December 2024 Doings!

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

Writing!

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

Reading!

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

Watching & Playing!

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

 Life!

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

January Plans

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

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

 

November 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! We are officially in the Christmas season, and 2024 is nearly gone. November and December are always my busy months, and this year looks like it'll be no exception — this past month certainly wasn't. So without further ado, let's dive into November's Doings!

Writing!

• I've mostly been working on more prep for Project Kingfisher this month: developing characters, building the world, and writing backstory snippets to explore character dynamics. This is a different approach than I normally take, but it seems to be working for me, and I hope that it'll have good results. I am definitely enjoying the fact that I gave myself permission to write snippets even if they aren't "necessary" for the story. That's been a lot of fun, and the short pieces are a nice change of pace from novels.
• I have also done a little work on my D&D campaign — not enough to finish this storyline, but enough to keep ahead of the sessions. My group seems to be having fun, though we didn't get to play much this month because of various people having busy schedules.
• That about covers it in this category. Writing has been a bit on the backburner this month, both because I'm in the planning stage on a story and because my time and energy is going elsewhere.

Reading!

• This month was a blend of ARCs and miscellaneous rereads. The highlights of the month were, without a doubt, Valley of Dragons (the final Secrets of Ormdale novel) and A Stab in the Dark (which is not the final Miss Dark's Apparitions novel!). I already reviewed Valley of Dragons, but to recap, I thought this was a splendid ending to the story, and I loved how Baehr brought the story full circle and wrapped up the various character arcs and plot threads. As for A Stab in the Dark, it's full of all the things I loved about the rest of the series, with the added bonus of being a Phantom of the Opera story full of secret passages and murders and ghosts, which is absolutely delightful. I was not as big a fan of the other ARC I read, The Death of Clara Willenheim, as it got really dark in the second half, but I think it just also . . . wasn't my genre.
• Other than that, the main notable reread was H.S.J. Williams's Fairest Son, a genderbent fae Snow White retelling. I honestly liked this one better on the reread than I did the first time around, though I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's because of different expectations? Who knows.
• I wrapped up the month and started December by reading Time Echoes, Interfinity, and Fatal Convergence (currently reading, will probably finish this weekend), which simultaneously are and are not rereads because they're rewritten versions of the Echoes from the Edge series. The new versions are in a different perspective and have some tweaks to prose and description, but the narrative is the same. I think I like them roughly as much as the original; the POV change makes sense, and I still enjoy the story. I don't love them quite as much as I did originally because some aspects now seem very heavy-handed, but they're good all the same.

Watching & Playing!

• My friends and I have made it all the way to Episode 14 of Yona of the Dawn, and I continue to enjoy the show more and more! So far, I have met two of the four dragons, and I am calling it now that the blue dragon will be my favorite of them all. (He falls into the category of "characters who have experienced so much pain and choose to be kind anyway," and I love him.) I also really love Yun, partially because he's fun and partially because he and I are so often on the same page. And, of course, Hak and Yona continue to be excellent characters . . . really, all the character arcs in this show are excellent so far, and I have every confidence that they'll just get better.
• My family also launched into the start of the Christmas season with, of course, Christmas movies! Specifically: The Lemon Drop Kid and White Christmas, as those are the movies that are on both my and my sister's high priority lists. I don't have much to say about them other than the fact that I continue to really enjoy them.
• Aside from that, I continue to enjoy both Star Rail and Genshin. The next Star Rail update dropped this week, and I have therefore spent the last month or so internally screaming for two reasons: for one, we're getting an epilogue to the Penacony storyline; for another, Jing Yuan (aka, the character for whom I started playing the game) is rerunning, and I was not prepared for either of those things. That said, I still got some incredibly lucky pulls (which produced more screaming, but in a delighted way). As for the new story? I'm about halfway through it, maybe a little more, and I'm quite enjoying it. This story brings back two past characters who are both embarking on a new life of sorts, and I like how their arcs have been handled so far. One, a former antagonist, is making a last visit to his homeland to say goodbye and try to make amends, and he is very convincingly (and realistically) regretful. The other was on the verge of death and now has to figure out how to live when she's lost so much of her old life, as well as dealing with the pain and wounds (physical and mental) caused by all she went through. It's really good, and I'm excited to discover the rest of the story.
• Also in Star Rail, I've finally started really exploring different endgame mode challenges, and I've discovered that they're a lot more fun after you understand stuff about team compositions and character builds and when you have a decent number of characters as options. It's very satisfying each time I manage to beat another difficulty level!
• That aside, until this past week, I have actually been playing more Genshin than Star Rail. I wrapped up the Liyue quest (I know what Zhongli's deal is now!) and did some interlude storylines that revealed lots of lore . . . albeit in a way that raised as many questions as it answered. My approach to Genshin lore tends to be a lot like my approach to Cosmere lore: I like discovering it, but I'm not delving into all the theories and digging for tiny details in every corner (though I'll happy listen if someone else wants to share, and sometimes I'll grab onto some aspect or detail that I think is really cool and get a little more into that). I'm just along for the ride, really, but that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying myself.

Life!

• While November was, as I said, very busy, most of the busy things weren't exceptionally exciting. Work was full of wrapping up Stewardship, putting together the Advent newsletter, and preparing for Advent itself — which remains my favorite graphics season, but also has the challenge of "how do you put a new spin on this thing for the fourth year in a row." And now we're in Advent, and I'm about to have a very full two weeks as I prepare everything for Christmas before I take some well-earned time off At least I got enough prep done that I'm not too stressed, and holiday services tend to be very similar year-to-year, so I know what to expect. I'm also very pleased with the new church promo piece I put together to distribute at Christmas Eve, which I think turned out wonderfully!
• Grad school is also keeping me plenty busy, though I'm almost done with the current class. Advanced English Grammar continues to be way more technical than what I expected, and it's also a lot of writing down rules to explain things most people know instinctively, which . . . is not my favorite type of subject. It's also clearly aimed more at people planning to teach English than at general-purpose writers. Still, like I said, it's almost over (I submit my final project this weekend and do my final exam next week), and it could have been much worse.
• On a happier note, November brings with it both my birthday and Thanksgiving! We celebrated my birthday with lunch out at my favorite Mexican restaurant and dessert at Bible study; my mom made cheddar apple pie (tasty) and praline pecan pumpkin pie (DELICIOUS). The latter was something I'd wanted to try for a while, and I definitely hope we make it again. It has the best aspects of both pecan pie and pumpkin pie in one dish; what's not to like?
• At Thanksgiving, my sister got to come home for the weekend, which we were all very happy about. On Thanksgiving day, we set up (but didn't decorate) our Christmas tree and, as usual, celebrated with our Bible study group. Then on Black Friday, we decorated the tree — we used to do all the Christmas tree stuff on Friday, but last year we decided that spreading it out worked better and didn't really violate the no-Christmas-before-Thanksgiving rule.
• On the baking front, both November and December began with cake. November opened with an election cake from Baking Yesteryear, which is a kind of bready, fruity cake made in a Bundt pan. It's named as such because people in New England used to serve it on election days, back when those were practically holidays. It was tasty, though I don't plan on making it again. Then in December, I made a chocolate cake with ganache for a coworker's birthday; I had a little trouble getting the ganache to thicken properly, but it tasted delicious.
• In D&D, we wrapped up our mini-campaign that we were playing between sessions. Though it was a short campaign, it was a lot of fun; the DM did a really good job with making the NPCs interesting and complex, and he included a lot of interesting environmental aspects in the combats. For example, one fight was in a hall that had been lit on fire, so we had to deal with the fire and smoke as well as the enemy, and the final fight was in a room that was very tall and vertical, and we had to work our way up to the enemy. It was all really cool (albeit stressful in the moment), and I hope to be able to use some of those concepts in my own DMing in future.
• As for crafting, I'm still working on Christmas presents, and I have made very little progress on my new cape. I have discovered that, until you get down into the 30s and below (and maybe even to some degree in the upper 30s), capes are far superior to coats in some ways — notably, they're more comfortable, less confining, and generally more fun. At the moment, I have two capes that are both about hip-length and aren't cosplay specific, and I've been wearing those a lot. I have to say that doing so makes colder weather much less unpleasant!

