December 2024 Doings!

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

Writing!

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

Reading!

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

Watching & Playing!

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

 Life!

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

January Plans

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

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

 

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!

 

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!

 

February Doings!

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

Writing!

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

Reading!

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

 Watching & Playing!

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

Life!

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

March Plans

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

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

 

January 2024 Doings!

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

Writing!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Reading!

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

Watching!

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

Life!

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

February Plans

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

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

 

December 2023 Doings!

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

Writing!

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

Reading!

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

Watching!

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

Life!

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

January Plans

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

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