March 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! It's Good Friday, and March is almost over, and that means it's time for Doings! March has been better than I expected in some respects and worse in others, but on the whole, it's been a decent month filled with some very good stories. I'm excited to tell you about it, so let's get going!

Writing!

• In some respects, on paper, March looks like another not-great writing month. I didn't finish drafting my DOSA Files story (I barely started it), I didn't finish my next D&D adventure or the travel interlude I added at the last minute, I didn't get a full 40K words on Daughters of Atirse #2, and I definitely didn't finish Atirse #2.
• That said, I feel like March was still an improvement over February. I may not have hit 40K on Daughters of Atirse, but I got close — 33K, probably rising to 36K over the weekend, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially as I was working through a troublesome section of the plot. I'm also pretty happy with the quality of most of what I wrote, and I think it's reasonable to expect that I can finish the draft next month. I also commissioned character art of two of the main characters, and I cannot wait for when I get to share it. It's so pretty, I can't even. It's by the lovely Scarvenartist, who's also done art for Gillian Bronte Adams, and I cannot recommend her highly enough.
• Additionally, even if I didn't finish either D&D project, I made progress on both, and the travel interlude is pretty close to finished. And I'm back to having time to get the original adventure sorted out, as the party chose to travel via the route most likely to involve Problems. I will note that they were warned that they were going the dangerous route; they just decided to do it anyway.
• I am a little upset with myself for not working more on the DOSA Files story, but it's ok. I needed to prioritize other things, and that's how it is sometimes.
• Overall, though, I'm happy with how my writing went this month. I'm also pleased that I didn't really have to resort to the plan I mentioned in my February 2024 Doings, taking extra time to rest before I start writing. Between the warmer weather and the fact that work was less stressful than I expected, I generally wasn't as tired in the evenings — and I had another factor giving me some extra motivation to focus, but I'll talk about that in a later section.
• Also, on a more definitely-successful note, I did have an author event this month that I think went well! On March 2, I joined Heather Halverstadt and Realm Writers Mid-Atlantic at a nearby craft fair, with all my books in tow. While the event was tiring (even though I didn't stay the whole time), I got to have some really good conversations there, and I sold some books, so that's also lovely. (Side note: if you found me at that craft fair and you're reading this now, hello! Welcome! So glad to have you! Please say hi in the comments!) Plus, my family went out to a new location of our favorite Mexican restaurant afterward — that's not really writing-related, but it was in the same event, so it totally counts for this section.
• Oh, and I found out that Song of the Selkies and "Grim Guardian" both made the Realm Awards long list, so that's exciting! We're still waiting to find out if either will make the finalists as well . . .

Reading!

• The books I read at the start of this month feel so far away in relation to now. It's weird. Anyway —
• Let's start with the new-to-me reads, which include one just-for-fun read, one class read, and three ARCs (one of which isn't pictured). Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries popped up on everyone's 2023 best-of lists, so I knew I had to get my hands on it, and having read it, I agree with everyone's assessment. This was an excellent book; I did have a little trouble getting into it, but once Bambleby showed up, I was properly hooked. We have fae, academia, adventures, Howl-and-Sophie vibes . . . it's great. If you enjoy Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Sharp and Miss Dark books, this will probably be right up your alley.
• As for the ARCS: I already reviewed Water Horse, so I recommend you go read my thoughts instead of me repeating myself. Nobody's Hero was a fun, fast-paced superhero adventure in the same vein as H.L. Burke's Supervillain Rehabilitation Project series; I'm not obsessing over it, but I liked the characters, the world, and the storyline, and I'll probably read the next book. Finally, not pictured is Dark & Dawn, book 4 of the Miss Dark's Apparitions series, which I'm currently reading but will almost certainly finish over the weekend. As of writing, I'm about halfway through and thoroughly enjoying it — the character dynamics are impeccable as ever, and I am extremely eager to see where this job goes for Molly and the rest of the group.
• The class-required-read was How I Know God Answers Prayer, a memoir by 19th-century missionary Rosalind Goforth in which she recounts various occasions in which God answered or didn't answer her prayers in notable ways. I didn't love it, but I liked it more than I expected to, and it's arguably been the best thing I got out of the class so far, so . . . there's that.
• We also have two miscellaneous rereads. Towards the end of February, Prydain Chronicles-related stuff kept popping up in my internet circles, and I got an itch to reread the series. I only managed The Book of Three before other books (that either had closer due dates or review-required dates) took precedence, but revisiting that one was fun, and I plan to finish the series in April. And DragonFire, which I read for the book club/readalong some of my friends and I have been doing, was naturally enjoyable. It's not my favorite in the series, but I do appreciate it more every time I read it.
• Finally, we have several email-subscription books. I finished Fellowship of the Ring towards the beginning of the month, as I was running behind reading the daily entries. The subscription went down after that, so I will not be continuing the reread at this time. I already have enough other email subscription stories to read! For example: A Study in Scarlet, courtesy of the Letters from Watson Substack, which I started in January and finished midway through this month. I didn't much like A Study in Scarlet when I first read it, as I preferred the short stories, but I enjoyed it more this time around. And I finally finished reading Dante's Divine Comedy, which started on Good Friday of 2023. I confess that I've been skimming the cantos more than actually reading them for a while now, but . . . at least I can say I've read it!
• On the topic of email-subscription books, I've been very much enjoying the Letters Regarding Jeeves Substack, though I'm not very good at keeping on top of it. I've never read the Jeeves and Wooster stories before, and this seems to be an excellent way to do it. The small doses mean I can appreciate the humor without getting caught up in secondhand embarrassment, and the stories themselves are pretty clever.

 Watching & Playing!

• This section is heavy on the "playing" and light on the "watching" this month, so I'm glad I expanded it! Somewhat unsurprisingly, I've watched pretty much nothing this month — no movies, no streaming shows, and (somewhat more surprisingly), hardly any YouTube.
• I have, however, enjoyed a lot of podcasts! (Or, a lot for me, anyway.) I finished the second season of Wolf 359 (very good! much exciting stuff going on!) and then took a couple weeks' breather because dear goodness the last several episodes were intense. Also, I needed to catch up on Dear Hank & John before I got ridiculously behind, and I wanted to work through more of my test episodes from the long list of recommendations I solicited back in January.
• That list, for the record, is still very long, but I'm slowly getting through it and getting a better feel for what kinds of podcasts I actually like and what I don't vibe with. And I do have everything on that list actually written down in a note instead of just held in my Google Podcasts queue, so I won't lose it all when I inevitably have to switch apps!
• On a that note, Google is apparently discontinuing their podcast app and forcing a switch to listening to podcasts via YouTube Music . . . but I don't like the YouTube Music podcast interface, so I'm looking for a new app. If anyone has recommendations of what they use, please share!
• I've also been doing a lot of gaming this month, specifically playing Honkai Star Rail, a space-fantasy action RPG recommended to me by a friend. I'm not very far in — only partway through the second main quest — but I'm really enjoying it! The storyline is fun, the artwork is gorgeous, and there are a lot of cool characters to meet and get to know. I did have trouble figuring out some of the mechanics at first (especially because this is my first time playing this kind of game), but I was able to pick up the essentials without too much trouble, and the friend who recommended it helped me figure out some of the other stuff I was confused about.
• Also, weirdly enough, I think the fact that I'm gaming more has helped my writing productivity? I don't play unless I'm satisfied that I have everything else done that I need to do that day, and having something that I'm looking forward to doing after I write gives me extra motivation to not get distracted. And that extra motivation and focus mean that my writing flows better, which in turn means that I'm more likely to pass my wordcount goal because I'm really into what I'm writing or because, when I reach my goal for the day, I'm a hundred-odd words away from some very satisfying manuscript wordcount and I might as well just push a little further and get there. I don't know how long this will continue to work, but as long as it does, I'm happy!

