — the roller coaster's thing is that you're basically on your stomach, facing the ground, the whole time, so you feel like you're flying Superman-style — but it was also terrifying and I screamed the entire time. So, yeah.

• My roommate, a different hall friend group, and I also went to the Rennaissance Faire again this year! Several of us actually dressed up, which was exciting. Unfortunately, it was a lot hotter and sunnier than last year, which meant we all kind of died of heatstroke and dehydration. (But we lived! So it's fine!) We ended up spending much more time watching shows and much less time wandering through shops than we did last year, which I was a little disappointed about? But it was still fun. And the joust was fabulous. (There was a female knight. She wasn't the knight for our side of the field, which meant I wasn't supposed to cheer for her, but I did anyway. And she won in the end, and I'm not disappointed.)
• I'm sure that something happened before I went back to Cedarville? But honestly, I don't remember much about it. I know I got a hammock, which is exciting. And I did more work for my internship, which was interesting. And my family and I did stuff.
• Also, I made myself a new skirt. It has pockets. I'm very happy about it, even though I haven't worn it yet. (It's too heavy for the current weather.)

September Plans!

• Obviously, most of my time will be taken up by classes, because college. I'm still trying to really find the rhythm of classes and homework and social time and everything else. In particular, I'm trying to figure out which orgs and activities (other than TDK) I'm going to do regularly and which ones I'm doing irregularly and which ones I'm not doing at all. It's a challenge; everything sounds fun but I don't have time to do it all.
• Besides that, I'm still working part-time at my internship, though that's slowed down quite a bit. I also plan to start reviewing books for the college newspaper again soon, which should be fun! I'm really excited for the lineup of books I have planned; I just hope that my editor likes my suggestions.
• And, of course, most of my time will be taken up by working on formatting and Blood in the Snow and putting together all the extra, non-story bits that go into a book. I do hope to work a bit on Mechanical Heart as well, and, of course, I have my short stories for my writing job to edit. Those will be interesting . . . one of them definitely needs a serious rewrite before I can send it in.
• So, yeah. That pretty much sums up my plans. September should be a quiet month, but hopefully it'll be a good one.

How was your August? Have any fun plans for September? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Random Fridays: Childhood Favorites

http://bookworm716.blogspot.com

A few months ago, I did a Random Fridays post about some of my favorite books, movies, and videos from when I was a kid. I had no idea at the time that Emma would make that the specific theme of this week's Random Friday. But since I had a lot of fun writing that post, I'm pretty excited to write another one with the same theme of favorite childhood books, movies, and TV shows. And possibly other things, depending on what I think of.

The Books:

(Yes, I had way more favorites than what I mentioned last time.)

  

Grimms' Fairy Tales

No, my love of fairy tales is definitely not a recent thing- just my love of fairy tale remakes. I don't remember exactly how old I was when my grammy bought me a book of Grimms' Complete Fairy Tales, but I do remember reading that book quite a bit- probably more than any other book of fairy tales I'd had before then. My tastes then were rather different from now, though. I barely gave "Rapunzel" a glance (I'd heard it plenty of times already), "King Thrushbeard" I outright disliked, and while I liked "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" well enough, it certainly wasn't my favorite. I preferred less well-known stories, like "The Six Servants", in which a king's son, aided by six companions with rather bizarre powers, won the hand of a sorceress-queen's beautiful daughter. (And now that I think of it, I rather want to try my hand at retelling that tale!)

The Chronicles of Narnia

Narnia, fairy tales, and The Hobbit- you pretty much have half of my childhood reading list right there. The Chronicles of Narnia were probably the first "real" fantasy books I read, and I'd listened to them- either read to me by my parents or as the Focus on the Family dramatizations- even before that. I used to love Voyage of the Dawn Treader most, though I can't recall for sure why. Ironically, some of the books I liked least then, The Horse and His Boy and The Last Battle, are probably my favorites now.

Caddie Woodlawn

Like most kids, I read the Little House books. (Possibly unlike most kids, I read all five series- Martha (my favorite), Charlotte, Caroline, Laura, and Rose (my least favorite).) I also read Caddie Woodlawn, a somewhat similar (though mostly fictional) book, and in some ways liked it better. It seemed a bit more relatable, since it was more a growing up story than a frontier life story. It was also funnier, but then again, fiction generally is funnier than reality.

The Movies:

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

We watched this movie a lot, both because I and the rest of my family enjoyed it and because it provided a compromise. It was shorter than Mary Poppins or Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (both of which I suggested fairly often), my sister and I enjoyed it, and it wasn't animated (which Daddy could only take so much of). I really enjoyed the movie, and want to watch it again sometime, but unfortunately the part I remember most is the Oompa Loompa's song . . . which tends to get stuck in my head at annoying time and won't. come. out. 