December Plans

• Obviously, most of my December plans revolve around Christmas in some fashion, whether that's making Christmas gifts, baking cookies, or celebrating with various people in various ways. One notable thing that's happening this year is that I'm in charge of revamping our Bible study's Christmas play into a dramatic reading (because we're severely lacking in kids to do the play), and that's been an interesting endeavor. I'm also hoping to try a few new cookie recipes, including some from Baking Yesteryear, which should be fun.
• On the grad school front, I have one week left in the current class, and I am so ready to be done. I'm turning in my final project this weekend, and then I just have a few more chapters of reading, a last discussion, and the final exam before I can call this class finished. And while I do need to figure out what I'm doing next, I will take a great deal of pleasure in having a few weeks off.
• I really need to sort out an idea for the DOSA Files anthology; I'm down to three weeks to write, edit, and submit it if I'm going to make it happen. The problem is that work and grad school have taken most of my energy up to this point, and other creative projects are a lot easier to work on. Still, I hope that I'll be able to sit down and put something together once my current class is done. I also plan to continue Project Kingfisher prep with the goal of starting the actual draft either at the end of December or the beginning of January.
• I am taking a good chunk of time off around the holidays, and I'm looking forward to that, both as an opportunity to get some work done on creative projects and as a chance to rest and spend time with family and friends. Of course, it will almost certainly go by way too fast.
• I'll wrap this up with a fun, non-holiday thing I'm looking forward to in December: the start of a new campaign with my D&D group! It's going to be weird to play a whole new character and a very different class — I'm going full spellcaster this time — but I can't wait to find out what our DM has planned for us and see where our characters' stories lead.

How was your November? Any plans for December? Are you ready for Christmas? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello! First up, a quick reminder for my friends in the Northern Virginia area: tomorrow, October 19, I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at Cascades Library! The event runs from 10:00am to 2:00pm and includes loads of local authors, food trucks, live music, and fun. I'll have copies of all or most of my books, including Song of the Selkies and Illusion's Reign available for purchase, and I'll also be signing previously-purchased books if you bring them by. I hope to see you there!

Now, moving on to the actual post topic: while I don't celebrate Halloween (except, occasionally, as an excuse for cosplay), I do very much enjoy the opportunity to indulge in some spookier reads. I've always enjoyed books that have at least a little edge of creepiness, and that's become even more true in the last couple years as I've gotten into some Gothic-inspired (and actually-Gothic) stories. Besides the fact that it can be fun to be scared at times, these stories (the well-written ones, at least) are often astonishingly hopeful, celebrating not death, not the dead, but death's defeat by life. And as we're now solidly in spooky season, now seems like an excellent time for me to recommend some of my favorites.

Spooky Season Reads

Lockwood & Co by Jonathan Stroud. This series has pretty much everything you could ask for in a spooky season story: truly terrifying ghosts, dangerous mysteries, secrets, people tampering with that which man should not, and a conclusion that affirms life's triumph over death. As a bonus, we have truly excellent characters (and character development), humor to keep the darkness from becoming overpowering, and an equal balance of friendships and romance. Also, while this is a mainline-published series, the themes and conclusion make it an astonishingly Christian in the best way.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. This list has to include at least one of the classics, and no one should be surprised at which one I chose. My enjoyment of Dracula is well-established by now — I love the characters, the creeping terror and slow-growing realization of wrongness, the sacrificial love displayed by so many of the heroes . . . it's just so good. Granted, I firmly believe that the best way to read this book is the Dracula Daily method (or the Re: Dracula method if you prefer your books in audio form), but reading the whole thing at once is also a good option.

Black and Deep Desires by Claire Trella Hill. This is probably my overall favorite book on the list, and the only reason it's not at the top is because Lockwood & Co and Dracula have more of what I like about spooky season reads specifically. However, Black and Deep Desires is delightfully creepy and Gothic, full of crumbling houses, monsters, mysteries, midnight ventures through secret passages, haunting dreams, and so forth — plus a story of love, friendship, and healing from trauma and abuse, plus a stubborn, bookish, Shakespeare-quoting vampire. It's a delight, and I'm currently planning to reread it as soon as I finish my current read.

The Abhorsen original trilogy by Garth Nix. I am disregarding everything except the original three in this recommendation — the other books are fine, but the first three are the best. (And the first book is my personal favorite, though some of my friends prefer the second book . . . I digress.) These don't have quite as much of a creepy edge as some of the others on this list, despite being basically a zombie story in a fantasy setting, but the storyworld and the themes still make them a good choice for a spooky season read.

 

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson. This book shares some similarities with the Abhorsen books, especially Sabriel in terms of the world and magic system, which is delightfully spooky and dangerous. It doesn't go quite as hard on my favorite themes of this season, but it's still a good ghostly read.

Do you enjoy Gothic or spooky reads? What are your favorites? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

It's New Year's Eve Somewhere [A New Year's Eve Short Story]

It's that time again — time for my annual New Year's Eve short story and the latest glimpse into the adventures of Carrie, Tamison, and their party. (Of course, as usual, this story should stand fine alone as well as in the context of the full series.) I hope you enjoy it and that you have a very happy New Year!

 

It's New Year's Eve Somewhere

This was supposed to be his night off.

 

The patrol alarm went off with an extended beep that echoed off the concrete and metal walls of the office. Tarvin grumbled to himself as he stood, stretched, and picked up the heavy metal stunlight from his desk. With one hand, he slid the weapon into its holster on his belt; with the other, he smacked the alarm to turn it off.

 

Still grumbling, he headed for the door into the ring of cells. He'd barely had time to sit down since his last patrol! Ordinarily, he'd only have to check on the prisoners once every few hours. Maybe once an hour if he were feeling especially motivated — Karoti would go every hour, but that man did everything by the book, and he was enthusiastic about it, madman that he was. As far as Tarvin and most of his squadmates were concerned, given that the cells' usual occupants were drunks or dust-heads and the occasional political demonstrator, a walk every two or three hours to make sure everyone was still breathing was more than sufficient. Most of the prisoners had enough problems of their own without guards breathing down their necks.

 

But tonight was different. Tonight required a patrol every thirty minutes, maybe forty-five if he had a good reason to stretch it, and an all-clear report at least once an hour. Tarvin didn't see the point; it wasn't as if the prisoners could go anywhere. Not as if they could escape without walking right past his desk. But the captain had laid out the consequences for him and his team if any of them failed to do things by the book tonight. If he were lucky, he'd spend a year cleaning orbital debris from Mahideri Station's path. If he wasn't lucky . . .