Life!

 

• March was a bit less stressful than I expected in some ways and a bit more stressful than expected on others.
• Work was actually a lot more chill than I thought it would be. Usually, Lent and Easter make up one of our busiest seasons, and I expected the fact that this year would be worse than usual because there was so little time between the end of Christmas and the start of Lent. However, one of the projects I thought would take up a lot of time (new devotionals for Stations of the Cross) instead got cancelled, so all I had to do was update the devotionals we had. That still took time, but not nearly as much. I also managed to work ahead on a lot of the graphics, which lowered the overall pressure even further. And while I did spend most of this past week racing to front-load as many tasks as possible, just in case I ended up sick by Wednesday, I remained healthy aside from allergies (praise God!) and ended up with a really light Thursday as a result. So, I'm definitely thanking God for all of that.
• Grad school, on the other hand, was much less chill. My technical writing class ended well; though the final assignment took more time to put together than I thought it would, the end result turned out really well. The new editing and publishing class, on the other hand, has been . . . frustrating. I don't agree with the professors' positions on certain types of writing (because I feel like they're promoting a particularly unhelpful misconception), and the first big assignment of the class (due this weekend) has been . . . problematic. I wanted to work ahead on it so that I would have it ready to turn in this past Tuesday or Wednesday and I wouldn't have to worry about it on Easter weekend, but instead I had three false starts before I figured out how to write it in a way that didn't make me kind of hate everything. Part of the problem is that the assignment is essentially a personal essay about my faith development, which sounds like it should be easy . . . but I don't actually like writing about myself that much outside of blogging. I almost always feel like I'm being overdramatic, and the angle I initially tried to use for the assignment was particularly vulnerable to that concern. Thankfully, I think I've figured out how to get around the problem, which is to write the thing mostly about books and fantasy media and bring myself in slant-wise. Basically, though, the whole class just seems calculated to hit on all my greatest frustrations while taunting me with how much I'd like to just be able to say "I have published seven books, and I did all the editing, layout, and such myself; also this is literally 70% of my day job; do I really need to be here?"
• Still, it's better than grant writing!
• I want a more cheerful subject, so let's talk about food. My Baking Yesteryear recipe for March was Cowboy Cookies, basically oatmeal cookies with coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips mixed in. They were very tasty, and I definitely think I'll make them again, though next time I might toast the coconut longer and substitute butterscotch chips for half of the chocolate. And March 14 is, of course, Pi Day, and I celebrated with pie or pie-adjacent foods at every meal: quiche at breakfast, store-bought apple pie at lunch, and homemade spaghetti pie and pecan pie at dinner. It was, as you can probably tell, a very good day.
• D&D has also been going well. In my long-running group, we fought an ancient dracolich in our most recent session, which was really cool but also terrifying because, you know, ancient undead black dragon. And half our party can't even hit it properly because we're primarily melee fighters and the dragon has both wings and an annoying habit of hanging out in the shadows, out of reach of our lights. We did beat it, though, after a magnificent Touch of Death from our cleric and a fourth-level Divine Smite from me (the one hit of mine that I remember actually landing during the entire fight). We're getting steadily closer and closer to the end of the campaign, and it's exciting, though also really weird to think about — we've been playing this for five or six years now. We do have plans for another campaign after this, though, so our group hopefully isn't going to break up anytime soon.
• The 4e campaign I just joined had its second session this month, which was mostly taken up by combat. Adapting to 4e's style of combat was a little bit of a challenge for me, but thankfully, one thing carries over from 5e: the rogue's best tactic is to hide, shoot, and hide again! And rogues are shaping up to be just as fun to play as I thought they would be.
• On the topic of D&D, I had my first actual run-in with someone who genuinely believed D&D is a gateway to the occult, so that was interesting (and kind of feels like an . . . achievement? milestone?). The person in question is a newcomer to our Bible study who overheard me mention to someone else that I play D&D on the weekends and stepped in to voice her concerns. I'd been internally preparing for a version of that conversation for a bit (because I knew she had a similar objection to Harry Potter), but I was still pretty nervous — I really did not want the center of dissent in the Bible study, even if I was pretty confident that most people would back me up if things got ugly.  Thankfully, the person making the comments was speaking from a place of genuine concern, not judgement, and it turned out that she doesn't really know a lot about D&D, so once I explained to her what D&D and fantasy in general were for me and my faith, we were able to reach an amicable conclusion. And the conversation did later inspire my idea for what to do about my current grad school assignment, so I guess I have to thank her for that, ha!
• We'll wrap up with Easter, though it hasn't quite happened yet as of writing. We won't be celebrating with our Bible study like we normally do, due to people being out of town, but we still have plans I'm looking forward to, namely attending our church's Saturday service and inviting a few friends over for Easter lunch. I'm making a coconut cake; it's going to be great.

April Plans

• As I said already, I think I can reasonably finish Daughters of Atirse #2 (which is so close to having an actual title, by the way) by the end of April, so I'm aiming to do just that — or, at least, to get within a few chapters of finishing. As such, I'm putting my loose wordcount goal at 40,000 words again, and we'll see if that works out. April is going to be another Realm-Makers-equivalent-to-NaNoWriMo month, so that should help give me the boost I need! There's nothing like a daily check-in and word sprinting buddies to help keep you on track.
• I also need to properly draft, edit, and submit my DOSA Files story, which I haven't given up on yet. While there's not much on paper at the moment, I've been letting it mature in the back of my mind, and I think I worked out one of my last major plot problems. And it's only 10,000 words, max, so writing it shouldn't take that long.
• I'm hoping that the current grad school class will become less frustrating as time goes on. I'm hoping that this past week is about as bad as it's going to get. If it is, the rest of the class will be annoying, but bearable. If it goes downhill from here . . . well, we'll see what happens. Work, at least, should be chill — the period right after something like Easter or Christmas almost always is.
• On the reading front, I have a couple more ARCs that I'm looking forward to, and I also hope to get back to my Prydain reread. And if I have a free weekend sometime, I have high hopes of going through my bookshelves to reorganize, weed out the books I know I'm not going to read or reread, and make space for new stories. (This is something I've been planning to do for a while now . . . but it's spring now, so hopefully that will make a difference.)
• Outside of all those things, I'm looking forward to more gaming, more D&D, and continuing to work on assorted small craft projects until I can psych myself up for another big thing.

How was your March? Any plans for April? How do you listen to podcasts? What are your Easter plans (or how did you celebrate, if you're reading this the week after Easter)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

February Doings!

Hello, all. February is over, and March is over, which means it's time for another Doings! post. This has been a long and tiring month — exactly what I expect February to be most years, actually, but not what it usually actually is. The past several years, I've gone into February with dread and found it wasn't half as bad as I feared. This year, I went into the month with an impressive level of optimism, and now I am tired.

Writing!

• This was . . . well, it was a frustrating month, writing-wise. Technically, it was very productive, as I added about 30K more words to Daughters of Atirse #2, which is the same number of actually-drafting words I wrote in January. Unfortunately, I was hoping for about 10K more than I actually achieved, thus my frustration.
• Why the (comparatively) lower wordcount? There are two factors in play in the answer to that question. For one thing, in January, I spent multiple Saturday mornings doing writing sprints with the RealmSphere group, while in February, I had to set up my own sprints if I wanted them . . . and, of course, I had relatively few free Saturdays to spend sprinting. For another thing, I had a lot more days when I came home really tired from work, had a hard time starting my evening writing session (or focusing once I'd started), and ended up saying "I wrote something, and that'll be good enough; I'm going to bed."
• The fact that I was also navigating a section of the book where I had fewer clear ideas of what happens when also didn't help. I had several key scenes figured out, but I didn't have a good idea of exactly what connected them, and navigating that is always tricky. I am almost to the point where that problem should start to clear up, thankfully.
• As for other writing projects: I made a little progress on my D&D adventure (not as much as I should've, but still better than nothing, given that it was not at any point this month my first, second, or third priority), and I did not work on my DOSA Files story. Originally I was going to wait to write it until I finished Onora's story, but at this point, I'm halfway wondering if taking a week or weekend mostly off from Onora to focus on that might help more than it would hurt.

