An Echo of the Fae Blog Tour: Interview with the Jana, the Summer Princess!

Hey'a, everyone! Just like last Monday, I have an interview as part of the An Echo of the Fae blog tour! But this week, I'll be interviewing one of the story characters: Jana, the Summer Princess! I am super excited for y'all to meet her; she's pretty great. But before that, a bit about the book and author.

About . . .

An Echo of the Fae

Echo enjoys the peace and solitude of the Faeorn forest, regardless of how strange spending time in the "haunted" wood seems to others.

But on the cusp of her thirteenth birthday, the discovery of a family secret reveals why Echo has never been drawn to the sea like her mother. This discovery shakes the foundations of her world and sends Echo on a quest, not merely into the forest, but into the heart of the fae-lands themselves, to rescue the sister she didn't know existed.

Elves, dragons, and fairy courts will put Echo's wit and resolve to the test. But with time running out for her sister, will Echo even be able to save herself?

A fairytale adventure perfect for fans of The Secret of Roan Innish and The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

Jenelle first fell in love with stories through her father’s voice reading books aloud each night. A relentless opener-of-doors in hopes of someday finding a passage to Narnia, it was only natural that she soon began making up fantastical realms of her own. Jenelle currently resides in the wintry tundra of Wisconsin—which she maintains is almost as good as Narnia—with her knight-in-shining armor and their four adorable hobbits. When she is not writing, she homeschools said hobbits and helps them along on their daily adventures... which she says makes her a wizard.

Follow Jenelle around the interwebs to get news about latest releases and her writing adventures: Author Site || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Goodreads || Newsletter || Amazon

Interview with Jana

Art by H.S.J. Williams

Welcome, Jana! We're excited to have you join us here at Dreams and Dragons! To start out, can you tell us a little about who you are and what your role in the story is?

Oooh! I am the Summer Princess. That means that I am the daughter of Queen Titania and King Oberon. Usually, I am the life of the party, and I’ve been known to be a bit of a prankster in my parents’ court.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been feeling very well lately. I get these awful dizzy spells, have been feeling weak and tired all the time, and even have been prone to sleep-walking. Sleeping isn’t any better than being awake, either, because whenever I’m asleep I have these vivid and terrifying dreams. My parents are worried about me, so they’ve put me up in a tower where I’ll be safe. It’s a bit lonely, but at least it keeps our subjects from worrying.

That sounds awful, frankly. What are your thoughts on the other characters in the story? (At least, those you've interacted with or know about?)

We-elll... I mean, Nevyk is a little grumpy and strict. But my own dear bestest friend ever, Drayeth is always a lot of fun. He has been my co-conspirator in many a prank. He’s keeping me sane, really. I just wish we didn’t have to stay in this tower. I hope my parents find a cure soon.

Are there other characters? What does that mean? Is someone coming who can cure me?

Well . . . um, that's a spoiler, now isn't it? Moving on, what is your favorite thing about your home? Your least favorite thing?

Oh, just... everything! I love living in Faerthain. Everything is always so full of life and color and magic!

My least favorite thing? That’s harder... I guess, I just wish that I could be healthy so that I could enjoy everything I love again.

I can understand that. If and when you get better, if you could spend an afternoon doing anything you wanted, anywhere in the world, with anyone you wanted, what you do, where, and with whom?

I’ve always wanted to go on an adventure. Not a really dangerous one or anything, but maybe something a teensy bit daring or different, just to give all the fae courtiers something to gasp about behind their hands. (giggles a little). But that’s probably never going to be possible, I shouldn’t be selfish. I’d definitely want Drayeth to be there, whatever I was doing. And anything to get out of this tower. Being cooped up in here is so very dull.

Oh, I completely understand about that. And I'm sure you'll get your adventure sooner or later . . . Thanks for answering my questions!

Thanks, everyone, for reading! Remember to check out the rest of the tour stops to meet other characters! And please tell me in the comments what you think about Jana and her story!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

An Echo of the Fae Blog Tour: Interview with the Author!

Hey'a, everyone! Welcome to the blog tour for An Echo of the Fae, Jenelle Leanne eSchmidt's latest release! This book is absolutely delightful, full of fae and magic and summertime vibes, and I'm super excited that I get to take part in its promotion. Today, I have an interview with Jenelle herself, in which we discuss some of the behind-the-scenes of the book. But first, a little about the book and author . . .

About . . .

Echo of the Fae

Echo enjoys the peace and solitude of the Faeorn forest, regardless of how strange spending time in the "haunted" wood seems to others.

But on the cusp of her thirteenth birthday, the discovery of a family secret reveals why Echo has never been drawn to the sea like her mother. This discovery shakes the foundations of her world and sends Echo on a quest, not merely into the forest, but into the heart of the fae-lands themselves, to rescue the sister she didn't know existed.

Elves, dragons, and fairy courts will put Echo's wit and resolve to the test. But with time running out for her sister, will Echo even be able to save herself?

A fairytale adventure perfect for fans of The Secret of Roan Innish and The Girl Who Drank the Moon.

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

Jenelle Leanne Schmidt

Jenelle first fell in love with stories through her father’s voice reading books aloud each night. A relentless opener-of-doors in hopes of someday finding a passage to Narnia, it was only natural that she soon began making up fantastical realms of her own. Jenelle currently resides in the wintry tundra of Wisconsin—which she maintains is almost as good as Narnia—with her knight-in-shining armor and their four adorable hobbits. When she is not writing, she homeschools said hobbits and helps them along on their daily adventures... which she says makes her a wizard.