Mary Poppins

I think I mostly liked this movie for the music- for a while, all my favorite Disney songs were from Mary Poppins. Of course, the rest of the movie is pretty fun too, especially when you realize how many nods to the book are actually in there (which I didn't realize then, naturally, but do now). As I mentioned before, we didn't watch it a lot because it's a long movie and my sister and I had to, you know, go to bed at a reasonable time. Now I think I should watch it again sometime . . . 

 Other Things

Jungle Jam and Friends: The Radio Show

Someone please tell me that I'm not the only one who loved Jungle Jam? I never listened to it on the radio, but we had nearly all the episodes (as far as I know) on cassette, and we also had CD versions of two of the cassette albums. For a while, car trips meant listening to Jungle Jam, and later (when The Chronicles of Narnia and other audiobooks became the norm), I listened to them by myself. And like VeggieTales, I still enjoy some Jungle Jam now and then.

Beethoven's Wig

For a while, I'm pretty sure this was the only music I really listened to. For those of you who don't know, the Beethoven's Wig CDs were meant to introduce kids to classical music: they contained pieces of classical compositions paired with funny lyrics, followed by those same pieces without words. Of course, being a kid who hadn't yet learned to appreciate the value of instrumental music, I only really listened to half the songs on each CD- but I definitely enjoyed them.  

Random Fridays: Disney Songs!

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Hello, everyone! This week's Random Friday topic is extra fun, in my opinion. Today, I'll be blogging about Disney songs! And who doesn't love a good Disney song? These are some of my favorites, in no particular order.

Let's start off with one from Tangled, my favorite Disney movie. 7 AM, the usual morning line-up . . .

I think I need to take lessons from Rapunzel in getting things done. All that in one day! Of course, I guess if you don't have anything else to do . . .

Favorite Movies Tag

Hello, everyone! I've been tagged by Hannah from The Writer's Window. For this one, I'm supposed to list my favorite movies. Because I love a lot of movies, I'm going to stick with my top six.
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The Lord of the Rings

 If I had to pick one and only one movie to watch for the rest of my life, I would chose The Lord of the Rings. The word "epic" is often used flippantly, and I confess that I'm guilty of doing so myself, but when it comes to The Lord of the Rings, "epic" is anything but an understatement. I could go on and on about it, but that would take a while, so we'd better move on.

 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Yes, they changed and added a lot. Yes, it was a long movie. But YES, it's still only one step down from the top on my list of favorite movies. One of the things I loved best about An Unexpected Journey was how the dwarves came to life. When you read The Hobbit, you don't really think about many of the thirteen dwarves and how they may very well have their own smaller stories within the bigger one, but in the movie, you're reminded that they each have their own personality, their own story.
 

These next two are pretty much tied for third place:

Tangled
and

Brave
In case no one's noticed, I love fairy tales, fairy tale remakes, and stories that remind me of fairy tales or fairy tale remakes. So, it should come as no surprise that these two would make it onto my favorite movies list. Tangled is ridiculously hilarious and awesome. I love the character growth you see in both Flynn and Rapunzel, all the hilarious lines, and also the fact that they're using a skillet as a weapon. It's probably my favorite Disney movie. (Rapunzel also happens to be my second favorite Disney princess, loosing by an incredibly tiny margin to, guess who . . .)

Yep. Merida of Brave. While a bit more scary and a bit less funny than Tangled, I still love it. I like the whole true love/happily-ever-after dynamic for fairy tales, but it is nice to see something that has a fairy tale feel without romance. Also, I love the way Merida's relationship with her mother develops, and let's face it, Merida's whole family is pretty awesome. Add onto that the fact that, as I mentioned, Merida's my favorite Disney princess (awesome hair+awesome accent+mad skills with a bow and sword+great personality and character development=Sarah's favorite) and it's really no wonder that this is one of my favorite Disney movies.

I want to not go overboard with this, so I'll just do two more movies.

 The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
I go back and forth on which Narnia movie I like best quite a bit, but I keep coming back to The Lion, the Witch, an the Wardrobe. I think it's because, of the three Narnia movies, this one stays most accurate to the book. Also, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is one of my top three favorite Narnia books.

The Princess Bride

 Probably the most quoted movie of all time, not to mention one of the funniest. Also, it fits into the fairy-tale genre quite nicely while still turning some of the usual cliches upside down. (So, it should be no surprise that I like it!) And did I mention that it's incredibly funny?

Well, I hope you enjoyed this tag. Thanks for reading! And sorry for taking so long on this post, Hannah!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)