 

Tarvin unlocked the door with a finger pressed to the scanner. He carefully shut the door again behind him and waited until he heard the click as it relocked itself. Then, for variety's sake, he turned to the right. He'd mostly been walking counterclockwise, starting with the occupied cells and ending with the empty ones, but if he didn't switch things up occasionally, he'd go mad.

 

He swept through the curved hall of empty cells quickly, glancing into each. By all rights, the whole holding facility should be as empty as these were. The activists and demonstrators all tended to slow down their activities around this time of year; they knew it was an unlucky time, and any change was doomed to failure. Besides that, the university was between semesters, and that meant that everyone but essential personnel, two security units, and a few especially dedicated scholars and student-mages had left, fled either to their homes or to more hospitable locations. There weren't enough people here to make trouble, which meant anyone scheduled for guard duty here should've had that time off. Tarvin should've had tonight off. But then there'd been two arrests of the ordinary kind, and then another two that sent all the higher-ups into a frothing frenzy of panic and finger-pointing, and so here he was.

 

Tarvin reached the door at the end of the hall. He pressed his hand to the metal plate beside it and winced as tiny needles pricked the skin of his palm, taking the requisite DNA samples and confirming that he was allowed to access the high-security section of the facility. Before tonight, he'd never seen this door locked — what lay beyond had never been necessary, not as long as he'd worked here. But this night was an exception in multiple ways.

 

A moment later, the door slid open. Beyond, the temperature dropped by nearly ten degrees, maybe even fifteen. Tarvin shivered and set off again at a quick pace as the door shut and locked behind him, almost soundlessly. To either side of him, circular platforms filled with spirals of inscribed code-runes sat dark and empty, their magic inactive. On the ceiling above each platform was a similar circle of code-runes, also unlit and lifeless.

 

Midway along the hall, however, he reached two active platforms, their runes glowing the same blue as the stasis field projected above them. Here, the temperature seemed even colder. Magic drew in heat, Tarvin knew, though he couldn't remember where he'd learned that. Mostly you'd never notice it, the difference was so small, but with such powerful spellwork as this . . .

 

Frost glittered on the skin and clothes of the figures contained in the stasis fields, though they'd only been in there a few hours. The stasis effect would protect them from actually getting frostbite, but they'd still be cold as the back end of the galaxy when they were freed — if they were freed. Sure, this facility was only meant for short-term imprisonment — holding people a day or two, maybe four or five at most, until they'd paid off a light crime or could be transferred elsewhere for a longer sentence. But it wasn't like this section was used much, and Tarvin had heard of some prisoners kept in stasis for decades, covered in so many layers of frost that you couldn't even make out their features. The charges for these two were the same as for those prisoners: unauthorized magic use and espionage against the Coriolion Empire.

 

Tarvin paused long enough to study the pair. The stasis fields and frost obscured them, but he could still make out some details. The one on the right side of the hall was a woman, dark-skinned and curly-haired like Tarvin himself. She wore a strange green dress — more like a robe, really — and held her hands out as if reaching for someone, or perhaps readying a spell. Her eyes were open wide, and behind the frost, her face held mingled anger and . . . fear? No, not quite. Tarvin had seen plenty of people afraid for themselves. This woman's concern was turned entirely outwards.

 

Towards the other prisoner, maybe? Tarvin turned to study him next. He didn't look like much, just a man of average build, dressed in robes, with dark hair — messy, but in a way that suggested it had been neatly styled until some kind of scuffle forced it out of place. He'd had the sense to close his eyes, at least, and his head was slightly ducked. He held his arms up, forearms crossed, but his hands were open, the fingers spread. Tarvin had seen this casting position too, when a pair of student mages were debating defensive stances in a local bar. They'd said it was good for shields and not much else.

 

Neither one looked especially dangerous. If they'd been wearing anything but robes, Tarvin would've taken them for upper-level student-mages at the university. For a moment, he almost wished he could thaw one of them, or maybe both of them, out and ask what had happened and what they'd done. They were the reason he was here, walking patrols every half-hour, after all. Didn't he have a right to know why?

 

Looking at them, Tarvin had a nasty suspicion that they hadn't done anything. That they were from outside the empire and they'd had a teleportation spell go badly wrong. That would explain what he'd heard about them appearing unexpectedly in a restricted area. And he wouldn't put it past the higher-ups to claim malicious intent no matter what their prisoners said.

 

But even if he really wanted to talk to one of them, he couldn't. It took a mage and a guard together to release a stasis field, and not just any mage, but one of the Highstars, the highest-ranking mages on the station. No one else had the authority to use so much magic at once. There was only one Highstar here tonight, Meridus, and he'd been the one to activate the stasis field in the first place. He'd never release it for so small a reason as confirming potentially misplaced guilt, not when it was easier to just leave it until it became someone else's problem.

 

Nor would he have much patience for a lowly guard questioning his decisions. Tarvin turned away from the stasis-held prisoners and continued along his patrol. The rest of the platforms were empty, and the far door let him out in exchange for another DNA sample. Now that he was back among normal cells, the temperature rose again, and he no longer shivered. Still, he kept a brisk pace until he reached the sole occupied cell. He'd been told the two women within were political demonstrators who'd chosen a night in lockup over paying the usual fine. The palm-shaped bruises visible on the thin cheeks of one of the women more or less confirmed as much. Most of the security force wouldn't be gentle with someone who chose to make trouble with a sober mind and full control of their faculties. It was a lot easier to be patient with someone who you thought didn't know any better.

 

He paused by the cell and looked inside. The clear forcefield across the entrance let him see the prisoners clearly. The bruised woman sat closer to the entrance, her eyes shut, though Tarvin didn't think she was actually asleep. She'd swept her long hair into a high bun since the last time he actually looked into the cell; how it was staying in place, he couldn't tell. The other woman sat in a back corner, bending over . . . was that a notebook and pen? Tarvin cleared his throat and knocked against the wall between cells to get her attention. "Who gave you permission to have personal items in there?"

 

The woman glanced up for only the briefest moment. "I brought it in with me. Your captain didn't tell me to give it up."

 

Huh. That was unlike him. Still, Tarvin hadn't seen anyone come in, and he knew whoever brought them in would've searched them. The captain must've been feeling unusually merciful. "Well, fine, then. Just behave yourself with it."

 

The woman didn't respond; she just kept scribbling in the book. The other spoke up, her voice hoarse. "Do you think it's right that we're in here?"

 

"You broke the law, ma'am." Tarvin shrugged. "I don't know what else you expected."

 

"We made a few comments about the nature of truth and justice and freedom." The bruised woman opened her eyes and looked sideways at him. "We said magic should be free to all, not just to the elite, as it is in other worlds. Should that be against the law?"

 

Tarvin shifted uncomfortably. He'd learned long ago not to entertain that line of thought. "I'm just a guard, ma'am. It's not my job to decide what the law should be, just to uphold it."

 

He started to walk away, but her voice stopped him before he could get far. "Your name is Tarvin Aboti. You've worked as Mahideri Station security for seven years. Before that, you came from Asarvis. You were born after the Coriolion Empire took over, but your parents remember when the land and the magic were free, and they told you stories about those days when no one else was listening."

 

Tarvin turned on his heel, reaching for his stunlight. "What — Who are you? How do you know all that?" He'd never introduced himself to these two. And he'd never told anyone on the station about his parents' stories . . .