Reading!

• My reading was another pretty mixed bag, though I did get to some books I'd been meaning to read for a long time, and almost everything I read was new to me.
• The month started out strong with Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, which I meant to read back at Christmas and didn't get to — it's not a Christmas book, but it has some significant Christmas-related scenes. I'm not sure why it has Christmas when it's not set on Earth, but . . . it's a middle grade novel, and it's fun and whimsical without lacking heart. And while it does flirt with a trope that has made me put books down in the past (magical secret world that looks down on the mundane world outside), it gets a pass by being very clear about the fact that the secret world has its problems too and also by being a little more justified in its secrecy and closed-off-ness than some other secret worlds I can think of but won't name here. It's not a perfect book, and I guessed several of the twists, but it was a fun read.
• The fun thing about February is that it's Blind Date with a Book month. I only had two blind dates this year: Dragonsong, which I've meant to read for a while, and The Tiger's Wife, which I'd never heard of before now. Dragonsong was a good book with an interesting world and, of course, dragons, but I had a really hard time getting through the first half because I kept wanting to give side characters a good shaking. It picked up in the second half, though, which happened to be the half that involved more dragons. As for The Tiger's Wife, it was magical realism set in the Balkans, about a young doctor and her memories of and relationship with her grandfather and her grandfather's memory of his past. I had mixed feelings about it — it's well-written, and it uses a little-known fairy tale in a very interesting way, but it's also vaguely depressing in the way many literary fiction books seem to be, and so I don't think I'm likely to reread it.
• My other three new-to-me reads all fell in the category of "didn't love it, didn't hate it." I'd heard good things about the Detective Conan manga series, but the first book didn't wow me — the mysteries are good, and the concept is interesting, but there's a major side character who makes me mad. I plan to try to continue the series in order to give it a fair trial, but yeah. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off is a creative nonfiction thing about the cultures and practices that surround knitting, and it was ok, but I like her more memoir/autobiographical books better. Lawless is a book with a cool concept — Western-dystopian-ish sci-fi retellings of the book of Judges — but it's also an anthology, and as is typical of anthology, I really enjoyed some stories ("The Mark," a retelling of Gideon, was probably my favorite), really disliked others, and had no strong feelings one way or another about the rest. Also . . . it's Judges. "Every man did what was right in his own eyes" and all that. I appreciate some well-applied grittiness, but sometimes it went a little further than what I, personally, was comfortable with.
• We finish up with the rereads. Rumplestiltskin's Bargain is another of Kendra E. Ardnek's Twisted Time series, and it's a pretty cool take on the story of Rumplestiltskin. And DragonKnight was, of course, excellent. It's my favorite in the DragonKeeper Chronicles, and returning to the story is always a joy. And I got to read it alongside someone who was discovering it for the first time, so that was also a lot of fun. Definitely a good way to finish up the month.

 Watching & Playing!

• I watched exactly one thing this month that wasn't a short-form YouTube video, and that was The Princess Bride right before Valentine's Day. As always, it was a delight. I think I shocked the rest of my family by saying that not only was I definitely interested in watching something on my surprise-free-evening, but I also had a very specific movie I wanted to watch! But I had seen a lot of Princess Bride-related posts in the previous weeks, and I hadn't watched it in a while, so it seemed like a good time. And, again, it was.
• Also, because I want to keep this section interesting, I'm expanding it to include other types of non-book media I enjoyed during the month, specifically podcasts and video games. I made this decision in large part because I've been listening to the Wolf 359 podcast, and it is so good. I technically started it back in January, but I really got hooked this month. It's a sci-fi story about a small crew on a deep space mission orbiting a star far from earth, and the storyline slowly expands from sitcom-style shenanigans to intrigue, betrayal, and mystery. I'm about halfway through Season 2, and again, it is so good. If you are a fan of either Star Trek or Schlock Mercenary (or, you know, sci-fi in general), check it out! Also! It's only about sixty episodes long, so it won't take that long to get through, especially if you (unlike me) listen to podcasts more than just on one half of your commute.
• I've also been doing some gaming, sometimes as a reward for actually finishing my to-do list early and sometimes as a way to give my brain a break between tasks. Mostly I've been playing through The Stanley Parable: Ultra-Deluxe, which is a re-release that came out a few years ago and has quite a bit of new content. I know this game isn't for everyone, and it does get a bit nihilistic or absurdist at times . . . but it's fun, and a lot of it is about storytelling — the types of stories we tell, the ways in which we tell them, and also what it's like when your characters (or your players, if you're a D&D DM, which is a form of storytelling as well) repeatedly defy you. So, obviously, I appreciate that element.
• And, in usual Sarah fashion, I'm finally playing the Portal 2 co-op levels with my sister. We did one gaming session together this past weekend in which we completed the first two sets of levels, and we had a grand time solving the puzzles together, being silly with the gesture function, and snarking back at GLaDOS when she makes sarcastic comments at us. I introduced my sister to Portal a couple years ago via playing simultaneously with her one summer, and I'm really glad I get to play with her again. (It's anyone's guess when we'll play next, but . . . y'know. Hopefully it won't be too long.)
• (Also, in case anyone, including my future self, was about to say or think something to the effect of "You know, the fact that you've been gaming might also have something to do with your lower wordcount this month," I just want to clarify: I had five gaming days across the entire month of February, one of them was also my highest wordcount day of the month, and all but one of them were on days I wrote at least a thousand words. The games are not the problem here. My brain, my schedule, my energy levels, my characters, and my outline are.)

Life!

• This has been a busy month, but not in a way that produces a lot of stuff worth talking about.
• Grad school stuff is still going well, though it's definitely picking up with some larger and more effort-intensive assignments. I'm still enjoying the class reasonably well, but I'm also ready for it to be done. The biggest assignment of the class is due this weekend, and I'm very thankful that I've been able to use some stuff I've already done for work to put it together so it's not taking quite as much time.
• On the topic of work: I expected this month to be dominated by the start of Lent, and that has taken up a lot of my time and attention . . . but much more of my energy has been taken up by funerals and tech troubles. We had internet-connectivity issues with our livestream towards the start of the month that were super annoying and time-consuming to sort out and that required me to stay late a few times and come in early one day. I did get comp time, so I'm not complaining, but it wasn't fun for me or anyone else involved. We've also had funerals pretty much every weekend, which has been . . . a lot. Funerals aren't hard, exactly, on my end, but they are energy-intensive due to the fact that there's so many moving parts and so many things that get decided at the last minute. And, of course, you're working with the family, who's grieving, and you're trying to find the balance of "be gentle and patient because they're going through a hard time" and actually, you know, getting all the necessary info so the program can be printed on time. It's a great ministry and a wonderful opportunity to show love to people when they need it most, but, again, it's energy intensive at the best of times, and February is not the best of times.
• Ok, this has been very depressing; let's find something more cheerful to report.
• Valentine's Day happened! I didn't do anything much for it, but my mom made cheesecake with strawberry topping, and it was delicious.
• Also, two days after Valentine's Day, I got to have brunch and writing time at a French-Asian inspired cafe near my house, and that was both tasty and fun. I don't go often because it's expensive, but that particular morning I had some other stuff going on that meant I could justify the trip. I got milk tea, a croquette, and some little mochi cheese pancake-things with a cream cheese filling, none of which I'd tried before, and all of which were tasty. This particular cafe does a lot of filled breads and scones and such, and I kind of love it.
• In yet more food-related news, my Baking Yesteryear recipe for the month was chocolate potato cake. This is one of the first really good recipes I remember seeing in Hollis's videos, so obviously it was pretty high priority. The cake is more like a spice cake than a birthday cake in terms of texture and flavor, but it is very tasty! You would not guess that there's potato in there. I know this for a fact, as, when I took it to Bible study and asked people what they thought the secret ingredient was, absolutely no one suggested half a potato. I don't think I'd make this cake often, as I don't like washing the potato-masher and it's more of a chocolate chip cake than a chocolate cake, but I would make it again.
• Moving on to something non-food-related: I finally finished the shawl I've been working on! I expected to use two full skeins, but ended up stopping earlier than that because I decided the shawl was long enough (and also using up the second skein would've taken me until June, probably, at the rate I was going). I'm still waiting for an opportunity to wear the shawl, but I probably won't get that for a couple weeks yet, possibly another month.
• We'll wrap up with the latest in D&D news. In our long-running campaign, we had several sessions' worth of diplomacy and intrigue, which . . . went a lot better than it could've, though not quite as successfully as we hoped. Long story short, we're less popular in-world than we used to be, at least in my character's home country, but we exchanged our popularity for peace by proposing and arranging a treaty that ended a war and freed a people group that was being abused and oppressed, so . . . worth it. And, I mean, we might be less popular, but we're also not considered criminals anymore, so that's also a win. (Again, long story short: absolute ages ago, we went to warn someone about a fiend we were tracking, the guy we were warning was in league with the fiend and tried to kill us, and then we were blamed when he died. And, yes, that was because one of our party members killed him, but it was self-defense, not murder.)
• I also had my first session of a new campaign with an online friend, her daughter, and some of her friends/family, and I think that went well. It's a 4e campaign instead of a 5e campaign, and the DM's style is kind of different from that of the DM of the other campaign I'm in, so those things will take some getting used to. I had fun, though, and I like my character (a half-elf rogue named Mythe), and I'm excited to learn more about the other player characters, so it should be good. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

