October 2024 Doings!

Hello, friends! October was a weird month — the first half was honestly fairly chill aside from work stress, and then we hit the weekend of the 19th and everything happened at once. As of a result, I have been very tired. But the blog must go on, so let's review this month's Doings!

Writing!

• I intended for my writing time this month to go towards two short stories and the next Bastian Dennel book. That . . . did not go as planned. I was still very productive! Just not on the projects I intended to write!
• I spent the first week and a half of the month sorting through ideas for the two short stories, even going so far as to outline one fairly extensively and start a different one. Then I was reminded of another project that I had semi-committed to in the past and needed to make up my mind about, so I started poking at ideas for that . . .
• And, thanks to a comment from a friend, I stumbled upon a particular concept, fell in love, and decided to chase the plot rabbit until it stopped running, as I had to write the thing eventually, and the more I do now, the less I had to do later.
• The plot rabbit is still running, and it's produced several more bunnies . . . one of which did turn into a short story for the writing challenge I was doing this month, so there's that. I haven't started writing the book yet, but I've been doing a lot of brainstorming and planning of character, worldbuilding, and plot stuff. It's a Chinese-inspired setting, but not ancient China, and I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
• Otherwise, I continued writing my just-for-fun side project in my spare time, and I wrote a bit more of my D&D tournament arc. It's still not finished, but I've managed to stay a couple sessions' worth of material ahead of the game, so I count that as a win.
• The other big writing news of the month was that I once more had a table at Eat Local, Read Local, an author event held by one of the libraries in the area. That was tiring, but fun. I enjoyed meeting readers and potential readers, and I particularly loved that a few people who bought Song of the Selkies previously came back for Illusion's Reign. That was a definite win!

Reading!

• This month has been both a light and heavy reading month — light because I only finished three books; heavy because all those books were pretty hefty.
• Collusion by H.S.J. Williams was definitely my favorite read of the month. I started reading it literally the day it arrived at my house, setting aside Yumi and the Nightmare Painter to do so (the correct choice, for the record). I posted a couple weeks ago raving about it, so I won't repeat myself too much, but I absolutely loved this book. Getting to see Errance, Tryss, Coren, Tellie, the Daisha, and the rest again was so much fun, the new characters were interesting, the plot was amazing, and the themes of hope, healing, and the dangers of isolating yourself were all so, so good. I look forward to whenever I get to read this one; I know it's going to be just as amazing the second time around.
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter was also good, though I'm not as in love with it as some of my friends seem to be. I liked the narrative and the themes, and Sanderson did an astonishing job of putting together a life-swap/bodyswap story that didn't give me constant secondhand embarrassment, and of course the worldbuilding was very cool. On the other hand, it took me a good third of the book to really connect with the protagonists, and I didn't always love the narrative voice? Both of those are really just me things, though.
• From there, we transition into spooky season reads with a reread of Black and Deep Desires and a new book that I'm currently reading, The Death of Clara Willenheim. Black and Deep Desires was just as delicious on the reread as it was the first time around, I'm happy to say. Clara Willenheim is a ghostly gothic murder mystery; I'm about halfway through and enjoying it so far, though it recently took a turn that was rather darker than I expected.
• And, of course, I continue to enjoy Dracula Daily, though I kind of dropped listening to Re: Dracula. One form of the story is enough for me this year, and with my head so full of brainstorming, I've been more in the mood for music than podcasts of late.

Watching & Playing!

• Wonder of wonders, I actually watched stuff this month!
• My friends who got me into Star Rail and Genshin convinced me that I needed to watch Yona of the Dawn with them, mostly by promising excellent character development and also the presence of certain archetypes that I absolutely adore. (They are excellent influences, obviously.) Scheduling that has been tricky, as we have three people in two different time zones, but we've managed five episodes, and I'm very much enjoying the show. Hak is my favorite character by a long shot, though we'll see if that changes once the dragons show up. I also like how the show is handling the development of Yona herself, how she's dealing with her grief and finding her strength in a way that seems very natural. Hopefully I'll get to watch the rest soon!
• I also rewatched True Grit with my family, which I didn't enjoy quite as much this time around . . . I feel like the sadness of the ending hit a lot harder this time? Though I also just might not have been in the mood for the story; it was a very spur-of-the-moment decision.
• As for what I'm playing, I'm two thirds of the way through the Liyue region main story in Genshin! This is one of the two regions I was most looking forward to when I got into the game, and I've enjoyed it so far. I am attempting to figure out what Zhongli's deal is, piecing together what the story tells me with bits of information gained from the fandom and my friends' conversations . . . I like him quite a lot (thankfully, as he's the character who my friends mainly used to convince me to start the game), but I am getting conflicting information about who or what he really is. Hopefully I'll find out in the next couple weeks, though.
• (I will also note that, while Genshin definitely has a steeper learning curve on combat than Star Rail did, I am less bad at that than I used to be! And I am getting better! I'm still not good by any means, but I die a lot less than I used to, and I remember to shield a lot more often.)
• The other fun thing about Genshin is the co-op mode, which currently mostly involves me running around after my more-experienced friends, picking up treasures and whatnot while they utterly destroy any enemies that show up (something that is satisfying for ALL of us, for the record). Exploring together is a lot more fun than exploring alone would be — especially since they can show me cool stuff that I wouldn't have found on my own for ages. Probably my favorite two co-op experiences so far were making it to the very top of a particularly dangerous mountain in the first region of the game and making the trek to the second region of the game together, but it's all been a lot of fun.
• This past week, though, I've mostly been playing Star Rail, specifically the version 2.6 story update, which was been a wild ride. I might be mildly traumatized by monkeys and bananas at this point, y'all, and I have definitely been fighting for my life against a particularly catchy earworm of a song. That's said, I enjoyed it — some of my favorite characters are very heavily involved in it, and we have the main Trailblaze trio together again for a lot of the story! The new characters were also cool, and one of my favorite couples in the game had some really nice interactions! I am also inordinately pleased that I was able to get one of my favorite characters (Dan Heng Lunae, for those who play) during his rerun; he has been very fun to play. (And he's narratively appropriate! At least somewhat! That makes me very happy.)

 Life!

• October started off pretty quiet and chill, for which I was grateful — for several weeks, the most exciting thing that happened was that I made some rather excellent basil sourdough bread. It was my first time trying those mix-ins, and I'm quite pleased with how the loaf turned out.
• Then we hit the weekend of the 19th and everything became Very Busy.
• I've already talked about the 19th and Eat Local, Read Local. Again, that went well . . . but I was very tired the next few days, which wasn't ideal, as the following Monday was the first day back at online grad school classes. The class I'm currently taking is Advanced English Grammar, which I chose because I thought it would be mildly interesting and not too difficult. And it has indeed not been too difficult, mostly . . . but it is a lot more technical than I expected.
  • Fun fact: there is an official grammar term ("lexical phrases") for structures like "see you later" and "by the way" where the same words are regularly used for specific functions without being an idiom.
  • Another fun fact: when you start describing grammar rules in the abstract, you end up with formulas, and those formulas look way more like upper-level calculus than they do algebra.
• Anyway. That's happening. It's better than the last class, and therefore we will get through it.
• On a happier note, last weekend a friend and I went to the Renaissance Festival! The one we normally go to was sold out, so we ended up visiting a different one instead that's a little further away, requiring a full weekend trip. That was also tiring, but a lot of fun! I love wandering around the Faire, seeing everyone's costumes and outfits, visiting the shops, and, of course, watching the jousts! This Faire's joust still wasn't as realistic as the Ohio Ren Fest's joust, but it had the best story of any Faire I've gone to so far, and it concluded in a resounding triumph of good over evil. I was truly impressed!
• That brings us up to this past week, which has mostly consisted of grad school, story prep, gaming, work, and recovering from all the driving I did over the weekend. So, pretty quiet.
• Other than that . . . I'm still working on crafting Christmas presents; that's going fairly well (though I am starting to feel the pressure of Looming Deadlines). I also started work on a new fleece capelet, this one a lovely green-and-black plaid with a properly deep hood! It's going to be so cozy when it's done. That said, I'm hand-sewing a lot of it because I didn't feel like arguing with the sewing machine, so it's going to take a bit.
• And on the D&D front, we're still playing through the mini-campaign; I think we're probably about halfway through at this point. That continues to be fun, and I'm starting to get the hang of my character's mechanics. I didn't get much done on finishing up my character for the next campaign, but I still have time. (She's playable. I just need to figure out some extra backstory stuff.)
• I think that about covers it! Again, October was mostly a quiet month; it just got very exciting at the end there.