 

"My name is Willow. My friend is Laelia." The bruised woman met his eyes. "Would you believe me if I said that I'm from another world, that I come from the long past, and that I've visited the future?"

 

"That's —" Impossible. That would mean time travel, and even the Highstars couldn't do that. Or could they? Was this a setup?

 

"No one's listening, Mr. Aboti." Willow smiled at him, weary and determined. "You're the only one on duty here, and no one would bother with patrols if there were another way to watch the cells. So, what do you say? Is the way it is the way it should be? I don't think you think it is. If you help us, we can fix that."

 

He should leave. He should leave and report this. But instead, he stayed where he was, stunlight still firmly in his hand. "Help you how?"

 

Laelia's pen stilled, and she responded instead of Willow. "According to the history books, tonight, a guard releases five prisoners. When he does, he starts a chain of changes that ends with the fall of the Coriolion Empire, freedom for the people it's conquered, and access to magic for everyone."

 

"That guard could be your relief," Willow said, her voice soft. "Or it could be you. I think it's you. What do you think, Mr. Aboti?"

 

"I could release the two of you," Tarvin said, slowly. He shouldn't listen, he knew. But they knew too much for him to ignore them. At least if he kept talking, he could learn something. He was gathering intelligence; that was all. His captain couldn't fault him for that. "But if the two in high security are included in that group, I can't get them out. I'd need a mage for that."

 

"I am a mage." Willow put a hand against the force field. Rather than burning her, it dimmed where she touched it. A glow appeared around her other hand, dancing blue and green like the auroras on Asarvis. "Our friends, the other prisoners, are under stasis spells, aren't they? I can undo them safely if you just unlock what needs unlocked."

 

Was she using the energy from the forcefield to power separate magic? If she could do that — if she could undo the stasis fields — did she even need him to let her and her friend out? More importantly, if she were that skilled or that powerful, then she had to be at least on the same level as the Highstars. Under those circumstances, no one could blame him if he chose to help, could they? Still, a thought occurred to him. "You said five prisoners. There's only four here.

 

Willow's smile brightened, and she leaned closer to the force field. "The last prisoner isn't a person. We're going to release the magic. Make sure anyone on the station can use it, whatever authorizations they have, just like it used to be."

 

Like it used to be. Like the world his parents had known. Surely anyone who wanted to do that couldn't be so bad? "What do you get out of this? You said you're from another world. What do you care about here?"

 

"We want to do what's right." Willow shook her head. "We want to make things how they should be."

 

"And you have a copy of the Xenoth Archives here," Laelia added, her tone matter-of-fact. "It's under guard, but we might be able to get to it in all the confusion."

 

Willow gave Laelia an exasperated look. Laelia frowned. "It's the truth. That's why we came here in the first place. We were going to get here during the aftermath, but our timeport went wrong. Then Willow and I realized that was because we had to be here for there to be an aftermath."

 

That settled it. No one would make up such a ridiculous story as a lie, not if they seriously wanted to convince someone. They had to be telling the truth. All the same . . . "It's bad luck to start any big changes mid-year. You have to wait until the new year if you want anything to work."

 

Willow faced Tarvin again, her smile returning. "It's always the new year somewhere, Mr. Aboti. If not in this world, then another."

 

"Tonight's New Year's Eve on Earth and Fuila," Laelia added helpfully. "Worlds 1-3 and 1-5. It's also in the middle of the turning of the year for some cultures in Andauthea, world 3-7."

 

"See, Mr. Aboti? It's a new year." Willow looked hopefully at him. "So, will you help us?"

 

Tarvin took a deep breath and put his stunlight back in his pocket. "You'll release magic — will you teach me how to use it?"

 

"We'll show you the basics," Willow replied. "And we'll leave you information on where to go from there. Does that mean you'll help?"

 

"Well, your histories say someone does." Tarvin reached for his keys. "Do I let you out now, or later? Do your history books say?"

 

"Get the supplies you confiscated from us first. There's some tools we need in there." Willow stood. "Then let us out, as soon as possible."

 

"Right." Tarvin nodded. "I'll be back in a minute, then."

 

He hurried back down the hall, towards the main office and the lockers of prisoners' possessions. The thrill of what he was doing thrummed in his chest. If he were caught, it would mean death or worse.

 

But if he wasn't caught, it would mean he'd done something meaningful. Something important. Surely that was worth the risk. After all, it was the new year somewhere — and the new year meant it was time for a change.

 

December 2023 Doings!

Hello, all! I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, both the season and the day. I can definitely say that my Christmas season didn't go quite how I expected it . . . but that seems to have been the theme of 2023, so I can't say I'm entirely surprised either. We'll get to that in a bit, but first, writing! In which I have some good news!

Writing!

• I finally finished drafting Bastian Dennel, PI #4! Last month's assessment of being within a chapter or two of finishing wasn't quite correct; I actually had more like three and a half chapters left before I could call the draft done.
• But those three and a half chapters have been written! And I don't think they turned out half bad. I'm quite pleased with the last two, actually. The others will need some tweaking, but so do large swathes of the rest of the book, all for the same reason. And the point is that the draft is done, so now I can do that tweaking . . .
• Except not literally now because I have other projects that I need to work on first. And I'm also very likely going to make this book Bastian Dennel, PI #5 instead and write a new (much shorter) book as #4. But that's neither here nor there. The point is, the book is drafted! Huzzah!
• I actually finished the final chapter on Christmas Eve — I'd intended to write maybe 500 words and then go to bed early while the rest of my family watched A Christmas Carol. But then I realized that another few hundred words would wrap things up, and then I could have a proper, guilt-free break for the rest of my sister's visit . . . so I did not go to bed early, but I think it was worth it.
• That's all the writing I've done so far this month (I say "all;" it was a very respectable 8,700-odd words), but I will be writing my New Year's Eve short story in the next few days. Or, possibly, I've already drafted it by the time you read this post, depending on how things go and how much of it I feel like writing on my phone.

Reading!

• My reading this month can be pretty neatly divided into "Christmas" and "not Christmas."
• On the not-Christmas side, I finished my reread of the Illuminae Files with Gemina (just as good as I remembered, and I also realized there's kind of a Die Hard reference or two in there — besides the whole situation being very Die Hard-ish) and Obsidio (better than I remembered, though my memory was still very good — it's one of those books that's more enjoyable on the reread, because you know it'll come out all right and you can appreciate all the twists and turns instead of just being stressed). I also read To Destroy an Illusion (not as good as the Austen Fairy Tale, but still a very interesting twist on some obscure fairy tales) for review purposes. Also, it's not pictured because of a Goodreads issue, but I reread DragonSpell as part of a readalong some friends of mine are doing, and that was lovely. I forget how good those books are.
• The non-Christmas highlight of my month was, of course, Behind the Curtain, the latest — and, arguably, best — in W.R. Gingell's Worlds Behind series. I loved pretty much everything about this book, but the best bits were getting to know more about Camellia's past and seeing Athelas connect more with both her and Harrow. I especially loved the growing bond between Athelas and Harrow, and there's one particular scene — but that's a spoiler, so you'll all have to read it to know what I'm talking about.
• On the Christmas side, we had several rereads: Christmas in Talesend (which nicely filled the one-night gap between finishing Illusion and the release of Behind the Curtain), Hogfather (one of my favorite Discworld novels, and certainly the book I've read most in the series), and A Christmas Carol (read via the Dickens December Substack). Also in this category is my current read, A Superhero for Christmas . . . which I really should have read before Christmas, but I was busy.
• Finally, we have two new-to-me reads: Greenglass House and Twelve Days of (Faerie) Christmas. Greenglass House is a middle-grade novel, good but not amazing. I liked the mystery and the setting, but I think I would have enjoyed it more if I'd read it first when I was closer to the target audience's age.
• Twelve Days of Faerie Christmas, on the other hand, was an absolute delight. It's a sweet, fun Christmas romance involving lots of fae magic and schemes and a very clever take on the gifts of the Twelve Days of Christmas song. Every bit of it is a delight, but the ending most of all. I will absolutely be rereading this one next year, though I may do so after Christmas instead of before so the timing lines up properly. (I could have done that this year . . . but I was really excited and didn't want to wait.)