March Plans

• I have one more week in my current grad school class! Again, I'm ready to be done with it. At least the last week is fairly light in terms of workload. Then I have about a week's break before the next class starts. I admit that I'm not looking forward to the next class — it's on editing, layout, and publishing, which is very much in my wheelhouse, but it's also basically one big group project. Besides that, looking at the syllabus, I'm pretty sure that between my day job and the fact that I've self-published seven books, I'm already past a lot of what they're going to cover. I don't say that thinking I know everything there is to know about editing, layout, or publishing — I know there's more I can learn — but, again, it looks pretty basic, especially for a graduate-level class, and I suspect the main thing I'll get out of this class is finding out exactly how much I dislike using Google Docs for formatting.
• Speaking of writing and publishing: I'm once again aiming for adding 40k to Daughters of Atirse #2 in March. I don't think I'll finish the book this month, even though that was my original goal, but I think I can get close. I also hope to draft my DOSA Files submission, probably during the break between grad school classes.
• That said, I'm also going to try to make a point of not jumping straight into trying to write on evenings when I'm really tired, as lately that just seems to result in me having trouble focusing and getting far more easily distracted than I usually am. But I'm also not going to fall into the trap of saying "Oh, I'll just watch one or two YouTube shorts and then I'll get started." Instead, if I'm tired enough that I can tell it'll be a problem, I plan to give myself between fifteen and thirty minutes (depending on just now tired I am) to do something that will actually recharge my brain — long enough to read a bit, watch something a little more substantial than shorts, play a level or two of a game, or do another activity of that nature. I hope this'll help — though I also hope that it won't be necessary and that escaping February will also free me from enough of my tiredness that I'll be able to write more easily.
• As for work: it's the month of Easter. I will continue to be busy, and I will probably only get busier as the month goes on — but at least we don't have any funerals scheduled for this month! And I already have some good designs for a few of the graphics I'll need, so I have that going for me.
• I didn't get to any ARCs in February, so I'll need to prioritize those in March. I'm also planning to reread at least some of the Prydain Chronicles (technically, I already started on that, but I haven't finished any yet) and hopefully read the Emily Wilde books that I keep hearing are so good. I also have beta reading to do! I may try to get a good bit of that done this weekend, actually.
• I also need to find a good next project for crafting. I have a good idea of something I want to do, but I can't find a free pattern for it, and I'm currently debating whether I like the idea enough to spend money on it. Whatever I do, it's going to be something short and satisfying to balance out all the time I spent on my shawl!
• I'm also trying to figure out some stuff with my blogs and my online presence in general, and I probably should work on that in March . . . but it's anyone's guess if I'll actually have the time or energy for it. We'll see.

How was your February? Any plans for March? What's your strategy for writing while tired? What's something good you've read recently? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

January 2024 Doings!

Hey'a, friends! We're officially a month into 2024, and I feel like the year has had a pretty good start. While January had some rough spots, I've had a reasonably pleasant month involving a new hobby, some gaming, and a lot of writing. So, let's look back and see what was good!

Writing!

• I'm happy to say I've had a very productive January, writing-wise! Daughters of Atirse #2 has about 30,000-some words of rough draft to its name, plus 10,000-odd words of outline (from which I have already diverged, but it's fine — it's mostly scenes happening in a different order than I expected). That comes out to a pleasantly palindromic total of 40,204 words towards this project. My productivity was partially due to writing deadlines and partially thanks to the fact that the RealmSphere (aka, Realm Makers social media) held a NaNoWriMo alternative this month called JanNoWriMo. Participating in that, particularly needing to report daily wordcounts and having people to sprint with on Saturday mornings, helped a lot with staying on track.
• Also helping the writing productivity is the fact that this book moves a bit quicker than Song of the Selkies in terms of pacing. This is partially due to the type of story I'm telling, partially due to the fact that I don't have to do as much setup at the start, and partially because of differences between Onora's personality and Ceana's. (Notably, Onora is much more decisive than Ceana.)
• And since the book is going so well, I'm sharing a snippet from the first chapter:

“So may it be,” Onora echoed softly. Dòmhnall’s hands left her shoulders, and she stood. “Thank you, Aoghaire. I appreciate your prayer, and I hope you will not cease to pray on my behalf.”

“I have been doing so long before now, your highness, and I have no intention of stopping.” Dòmhnall looked as though he might have laughed but caught himself just in time. “And if there is aught else a priest may do for a princess, I am at your service.”

“I am of the opinion that a princess always needs a priest.” Onora smiled wryly. “Or so my royal father and mother have taught me. They take council often with Deòrsa, the head priest nearest our castle. I hope I will be able to call on you for advice in the same way.”

Dòmhnall bowed my head. “It would be my honor, your highness, as well as being my duty before Dèanadair.”

“Good! Then I have no doubt we will see much of each other.” Even from this brief interaction, Onora had no doubt that Dòmhnall would be a valuable councilor. He was younger than Deòrsa, but he was devoted and seemed to know the words of Dèanadair well. “And do not hold back in your council, please. If you see me walking down a foolish path, or a path that would dishonor Dèanadair, warn me of my folly, whether I ask for it in the moment or not. No king or queen is above such warnings when given by a servant of the Maker.”

“I will do my best, your highness,” Dòmhnall replied. There was a hint of humor in his voice as he added, “And you will forgive me if, should such warnings be necessary, I remind you that you made this request.”

• I haven't gotten as much done on other writing, unfortunately. My DOSA Files anthology submission has not yet been transferred from my brain to paper or screen, even in outline form. I also didn't do a lot of D&D writing, though I did at least start on the next adventure, and I have a decent bit of the introductory stuff done. The trouble is that the next bit of introductory stuff is the part upon which the rest of the adventure hangs, and so it will take more time and thought than I've had to spare thus far.
• We did get a couple D&D sessions in, though! And they were fun, though rather chaotic, due to various people deciding that violence was the answer to problems that probably could've been solved via a simple conversation. (I am mildly bewildered. But people had fun, and this is not exactly uncommon for D&D groups, so we're fine.) Next session should be the climax of this adventure, which is exciting!