November Plans

• Grad school continues to exist and will also continue to dominate however much of my brainspace and free time I allow it to. Given what happened last winter and spring when I let myself stress over it a lot, I'm going to try to keep it to a more reasonable resource allocation this time around. We'll see if that works.
• Otherwise, I plan to start drafting the new story I mentioned up in the writing section (with a low daily wordcount goal), and I'll continue working on D&D writing and brainstorming a story for the DOSA Files (which I really need to figure out sooner rather than later).
• I also need to either speed up work on some of the Christmas presents I'm making or decide that some of those gifts will be slightly smaller than originally planned. We'll see which one wins.
• I don't have any author events planned; I was hoping to go to Doxacon, but they're meeting in DC this year, and I do not want to deal with that. Alas.
• Work will probably be busy for the next two months as we prepare for Advent and Christmas. Still, I'm hoping to do enough in advance that it won't be terribly stressful — and holidays do have the advantage of being very similar year to year, so I have a good idea what to expect.
• And, of course, I will continue to have D&D, reading (maybe delving into some mysteries this month), and gaming to help me relax and get my stress levels down. All in all, it should be a good month.

How was your October? Any plans for November? Do you prefer to watch shows and movies by yourself or with others? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

September 2024 Doings!

Hello, all! I will be honest; after a month of a really weird blog schedule, I completely forgot that Doings! was a thing until about two days ago. (The fact that this past week of work has been really chaotic and busy did not help matters.) Thank goodness I remembered Wednesday morning instead of Wednesday night so I could still get this out on time!

Also, just as a quick heads-up for those in the Northern Virginia area: my books and I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at the Cascades Library in Potomac Falls on Saturday, October 19, 11:00–2:00. The event will also include many other authors, food, and live music, so come stop by, check out the tables, pick up some new books, or just say hi! I hope I'll get to see you there!

Writing!

• In case you missed it: Illusion's Reign officially released on September 27 and is available for purchase on Amazon in both ebook and paperback forms.  Thank you so much to everyone for the wonderful reception you gave this book — all the excitement and encouragement was such a joy! I've seen a few early reviews and a few people saying that they're reading and enjoying the book currently, which is also delightful.
• Just as a reminder, if you didn't preorder the book but you were thinking of buying the Kindle edition, make sure you do that soon! The ebook price will rise from $2.99 to $3.99 next week.
• Most of my writing-related work this month was, of course, on Illusion's Reign: proofreading, formatting, and putting together promo stuff for it and the other Lost Kerchiefs stories. All that went very smoothly, though, with the exception of some delays on blog tour materials, so it was a surprisingly calm release month. I will say that I was very glad to be done with the final round of proofreading, though.
• Also writing-related: September was, of course, Silmaril Awards month! I hosted the Silver Tongues category this year, and I was very pleased that someone I've spent years rooting for took home the Silmaril! If you missed the Awards, you can still find links to all the ceremonies on the official website. I highly recommend checking them out! (On a side note, Athelas from City Between has cameos or actual finalist appearances in so many of the awards ceremonies this year, and that delights me to no end.)
• Additionally, in case anyone missed it, Song of the Selkies and I were featured on Tricia Goyer's Avid Readers of Christian Fiction blog and podcast! Go check those out if you haven't already; I really enjoyed getting to chat with Tricia about my writing journey and my books.
• As for D&D writing for my campaign . . . I admit to slacking a bit on that front. I also admit to once again underestimating the complexity of what I decided to do. Still, I am making progress in bits and pieces, and as long as I'm maintaining a buffer, I'm fine.
• I've also been doing some writing on a side project, but that is entirely for fun. Basically, it's an opportunity to recharge with a story that I know won't be published and that doesn't have deadlines, so I can keep in the writing habit without the pressure of an "official" project. (That's not to say anything negative about my published books; I love working on those too. But I've learned too that sometimes it's nice to write something that's just for me.)

Reading!

• This was another slightly lighter reading month (two of those seven books pictured are short stories), but it included lots of excellent stories! I can hardly pick a favorite!
• Splintered Mind was probably my most highly-anticipated read of the month, and it was every bit as excellent as I hoped it would be. Seeing a different side of Between and Behind was fun, and I also liked the new lead character. Viv is decidedly, determinedly normal, and she is much more reluctant to embrace the new, mad world she's been pulled into than certain previous protagonists — but I can't blame her. Plus, she's also caring and practical and Doing Her Best, and her new perspective gives this book a very different vibe than the previous books in this world. (Also, because Viv is coming into this cold, this is an excellent starting point if you want to give the Between and Behind books a try but are intimidated by the ten-book commitment of City Between!)
• Another world I enjoyed revisiting was H.S.J. Williams's Aselvia! I reread Moonscript and read Crown of Sand and Sea in preparation for Collusion's release, and both of those were excellent. Hannah is magnificent at balancing heartbreak and hope, facing the darkness without succumbing to it. I've said before that her books remind me of Goldstone Wood, and I stand by that now. (On a related note, I'm currently reading Collusion, her latest release, and it is excellent.)
• On the shorter side, we have Claire Trella Hill's Come by Water and Aeronwy's Stolen Child. Come by Water was a cool take on Tam Lin, and Claire does a good job at deciding what to show from the original myth and what to leave out. It's not my favorite of her books, but it's still a good read. Aeronwy's Stolen Child, on the other hand, is definitely in my top three favorites of Claire's works! It's such a clever reimagining of a changeling story, one in which the faery child might not have been so willingly given and a faery mother is desperate to get her baby back. I absolutely loved it!
• Moving on, I read the first Artemis Fowl book as research for my Silmaril Awards ceremony. I almost got into this series at one point when I was much younger . . . and, to be honest, I am not upset to have missed it. To be clear, the author does some interesting things with worldbuilding, the story is exciting, and Artemis is an interesting character, so I see why the series is so popular, but I did not vibe with it.
• Wrapping up this month, I finally finished reading Moby Dick via the Whale Weekly Substack! It was . . . definitely something. I admit that, even in email form, I was definitely skimming a lot by the end. This falls solidly into the category of "I'm glad I read it, but I sure hope I don't have to do it again."

 Watching & Playing!

• I am actually caught up on Star Rail main story content, and it is the weirdest feeling. What do you mean, there's not another big story mission for me to do? What do you mean, I just have to sit here and wait for months to find out what happens next? That can't be right, can it? (It is, apparently.)
• So, yeah. I finished the Penacony story and jumped straight into the Wardance, and storms was that intense and amazing. I finished the first part about three days before part two dropped, and the agony of that cliffhanger — I don't know how people who had to wait the full time didn't go crazy. But that whole storyline was amazingly well done. I loved the new characters, and I also loved the way many established characters' arcs continued, both in the main story and the event quests. The Xianghou continues to have some of my favorite characters and my favorite storylines; it's just the best.
• And now I'm just waiting for the next update to drop . . .
• Or, rather, I would be just waiting, except that my friends who got me into Star Rail talked me into starting Genshin Impact. Which, to be fair, I planned to do eventually, but they were very persuasive in getting me to move that timeline up. And by "very persuasive," I mean that they filled our group chat with pictures and discussions of all the cool characters in Genshin, and they also pointed out that a character they thought I would love (both as a character and in terms of gameplay) was going to be available to pull fairly soon. And given that it probably was going to be the best time for me to start a new game for a while (in that I was entering the gap between Illusion's Reign being done and my next grad school class starting) . . . I really couldn't argue with them.
• So, yes, I'm playing Genshin now. It is going very slowly (I just finished Act II of the prologue), and I am still very bad at the combat (I keep forgetting to switch characters and shield), but I'm having fun! The storyline is interesting, and I like the characters I've met so far. The fact that the main story quests are level-locked is a little frustrating to me, but from a gameplay and game design perspective, it makes sense. And it probably isn't a bad thing that I have to wait a little to find out what happens next . . . After all, patience is a virtue.