Watching!

• Surprisingly, this month didn't involve watching as many movies and shows as it usually does. Most Decembers, we watch a lot of movies as a family, and I also watch a lot of shows on my own because I'm trying to finish Christmas gifts. This year, I only had one gift I could work on while watching something else, and we also had less opportunity to watch things together until Christmas weekend and the following week.
• That meant we didn't rewatch as many Christmas movies as usual, but we did get a few in: A Charlie Brown Christmas, White Christmas, and The Man Who Invented Christmas. I also rewatched 'Twas the Night Before Critmas, the Critical Role Christmas oneshot because . . . well, it's fun, and I haven't watched any Critical Role in a long while.
• We also watched Holiday Inn, which I hadn't see before this year. I don't think I'm going to rewatch that one — I'd rather just watch White Christmas, where I like all the characters, most of the scheming is funny and benevolent (even if it does have an angle of self-benefit) and someone at least tries to have a civil, mature conversation about what's going on instead of just being possessive and manipulative. No, I don't have strong feelings about this at all; whatever gave you that idea?
• The one notable non-Christmas movie I watched was Across the Spider-Verse on the day after Christmas. My sister watched it a few months ago, loved it, and told me I needed to watch it . . . but I have a really hard time watching movies by myself (because if I have three straight hours all to myself, then I have other things that I need to be doing with those hours), so we planned to watch it together while she was here for the holiday. I really enjoyed that! Though I think Miguel is a drama queen with bad logic who doesn't deserve half the hype he gets, either in-universe or from the fandom, and I want to know why more people aren't talking about The Spot, because yes, he had a rather cliche motivation, but otherwise he's such a cool villain, with an excellent progression from being played for laughs to being a genuine threat.
• (I know why he gets the hype both places, for the record. To the fandom, he's an anti-hero with an excellent sense of drama. In-universe, it's because his explanation of things makes all the sadness and tragedy in the spider-peoples' lives make sense and absolves them of any guilt or regret. Of course it happened this way. It had to happen this way. It always happens this way. There was nothing they could've done otherwise, and trying just would have doomed everything. Or so he claims. So, yeah, I get it. I just don't think he deserves the hype.)
• Seeing all the spider-people was cool, though. And Gwen and Miles both had great character arcs, plus I liked how the movie showed the mingled love and tension in their relationships with their respective families. So, good movie.

Life!

• So, December started off well — quite well, even, as on the very first day of the month, I had the pleasure of attending a former coworker's very lovely wedding. Both the ceremony and the reception were beautiful, and the couple made a point of keeping Christ centered in all of it — it's the only wedding I've ever encountered that involved Communion for the whole congregation because the couple wanted to serve Communion together as their first action as husband and wife.
• The rest of the weekend, however, signaled the start of a downhill slide, as my dad came down with a very bad cold on Saturday. My mom and I did our best to avoid catching it, but by midweek, around the time he started feeling better, we were both down for the count, and I was home on sick leave. Thankfully, after several days of rest, we were both feeling better in time for me to go to work the following Monday . . . and then my dad caught the same cold again from a coworker. Thankfully, everyone was healthy again (or mostly so) in time for Christmas, but it was still stressful and frustrating, and it also made doing anything Christmas-y difficult.
• It also made finishing my grad school class difficult (or, you know, more difficult) and solidly shattered my plans of wrapping up my final project early. I ended up doing most of the work on said project on the last two days of the class. Thankfully, a lot of the prep had already been covered by previous assignments, so I was able to get the thing written and turned in on time. And now I am done with grant writing for hopefully a very long time.
• Still, I am grateful that one of the few gaps in the cycle of colds was the Friday of our Bible Study's Christmas party. We always do a baked potato bar and an ice cream bar, and usually the kids act out the Christmas story in a sort of semi-impromptu play. This year, however, we knew we wouldn't have many kids there, so we decided to switch to a dramatic reading of the Christmas story, interspersed with Christmas carols. I helped with a lot of the planning for that; it was the first time in years that I've been so excited for a Christmas play-adjacent thing. I think everyone enjoyed it, and I was certainly happy about how it worked out.
• Also that weekend, at least if I recall correctly, was my D&D group's last session of the year, in which we defeated one of our nemesis once and for all — he's a rakshasa, and we killed him once in the mortal plane, but he can come back . . . so we went to his plane and took him down a second time so he can't keep on with his schemes and tricks. I got the killing blow and cut him off mid-monologue, and it was very satisfying. (I did give the DM a chance to talk, for the record! But not a long chance, as it very quickly became clear that this guy had nothing useful to say and would just try to turn us off our purpose if we let him go on.)
• The fact that everyone spent so much of the month sick meant less attention was given to things like Christmas baking, but we did still make cookies. We just didn't try any new recipes for Christmas itself this year. All the same, my gingersnaps and peppermint pinwheels turned out well, and my mom made macaroons, peanut butter balls, biscotti, and Russian teacakes, so I'm happy. And I did make oatmeal-ginger cookies at the start of the month, which were also very tasty.
• Probably the best part of Christmas this year was that my sister came down from Ohio for the holiday! She arrived Saturday, just in time for us to go to the Christmas Eve-Eve service at our church — which, by the way, was lovely. It wasn't as much of a spectacular as some past years have been, but I think it was nicer overall, as we had more traditional songs, and I think the pastor's message was better than it has been some years. Then, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were both pretty chill, on the whole. I received some lovely gifts (including new planners and the Baking Yesteryear recipe book), and my family liked the gifts I gave them. There wasn't anything really out of the ordinary about either day, but they were still good days.
• My sister returned to Ohio on Wednesday, and we drove up with her as far as Pittsburgh to visit my grandpa for a little while. Getting to see him again was nice, and I'm happy to report that he's recovering pretty well from all the various medical stuff he's had to deal with over the course of this year. All in all, it was a good visit.
• There's a few days left yet in December, but I anticipate those being mostly quiet, with the exception of New Year's Eve afternoon and evening. My former roommate and I will do our gift exchange (over video call) that afternoon, and I look forward to that — she's in one of my D&D groups, but that group hasn't really met all month, so I haven't seen her in a while. And then our Bible study always has a party for New Year's Eve that should be lots of fun. It'll be a good way to end the year, that's for certain.

