September 2022 Doings!

Hello, all! So, this post is going up a week later than usual due to the Silmaril Awards and the Sweet Vendetta Blues tour, but that's fine. We're only a week into October. No biggie. Anyway, September was a pretty busy month, with a lot of exciting stuff going on, so let's not delay — time to get to the Doings!

Writing!

• The big news of the month, is of course, that Through a Shattered Glass has a preorder and a release date! (And also a Goodreads page.) In case you missed the big announcement, the book will release on December 23. But if you want to get your hands on it sooner and you are able to post a review on Amazon, Goodreads, and/or social media or a blog, you can request an ARC.
• Through a Shattered Glass is part of the Broken Mirrors Arista Challenge release group, and I highly recommend you go check out the other books in the release as well. They all sound quite delightful. (And I'm not just saying that because I'm a beta reader on two of them.)
• The other big event was the 2022 Silmaril Awards. I hosted the Most Faithful Friends category this year, which was quite delightful and a big change from the Magnificent Dragons and Marvelous Rulers categories I've hosted in the past. We had a lot of truly excellent ceremonies, and I highly recommend you go read through them (or catch any you've missed).
• Otherwise? I have, happily, gotten un-stalled on most of my writing projects. I'm currently on Chapter 11 of Bastian Dennel, PI #4, which isn't quite where I'd like to be but is still good progress, all things considered. I was also able to finally jump back into Through a Shattered Glass edits and work on applying beta feedback. I'm currently working on either the last or second to last round of edits before I move to formatting, so that's good.
• The one area that hasn't gotten a lot of attention has been D&D writing, since my group hasn't met much this month. But I've kept up with what I needed week to week, so we're still doing ok there.

Reading!

• This has been a rather slow reading month. How to Invent Everything took a long while to finish and left me in a bit of . . . not exactly in a slump, but not in a great mood, reading-wise. It wasn't a bad book, and it stuck its concept pretty well. It just kinda dragged after a while, reading it straight through.
• I've already reviewed Sweet Vendetta Blues here on the blog, of course. It was quite good, though I think it could've used a little more polish. I am a sucker for a good found family story, and this is no exception.
• After that, I ended up rereading The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie because the Silmaril Awards had them on my mind. These were on my favorites list when I was younger, and they were just as I remembered them, so that was nice. They were also a nice change of pace after a lot of darker or heavier reads.
• Sticking with the reread theme, I started a reread of the Tales of Goldstone Wood by picking up Heartless. This was partially motivated by the fact that Rose Red was a finalist in my category for the Silmaril Awards, but it was also something I'd been meaning to do ever since I got ahold of a paperback copy of the book. I'm happy to say that I love Heartless as much as I ever did (which is to say, it shows no indication of being knocked out of tied-first-place), and I'm currently working through Veiled Rose, which is . . . a bit slower going.  It is not my favorite book in the series, even if I do love both Leo and Rose Red. But it's going.
• Of course, it would probably be going faster if I hadn't gotten distracted by reading Randall Munroe's new release, What If? 2. This is the follow-up to What If?, one of my favorite nonfiction books, and it's the same concept — seriously (and somewhat sarcastically) answering ridiculous science-related hypothetical questions, such as, for example, what if you tried to make a lava lamp out of actual lava? It's great.
• Oh, and I'm still following Dracula Daily, and this month's installments have been giving me Ideas (besides being very good and very feels-inducing).

Watching!

• My watchlist this month has been a little of this and a little of that and not much of anything in particular — if anything, it's been mostly short-form YouTube content that I'm watching because I'm tired and procrastinating, and if a video is four minutes long, I can easily say "just one (more)." You know how it is.
• Probably the most noteworthy thing I watched all month was the other version of The Parent Trap. The 1961s version of Parent Trap is one of my favorite non-spec-fic movies, but I'd never seen the 1998 version, as I am Highly Skeptical of remakes of perfectly good movies. I still prefer the original, but the 1998 one does have its good points.

Life!

• Well, this month has been a lot. Or it feels like it, anyway.
• The highlight of September was a trip back up to Ohio to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends. It was a fun trip and a lovely wedding, and I enjoyed the opportunity to see quite a few of my college friends in person. While I hadn't met her now-husband prior to the wedding, he seemed very nice, and I could tell that they're good for each other.
• Plus, I drove up a day early so I could spend a day with my sister at her college. Conveniently, she didn't have class that day, so we got to go out for lunch and ice cream (at Young's Dairy, naturally), and we spent a lot of the rest of the day playing board games with various of her friends. That was a very good day.
• That said, the drive to Ohio was the longest distance I'd driven solo, and I don't think there was a single day of the trip on which I spent less than three hours in the car. So, much as I enjoyed it, it was kind of exhausting.
• Outside of travel, work has kept me plenty busy with Big Events either happening this month or coming up next month, along with the normal assortment of tasks that kept getting squished into short weeks. I'm not complaining, mind you. I would rather be busy than bored. I'm just tired, and the arrival of colder winds and rain is not helping that.
• Getting back to a more cheerful note: I finally tried making cheese bread! The specific recipe is from Sally's Baking Addiction, and it's a sort of twisted loaf absolutely STUFFED with cheese. I've been wanting to try it for absolute ages, and the result was so tasty!
• I also made chicken potholders as a wedding gift for the aforementioned friend (don't worry; she's already aware of them), and I'm quite pleased with how they turned out. Apparently I forgot to take a picture of them, though, which is unfortunate. I did not finish the scarf I've been working on, but I am closer, so . . . there's that?