 Life!

• September started with a Bible study retreat up at White Sulphur Springs. This was, again, a joint retreat between our study in Virginia and another study group in Ohio that my sister and many of our friends attend. Getting to spend time in one of my favorite places in the world with some of my favorite people in the world was absolutely lovely, as always! We played board games, went up to the shooting range, explored the small town near the retreat center, did square dancing, and just spent a lot of time hanging out and talking. I also got to do a lot of just-for-fun writing on the porch with a gorgeous view of the mountains (which are beautiful no matter the weather). Saturday also came with a magnificent thunderstorm . . . which did put a damper (pun intended) on a lot of outdoor activities and briefly knocked out the power, but I still enjoyed it.
• The retreat was a nice break, which was good, since the rest of September was pretty busy. Besides book releases and Silmaril Awards, I had a lot to do at work to get ready for our Stewardship campaign and start of fall programming. Granted, a lot of it was in the vein of "hurry up and wait" because I'd get my part done, then have to wait for the relevant person to review what I'd done or give me more information . . . but that describes many of my busy seasons, to be honest.
• D&D was pretty eventful this month. I mentioned back in my August Doings that we'd reached the climax of the campaign and had played the first stage of the final confrontation with the villain. This month, we had the rest of that confrontation, battling the antagonist himself (not just his armies). That was every bit as epic as I expected. Our DM did an amazing job with the setup of the fight, both narratively and mechanically, and everyone had their moment to shine in the battle and in the aftermath. After that, we had one more session as an epilogue to wrap up our characters' stories and figure out what they're doing now that their adventure is over. That was also lovely — bittersweet in that we were saying goodbye, but more sweet than bitter. Pretty much everyone got a happy ending, one way or another, and so I am more than satisfied.
• I'm also looking forward to our next campaign, though right now we're doing a mini-adventure DMed by one of the other players in the group. I'm playing the sister of my main campaign character, who is rather different from both her and me personality-wise, so that's been interesting. She's also a paladin/sorcerer multiclass, which means combat is a lot more complicated than it was previously. She's fun, though, and I'm enjoying this new story and the other player's DM style.
• We wrapped up the month with another Bible study event, specifically a campfire get-together. Getting to see people there outside of the study, and I successfully made a mountain pie without either burning or underheating it, so yay for that.
• That covers pretty much everything — this September was a lot more chill than a lot of others have been, and I am grateful for that.

October Plans

• The big thing for October is the start of a new grad school class — my extended summer-and-early-fall break has come to an end, and it's time to get back to work. I admit that I'm not excited, but hopefully it won't be too bad either. This class is on advanced English grammar, so I suspect that either it's going to be chill or it's going to be really technical and frustrating. We'll find out which in a couple weeks!
• I plan to spend most of October working on shorter stories for anthologies and writing challenges rather than jumping back in on another Bastian Dennel book. However, there is the chance that will change depending on my mood and inspiration. I do know that I want to write something for the next DOSA Files anthology, though, and it would be good to do that before I start another novel.
• As mentioned earlier, I will be at Eat Local, Read Local at the Cascades Library in Potomac Falls on Saturday, October 19, 11:00–2:00! As long as nothing goes wrong, I should have paperback copies of Illusion's Reign there, as well as most of my other books. If you're in the area, I'd love for you to come say hello!
• Since I didn't end up going to the Renaissance Faire in September, I'm hoping to make it to one in October instead — ideally with a friend, but I'll go alone if I have to. Scheduling that has been a pain so far, though, so we'll see what happens.
• Aside from those things, I expect October will be business as usual. I hope so, anyway.

How was your September? Any plans for October? What's the best for-fun decision you've been talked into by someone else? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

July 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! July  has been a busy and exciting month — but, you know, in a very good (if also very tiring) way. The big news of the month has already been going around the internet, but it bears repeating one more time, and there's plenty more to say, so let's get going!

Writing!

• If you missed the big news: Song of the Selkies won not just the fantasy novel category of the Realm Awards but also the Book of the Year award! I did not expect this at all (not in a "I don't think I deserve it" way, more in a "This seems like such a huge dream that I forgot it was possible" way), but needless to say, I'm thrilled and delighted. I'm also glad I could actually be at the awards ceremony to receive the award in person — it was an incredible night (but more on that later).
• Outside of that (very exciting) news, I don't have a lot to report. I didn't do much writing this month until this past week when I started edits on Onora's story, but that's not a bad thing. It was nice to take some time off from big projects to enjoy Realm Makers and see family and friends. I did dabble a little on assorted small projects, just for fun, and I worked on D&D writing, but that's about it.
• I did put together the cover for Onora's story, though! It was a bit of a headache to find decent images and put them together, but I finally got something I'm satisfied with (thanks in part to help from a friend who was able to diagnose where my problems were when I was stuck). Keep an eye out in the next month or so for the cover reveal!

Reading!

• This was a little bit of a lighter reading month — though that tends to be a side-effect of travel.
• The highlight of the month was definitely City of Serpents, the latest Secrets of Ormdale novel! I posted my thoughts on this book earlier this month, but to sum up, I loved spending more time with established characters and meeting new ones, and the story was excellent as ever.
• I spent a lot of the month reading three different anthologies: Unexpected Encounters of the Draconic Kind, Wags, Woofs, and Wonders, and DOSA Files Volume 1. I like anthologies for busy months, as it's easier to find a good stopping point and still feel satisfied, and all three of these contained some excellent stories. I mean, yes, I'm a little biased on two of them, but still . . .
• My other new-to-me reads were The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour, The Lost World, and Down with the Prince. Surprisingly, The Lost World was my favorite of these — it's an adventure story by Arthur Conan Doyle about an expedition to a remote region where dinosaurs haven't died out, and while I can see why it's not as well-known as Sherlock Holmes, it was still exciting and a generally fun read. The Eleventh Hour was also good, with a nice balance of humor and really hard-hitting feels. Down With the Prince . . . I may have set my hopes a little too high with this one; the blurb and general vibes seemed really promising, but I didn't jive with certain aspects of the story, and I also think the prose could've benefited from another editing pass.
• Finally, I'm continuing to enjoy Dracula via Dracula Daily and various Sherlock Holmes stories via Letters from Watson. I haven't consistently done a good job keeping up with all my books-by-email subscriptions, but I still say it's an excellent way to read the classics.

 Watching & Playing!

• I have finally seen The Mummy (1999)! I kept hearing so many good things about this movie — first from my college roommate, then from various corners of the internet — but as has been established, I am really bad about actually watching movies, regardless of how much I want to see them. I also really wanted to see it with my former roommate if I could, since I knew how much she loved it. So, when I visited her on my way to Realm Makers and we were looking for something to watch, I suggested this, and she and her family enthusiastically agreed.
• Having now watched it, I see why so many people love it so much! I don't think it's my new favorite movie, but I would definitely watch it again. Evie, Rick, and Jonathan are all excellent protagonists — Rick especially. He has a very sensible approach to things, y'know? And you have to love the snark. As far as the story goes, I enjoyed that as well. There were a few bits when I had to shut my eyes or look away from the screen (mostly some of the bug scenes), but overall, it was a good time.
• My family also watched The Music Man for Independence Day (well, a few days after Independence Day, but it still counts). I don't have much to say about it other than I still love this movie.
• As far as podcasts and gaming . . . nothing much to report. I'm still mostly listening to Dracula Daily and Lateral, with the occasional episode of E.A. Hendryx's Productivity and Prose podcast thrown in for variety's sake. And I continue to thoroughly enjoy Honkai Star Rail! July's gaming time was mostly spent on story-relevant sidequests, but I finally started the Penacony storyline (the third or fourth chapter of the main story, depending on how you classify the beginning of the game) this past week. I have heard many, many things about this quest and setting, and I am simultaneously nervous and excited. I have enjoyed what I've played so far, though, even if I'm kind of side-eyeing everyone.

 Life!