Reading!

• Due to everything else I had going on, I didn't do a lot of reading in January — just six books, plus one that I've been reading via email subscription and finished around the start of this month. That said, I liked most of what I read, so I'm not complaining!
• About half of my reading was in ARCs: Wishing on a Supervillain, Mantles of Oak and Iron, and Drake Hall. I posted my thoughts on Mantles and Drake Hall earlier this month, so I won't repeat myself except to say that both of these were excellent both as sequels and as stories in their own right. Wishing was also excellent — it has everything I love about the SVR books, but as a standalone with largely new characters, it would also be an easy entry point for anyone looking to get into the multi-series. To that end, it's currently free on Amazon, so if you're interested, definitely go pick it up!
• The other half of my reading consisted of rereads. I read DragonQuest with a friend group readalong, and that was a lot of fun — it's one of my favorites in the series. I also started it on Dragon Appreciation Day, delightfully! Then I reread The Vanishing Sculptor because I couldn't go onto DragonKnight before the rest of the group got there (alas). I then ended the month with Broken (In the Best Possible Way) by Jenny Lawson, mostly because I needed to read a Goodreads Choice Award winner for a reading challenge I was doing, and that one was easy to get my hands on and counts towards my other goal of injecting more non-spec-fic books into my reading diet.
• As for Kidnapped!, which I read in the form of an email subscription: this is a classic and a fun story that I wish I'd learned about ages ago. While I did end up periodically exasperated with various characters, I enjoyed the adventure and drama of the tale overall. Plus, it's set in historical Scotland, so how can one argue with that?

Watching!

• I didn't watch much outside of YouTube this month, as I either didn't have free time or chose to spend that free time in other ways — as I may have said before, the thing about movies is that if I have two or three hours "free," then I typically can think of three to five other things I really should be doing with that time, so I do those other things instead. The only way I really watch anything longer than an hour (on a really good day) or twenty minutes (on a normal day) is if I'm watching it with someone else — typically because we either scheduled it a minimum of 24 hours in advance or because my family caught me on an evening when other plans I had were cancelled.
• (Side note for people who watch movies or multiple TV episodes by yourselves on the regular: how the pumpernickel do you just casually decide to do that? How do you not look at a block of time that long and say "That is way too many minutes to commit to just sitting here and basically doing nothing"? Because I cannot do that. It's not a "I can only focus on one thing for so long" issue. If given the proper opportunity, I can easily read for the length of your average movie, and my favorite board game takes about that same amount of time. Movies are just . . . I can't. I could be writing. I could be doing classwork. I could be making a thing. I could be gaming. I could be reading. I could be doing multiple of those things. And yes, I can knit or crochet or sometimes embroider while watching a movie, but that only goes so far, and after a while your hands get tired, you know? Anyway, the point is, I do not understand how people can do that, and I would like to know your secrets because I am so behind on pretty much everything.)
• All that to say: I did see two movies this month, both with my family. Towards the beginning of the month, we watched Footloose, specifically the more recent version, which was actually pretty fun. It's a good story, some good music, and I appreciated that the main character was actually a genuinely good guy instead of a Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold like he very easily could've been. Later in the month, we watched Arsenic and Old Lace, which I wanted to see because it had Cary Grant in it and I knew it was a popular play. I did not love that one, frankly. Parts of it were good, or at least funny, but mostly it was just weird.

Life!

• While January was a good month (broadly speaking), it was definitely one of those months that felt much longer than it actually was. I think that's due to the fact that none of the weeks were really routine? I could be wrong, though.
• As usual, we ended 2023 by celebrating with our Bible study — I think that was the largest gathering we've had in a while, as some people who've moved away or switched to hosting their own studies came back for the holiday, and a lot of other people brought additional family. It was a fun time, though as chaotic as one would expect. While we had our countdown at nine, my family ended up staying a lot later than usual to chat with people, so I actually was still up at midnight. (This was a shock to my sister, who responded to my scheduled "Happy New Year" text with "Why are you still awake?")
• Then we started 2024, also as usual, by taking down the Christmas tree and other Christmas decorations. It's the first time I can remember not having all four of us there to take them down, so that was a little weird, but it went more smoothly than I feared it would.
• Jumping ahead to MLK Day weekend, we, like a lot of the rest of the country, got a ridiculous amount of snow on Monday, which I was salty about because I already had the day off. Don't get me wrong; it was pretty, but it's still snow. Then it snowed Tuesday too, so I did get that day off, at least (aside from the work-from-home stuff I did so I wouldn't have to cram everything into a two-day week). Even so, by the time Friday's snowstorm hit, I was ready to be done with cold, snow, and ice.
• Thankfully, it did warm up by the 28th (last Sunday), when I went up to Longwood Gardens with my friend Wyn and her family! Granted, "warm" was only in the 40s (and raining), but that's still far superior to teens and 20s as far as temperature goes. Even with the rain, I had a great time seeing the gardens, taking lots of pictures in the conservatory, and just hanging out with Wyn and talking about books and life and whatever else we felt like.
• Moving on from events to more overarching narratives of the month, I decided to give a new hobby a try and learned Coptic stitch bookbinding. This came on my radar back in October when I saw some gorgeous handmade journals, looked at the binding, and thought "Hey, that looks like crochet; I bet I can do that." As it turned out, I was right! So, over the course of the month, I made three journals, plus one — which is to say, I made three, but remade one of them so I could test a different type of cord without having to use up more of my paper and board. The last journal I made turned out well enough to give it as a gift, which was my goal, so I'm pleased about that. I don't think bookbinding will become an all-the-time hobby like knitting, crochet, and embroidery, mostly because it's not very portable. However, I think it'll be a good skill to have in my back pocket, and I'd like to keep doing more of it and maybe try some other techniques as well.
• I also did a fair bit of baking this month. For New Year's Eve, I made starchies from Baking Yesteryear to take to the party. Starchies are cookies made with cornstarch, sweetened condensed milk, and butter, and they're a unique little cookie — kind of dry, but with a good flavor. Then, on MLK day, I made peanut butter bread, also from Baking Yesteryear. This is one of the top recipes from that book that I wanted to try, and I was not disappointed at all! The bread was pretty easy to make, and it tasted great! I did learn, though, that I need to let it cool all the way before cutting; otherwise it's kind of crumbly. That same weekend, I made soft honey cookies for a work party, which were . . . ok. They tasted fine, but they were kind of boring, to be honest. Finally, I wrapped up the month with two loaves of sourdough bread (one for my family, one to give as a gift). As it turns out, making two loaves at once is pretty workable, and it has the additional benefit of using all the sourdough starter I don't need to feed, so I don't end up with discard.
• Additionally, this month saw the start of my next grad school class. This one is on technical writing, and it seems ok so far. I don't think it's going to be my favorite class I've taken, but it's not bad. The fact that I'm already comfortable with the topic definitely helps, and I think I'll be able to have some of the future projects overlap with things I need to do anyway at work.
• On the topic of work: this month has been a little crazy due to the fact that we had an astonishing number of funerals and the fact that Lent starts so early. Plus, various people have been traveling, which means everyone back in the office is a little more stressed. Still, things are going ok, and I'm keeping up with what needs to be done.
• Finishing up with a D&D update: we only got to meet twice this month, but both of those sessions were really good and included both great character moments and cool combats. My character got a new sword (which is an artifact-level Holy Avenger, y'all), and we got some reveals about another character's backstory. I'm a bit nervous about the upcoming sessions (because they will involve a lot of diplomacy and that always stresses me out), but yeah. It's been good. I really love both my group and my DM, and I'm so grateful that I get to adventure with them.