January Plans

• January means getting back to business as usual, with work, writing, and grad school.
• On the writing front, I'll be working on Daughters of Atirse #2. This is a prequel to Song of the Selkies focusing on Ceana's older sister, Onora, and it's also a retelling that blends The Goose Girl with Puss in Boots. I'll probably outline it over the next couple days (if I have time) and then start actually writing at the beginning of January. If I have time, I'll probably also try to squeeze in a draft of whatever I do for H.L. Burke's DOSA-verse anthology. (I have about 75% of an idea. I just have to work out some loose ends.)
• At work, I'm hoping for a fairly quiet month. January usually doesn't have a lot going on, so that hope has a reasonable chance of being fulfilled. That said, we're getting ready to launch some new grief ministries, so we'll see how busy that keeps me.
• As for grad school . . . confession time: I still need to register for the next set of classes. I should have done that a couple weeks ago, but I was too busy with Christmas stuff, and I also didn't even want to think about classes for a solid week after I finished my most recent one. I think the next thing I'm taking is technical writing, though, which should be pretty chill. Technical writing isn't my favorite type of writing ever, but I also don't dislike it, and I think I'm fairly good at it. So, we'll see how things go.
• When it comes to reading, I have some exciting ARCs waiting for me on my Kindle — the only reason I haven't read them yet is that I've been distracted by Christmas stories! But I'll fix that pretty soon. Otherwise, well, I'm trying not to plan too much.
• Lastly, on the crafting front, I have a crochet shawl that I'm hoping to make good progress on. I'm also toying with the idea of giving some new crafts a try . . . but we'll see if that actually goes anywhere or not.
• And, of course, I'll be setting my New Year's goals in the next couple days, so we'll see what comes of those.

How was your December? How was your Christmas? Any plans for January? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

December 2023 Doings!

Here we are — December 1, and for me, at least, the Christmas season is in full swing! As I write this, I'm listening to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (always a delight), and I'm very excited to start both Dickens December (aka, reading The Christmas Carol in day-by-day serial fashion, Dracula Daily-style) and my cheese Advent calendars. But I'm getting ahead of myself — this post is about November, not December. Last month was, unsurprisingly, pretty busy, but it was a good busy . . . mostly. Let's get into the recap and you'll see what I mean.

Writing!

• The month started out with another author event. Heather Halverstadt, L. Jagi Lamplighter, and I shared a table at Doxacon, a very small speculative fiction fan convention associated with the Orthodox and Catholic churches. While navigation was frustrating (I lost my way multiple times trying to find my way around the location — and then ended up at the bottom of a flight of stairs with a cartload of books) and I didn't sell nearly as many books as I hoped, I did meet many cool people, both readers and other authors. Additionally, the vendor hall and the main sessions were in the same place, so I got to listen in on some of the talks for free, which was great. All in all, it was a pretty good day. I think I'll try to go as a vendor again next year . . . though I will probably prepare differently next time!
• As far as actual writing goes: I finished my challenge story (the platonic Beauty and the Beast), and I'm very happy with how it turned out. I took my birthday off for the express purpose of finishing it and working on Bastian Dennel, and that was fun.
• I did not finish Bastian Dennel, PI #4, due to Thanksgiving and my sister being home. However, I am within a chapter or two of being done, so . . . there's that? I could probably finish this weekend if I have time and focus enough, but I'm not sure if I'll have both of those in sufficient supply.
• I've also been doing a lot of brainstorming on possible future stories with a friend of mine. This is not very helpful when it comes to writing present stories, but it's fun, and it's sort of adjacent to being productive, so . . . yes. I swear, if I write anywhere near all the ideas I have, I'm going to end up with a backlist that, at least in terms of quantity, puts the likes of Brandon Sanderson and Bryan Davis to shame. Alas that I can't afford to just spend all my time writing . . .
• I also celebrated five years since Blood in the Snow released and I became an officially published author! And by "celebrated" I mean that I wrote a blog post and an Instagram post about it and mentioned it to my family after a friend reminded me that it was, in fact, kind of a significant anniversary. It still counts as a celebration, right?

Reading!

• This month was almost all rereads — out of eighteen books that I read or finished in November, only four were actually new to me.
• My main rereads were the second half of the  Knight and Rogue series and most of the Delicious in Dungeon manga series. Both were excellent on the reread, I'm happy to say. My Delicious in Dungeon reread culminated in reading the latest two volumes, which were both new to me. I enjoyed both, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the series wraps up when the final volumes release sometime next year. (My favorites are still earlier in the series, but that's not surprising.)
• Dracula Daily and Re:Dracula both wrapped up in early November, which is why Dracula is on there twice. I very much enjoyed experiencing Dracula a second and third time, and I highly recommend both the Substack and the podcast as ways to experience this story! (Also, I thought I was prepared for a certain element of the climax . . . and I was with regards to Dracula Daily, but I definitely was not properly prepared for Re:Dracula.)
• My two new reads, aside from the latest Delicious in Dungeon books, were volume 14 of Fullmetal Alchemist and B. Dylan Hollis's cookbook, Baking Yesteryear. Well, I mostly skimmed the cookbook, but I read enough to be satisfied and to know there are recipes in it that I'd like to try. As for Fullmetal Alchemist . . . well, I got worked up enough over the ending to ask a friend for a very minor spoiler, that being whether or not a character's arc pulls away from the tragedy it seems to be headed towards.
• Also, while it's not listed here, I've been reading Time to Orbit: Unknown, which is a serially posted sci-fi story about a colony ship in which things have gone horribly wrong and one of the colonists gets unexpectedly woken to take on the role of captain . . . and all the other roles as well. I'm about halfway through right now, and while it's not a perfect story (either philosophically, ideologically, or technically), I've been really enjoying it. Delving into some sci-fi is a nice change of pace, there's an excellent mystery element, and the character dynamics are great. I don't remember how it ended up on my radar, but I'm glad it did. (Also, it's making me want to write a space fantasy story, so . . .  we'll see where that goes.)
• And because reading that seems to have put me on a sci-fi kick, I've started a reread of the Illuminae Files. I read Illuminae in the last few days (and stayed up far too late while doing so, but we're not talking about that), and I just started Gemina, and, look, these books are so good. Sometimes, action/suspense-type books don't hold up well on the reread, but these ones? These ones remain amazing. (Plus, I now have the full trilogy, and I'm so happy about that!)

Watching!

• I actually watched a bunch of stuff this month? Somehow? And, surprisingly, only half of it was holiday-related.
• I squeezed in a couple more episodes of my Fairy Tail rewatch and another No Evil episode (I really need to get back to watching that series; I'm actually really close to caught up). I also joined my parents for a couple of episodes of Benson, which is an older sitcom. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the two episodes I watched, even though I usually don't go in for that genre. Not something I'd go out of my way to watch, but I would not object to watching more if other people happened to have it on and I didn't have anything pressing to do at the time. (This is more of a compliment than it probably sounds like, for the record. My family will confirm that I am not afraid to flee the room if a show comes on that I don't like, even if I don't necessarily have something better to do.)
• On the holiday movie front, we of course watched Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (a few days before Thanksgiving), and we also watched The Lemon Drop Kid while my sister was home. On a side note, if you haven't watched The Lemon Drop Kid, do yourself a favor and fix that. It's not a perfect story, but it is so much fun — it's the classic "con man tries a desperate scheme, but accidentally gets Invested" trope, but at Christmas! With lots of humor! I love it.
• We also watched Miracle on 34th Street, and for once, I decided not to find something more pressing to do. I hated this movie for a long while — when I was small (under ten or so), we'd always watch it on Thanksgiving, but most of it went right over my head, and I always ended up bored and annoyed. Eventually I just stopped watching it. This year I decided to give it another chance, and I will say that, surprise, surprise, it's a much better movie when you actually understand the nuances of the characters and what's going on! It's still not something I'd pick out to watch on my own, but I'd potentially watch it again if other people wanted to see it.
• Finally, a new-to-me old movie: It Happened in 5th Avenue. I really wanted to love this one, and I did like it . . . but not as well as I'd hoped. The general concept was fun, and I liked that part of the emotional grounding was the restoration of a family in addition to the romance element. However, one of the major characters very much annoyed me after a while, plus there was instalove romance, and while I could deal with either of those two on their own, the combination was just a little too frustrating for this to be a new favorite (or anywhere close). I'd still watch it again, but yeah. Not as good as I hoped.