• The big event of July, of course, was Realm Makers — and because my sister and several of my friends live halfway between me and the conference, I decided to visit them for a few days, turning my conference journey into a just-over-a-week-long trip.
• I spent the first couple days of the trip at my college roommate's house, visiting with her and playing lots of Sentinels of the Multiverse. We haven't really played Sentinels since my sister moved out, so this was a very good time. This is also when I watched The Mummy, as I mentioned earlier.
• From there, I drove down to my sister's house and stayed there for a few more very busy days. I visited her church, joined in her weekly dinner with her friends, and got to put faces to many names that I'd heard frequently. We also visited some family and had a game-and-cheese night with a couple of my D&D friends, which was a delight. We did find some time to just chill together, though, and I really appreciated that.
• Then, on Wednesday, I repacked my stuff and set off for St. Louis! For whatever reason, that drive felt so much longer than the drive out to my roommate's and sister's area had, even though it was about the same length or a little shorter. (I'm going to guess that it's because it was a really boring drive. I like driving in Ohio, but once you get further west, it kinda turned into a whole lot of nothing.) I made it to the hotel, however, and met up with Wyn Owens, with whom I was once again rooming for the conference. Despite both of us being tired from travel, we had a grand time chatting with each other and with assorted others we bumped into.
• The conference properly started Thursday evening with a keynote from Allen Arnold, which was really good. The highlight of the day, however, was getting to help playtest an SVR-themed tabletop roleplaying game that H.L. Burke is developing — she ran a one-shot (set at a writers' conference, naturally), and we had a whole crew of heroes assembled to save the authors from the villain, the dreaded Red Pen (who does not believe in the Oxford comma). The game was chaotic, to say the least, but it was a lot of fun, and we did successfully save the day!
• Friday night was the Awards Banquet, which was amazing . . . and not just for the obvious reasons. I went in costume, of course, though I didn't go as a specific character. I was the Lady Dragon Keeper, which basically means I had a medieval-y dress and some of the dragons my sister has made me, including a new one that attaches to the shoulder of my dress with magnets. The costume wasn't elaborate, but it served its main purposes, which was to show off the dragons and let me tell others how cool my sister is.
• I did not participate in the costume contest, but Wyn did, wearing a Princess Zelda cosplay that featured a very impressive dragon puppet . . . that actually moved. Because her arm was inside it. She had a separate fake arm and everything; it was very convincing. I mean, I saw her put the costume on, and I still had to do double-takes all evening! She was one of the five finalists called up on stage for the Best Costume cheer-off, and after the first round of cheers, the MCs could only narrow it down to a top three, of which she was one. What was meant as a tiebreaker round after that only confirmed the tie, so the MCs then announced that there would be a third try, but this time, everyone could only cheer for one costume. This time, there was enough difference that the MCs could determine a winner: Wyn and her Zelda costume!
• After that excitement, we moved straight into the book awards. I was a lot less nervous this year than last year, but I still was feeling a little anxious as we approached the Fantasy Novel category (which was the fourth-to-last category to be announced). I spend a lot of time around these awards trying to talk down my chances, so when they announced the second-place winner and it wasn't Song of the Selkies, I told myself that I was probably just a finalist but that even that was amazing . . . and then Scott Minor, reading the first line of the winning book, said "As betrothal ceremonies go," Wyn screamed quietly, and I had a delighted realization that I was not just a finalist.
• Walking back (somewhat in a daze) from the stage, I briefly realized "I guess this means I'm technically eligible for the Book of the Year award; that's wild." Of course, I knew there were a lot of other amazing books also winning awards, so my chances still seemed pretty slim — and they seemed slimmer still when Scott reminded those gathered that some second-place winners would might be Book of the Year finalists simply because of how many points they'd earned.
• Then, two books into the finalist list, he announced "Song of the Selkies, by Sarah Pennington, Independently Published," and I had another "Oh. Oh MY," moment. Still, even a finalist position was more than I'd expected — and when he announced Suspended in the Stars by E.A. Hendryx as another finalist a moment later, I felt like I had a pretty good idea who was going to win. If I got second place, that would be incredible.
• He announced the second-place winner — not me. I thought "Well, Book of the Year finalist and Best Fantasy Novel is still amazing, and I am very excited for Emilie. Her book sounds awesome; I'm sure she's earned this."
• And then Scott read the first few words of the Book of the Year's first line: "As betrothal ceremonies go . . ."
• Wyn screamed (quietly, again).
• I attempted to process the fact that something I didn't even think was a possibility had just happened.
• Somehow I made it back on the stage. It was probably very obvious to everyone that I was very flustered and more than a little in shock, but hopefully it was also very obvious that I was delighted and surprised.
• It was a very good night.
• All that said, the awards were not actually the best part of the conference — the best part was spending time with friends, chatting about life, books, and whatever else came up, and getting to actually hug all the people I want to be able to hug the other 360 days of the year that aren't Realm Makers or RM-adjacent. To that end, I actually ended up skipping a few of the sessions so I would have more time to spend talking to people (and so I wouldn't have to rush through lunch one of the days).
• The sessions I did attend were very good, though. Allen Arnold's "Slaying the Seven-Headed Story Beast" was less craft-focused than what I normally do, but it was very insightful and helpful. I was a little worried after the first session, which hit on an insecurity I was struggling a lot with at the beginning of the year, but the last session kind of gave me . . . I'm not sure if it was a push in a particular direction, a sign that a couple things I've been thinking about doing (or not doing) were ok, or both, but whatever it was, it was good.
• Less good: the journey back from the conference, which involved two eight-hour driving days in a row. That was very long and very tiring, especially since I didn't sleep much Saturday night, I got a later-than-ideal start on Sunday, and it rained all day Monday (when I was going through the mountains). Next year, I'm going to break up the drive a little better and give myself more of a break between travel days. Still, I made it home in one piece, and for that, I'm grateful.
• This post is already long, so I'll make the recap of the rest of the month quick. Work has generally been quiet, especially since people have been out of the office most of the month. My family celebrated Independence Day with our Bible study, as usual, enjoying smoked pulled pork barbecue and the televised DC fireworks. The following week, I made cornmeal cookies from B. Dylan Hollis's video, but they did not turn out as intended — they spread a lot. I do not think I will repeat that particular recipe. On the crafting front, I finished the embroidery on both my Cosmere pin hoop and a Schlock Mercenary pin hoop; now I just need to assemble them into their final forms. I'm generally pleased with how both have turned out. Now I'm back to crocheting creatures.
• And that wraps it up! It's been a busy month, but a very good one.

August Plans

• We're back to working on Onora's story! I will be spending all month editing. Joy. (This is my least favorite part of the writing process.) Thankfully, my beta readers have all given me really good feedback, and I am very appreciative . . . but that does not make me any more excited about having to figure out how to implement it. Ah well. I will survive, and both the story and I will be the better for it. I think we should also be getting a cover reveal sometime this month, so keep an eye out for that!
• Work is getting busier again as we move towards fall and the accompanying flurry of events. We're doing something different (to me) for the fall kickoff event, and I am a little bit nervous about that, but I'm trying to be optimistic. If it goes well and has the desired result (more people volunteering instead of the same half-dozen people doing everything), it'll provide a big improvement for all the ministry staff and current volunteers, so . . . hopefully it goes well. It's not until September, but a lot of the prep is happening now.
• I should be back to blogging this month, if all goes well. I also need to get busy on the next D&D adventure, since we'll need at least the first part of it in a couple weeks.
• I will not be starting a new grad school class this month, as I've decided to only do one class this semester. While that will delay my finishing date a little, it'll also allow me to focus more of my energy on my next book release instead of splitting my attention and stressing myself out. For the record, this decision is part of how I'm implementing what I learned in Allen Arnold's Story Beast talks — he had a lot to say about the lure of busy-ness and the dangers of trying to do too many good things, and that resonated a lot. My intention is wait on the class so I can get Onora's story finished and finished well, and then scale back to a lighter writing schedule in October so I can give the class the attention it deserves. (I do still need to figure out what class that's going to be and register for it, though.)

How was your July? Any plans for August? Were you at Realm Makers (and if so, what was your favorite part)? How well do you handle long drives? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

September 2023 Doings!

Well, September is over — nearly a week over at this point, but of course my usual Doings! day was also the day of the Wisest Counselor Awards Ceremony, so we had to delay things a little. It's certainly been a very busy month, between book releases, Silmaril Awards, work, and general life stuff. So, we should have plenty to cover in this post . . .