February Plans

• Well, I managed to write 40K in January . . . so now I'm going to see if I can do it again in February! I made good progress on Daughters of Atirse #2, but the book's still a long way from finished, and I want to have it fully drafted by the end of March if at all possible. I also want to work on my DOSA Files submission and my D&D campaign — the former is only if I have time, though. The D&D campaign will probably be a necessity unless we end up missing almost all the sessions in February. I have a plan for the D&D stuff! I've had a plan for over a year! The problem is just that some of the setup for said plan will be . . . complicated. And I really should've worked on it sooner, but I opted to prioritize my novels instead, which was the right choice but does mean more work now.
• Work will probably continue to be busy, since Lent begins in the middle of the month. (Fun fact: Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day are the same day this year!) I'm hoping to work ahead as much as possible on various projects related to Lent and Easter, just so I can minimize stress in March.
• My grad school technical writing class will continue for all of this month, and I'm hoping it continues to be non-frustrating and fairly chill. Based on the assignment descriptions, I think it should be, but we'll see how things actually work out.
• As far as reading goes, I have more exciting ARCs waiting for me, as well as a handful of memoirs and classics I'd like to get to. (I'm trying to be proactive about my reading goals here.) Plus, I get to reread DragonKnight, one of my favorites of the Dragonkeeper Chronicles, so I'm looking forward to that!
• Finally, on the crafting front, I'm hoping to finish the shawl I've been crocheting for the last few months. It seems like it should be done soon, but because it's a loop, it's hard to try on. I know I haven't been working on it that long — I want to say that I started it in October or November — but it feels like it's been an eternity! I will definitely plan to do another short project or two once it's done. (I haven't decided what yet.)
• So, yes. I'm hoping for a quiet month in February. Whether or not I'll actually get it . . . well, only God knows that, and I guess the rest of us will find out.

How was your January? Did you get any of the snow, and if so, did you enjoy it, or were you more like me? If you're a frequent movie-watcher, how do you not get caught up thinking of all the other things you should or could be doing with that time? Any plans for February? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

 It's week TWO of February is Fantasy Month! This week's topic comes from Jenelle Schmidt's #fantasymonth challenge; specifically, we're answering the question what fandom do you love enough to want to live in that world? Astonishingly, I've never written on this topic before — I did a post about worlds I'd like to visit ages ago, back when the Underground was still green, I'd just discovered the Books of Bayern, and we still thought Christopher Hopper was going to write a sequel to The Sky Riders. And, yes, if you look at the question from the idealistic point of view, the list of fantasy worlds I'd want to visit and fantasy worlds I'd want to live in is pretty much the same. But if you look at it from a practical standpoint, taking into account not just how cool the world is and how interesting the people are but also what it would be like to actually live there, well, that's another question entirely with very different criteria and substantially different answers. So let's get to answering it — and before you ask, yes, the following answers are in rank order.

(As a note, I'm disqualifying any world that is explicitly "Earth, but magic." Picking one of those worlds feels like cheating.)

Fantasy Locales I'd Love to Live In

1. Amara (Donita K. Paul's DragonKeeper Chronicles). I'm pretty sure that, out of all the fantasy worlds I've read about and love, Amara (and its neighbor, Chiril) would be one of the best, if not the best, one to actually live in, whether you're an adventurer or just an ordinary person. You've got a pretty good standard of living even if you're not in a city, a slightly higher technology level than that of the average medieval fantasy world, and an actual stable, functioning government and society with laws based on solid theological and moral principles (which is unreasonably rare). Also, there are so many dragons. Specifically, so many friendly dragons, including minor dragons (who are small and adorable and have I mentioned lately that I want one) who live and work alongside not just adventurers but ordinary people. It's not like everyone has a dragon, but you don't have to be an adventurer to have one. Even if you are an adventurer, though, the casualty rate on quests tends to be low, the average wizard you might meet is probably friendly-ish and reasonably helpful, if decidedly quirky, and thanks to the magic of hollows and, well, magic in general, you'll probably have better food and more comfort than you would on adventures in most other worlds. All in all, it seems like an excellent place to live.
2. Glause or New Civet (W.R. Gingell's Two Monarchies Sequence). These are technically two neighboring countries, but I don't know what their world is called, so . . . we're going with it. In any case, this world feels a lot like Ingary from Howl's Moving Castle, but a little more modern and even more magic-rich. And I reeeeeaaaaaally like magic-rich worlds. I mean, if you're going to move to a fantasy world, you might as well pick one where magic is as common as technology is here. And while I certainly wouldn't want to get mixed up in the high society of either country, I think I could manage quite well as an ordinary person.
3. Era Two Scadrial (Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn series). A lot of Sanderson's worlds meet the main criteria for this list (decent standard of living even if you're not rich, functional government and society (bonus points for a non-corrupt government), reasonably good food, magic-rich, good odds of indoor plumbing). At that point, I go back to how interesting the world is and how much I think I would actually enjoy living there, and that question got me down to a tie between two options: second-era Scadrial or present-era Roshar. Both would be very interesting places to live, and I think I'd have a decent chance in either place of making a living by writing. (Novels on Roshar are common enough to be owned even by lower classes; Scadrial has its newspaper serials and probably also novels. Side note, I really wish newspaper serial stories were still a thing, both because I'd like to read them and because I think they'd be fun to write, and no, posting a week-by-week story on the blog is not the same.) That said, Roshar has the distinct disadvantage of having been at war basically forever, and that is . . . not my jam. Plus, living in a country where half the population is literally illiterate might drive me crazy. So, Scadrial wins out by virtue of no war and smart men.
4. Innsjøby/Solorele (my own The Midnight Show). (Technical note — Solorele is a country, not a world. But I can't remember if I named this world yet, and I don't feel like digging through my notes, so we're going with it.) Is this cheating? I feel like it might be cheating, but I genuinely think I would have a great time living in the world of The Midnight Show, whether or not I had author powers when I was there. Innsøby, the specific city in which the book takes place, would be a lot of fun — it's a very colorful city, it's a significant center of arts and culture where there's always something new to do or see, and as anyone who read The Midnight Show knows, it offers a lot of good food. It's also the only other place on this list besides Scadrial where I'm confident I could make a living primarily as a writer and designer . . . plus I'd never have to deal with the frustration of waking up just when a dream got interesting, since I wouldn't remember I'd been dreaming.
5. The Spires (Jim Butcher's The Aeronaut's Windlass). It meets all the criteria, and it has airships. Airships aren't as awesome as dragons, but they come pretty close. Especially these airships, which take that term far more literally than most interpretations do. Granted, if we're being truly realistic, I'd be very unlikely to ever get to ride in an airship — travel between Spires doesn't seem super common — but a girl can hope.

Were you surprised by the worlds that made my list? What fantasy worlds would you want to live in if you could, either idealistically or practically speaking? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Forging the Fellowship Tag!

Hey'a, everyone! So, it has, in fact, been actual ages since I did a tag. I think. Let me check.

Ok, so apparently "actual ages" means "slightly less than six months." Or, if you include my other blog, right around two months. In all fairness, though, one of those months was March, which we all know was secretly a full year stuffed inside a month-sized suitcase. Anyway. Jem Jones tagged me in the Forging the Fellowship blog tag (created by Julia at Lit Aflame), in which you forge your own Fellowship out of book characters. Sounds fun, yeah? I think so, and thus I'm doing it now before I forget about it.

On a side note — over at Light and Shadows, I'm joining the blog tour for H.S.J. Williams's Moonscript, which just released yesterday. I'm sharing my full thoughts in this week's Friday 5s post, but the long story short is that it's an excellent book and you all should go buy it. Also, check back here on Wednesday for another post about the book. We'll see what it's going to be; I haven't decided yet. Anyway. ON WITH THE TAG!