Life!

• As I said already, November was a busy month. Doxacon obviously dominated the first weekend of the month — but the following weekend was also busy with lots of running around here, there, and everywhere else.
• Then the weekend after that was my birthday, which was fun! I already mentioned that I took my birthday off from work. When my coworkers asked what I planned to do, I told them that, if it was a good day, I'd spend the whole thing writing, and if it was a very good day, I'd spend half my time writing and the other half either reading or crafting. And as it turns out, it was a very good day! I got in plenty of writing time, and I started working on a short fleece cloak. We also celebrated with homemade chocolate peanut butter tart (basically buckeye filling and chocolate in a graham cracker crust, very tasty) and a trip to my favorite Mexican restaurant on the weekend, so that was a delight.
• For those who want to know: the cloak is still not quite finished, but it's nearly there. I just need to sew on the fasteners and decide if I'm going to attach the hood or not. (I made the hood, but I had to piece it, and I'm not sure if I like how it turned out. Plus, I do have plenty of hats.) I'm also working on crocheting a Mobius shawl with some lovely black-and-silver yarn; despite a few false starts, it's going well, if much slower than I hoped. (Let's be real; "much slower than I hoped" describes pretty much every crafting project I tackle.)
• I also used my birthday as an excuse to try a local-ish crepe restaurant — I'd been meaning to check it out for months, but I hadn't gotten around to it until now. I ordered a salmon benedict crepe and was caught very off-guard by the size. It was even larger than the crepes at the Maryland Renaissance Faire, and that's saying something! I could barely finish the whole thing! It was tasty, though, and I definitely plan to go back sometime.
• Now we come to Thanksgiving! My sister flew in Thanksgiving morning and stayed until Saturday evening, and seeing her again was lovely. We had Thanksgiving dinner with our Bible study, as usual, which was fun. There was an abundance of good food, and my mom and sister spent most of the afternoon working on a puzzle with the friend who was hosting. I contributed to neither food nor puzzle, but ah well.
• One unusual thing we did this year was that we put up the Christmas tree and lights on Thanksgiving day, then did the actual decorating the day after Thanksgiving as usual. While I'm generally very firm about keeping Christmas after Thanksgiving, I think I liked putting the tree up a day early. Doing that meant we weren't already tired when we started putting up the decorations (or, not as tired), and it was a good way to work up an appetite for Thanksgiving dinner!
• At work, everything's abuzz with Advent and Christmas preparations. I spent a significant amount of the month working on the Advent newsletter and marketing materials for the Lessons & Carols and Christmas Eve services — but those are arguably some of my favorite projects of the year. I know I say this every year, but Advent truly is my favorite season to design for. I'm working primarily with my favorite colors (blue, gold, purple, green), the imagery is all filled with lovely lights and stars and candles, and I have the option to either lean into nostalgia and traditional designs (with fancy serif fonts and scrollwork) or go more modern (with silhouettes and minimalist colors and swishy script), with equal justification for either angle. So, yes, I'm busy, but I'm having fun with it.
• And, to be frank, it's a good thing that I'm enjoying my work (mostly), as I am not enjoying my grad school grant writing class. The professor isn't as bad as I feared he would be, but I just do not enjoy the subject matter. Heaven help me if I'm ever in a position where I have to write a grant application for real — and I absolutely do not want to ever have this as my main job. I'd rather freelance — storms, I'd rather work retail. The problem isn't even that it's particularly hard. The workload is actually pretty light. But I can't find anything to enjoy about the work itself, and I just want to be done.

December Plans

• Obviously, all the Christmas stuff will be happening. I'm working on putting together presents and thinking about what cookies I'm going to make  (and what I'm going to request that my mom make). We're trying to figure out which Christmas Eve service to go to — our church has six — and looking forward to my sister coming home again for the holiday (huzzah!), plus hoping that my grandpa will be doing well enough to visit too. I'm debating whether or not to go to the Lessons & Carols service at the church where I work, since I enjoyed it last year. And, of course, I will be listening to all the Christmas music!
• I also have two weeks left in my grant writing class, so I need to survive those and pray that my work ethic holds out long and strong enough that I finish well. I swear, even in my most-disliked high school and undergrad classes — even in my last months of my senior year — I have never felt such a strong desire to just not.
• Speaking of finishing things: I still need to finish Bastian Dennel, PI #4! I'm so close, but the last chapters are always one of the hardest parts of drafting . . . That said, I'm aiming to wrap up this draft by the end of next week. We'll see what happens after that. I need to jump into my Song of the Selkies prequel sooner rather than later, but the weeks before Christmas aren't necessarily the best time to start a new project, plus I need to write my New Year's Eve short story. I'd like to get it written well in advance for once, but who knows if that'll work out. In any case, I'll see how BDPI #4 and my grant writing final project go and figure things out from there.
• Work will continue to be busy, but not unreasonably or unbearably so. At this point, I have a pretty good handle on what needs doing, and a lot is already done. The hardest thing will probably just be making sure everything stays on schedule and cornering people long enough to get the information I need from them. I will be doing three different bulletins the week before Christmas, which will be a lot . . . but honestly, that's not much worse than Holy Week, and I can get bulletins done pretty fast these days as long as people give me the content I need! So as long as I can keep my focus, I should be fine.
• I'm sure I'll also have plenty to do on the crafting front, what with making some Christmas gift items, though I'm not making as much as I have in some past years. Most of what I have planned is stuff I can do relatively quickly; the tricky bit is that not all of it is as portable as I'd like . . .
• Finishing up with a housekeeping note: I will not be posting on the blogs next week or the week after. My next post will most likely be my Winter 2023–2024 Reads post on December 22, and then I'll do the usual month- and year-wrap-up posts on the appropriate dates. The next two weeks are critical for finishing both the grant-writing class and BDPI #4, so I don't want to have to worry about getting blog posts up during that time. Of course, the rest of you might be so busy that you don't even notice I'm not posting.

How was your November? What are you looking forward to in December? Do you tend to make many Christmas presents? Do you find it harder to start projects or finish them? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

April 2023 Doings!