But first, a quick announcement! If you're in the Northern Virginia area, you should come out to Eat Local Read Local on October 14 at Cascades Library! From 11am to 2pm, seventy local authors — myself included! — will be selling and signing books. There will also be food trucks, live music, and some kids' activities. So, if you want to pick up a paperback of your favorite of my books, or if you want my signature on something you own, please stop by! You can find out more by clicking here.

And now, on with the Doings!

Writing!

• Obviously, the main writing event of the month was the release of Song of the Selkies! The weeks leading up to this were hectic as I rushed to finish edits before release day. When I say that I was re-uploading files until the very last minute, I'm not joking! But the release itself was amazing, and I am super grateful to my beta readers (for all their input) and my ARC readers (who all had lovely things to say about the book and who also helped catch a few typos that I otherwise would have missed). If you haven't picked up your copy yet, make sure you do that; it's currently available in both ebook and paperback on Amazon.
• On the topic of Song of the Selkies, did you catch the character art I shared on Facebook and Instagram leading up to the release? I've shared it above for anyone who missed it — isn't it so good? I commissioned it from the lovely UrbanHart, who did an amazing job bringing the characters to life. If you're looking for a character artist, I highly recommend her!
• Outside of Song of the Selkies, September was also Silmaril Awards month! I hosted the Wisest Counselor award this year, which was fun. It was a nice change of pace from the Friends last year. If you haven't yet, make sure you check out this year's awards ceremonies (not just mine) — I honestly think some of them are the best we've had yet!
• In addition to all this, I did a little bit of work on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 — by which I mean that I finished Chapter 28 in September and wrote most of Chapter 29 this past week. It's been slow going as I try to adjust from Ceana's voice to Bastian's, Kona's, and Dayo's — and from medieval language to 1920s slang! I'm getting back into the swing of it, though, and hopefully I'll be done soon anyway.
• I did not do any D&D writing this month, but my D&D group did meet a couple times, and we're having fun. We spent a whole session dealing with some weird dreams and discovering that one character has fey heritage that even she didn't know about. That was honestly delightful.

Reading!

• This was an excellent month on the reading front — I read so many good books, I hardly know where to start!
• A good chunk of what I read were ARCs. I've already reviewed Second Chance Superhero, When on Land, and My Fair Mermaid, so I won't repeat myself on any of those. 
• My favorite two ARCs were Black and Deep Desires and Wormwood Abbey, both of which are absolutely delicious gothic tales. I talked about Black and Deep Desires a little in my Fall 2023 Reads post; as I said then, even if I don't usually go in for vampire stories, I am delighted that I made an exception for this one. It's full of eeriness and mystery meshed with found family and an excellent romance, and I just love it so much. Then we have Wormwood Abbey, which is a much lighter cozy gothic — with dragons! And a mystery writer heroine! And a solid family that genuinely loves and cares for one another at its core! I need the rest of the series immediately, please and thank you very much.
• Continuing down the ARC train, Steal the Morrow was another good one. I loved Jenelle's take on Oliver Twist — it's far shorter and less depressing than the original, and her Olifur is an lovable blend of principled, clever, and determined. And Twisted Grimms, an anthology of fairy tale retellings that I read on and off between other books, was generally good. There were a couple stories in it that I didn't much care for, but there were also some excellent takes on very obscure fairy tales that I really enjoyed.
• Outside of ARCs, the highlight of my reading month was Dark & Stormy, the much-anticipated third book in Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Dark's Apparitions series. This one was just as good — perhaps even better — than I expected, and it had me internally screaming (in the best way) at multiple points. Our crew — Vasily in particular — definitely go through the wringer here, but there are also some absolutely lovely moments.
• I'll just give a quick run-through of my other reads. Spellbreaker and Spellmaker were roughly what I expected from Holmberg novels, which is to say that they were quick, enjoyable reads with a clever magic system and some nice romance, but I'm not sure if they have the depth to hold up on the reread. Ruth and the Ghost was a short horror story by W.R. Gingell; it's weird, but I liked it well enough. Salt Fat Acid Heat, I actually mostly read back in August. I don't think I would ever make any of the recipes in it, but it did help me understand some cooking principles a lot better than I did before reading it. A Wrinkle in Time was a reread inspired by the presence of the Mrs. W's in the Silmaril Awards, so that was enjoyable. And I read another installment of Fullmetal Alchemist on October 3, as that's a significant day in the fandom — plus, I still had a book hangover from Dark & Stormy, and I figured the best way to get over it would be to read something where my expectations are almost completely different, so I wouldn't have to worry about the comparison game.
• Oh! Almost forgot — while it's not pictured above, I did read 75% of Gillian Bronte Adams's Of Fire and Ash, trying my best to participate in the readalong Gillian was holding. In general, I enjoyed it, and I see why it won a Realm Award. I don't think it's going to be a new favorite, but that could just be because I was too stressed to properly enjoy it for parts of my reading time.

Life!

• The month started off wonderfully with a Bible Study retreat at White Sulphur Springs, otherwise known as one of my favorite places on earth. This was a joint retreat between our study here in Virginia and another study in Ohio (the one where many of the original members of our group met, in fact!), so there was a good crowd, and we had the chance to visit with some long-time friends. Plus, my sister attends the Ohio study, and she came down, so I got to see and hang out with her! And that was really nice. While we were there, we went down to the old hotel, which the WSS staff recently renovated, and toured it to see what had changed and what was still the same. We also had square dancing one of the nights, and I actually had a partner so I could participate, and that was a delight! I love square dancing, but usually no one asks me, and I'm too introverted to ask someone myself. This year, one of the other participants was very actively making sure everyone who wanted to dance had someone to dance with, and I just really appreciated that.
• Once we got back, it was back into the regular routine of work-edit-classwork-blog-and-sleep. Most of my work projects have gone well, aside from one or two hiccups, so that's good. I honestly expected to be a lot more stressed at work than I actually was. Apparently I accidentally front-loaded most of my stress into August, I guess? The one area where we did have some issues was with the livestream — for some reason, our internet decided to buffer badly enough to prevent the stream three weeks in a row. We're still not entirely sure why it suddenly became a problem, but after much investigating, testing, and calling tech help on our part . . . it seemed to mostly resolve itself? Or something? I don't know. We're trying to figure out how to lower the demand on our bandwidth on Sunday mornings so we can make these issues less likely in the future.
• My grad school class also eased up pretty quickly, though the weeks leading up to Song of the Selkies's release were a bit rough. There were multiple weeks when I was submitting all my classwork in the last days of the week when it was due, having also done most of that work within a day or two of the due dates, but most of the assignments were small enough that having to do that wasn't a huge issue. This past week's assignment was a different story; it's been . . . problematic. I probably should've been working on it during the time I was writing this post . . . but said project has been driving me nuts and I don't want to think about it more than I have to. It's one of those things that should have been boring-but-straightforward, but then research turned out to be an absolute nightmare. Still, next week is the end of the class, and it should actually be easier.
• I did get to make bagels one weekend, though! Sourdough bagels, to be specific. They were delicious.

October Plans

• Obviously, October is already a quarter over at this point, but I shall list my plans anyway.
• I have a couple events this month that I'm really looking forward to! One, of course, is Eat Local Read Local on October 14, which I mentioned at the start of this post. This is my first real author event aside from the book fair at Realm Makers, and I'm a little nervous, but I'm also hopeful that it'll be a good time. In addition, a friend and I are planning to meet up at a local Renaissance Festival, and I am so looking forward to that! It's the same Renn Faire we went to last year, and it was a ton of fun then, and I think it'll be great this year as well. I do still need to figure out what I'm going to wear for that, but I'm sure I'll get it sorted out.
• My writing goal for the month is to finish BDPI #4 and write at least one short story for a writing challenge I'm participating in. This is the same writing challenge I did last October. I somehow ended up in the same category as I did last year, and I have no idea what I'm going to write, but . . . I'll figure something out.
• I'm also finishing up one class and starting another for my master's program. I will get a week's break in between, which will be nice. The next class is going to be on grant writing, though, unless I misremember, and I'm not sure how I'm going to feel about that. I don't like asking people for money, and that's basically what grant writing is, as far as I can tell.
• On the reading front, I've worked my way through most of my ARCs, so I'll be trying to clear up some of my library stacks and checking to see how I'm doing on my reading goals for the year. Some (like all the book recs I solicited) are probably a lost cause at this point, but others (like classic or non-fantasy reads) I might still have a shot at.
• Work will continue to be busy, though October is probably the calmest of the fall months — our big things are Stewardship and a service event, and I did most of the design work for both of those in August or September. Still, there's always something that needs doing.
• I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting that I should talk about here, but if I can't remember it . . . eh. Probably wasn't that important.