1. [The Ring Bearer]: If you could choose, which of the four races would you be: Elf, Dwarf, Human, or Hobbit?
Ok, first of all, who the pumpernickel made me the Ring Bearer? I am a terrible choice for this for so many reasons. (Not least of which: I'd probably lose the thing. And then someone would be like "Sarah, where's the One Ring?" And I'd be like "Well, I had it when I was trying to find that one notebook . . . um . . . maybe it's in the box with the other notebooks? Or the other box with the notebooks? Or my desk drawer? Or buried in the piles of stuff on my desk? I don't know."

Anyway. If you asked me this five years ago, I would've said elf without hesitation. And it's still a strong consideration. But, let's be real, I'm much more hobbit-like. 

2. [Gandalf the Grey]: A wise/powerful elder/mentor character:
Fun fact: apparently I have somehow never written a "favorite mentors" list, at least not that I can find. I'm not sure how that happened in a full six years of weekly list posts, but yeah. So this question just got that much harder.

That said, I'm going with a bit of an unconventional choice: a character who's actually primarily known as a protagonist, but who grows into a mentor to other characters after a while. Who is this? Sapphira Adi from Bryan Davis's Oracles of Fire and Children of the Bard series, specifically from just before the CotB era, when she's had quite a bit of leadership experience on top of her several thousand years of life experience. While not my favorite mentor or my favorite character in general, Sapphira Adi, as an Oracle of Fire, does have the wisdom to lead a group, the spiritual discipline and power to deal with all the nastiness and terrifying enemies associated with the One Ring quest, and the patience to handle everyone else being overdramatic and ridiculous.

3. [Aragorn]: A character with good survival skills:
This one's an easy choice! We're calling in Errance from Moonscript! As a half-Celestial, half-earth elf, he's very at home in the wilderness, and as the story proves, he's a very capable defender of both himself and others. Granted, the fact that he'd have minions of Darkness after him particularly might make the quest a little difficult . . . but, let's be real, we're going to have enemies aplenty anyway. What's a few more?

4. [Boromir]: A character who makes mistakes, but has a good heart: 
It's more like "one fairly major mistake" than mistakes plural (and therefore a bit of a stretch, but I want him on the team), but we're picking Artham Wingfeather of The Wingfeather Saga for this category. Specifically, Book 3 (or late Book 2) Artham. Or possibly post-series Artham. Anyway. Artham is probably my favorite character from the Wingfeather Saga, and yes, he did have a pretty major moment of weakness, but, y'know? That doesn't change the fact that he's loyal and courageous and loving when it matters most.

5. [Gimli]: A stubborn character:
Stars, who wouldn't fit this category? I'm pretty sure that if there's one defining trait all my favorite characters share, it's that they're all pretty stubborn. (Keep in mind that determined and stubborn are synonyms, yeah?) So, who will it be? After much thought, I'm going with Robin from the Bookania Quests. She's definitely very stubborn, but in a reasonably levelheaded way. (Or, at the very least, she's not angsty. She's very straightforward, honestly.) She's capable, she's clever, she's a masterful swordswoman, and she lets exactly nothing stop her from accomplishing her goals.

6. [Legolas]: A character who is talented: 
Ok, is there actually any question here? If I'm assembling my own quest team, it absolutely has to include Bard Eanrin of the Tales of Goldstone Wood. Eanrin is a cat-faerie of many talents, including, but not limited to, singing, poetry, creating distractions, being a cat, annoying the forces of evil (and sometimes also the forces of good, but y'know), and denying his feelings/lying to himself for years on end. As a bonus, this means we have two of my favorite fictional poets (Artham and Eanrin) in the same party, which I think sounds great.

7. [Peregrin Took]: A character who at first seems useless, but ends up surprising you:
So, I had a pretty major debate for this spot: Steris from the second era of Mistborn? Or Matrim Cauthon from the Wheel of Time series? Both of them fit very well. I mean, "initially seems useless but surprises you in the end" sums up Steris's arc very well, and it's part of the reason why I love her so much. As a bonus, all the things that make you underestimate her are the things that prove essential in the end. (Plus, if she joins the party, then Waximillian Ladrian has to come along and I get a bonus gunslinger/Misting.)

And then Mat plays a very Pippin-ish role at the start of his series — the prankster, the one who touches things he's not supposed to, so forth — but even by Book 5 (which is the last one I've read; I need to get back to the series; don't judge me), he's coming to his own as astonishingly resourceful, skilled, and intelligent — all backed up by some serious luck.

In the end, though, I would probably pick Mat for one simple reason: he's familiar with the type of world we're dealing with. Steris (and Wax) are from a world that's a bit more Old West/Victorian-esque. Mat, on the other hand, is from a medieval-esque world that's much closer to Middle Earth in terms of cultures and technology and all that. So, he'll be able to adapt much more easily to this new location. (On a side note, we're getting Mat of anytime after about the halfway point of Book 3, but ideally Book 5.)

8. [Meriadoc Brandybuck]: A character who is small/not very strong, but has great courage:
Let's go back to an old friend and get Kale Allerion from the DragonKeeper Chronicles on this quest. Granted, by the end of the series, Kale is quite capable as a wizard, dragon keeper, and warrior, but we're calling specifically on Book 3 Kale, who's competent but still has a fair bit of learning to do. As a bonus, Kale brings with her a watch of clever, colorful minor dragons, all of whom also fit this category. Huzzah!

9. [Samwise Gamgee]: A character who is extremely loyal and doesn’t give up:
Adolin. Adolin. Storming Adolin Kholin. Absolutely, no question. He has many, many excellent qualities (he was second choice for a talented character, after Eanrin), but one of his best qualities is his loyalty — to his family, to his friends, to his duty. He makes a habit of standing by people in desperate situations. Of never giving up. And if you know him and you don't agree, I'm sorry, have we read the same book? When his father is going mad, when the world is being turned upside down (and then upside down again, and again, and again), when his friends are falling apart — he's there. Even when he's hurting as deeply as anyone else, he's standing up and keeping everyone else going and looking for hope. And so who else could I pick for this spot?

How would this group do on an actual quest? It's hard to say, and a lot of it depends on how broody Errance decides to be and how well Artham and Eanrin get along. I feel like those three would take up most of the attention while the rest of us quietly got stuff done. (That is, until we got attacked, at which point everyone is very helpful except me and half the group ends up showing off because, quite frankly, when you have a terrifyingly competent elf prince, a Throne Warden, the best swordswoman in the world, and an extremly skilled Shardbearer and duelist in the group, they're probably eventually going to get to the point of trying to show each other up. And then you have Sapphira Adi and Kale throwing around fire and wizardry, respectively, and Mat being like "Light burn these people, so extra" while being intensely extra himself. And I'm just like ". . . Imma hide and not die now, ok, thanks. Lemme know when it's safe to come out.")
 

And now we come to the part of the show where I tag people. Um. We're going to tag Deborah O'Carroll (when she comes back from hiatus) and beyond that, if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged. I can't keep track of who's actually still blogging and who's on hiatus and who still does tags and who doesn't. So. Yeah.

If you decide to do this tag, you need to:

• Include the tag banner in your post
• Link back to the creator of the tag ( LITAFLAME.BLOG )
• Thank and link back to the person who tagged you
• Forge your Fellowship out of BOOK CHARACTERS by answering the given questions!
• Tag three bloggers to pass the ring to. 

And here's a clean copy of the questions:
1. [The Ring Bearer]: If you could choose, which of the four races would you be: Elf, Dwarf, Human, or Hobbit?
2. [Gandalf the Grey]: A wise/powerful elder/mentor character:
3. [Aragorn]: A character with good survival skills:
4. [Boromir]: A character who makes mistakes, but has a good heart:
5. [Gimli]: A stubborn character:
6. [Legolas]: A character who is talented:
7. [Peregrin Took]: A character who at first seems useless, but ends up surprising you:
8. [Meriadoc Brandybuck]: A character who is small/not very strong, but has great courage:
9. [Samwise Gamgee]: A character who is extremely loyal and doesn’t give up:

Even if you don't feel like doing the tag, what do you think of my choices? And who do you think you'd pick? Please tell me in comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

End-of-Year Book Freakout 2018!

