Steal the Morrow Release: Interview with Olifur

Hello everyone! I recognize that this isn't the usual day for posts here, but this is a bit of a special occasion. Specifically, it's a release celebration for Steal the Morrow, Jenelle Leanne Schmidt's fantasy retelling of Oliver Twist set in the world of the Turrim Archive! Technically, this book came out last Friday, but I had an awards ceremony to host that day on Light and Shadows, and that plus grad school took up too much brainspace for me to post here, so . . . we're celebrating today instead! I received an ARC of this book, and I really loved it — it's a wonderful story of a boy determined to do the right thing in a world that is often callous and cruel. But I'm not actually here to review the book. Instead, I have an interview with one of the characters, Olifur — and if you hop over to Light and Shadows, you'll find another interview with Jenelle herself.

About Steal the Morrow

 

The city may be dangerous, but it holds his only hope…

Abandoned on a remote highway after bandits murder his parents, young Olifur finds safety with Fritjof. The gruff woodsman teaches him and other orphans to live off the land. When Fritjof falls ill, Olifur will risk everything to save his mentor—even travel to far-off Melar seeking a doctor.

However, the city of Melar is more perilous than Olifur imagined, and doctors aren't cheap. His quest leads him first to a hazardous job working on the elevated trains high above the city. But the dangers in the clouds are nothing compared to those on the ground. Olifur soon finds himself ensnared in a web of professional thieves, and he must think fast if he is to survive the day and bring the much-needed aid to Fritjof before it is too late.

Schmidt reweaves Charles Dickens' "Oliver Twist" into an exciting tale of integrity and perseverance in this gaslamp-fantasy adventure.

Buy the book || Add on Goodreads || Discover the other Classics Retold

Interview with Olifur

Hello, Olifur! Welcome to the blog! To start out, please tell us a little bit about yourself: who you are, your role in the story, anything that you feel is important for us to know so we can understand what makes you, you.

Well, my name is Olifur. I guess I’m the main character? I’m about 10 years old now, but three years ago my parents were murdered by highway bandits when we were on our way to Melar hoping to find a doctor who could help my mother. My father tried to stop them from taking our cart and leythan (a kind of large lizard that we use as mounts and beasts of burden here), and they killed him and my mother and then just left me behind to get eaten by wild animals.

Thankfully, Fritjof found me instead. He took me in and taught me all sorts of useful skills for surviving in the wilderness. What plants are good to eat, how to make and shoot my own bow, how to hunt, how to start a fire and cook over it, things like that. He’s rescued loads of other orphans as well, and we all stay with him in his glen… it’s kind of a school, I guess. We just don’t learn the usual things.

Sounds like you've already had a pretty exciting life, even though you're still young. Who would you say has had the biggest influence (good or bad) on your life thus far? What was the most important thing you learned from them?

I would say that the biggest influence for bad were the men who murdered my parents. They taught me that the world has a lot of cruelty and selfishness in it.

But for good, the person who has influenced my life the most is Fritjof. He doesn’t say much, but he gave me life when the whole world seemed bent on only offering death. He taught me kindness and the importance of integrity. He’s also taught me how to be self-sufficient and how to stand on my own.

Fritjof sounds like an wise and good man. Moving on, as I understand, you’ve lived both in the middle of mostly-nowhere and in the big city. Which do you prefer and why?

I definitely prefer living in the forest. Both places have their own dangers, but the dangers in the city are harder to see coming. In the forest, you always know where you stand. In the city, it always felt like the ground could be pulled out from under me at any moment. It’s harder to know who to trust in the city, since it seems to toss people against each other. In the wilderness, people have to work together to survive against the beasts and the weather.

That's a very good perspective. What’s one thing you think most people don’t know or understand about you?

I’m not as brave as everyone thinks I am. And sometimes I have no idea what I’m supposed to do, even though it often looks like I have all the answers.

Ah, well. You'll be feeling that last one for the rest of your life, trust me! Let's end on a fun question: if you had an afternoon to spend doing whatever you wanted with whomever you wanted to do it with, what would you do, and with whom would you do it?

I’d spend it going on a hunting trip with Fritjof.

That sounds like a very pleasant afternoon. On behalf of myself and my readers, thanks for answering my questions!

I hope you all enjoyed that interview! So, who's ready to meet Olifur? Again, Steal the Morrow is available in ebook and paperback form from various retailers — and if you order a copy before October 29, you can get a character art bookmark and bookplate from the author! Click here for more info on that. Having read the book already, I can definitely recommend it!
Thanks for reading!

 

 Hello, everyone! It's officially summer (though for a lot of us, it's felt like summer in one way or another for at least a month or two now), and we all know what that means . . . more books! As usual, I'm here to tell you all about the most exciting books releasing this season — or, at least, the ones I'm most excited about.

Summer 2023 Reads

1. The Orb and the Airship by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt (June 16). The Orb and the Airship released just last week, and you may have seen my review of it. If you didn't, you should go check that out — but the short version is that this book is a magnificent and lovely blend of steampunk and epic fantasy, and I love it SO MUCH. I'm especially fond of Captain Marik, an airship captain in the fine tradition of Mal Reynolds and Francis Grimm, but all the characters are excellent, as is the storyline.

2. Secret Project #3 by Brandon Sanderson (July 1). Have I read the last two secret projects? No. Should I have? Probably. I keep holding off for a special occasion, even though I should probably take the advice of that one post that I see every so often about how special things make ordinary occasions extraordinary. I do think I'm justified in this case, as I don't want to start a Sanderson book at 10:30 or 11 at night, and that's mostly when I'm getting my reading time these days . . . but I digress. The point is: Secret Project #3 is coming in just a few weeks! This is another Cosmere story, it's narrated by Hoid, and it sounds like a very cool blend of fantasy and sci-fi.

3. Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology (July 6). Y'all have heard about this one a few times already, but that's no reason to leave it off the list. This anthology contains eight enchanting stories of magical dogs, each with a guaranteed happy ending. And, as I've mentioned before, one of those stories is my own "Grim Guardian," a Southern-flavored, slightly haunted tale of mystery. This release has had a few hiccups, but we're still moving forward, and I'm excited for y'all to read it!

4. No One Leaves the Castle (August 15). Y'all know I am always down for a good blend of fantasy and mystery, especially murder mystery, so I was hooked on this book from my first hearing the premise . . . But then I found out that it's set in the world of the Hero's Guide/League of Princes series. And it features one of the best characters from that series. (Not going to say which one, but you can probably guess if you read the synopsis, and if you really want to know, check the reviews.) Spinoffs are sometimes risky, but I am looking forward to this nonetheless.

5. Rook by Wiliam Ritter (August 22). And, speaking of spinoffs and returns to favorite series from my teen years, William Ritter is releasing a new book in the world of Jackaby! This sounds like it picks up after the events of Dire King, though it's billed as a standalone. I loved the initial Jackaby books, but I had mixed feelings about Dire King that mean I haven't raved about the series quite as much as I did in the early days. Still, I'm looking forward to revisiting this world with a new story, and I'm hopeful that it'll bear more resemblance to the early stories that I loved.

What book releases are you excited for this summer? 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!