How was your September? What are you looking forward to in October? Was September a good reading month for you? And will I see you at Eat Local Read Local? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

July 2023 Doings!

Hello everyone! Questionably fun fact: I completely forgot that I was supposed to write a Doings! post this week until about 6:20 yesterday morning. In my defense, it's been a weird month and a weird week, and I am tired. July was a good month, but it was far from a restful one. And if you want to know what I mean, well, that's what this post is for, so let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• Well, this has definitely been an exciting month on the writing front! We started out with the release of the Fellowship of Fantasy Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology on July 6. I didn't end up doing as much as I wanted with that release, but thankfully the other authors were much more with it. It's currently available in both ebook and paperback formats, so if you'd like to enjoy some feel-good short stories featuring magical doggos and guaranteed happy endings, go ahead and pick that up.
• The week after the anthology release was, of course, the Realm Makers writing conference. I had a great time at the conference, and I'll talk more about that in the Life! section, but there is one element of the conference that I want to mention here . . . which is, of course, the fact that Through a Shattered Glass won the novella category of the Realm Awards! I've said this a few times now, but I was thrilled and honored just to be on the finalist list, and actually winning is amazing. (I am also very proud of myself for managing to not embarrass myself when I went up to receive the award, as I sometimes get nervous around large crowds, and I definitely did not prepare as much as I intended.)
• The last bit of exciting news: shortly after returning from Realm Makers, I announced my next book release: Song of the Selkies, a roleswap Little Mermaid retelling that will release September 19 as part of the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge group. If you want to learn more, click here and check out my cover reveal post! I also finished drafting this novel in July, the day after the cover reveal — yes, I'm cutting it closer than I normally do, but we'll be fine. Even the first draft of this book turned out really well and has gotten great feedback from betas so far, so I'm excited to get to release it into the world.
• Even aside from all the exciting stuff, July has been a really good writing month for me. I ended up writing almost 43K words this month, spread out across three different projects. Finishing Song of the Selkies took most of those words — just over 32K — and involved a lot of 1K+ days. And my last two days of work on it both had a wordcount of around 5K, which is a lot for me! Additionally, I wrote another 4.6K words on the fourth Bastian Dennel, PI book, which isn't a ton but is respectable for the fact that I was only actively working on it for about a week. Finally, I wrote about 6K words in my D&D Feygate adventure, which has been so much fun to put together. The Middle Earth adventure was nice in that I had the storyline laid out, and I just had to translate it into D&D, but I've missed getting to do my own thing. I'm currently having a grand time coming up with potential scenarios, NPCs, and so forth, and I very much look forward to actually running them. We've already played two sessions of the adventure, and people seem to like it so far, so I'd call that a good sign.

Reading!

• July was also an excellent reading month, as you can probably see. Most of what I read continued my Ranger's Apprentice reread, which has been a lot of fun. As I said last month, rediscovering this series has been a lot of fun, and the books hold up impressively well. At this point, I'm done with the reread portion of it, and I'm in between the two Early Years books, which are new-to-me reads. Well, technically, Goodreads claims I read The Tournament at Gorlan back in 2015, but I have no memory of doing so, and that was before I did Doings! posts, so . . . who knows? I certainly don't.
• We only have four new reads for the month. A Storm Grows is a book of poetry by Janeen Ippolito, which I primary read for purposes of a reading challenge. Power Through was my Realm Makers read — I like to read something by a Realmie author while I'm at the conference, and so far, that author has been H.L. Burke both years. Power Through is the third book in Burke's young adult superhero series, and I quite enjoyed it. Of course, it had Wildfyre in it, as well as peak dad!Fade, Voidling, and Jake and Marco both doing some growing, so the odds were very much in its favor. Finally, we have volumes 11 and 12 of Fullmetal Alchemist, both of which I really liked. I don't know why I enjoyed them more than I have previous installments? But they were both very good, especially Volume 12. (Speaking of things I can't explain: I somehow, in the space of approximately three books, got attached to Lanfan, who is very much a secondary character at this point, and I do not know how or why, other than I seriously respect both her courage and dedication.)
• So, yes. The other few books I read are all rereads, and I have nothing much to say about any of them other than that Gothel and the Maiden Prince, like most of W.R. Gingell's work, stands up very well the second time around, as does the Ticket to Write anthology.

Watching!

• Not a lot to report here, since lots of writing, plus travel, means I don't have much time to watch things in the evenings. That said, I did watch How to Steal a Million and North by Northwest towards the start of the month. I very much enjoyed How to Steal a Million — I love a good heist story, and the setup for this one was so fun. Plus, the lead actors played off each other very well.
• North by Northwest, I was a bit less of a fan of — conceptually, it was cool, with the whole "ordinary man gets mistaken for a spy and then has to go on the run" thing, and the action and adventure was great, but the romance elements weren't really my thing. Ah well.

Life!

Left to right: Wyn Estelle Owens as Breen from Mechanical Heart, me as a steampunk cowgirl (feat. my Realm Award!), and Kendra E. Ardnek as the Gardener from her Austen Fairy Tale (which is very good and you should read it).