Aaaaand it's back! The End-of-Year Book Freakout! I'm not calling it a tag anymore because I havne't been tagged and I'm not tagging anyone, haha. I think I've had a reasonably good reading year — my average rating was 4.1, which isn't bad. Though, let's be real, it's been a really long year, and I can barely remember what I read in July. Thank God for Goodreads. (In my defense, I read 107 books this year, and about 45 of those were since July.) And technically 2018 isn't quite over, so I'll probably get another book or two in by the first of January . . . but I wanted to get this up now.

1. Best book you've read in the second half of 2018:

Ok, full disclosure: a lot of my favorite books that I've read this half of the year have been rereads. So that's kind of sad. That said, one of those rereads does count:

 The Worth of a King by Kendra E. Ardnek

Just read my review for all my fangirling, but this is tied with LDTD for my favorite of Kendra's books. Delaney and pre-scale Amberite are the best parts, but political intrigue, masked assassins, and the adorable romance that is Delsida all make the book doubly awesome.

A few other pretty awesome reads:

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Heistyness and sharp-edged friendships and diversity make this super fun. (Plus, the story starts in a Netherlands-esque city, which is really cool.)

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

Not an easy book to read at all times, but an exciting and thought-provoking one. More contemporary than fantasy, but it's so Hank-ish that I'm ok with that.

2. Best sequel you've read in the second half of 2018:

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman

I fully expected this to rip out my heart and crush it into small pieces — that seems to be the trend with series finales — and, I mean, it did. But it also had some moments of pure triumph and relief and happiness that I loved. The gang's all together, plus we've got the con-artist newbies, and Kady's dad is just fathering everyone and I don't know. It made me happy at the same time as it killed me with plot twists.

And the runners-up:

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Except for one twist that I'm INTENSELY MAD about and the fact that this one is slightly gayer than the first one, I loved Crooked Kingdom just as much as Six of Crows.

The Plastic Magician by Charlie Holmberg

Getting to see another magic type in action was super fun! And it was nice to have a plot that was centered on something a little less high-stakes than black-magic murderers on the loose.

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

The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman

This was one of my Christmas gifts this year, and I can't wait to get back to the worlds of the Invisible Library! Now the question is: do I reread the whole series before I read this one? Or just the last book?

Bitter Winter by Jaye L. Knight

Not going to lie, I kinda forgot that this book was coming out until I got the email about the blog tour. And it's anyone's guess if I'll actually read this soon or if I'll wait until it's been out for six months. Based on the past, the latter is more likely.

4. Most anticipated release for next year: 

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

Eugenides is baaaaaack! And it's the end of the series, which is tragic, but it is what it is. I'm just glad we get one more installment, and I'm super excited to see how it goes.

5. Biggest disappointment:

The Last Magician by Lisa Maxwell

I wanted magical heistyness and snarky friendships and time-manipulation magic in an urban historical fantasy setting. And, ok, I got three of those four, but the most important of the four was replaced by angst and suspicion of everyone except the right person and it was just a mess. Why did I read this book.

One runner-up in this category, sadly:

 Dagger's Sleep by Tricia Mingerink

To be fair, this wasn't a bad book as far as characters and plot go — Alexander annoyed me immensely, but otherwise, both those categories were fine. But the worldbuilding drove me crazy in that I couldn't make it make sense in my head.  

  

6. Biggest surprise:

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green

I did not expect this to be as much contemporary as it was. I also didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, given that it is more contemporary and, between the two Green brothers, I prefer John. But I actually really liked the book, even if I did have to put it down for extended periods once or twice because I could see the train wrecks coming.

Another surprise: the fact that Skyward wasn't another instant favorite as Sanderson books usually are. It was a good book, but a bit . . . I don't know. It lacked the Sanderson spark. Still, it's far better than the Alcatraz books, so I plan to stick with the series. 

7. Favorite new-to-you author:

Kathryn McConaughy isn't actually on my Goodreads shelf because I beta-read Overpowered and haven't had a chance to read the final version yet. (By which I mean that she kindly sent me a finished copy, but I haven't had time to read it, not that I don't have it.) But Overpowered, even in its unfinished state, is awesome, and Kathryn knows her stuff when it comes to the Biblical era. I look forward to reading more of her work! 

8. Newest fictional crush/ship:

Sadly, authors continue to pair off all the crush-worthy male characters. On the upside, I have a few new ships to fangirl over!

• Delsida (Delaney and Obsidia) from The Worth of a King.
• Kaz x Inej from Six of Crows.
• Also Nina x Matthias from Six of Crows.
• And Jeremy and Gwen from The Seven Drawers. Those two are adorable.
• Yeah, mostly just those four.

9. Newest favorite character(s):

• Delaney from The Worth of a King.
• The whole crew from Six of Crows.
• Alvie from The Plastic Magician.
• Gwen from The Seven Drawers.
• Daemyn Rand from Dagger's Sleep.

10. A book that made you cry:

A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews

No actual tears, true, but definitely pain. Beck needs to be hugged and kidnapped from both his mother and his author.

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

I should not have read the end of this book in a public place, especially since I was already upset and stressed from other causes. That's all I'm saying.

11. A book that made you happy:

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reader

This is a delightfully steampunky mystery, and while it does have its share of angst, it also has quite a bit of heart and humor. The main character duo is fabulous, the plot is exciting, and it's just generally a good read all 'round.

 

12. Favorite book to film adaptation you've seen this half of the year:

 Uhhhhh I rewatched Mary Poppins back in August. Does that count?

13. Favorite post(s) you've done this half of the year:

Oooh! I do have a few fun ones to share here.

• PWID Major FAQS (in which I answer the most common questions I get about my major).
• Hero's Perspective: Delaney (in which I interview my favorite character from Worth).
• Why I'm Now Self-Publishing (a response to an early post of mine, explaining the thought process behind my new plan).
• Blood in the Snow Meet the Characters(featuring character art that I love immensely).
• "Types of Tears" (a poem I wrote after noticing how my roommate and I reacted differently to a very similar event). 
• "A Symphony of Thanks" (Thanksgiving special short story featuring Callie from Fight Song).
• "The Promise Star" (Christmas special short story, featuring a legend from the world of Blood in the Snow).

14. Most beautiful book you've bought/received this half of the year:
Can I count Blood in the Snow? I know it's my book, but I am absolutely in love with the cover, and technically I did buy copies of it.

Other than my own book, my aunt bought me Illuminae for my birthday, and it both has an awesome cover and an awesome interior.

And though I haven't read The Enchanted Sonata yet, I love its cover and interior as well.

15. Any other books you want to babble about for any other reason?
Normally, I use this space to talk about the books I still need to read that I've been meaning to read for ages. But this time, I'm going to talk about all the awesome books I've reread lately.

The DragonKeeper Chronicles by Donita K. Paul

Over Christmas break, I've reread all but one of Donita K. Paul's Amara and Chiril books. I wanted to see how they held up, since I loved them and drew so much inspiration from them when I was younger. Thankfully, most of them have been just as good or better than I remembered.

 

The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvate

Some people's stress-fueled college decisions involve alcohol, excessive sleep, and worse. Mine involve rereading books about rich boys and psychic girls and dead Welsh kings. I regret nothing.

 

Scholar's Plot by Hilari Bell

And speaking of college decisions . . . I don't even remember why I reread this book, but I'm glad I did — it was just as good on the reread as the first time around. Also, I miss Michael and Fisk.

What were your favorite 2018 reads? Any favorite rereads? Or major disappointments? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)