October Plans

• On the writing front, I'll probably spend most of October bouncing back and forth between drafting BDPI #4 and editing and formatting Through a Shattered Glass. At minimum, I want to have ARCs ready to go by the end of the month (or sooner); ideally, I'd like to be almost or fully print-ready. (And if I'm not, I'd better have a full or nearly-full draft of BDPI#4 to show for it.)
• I'm also making plans for some fall fun, namely a visit to the Renaissance Festival with a writer friend. I'm very much looking forward to that, and I'm hoping that the weather will allow for coordinating costumes.
• On the work front, I image that things will continue to be busy. Hopefully not quite as busy as this month, but . . . I don't see it slowing down much.
• I still want to finish that scarf. I'm so close, and if I finish this month, I can move straight into holiday gift projects. Whatever those end up being. (I'm already done with the biggest gift item, which I am so pleased about.) I know there'll be something, though, because there always is.
• Reading will probably be a mix of continuing ongoing rereads and mood reading (because stress), but I do have an ARC of A Superhero for Christmas that I need to pick up. It's a little early for Christmas reads, admittedly, especially for someone with a strict no-Christmas-music-before-Thanksgiving policy, but maybe it'll make for a good transition into holiday prep at work? I don't know.

How was your September? Any exciting plans for October? Did you follow the Silmaril Awards (and if so, were you excited about the winners)? Will you be going to (or have you gone to) any Ren Fests this fall? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Books I Need to Reread

As you may or may not know, I'm big into rereading books. Even if I already know what's happened, there's still the delight of rediscovering the story, of finding the hints I missed before, and of reconnecting with the characters. At one point, when I had a more limited to-be-read list, I'd make sure to read my favorite series at least once a year. As the number of new books I had to read increased, however, my time for rereading decreased, so at this point, some of the stories that I loved, I haven't touched in quite a while. I've been trying to remedy this, but there are still several books and series I haven't gotten to. And today, I thought I'd share some of my top need-to-reread series with you.

1. The Lord of the Rings and The Silimarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
As I mentioned, there was a time when I read The Lord of the Rings at least once a year (rarely more, though- even for the most enthusiastic reader, they're kind of long), but considering how much I love the trilogy, it's been an awfully long time since I've read it. I really do need to fix that soon- particularly now that I have a pretty new matching set. As for The Silimarillion, I've read it exactly once all the way through, and I skimmed a great deal of it. Now that I'm older- and, I hope, have more patience- I want to give it another try.
(Note: The above picture is not my "pretty matched set." My copies are decidedly less fancy, rare, and expensive. Though that doesn't stop them from having super pretty covers and being a very comfortable size for reading. The above image is the product of asking Google Images for a picture of LOTR and The Silimarillion together.)

2. The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
I used to like this book very much indeed, but after a well-meaning parent used it to turn a book club into a lesson in story structure, I didn't touch it again for, well, longer than I should've. I wish I'd let go of that memory sooner, but better late than never. Admittedly, I did listen to the Focus on the Family radio drama in the car last weekend, but it was so abridged that I felt like all my favorite parts had been cut short, or else left out entirely. All the more reason to reread the book sometime soon!

3. The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker
I read this series for the first time about five years ago and obsessed over it for several months- during which I also explored several of Ted Dekker's other books, none of which I liked quite as much and some of which freaked me out a lot. I've read the trilogy once or twice since then, but not recently. I'd like to reread it sometime soon, now that I'm older and have a different, hopefully more mature, perspective on it.

4. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Cyrano is my favorite book (well, play) that I've had to read for literature, and it's also one of my favorite classics. I haven't gotten around to reading it since the year I had it in school, since my copy is in the back of that year's literature book. However, my sister is going to be reading it for her literature this year . . . which means I'd better reread it so I can join in her discussions! (I'll join in the discussion whether or not I've read the book, probably, if I get a chance- but at least that way I'll remember better what I'm talking about.)

5. The Wilderking Trilogy by Jonathan Rodgers
This is a short little trio of books, a fantasy version of the Biblical story of David. I read them perhaps four years ago, but haven't reread them more than once or twice since then. I'd love to rediscover them, though; they were some of the more unique books I've read. Unfortunately, my new library only has the first one . . . I am very much not happy. Hopefully, my old library has an online version I can borrow . . .

6. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis.
I have a confession to make: I haven't read The Chronicles of Narnia all the way through in quite a long time, despite how much I love the series. I've read single books now and then, and listened to some of the audio dramas either on trips or while knitting, but not the whole series. Obviously, that needs to change.

7. The Echoes From the Edge trilogy by Bryan Davis.
At one point, this was my favorite Bryan Davis series- it even beat out Dragons in Our Midst, which was an impressive feat. Is it still my favorite? I'm not sure- which is one reason I need to reread it, so I can find out. Also, it's a pretty awesome trilogy (I'm certain of that), and I haven't read it in a few years.

8. The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis.
I read these books the summer after I read The Silimarillion, I think- it's been a while. I'm sorry to say I really didn't appreciate them at the time. Out of the Silent Planet I liked well enough, true, but Perelandra seemed a bit odd, and by the time I got midway through That Hideous Strength, I was struggling. I'm fairly certain the main reason I finished was I thought "It's C.S. Lewis, and therefore I ought to like this." Recently, however, I've met enough people who really like the Space Trilogy that I feel I ought to reread it.

9. The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie by George Macdonald.I loved these two books when I was younger, but sadly, they were some of the first to get lost in my new-book flood. Recently, however, I've been seized with occasional urges to reread them . . . which I've utterly failed to act upon. I do want to fix that, though, because they, like Narnia, are the sort of books that are always worth rereading.

Do you like rereading books? If you do, are there any books you need to reread? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)