• July was, as already stated, a busy month, but it was still a very good month for many reasons. And reason number one, above and beyond anything else that happened, was that it was the first (and only) month this summer in which all my immediate family members were in the same place for the majority of the time. My mom came back from my grandpa's the first weekend of July, and it was so nice to have her home again.
• We didn't end up doing anything much for Independence Day, even though we were all home. Usually, our Bible Study would get together, but so many people were out of town that it just didn't happen. That said, I'm not really complaining . . .
• But now we come to the highlight of the month, which was, of course, REALM MAKERS! Though this was my second year attending, it still had a lot of firsts for me: first time flying solo, first time at the St. Louis location (which I'd heard so many good things about from friends), first formal book signing thing . . .
  • After the craziness of last year (amid which I almost missed the start of the conference), I opted to fly out on Wednesday before the conference. That was definitely the right choice, even though plane schedules meant I ended up arriving super early that day — 9am St. Louis Time. Thankfully, navigating the airport on both sides was much easier than I expected, especially since my dad ended up leaving on the same day and at roughly the same time for a business trip, so I wasn't trying to do everything myself on the way out. And the early arrival time gave me some good writing hours and plenty of time to catch up with friends (namely, Kendra E. Ardnek and Wyn Owens) before the conference proper.
  • It also gave me time to run the Realm Makers-themed one-page RPG one-shot I'd prepared, which was super fun. What happens when three wizards' creature companions — an octopus (who would like you to know that he's a totally normal human man, not an octopus, why would you think he's an octopus), a hyperactive weasel, and a prim and self-absorbed cat — have to defeat the mad inventor and his machines that have put their wizards to sleep? Much chaos, that's what — including, but not limited to, the weasel overdosing on coffee, the octopus using the weasel as a projectile weapon, and the cat deciding that she was, in fact, a god. They did successfully wake their wizards, though, so that's good.
  • Thursday, I helped out with the registration desk in the morning (which was nice because I got to meet some people and also felt like I could recognize people later), and then the conference officially opened in the afternoon. The keynote address with Steven Laube was excellent, focusing mostly on the idea and value of wonder. Also excellent was going to dinner with Wyn and Katie Hanna and chatting about our various books and ideas and tropes and whatnot. (Katie Hanna, by the way, is writing a Western fantasy series that sounds fabulous). Additionally, Thursday was when I finished writing the climax of Song of the Selkies, which was most exciting. 
  • Friday and Saturday were both very busy days, with lots of great sessions. For my continuing sessions, I attended Charlie Holmberg's "Speculative Worldbuilding" series, which was interesting. Some of it I felt like I already knew, but it was cool to see her process and hear her advice and thoughts. She tends to do map-first worldbuilding, which is not my usual approach, but I do see how effective it can be. I also attended a two-part elective by Donald Maass on writing series characters, which gave me some principles I think will be super helpful as I continue to write my Bastian Dennel books. My one complaint about that elective was that the two parts were scheduled right after lunch on Friday and Saturday, so I kept having to rush out of lunch to make it to the talks on time.
  • Friday was also the Awards Banquet, which was exciting for a multitude of reasons. There's the obvious one, of course — the fact that I was one of the people who received an award. I also had fun dressing up; I decided to go as a steampunk cowgirl at the last minute, and I had a grand time talking in an accent that would have done Quincy Morris proud. (As a bonus, I discovered that I actually look rather good in a cowboy hat, if I do say so myself!) Also, Wyn decided to dress up as my character Breen from Mechanical Heart, and I think I might have gotten just as excited about that as I did about the award. I'm not even joking. Additionally, we got to sit with a couple who we'd met at the 2022 Realm Makers, and it was nice to catch up with them. (I should probably go find and friend them on Facebook, but I . . . have not managed to do that yet.) And we ended the night with several rounds of Bring Your Own Book, which is always a delight.
  • The conference ended on Saturday with the book fair. The book fair includes an opportunity to get your books signed by Realm Makers faculty and Realm Awards winners, so that was kind of my first official author signing event! I will admit that I kind of missed being able to wander around the vendor hall like I did last year . . . but it was also nice to get to sit in a comparatively quiet area and meet people and actually have conversations without struggling to hear. And, let's be real, I spent way less money than I would have if I had nothing to do but walk around the vendors.
• So, yes. All in all, Realm Makers 2023 was just as great as it was in 2022 — better, in some ways. The hotel was more comfortable, for one thing, and I didn't feel quite so perpetually overwhelmed. I will say that, contrary to what one might expect, the best and most exciting part wasn't the awards ceremony or the book fair or getting to meet authors I look up to or anything like that. Rather, it was the opportunity to see people like Kendra, Wyn, and Katie in person and the fact that I got to spend four days in the company of people who love the same things I love. That's the biggest reason I went back in 2023, and it's the biggest reason I hope to return again next year (Lord and finances willing).
• The last big event of July was both sad and happy, as my little sister officially moved to another state for her first job out of college at the end of the month. I'm happy for her; I know she's going to be doing something that she enjoys and can get excited about the way I can get excited about my work. Plus, she'll be close to many of her friends, and she has a great church community up there. At the same time, though, having to say goodbye in the knowledge that she won't be back next summer was sad, and I miss having her around and being able to talk to her about stuff. I mean, we've done several video calls since she left, but it's not the same. (Plus, my mom went back to Pennsylvania for a few weeks at the same time, so . . . yeah.)
• I think that about covers it. Work is work, crafting and baking have barely happened . . . My D&D group did get in a few sessions, which were intense. We're trying to take down one of our nemeses, and he's the literal worst, and two of the party members have lost NPCs who they were super close to. One of the party members actually retired over it, so that was doubly sad. The player is still in the group and made a new character, but still . . . sadness. Oh, and the DM said that we're probably only a couple levels away from the end of the campaign, which is . . . terrifying. Exciting! But terrifying! The group will continue with new adventures, though, so we can look forward to that.

August Plans

• My number one plan for August is to do LOTS of edits on Song of the Selkies, plus formatting, tour prep, and all that good stuff. The fact that the book turned out way longer than I planned means I'm on a tight schedule now. I'm committed to making sure everything is done on time, but I do not expect it to be easy. 
• And it will only be made more difficult by the fact that my next semester of grad school starts at the end of the month. I thought about delaying and having overlapping classes again like I did last year, or even about only doing one class this semester, but I know that if I delay grad school stuff every time I have a busy writing season, it'll take me ten years to finish this degree, and the goal is not to do that, thank you.
• In between edits and class work, I'll continue working on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 and my D&D Feygate adventure. I'd like to finish the Feygate adventure this month, and I think that's a pretty reasonable goal, especially since I'm well over half done already.
• I have no idea what will happen on the blogs. I have some regularly-scheduled posts that will need to go up, and I would prefer not to take too long of a hiatus (especially as I know I may take another semi-hiatus sometime in the fall), so hopefully we'll be back to the regularly-scheduled weekly stuff? Assumed I don't get slapped in the face by the need to do three million things?
• Work will probably be busy, but I don't expect it to be notably busier than usual. I do have both the newsletter and Stewardship campaign materials this month, but those are usually pretty enjoyable projects, so I'm not super worried. I'm a little more worried about our directory project, but it'll probably be fine.
• I also want to do some more bread-baking with my fresh herbs while I have fresh herbs to bake with, but we'll see how that works out.
• I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but whatever. My basic goal for August is to survive, edit all the words, and not miss any deadlines. That should be doable, right?

How was your July? What are you looking forward to in August? Did you go to Realm Makers, or have you gone in the past? If so, what was YOUR most exciting part? Have you been doing more new-reading or rereading lately? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

July 2023 Doings!

Hello, all! Between work, writing, travel, general life stuff, and the fact that my intended blog hiatus ended up being significantly less hiatus-y than intended, June has been a very busy month. Not a bad month, necessarily. Lots of good things have happened this month on all the different fronts, many of which I'm excited to share with y'all. But things have been busy all the same, and I have spent more time sleep-deprived than is necessarily pleasant.

Writing!

• I have had a very productive writing month this May, I have to say. I racked up about 28k words on my Selkie Story, which is just about finished with its first draft. It's ended up a lot longer than I originally intended, which is why I'm finishing it so much later than I hoped I would . . . but I'm very pleased with it, and I think it'll be even better once it's fully finished and edited. A lot of those words were written on the road — the lack of consistent internet makes it a little easier to focus, so long drives when I'm the one driving are often pretty productive. (Of course, depending on the trip, the days in the car often have to be productive to make up for days of no writing at all. But still, it's good.)
• I also spent a fair bit of time this month designing the cover for my Selkie Story, which should be revealed sometime next month. I have to say, I'm super excited to show it off. I had to dust off some parts of my graphic design skill set that I haven't used since college to make it, and I think the result turned out quite well indeed.
• In addition to my Selkie Story writing, I did a fair bit of D&D writing — 5.7k words worth, to be specific. I finished writing my Middle Earth adventure (finally) and worked more on the next module, which I've been referring to as the Feygate Adventure. I also finished writing a non-D&D adventure that I started working on last year but had to set aside due to other projects taking priority. I got to playtest that one with my group last weekend, when one of our number was on vacation and we didn't want to do our usual campaign, and that was super fun! I'm looking forward to running it again with another friend group soon.
• The other writing-related news, of course, was the whole business with Uncommon Universes Press closing down and the change of publisher for the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology. That was largely resolved with minimal input from me, thankfully. You can read my blog post about it here for more info.

Reading!