Hello, all! April is over (well, almost), and so is my blogging hiatus. As I expected, this has been a very busy, tiring month. A good month, to be sure, but still. I have had far too many lates and earlies, as Bastian would put it, for my taste, and too many days in which I was running behind the schedule of when I wanted to. I almost thought I was going to have to push this post until next Friday, which would've been a week later than it should've run, but I managed to find enough spare time at the last minute to get it up. So, let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• I have gotten tragically little creative writing done this month — only about 12,000 words, which is less than half of my average in the previous several months. There's been some weeks when I haven't been able to touch my manuscript more than once, if I got to touch it at all. (The week of the 16th, the only reasons I got to do any creative writing of any kind was that I skipped out on a D&D session that I was going to be late to anyway, and then I needed to do prep for a session in my campaign.) On the upside, I've generally been pleased with what I did write, so . . . there's that.
• (Needless to say, the fact that I haven't been able to do as much creative writing at a time when I very much want to be writing has not helped my stress levels at all.)
• What was I doing instead of writing? Grad school stuff. Which is actually writing-adjacent, so I suppose I may as well talk about it now instead of in the Life section. I spent most of this month working on my final project for my second grad school class. If you follow me on Facebook or you share a Discord server with me, you're probably already aware of this project: doing research into a possible reason why some writers prefer to write to music and why some writers prefer silence and then writing that research into a series of blog posts. This was an interesting project, and I've wanted to look into it for several years, but I haven't had a reason to until now. Unfortunately, it was also extremely time-consuming — and, yes, I knew going in that these things take time, but I actually got through a whole class before this without sacrificing significant amounts of writing time. Anyway, I finally got my rough draft done this past Wednesday (three days after I wanted to have it finished), so now at least I get a semi-break while I wait for peer review . . .
• Further delaying the research project was another smaller assignment for the same class: writing a blog post about how to do research in one's field. I opted to write about how I research for worldbuilding, so that was another technically-fun-but-time-consuming task. On the upside, once this class is over, I'll have four weeks' worth of blog posts to share over the summer! 
• The D&D campaign I run didn't meet much this month — which, surprisingly, was more due to other peoples' schedules than mine. We only had two sessions, one of which was . . . not the best, as everyone (including me) was tired. The second session, though, was really fun; we actually had our full group for the first time in ages, and people got pretty into the roleplay. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting more of that once peoples' schedules ease up.

Reading!

• I predicted in my last Doings! post that this month would be mostly rereads and mood reads, and what do you know? I was absolutely right.
• I did finish The Shepherd's Crown, which I was in the middle of last month, and I continue to feel generally meh about it. Was it a good book? Sure. Was it a fairly good ending to the Discworld series? Again, sure. Was it anywhere close to being one of my favorites in the series? Not remotely.
• As far as new books that I read entirely this month go, The Orb and the Airship was absolutely the best. I got an early copy because I backed the Kickstarter, and that was so very worth it. This is such a wonderful blend of steampunk and epic fantasy, and I loved the characters (especially Marik and Beren) and the storyline. I can't wait to read the rest! For those who didn't back the Kickstarter, you can currently preorder it in either ebook or hardcover from Amazon. I 100% recommend doing that, if you couldn't tell.
• Another excellent new read was Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons, which is one part Austen, one part fantasy, and all parts excellent. A Regency-era spinster unknowingly inherits a dragon egg from her great-uncle; hijinks ensue; it's excellent. Slow-paced, but still with enough to intrigue and keep me turning the pages, and the narration is full of self-aware, Princess-Bride-esque humor.
• My final new-to-me read was The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Maass. This is the book version of the workshop series I did at last year's Realm Makers conference, and I appreciated the opportunity to revisit what I'd learned. I probably would've appreciated it more if I hadn't been so tired and if I could've had more opportunity to put the principles in the book into practice, but . . . oh well.
• I'm not really going to go into my rereads, save to say that The Secret Garden is still delightful for adults (as the best books are), and I am strongly tempted to combine it with some fairytales and write a retelling of it. I won't be doing so soon, but . . . sometime.

 Life!

• (Yes, we skipped a section because I didn't watch anything noteworthy this month, even if you set the bar for "noteworthy" pretty much on the ground.)
• The month obviously started with Holy Week, which was . . .  a lot. Even with my best efforts to get stuff done in advance, and even with getting some extra time off on Thursday, it was a busy, tiring week. But it ended well — I got to actually see the Stations of the Cross that I worked so hard on last year, our church's Easter service was good, and Easter lunch with our Bible study was very fun. I made a coconut cake, and that turned out quite delicious if I do say so myself!
• With the onset of spring comes the time to plant, and so I have acquired more herbs to join my rosemary and thyme plants from last year. This year I got two more basil plants (since the one I had last year died over the winter — not surprising), as well as a mint and a parsley. I potted all of them last weekend, and I'm hoping that they do all right. The basil seems fine, but I'm a bit worried about the parsley (which didn't have very well-developed roots, though it looked great up top) and the mint (which lost a lot of leaves before I could get it in a real pot, though its roots seem fine). We'll see how things go. I do hope it warms up properly again soon so I can leave them outside . . .
• On the crafting front, I finished my Dark King's Curse fanart embroidery (except for removing the stabilizer and mounting it in something for display), but I was running low on embroidery floss and didn't have time to get to the store, so I switched back to the shrug I'm crocheting. That's working up fairly fast, but it's also getting large enough that taking it anywhere will become very awkward very soon.
• Finally, we have D&D — the campaign I play in has had a few sessions this month, which were all . . . interesting. Our party was split until the most recent session, with our sorcerer off scoping out an enemy's headquarters and the rest of the group trying to rescue my character's sister and the sister's adventuring party. The rescue did succeed, but storms was it a struggle at times. Happily, we're all back together now and prepared to storm a fiend's hideout (well, one of his hideouts) and maybe do a little, ah, social reorganization in the country where said hideout is located. And by that I mean that we need to help a lot of halfling farmers deal with the people who are oppressing and taking advantage of them. It's definitely going to be an interesting challenge.
• Since I already discussed grad school stuff in the Writing section, that about covers it. This has been a busy month, as I said, but it's mostly been busy with the same things over and over again.

May Plans

• My grad school class ends in the second week of May, so next month should actually be a lot less stressful.
• That said, I still do anticipate a full month. Just, you know, full of more fun things.
• The big event of the month is likely to be my sister's graduation on the first weekend in May. I am so proud of and excited for her — she's a mechanical engineer, so not an easy program, but she's done and finished well, and I know she really enjoyed most of her studies. I'm looking forward to going up to Ohio to celebrate with her and also to have her back home for one more summer. (I'm also hoping to visit some friends while I'm in Ohio, so that will also be fun if it works out.)
• I'm also looking forward to going back to the local Viking Festival the weekend after my sister's graduation. My sister and I went last year, and it was fun — basically a very small viking-themed Ren Fest-ish event. I'm sure it'll be fun this year as well, and we may end up doing something with a friend afterwards, so that'll be a good day. We may also try to attend the Virginia Renaissance Faire at some point, since it's mostly in May and tickets are actually pretty cheap, but we'll see how that works out.
• Of course, since I'll be done with grad school for the summer, and since I need to have my Selkie Story finished (or nearly so) by the end of the month, I also plan to dive back into writing and get a lot done. And once the Selkie Story is drafted, it'll be back to work on Bastian Dennel, PI Book 4. Plus, the group I run is close to wrapping up our LotR D&D adventure, which means I'll need to prep for the next adventure after that. (I'd also like to work on some one-shot ideas I have . . . but only if I end up with a bunch of extra time somehow.)
• At work, I expect things will continue as they have been for the last couple weeks since Easter. Summer is often a somewhat quieter time for me, at least compared to Lent and Advent, and if that continues to be the case, I will not complain!

How was your April? What are you looking forward to in May? How did you celebrate Easter (if you celebrated)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!