• This month involved a lot of revisiting old favorites, as you can probably see — out of the twelve books I read in June, seven of them were rereads. And I'm happy to say that all were delightful, though I knew that they would be. Some, like House of Many Ways and The 13 Clocks, I've read many, many times before (though I haven't read The 13 Clocks since before college). Cinderella Must Die is more recent, but there's never a bad time to throw a W.R. Gingell murder mystery into the mix. And I started a reread of the Ranger's Apprentice series, partially because some online friends kept posting fanart that made me miss the characters and partially because my sister was rereading the series and was talking about it. I will say that I'm very pleased with how well the Ranger's Apprentice series, at least the early books, holds up. The last time I read them was apparently before I was on Goodreads, so it's been a bit. But they're pretty much what I remembered, which is to say, pleasantly clean and easy-to-read adventures that don't go overboard on the romance, and I'm enjoying revisiting Will, Halt, and the rest of these old friends.
• On the new reads side, I finally finished my last yet-unread Discworld book, Small Gods, and completed the series. I'd procrastinated on this one because I knew it was tackling the topic of religion, and I wasn't sure how much I actually wanted to read it. Having at last gotten around to it, I don't think I'll read it a second time (it had some interesting thoughts in it, but was, on the whole, not as fun as most Discworld books), but the completionist in me is glad to have read it once.
• I also read two books for the book signing I attended (more on that in a minute): Into the Heartless Wood and Cruel Beauty. Into the Heartless Wood is by the same author as Echo North (which I devoured back in May), and while I preferred Echo, Heartless Wood was also lovely — half Beauty and the Beast, half Little Mermaid, with some very interesting magic and a nice take on a non-human perspective. Cruel Beauty is also Beauty and the Beast, but blended with various Greek myths (notably Pandora and Cupid and Psyche), a little bit of Bluebeard, and, magnificently, Tam Lin. I had mixed feelings about the start, and there was a bit more sexualness in the middle than I normally go in for (though it bothered me less as the couple in question is, y'know, married), but the ending was so lovely (allegorically so, even!) that I couldn't really complain.
• Moving on: Tide and Scale, I've been reading on and off throughout May and June. It's an anthology of mermaid and mermaid-adjacent stories, and is, as anthologies often are, a bit of a mixed bag. But it does include a Rapunzel retelling by my friend Wyn Estelle Owens, and I loved that one, so that's all that really matters to me.
• Finally, we have Wraithwood, which I picked up because its sequel is a Realm Awards finalist and I wanted to know if I should pick up a copy. The answer, as it turns out, is an unequivocal yes, abso-storming-lutely. I loved Brinnie and her story, and I heartily applaud the author for avoiding a lot of the tropes in contemporary not-quite-portal fantasy that usually bug me the most. Notably, she managed to provide a good in-world reason why characters refuse to tell the protagonist things, which I love. This is an author who looked at a plot problem and instead of just smoothing over it or handwaving things, saw an opportunity. And to that I say: well done.
• I am, of course, still reading various classics via email subscription. Notably, I've started Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, which I know nothing about, but which seems promising so far! (I'm about two chapters in at this point.) I am also somewhat regretting my decision to pick up the Moby Dick Whale Weekly subscription, but I started it and so I'll see it through.

Watching!

• Not a lot noteworthy in this section other than to say that my sister and I watched a few more episodes of Leverage. We're up to the departure of a certain character (can't say who) and still quite enjoying the show. And I have to say, the episode in which that character departs and the episode right after it may be going on my list of favorite episodes in this show. Both were super fun, even with the emotional bits, and I just really enjoyed watching the team in both cases.

Life!

• This month has, as I've already said, been a busy one — we were either traveling or had something going on almost every weekend.
• The most exciting trip was midway through the month, when my sister and I trekked up to Ohio so I could visit with my former roommate and attend the W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree book signing. (It was, for the record, not exclusively their signing, but they were the authors I was primarily going to see.) The signing was, for the record, awesome. I absolutely loved getting to meet some of my very favorite authors (and discovering that they're just as wonderful of people in real life as they seem to be online) — if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw my post about the signing and about both Gingell and Rowntree actually recognized my name from our online interactions. I also got to meet up with some online friends and fellow fans while I was there (and introduced them to Bring Your Own Book), which was also lovely.
• My visit with my roommate was just as lovely as the signing, for the record. Even though I see her on D&D video calls most weeks, I still miss being able to spend time with her in real life. Also, her family had just gotten a new dog, so we got to meet the pup (who is very cute). We also played lots of Sentinels of the Multiverse and, notably, finally attempted the Oblivaeon endgame-type scenario. We lost that one in the last stage, after spending about eight hours playing through it, but I was still impressed with how well the makers set it up. Even though it was a long game, the gameplay varied enough that it didn't drag like I worried it would.
• Then we got home from that trip, had about four days to recover, and set off for Pennsylvania so we could see my mom and grandpa again. For those curious: my grandpa is still recovering well, even if he really wants to push the limits of what he can do while wearing a neck brace. We're hoping for good news at his next doctor's appointment.
• Amid all the traveling, I've been doing quite a bit of baking — and cooking, since my mom's not here and my sister and I are mostly trading off that responsibility, but the baking is mostly more exciting. (The exception to the mostly is that I made ham and spaetzel for the first time, which is quite an undertaking because you make the spaetzel from scratch, and it turned out really well.) I tried out a new pretzel roll recipe at the start of the month, and that was very tasty. I also made a lovely Scarborough Faire Sourdough loaf to take up to my grandpa's house, with three out of the four herbs (parsley, rosemary, and sage) taken fresh from my plants. I was very pleased with how that came out. In between, I made shortbread (to give my roommate's family), rolls (for my dad to take to work), and flatbread pizza (also using fresh rosemary and basil pesto from my plants!).
• All the travel this month means my D&D group hasn't been able to meet much, but the sessions we've had have been fun. Stressful — a lot of people almost dying — but still fun, with some very exciting moments and some excellent roleplay. I also got to join back up with the library D&D group this month, so that was cool. It's a little bit of a struggle because I created a character who's supposed to be very outgoing and action-oriented, hoping that would help me stay involved rather than just being in the background. But because the rest of the group knows each other better than they know me, and because we meet online, it's hard to actually get into character or play my character how I want to play her.
• On the work front, things keep swinging back and forth between SUPER BUSY and really quiet because no one's in the office. I did get to take pictures of handbells and stained glass windows for the summer handbell concert, though, and that was delightful. I love the church's stained glass windows, and bells are a lovely shape to photograph, and it was just generally a very fun morning, y'know?
• I did have high hopes of doing more crafting this month, mostly in the direction of costume accessories for Realm Makers. Alas, that was not to be. Aside from working on my embroidery, I did basically no crafting of any kind. Ah well . . . maybe next month. Or, more likely, maybe August.

July Plans

• Ok, for real this time . . . the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology releases on July 6, just under one week from today! There was a little bit of a hiccup with this caused by Uncommon Universes Press shutting down, but the book is going forward, and there's still time to preorder the ebook if you want to read my short story, "Grim Guardian," or any of the other seven stories included in this anthology. While I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted to with this launch, it's still a thing that's happening!
• In more exciting news (aka news that has had me internally vibrating with anticipation on and off for literal months): REALM MAKERS! IS A THING! WHERE I WILL BE! My books will ALSO be there, at Kendra E. Ardnek's table (because she is a fabulous person and will be handling my sales). I'll be hanging out at her table as well on and off throughout the conference, between sessions and mingling and such. I'm so hyped, and also my brain cannot entirely believe that it's so close. I'm looking forward to seeing my writer friends (and making new ones), learning from the experts, and the general adventure of it all. And, of course, I'm excited to see the results of the Realm Awards, especially with Through a Shattered Glass in the running.
• Continuing on the writing front: I'll be working hard this weekend and next week to try to get my Selkie Story fully drafted and in the hands of beta readers before I leave for St. Louis. (I also need to make sure I have beta readers to hand it to . . . that's a task for this weekend.) I'm so close to the end that I can taste it, and I've been daydreaming variations of the climax for about a month now. Once I finish that, I'll return to BDPI #4 and try to get that wrapped up — though I may take the week of Realm Makers off from actively working on any particular story. (Oddly enough, writers' conferences aren't a great place to get actual writing done . . .)
• Moving on to the rest of my life, we're expecting that my mom will be back home (at least for a while) this month, while my uncle takes a turn helping out my grandpa. I'm very much looking forward to having her back home, but I'm also perpetually paranoid that something will happen to prevent her return . . .
• As for work, it'll probably be pretty quiet, with the occasional burst of lots of activity. The first part of the month will definitely be busy, since I'll have two short weeks and I'll be working ahead to cover my time out of town. The rest shouldn't be bad. One exciting thing: the kids summer VBS thing is coming up in August, and it's a space theme, which means I'm going to have so much fun designing promo materials. (I've already had fun with the first round of promo. But now I get to have more fun. It's great, and I would like to thank the kids ministry director for her absolutely stellar choice of curriculum, pun entirely intended.)
• Finally, a word on what to expect around the blogs: I'm still hoping that July will be a semi-hiatus, but my Mid-Year Best Of/Book Roundup posts, various book releases and book news things, and one or two other things I have in mind mean it might be pretty full anyway. At the moment, my plan is to post as my time, energy level, and priority list allows, but not to default to not posting if the post in question isn't time-based.

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July? Will I see you at Realm Makers? What's the best book signing you've ever been to? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!