Find her online at: Author Site || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Goodreads || Newsletter || Amazon

Interview with Jenelle

Welcome, Jenelle! First, where did the idea for this book come from, and were there any additional sources of inspiration along the way?

Originally, I was trying to think of a story I could write to participate in Kendra E. Ardnek’s multi-author release of Rapunzel retellings. But other than a vague idea for mixing it with selkies and the fae, I couldn’t come up with a story in time.

Then I met a young cashier at Menards. Her nametag said, “Jana” and I struck up a conversation with her by asking how to pronounce her name. As a fantasy author, I’m always on the lookout for unique and interesting names. We chatted for a while about books and she gave me permission to use her name in a book if I ever wanted to. As I was leaving, she called out, “My middle name is Echo, if you want to use that!”

Well, something about that conversation stuck with me, and the next thing I knew, I had the glimmerings of a story idea. “Jana” and “Echo” became sisters and the main characters of the book.

That's such a cool origin! What were some of the biggest challenges you had in writing this book, and how did you deal with those challenges?

Honestly, this was the easiest book I’ve ever written. It practically wrote itself. However, the ending was a major struggle, and probably made even more difficult because the rest of the story came so easily. I went through 12 different versions of the end before I hit on the right one.

Thankfully, I have an incredible team of editors around me, and my developmental editor refuses to let me settle for sub-par. I rewrote the ending six times before I sent it to my line editor, who helped me hash out yet another ending idea. I made the edits and rewrote the ending (which I absolutely loved... it made me cry as I was writing it) and then sent it back to my developmental editor to see what he thought, and he didn’t like it. At all.

I edited the ending another couple of times, each time, trying to figure out a way to salvage what I had already written, but it never felt quite right.

Finally, after several more back-and-forths with my editor, I scrapped the whole ending and started over, replacing the epilogue with three separate chapters. Taking more time on the end allowed me to tie up some of the loose ends, but it also changed the ending quite a bit from what it had been before and really made the whole story feel more completed than it ever had.

When I sent this version to my editor, he wrote back and said, “I think this is the one!”

My goodness. That's a lot of endings! To finish up, if you could spend an afternoon with one of your characters, either in their world or ours, who would you pick and what would you do?

I think I’d want to hang out with Jana. She’s just such an impetuous little ball of fun. When we meet her in the story, she’s become very ill, so you don’t get to see her at her best, but when she’s healthy she’s a chatterbox which means I wouldn’t have to carry the conversation, always a plus when I’m hanging out with anyone.

Nobody could ever be bored hanging out with Jana. She might not be the most adventurous on her own (climbing trees is apparently something she’s never thought to try), but she’s up for any suggestion, and she does have the ability to think outside the box and sometimes acts without thinking.

What would we do? I don’t know. I’d have her show me around Faerthain and maybe we’d play a couple of harmless pranks. Or climb a tree, because that’s always fun and something I’m already good at.

Jana sounds a lot of fun! And I get to interview her in a week, so I'm excited for that! Thanks for your time!

Thanks, everyone, for reading! Make sure you check out the rest of the tour stops, and stop by this blog next Monday for an interview with Jana! (Also, hop over to Light and Shadows on Friday for my thoughts on the book!) Have a fabulous day!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

Well, here we are: another summer, another exciting batch of books! Including, if you missed my news earlier this week, a few unexpected releases . . . Ok, mostly one unexpected release. But we have a lot of other books to spotlight too, so let's get going, shall we? As per the usual, some of these are already out but weren't included in the spring post because they're still June releases, but that just means there's less of a wait if you haven't heard of them already.

Summer 2020 Reads

1. A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown (June 2). I've said before that I wish authors would take a look at African folklore as inspiration for their stories, and apparently this author is doing just that. And, yes, it's another "would-be assassin falls for their target" book . . . but it still sounds pretty cool. And I give the author props for not trying to pretend we don't know that's going to happen.
   
   
   
   
   
2. The Court of Miracles by Kester Grant (June 2). This one is advertised as "Les Miserables meets Six of Crows," and, look, I have no particular opinions about Les Mis, but I absolutely love Six of Crows, so I have high hopes. It's getting good reviews from some of my friends, so that's promising. Also, it's apparently driven by the main character's desire to protect her younger sister, which we all know usually makes me happy. Here's hoping that the sibling relationship is given its proper attention, yeah?
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Beast of the Night by E.E. Rawls (June 11). Here's an author I keep hearing good things about. Her Strayborn is on my TBR list for Mistborn vibes, and now she's got a Beauty and the Beast retelling! And, yeah, it doesn't matter how many times you retell this story; I will always be excited for more. This sounds like a pretty interesting twist (the Beast is cursed to not be able to fall in love! the Beauty is not your typical Beauty!), and I'm excited to get my hands on it.
   
   
   
   
   
4. An Echo of the Fae by Jenelle Schmidt (June 21). I'll be joining in the blog tour for this next week (yay!), so you'll get my full thoughts on this book in next week's Friday 5s, plus some interviews on Dreams and Dragons. But it's another family-focused story, and it started off as a Rapunzel retelling, and there's fae(!!!!), so . . . I think you can guess how I feel about it.
   
   
   
   
   
5. Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee (June 23). I'm a little uncertain about this one — it sounds kind of dark, to be honest — but it's also giving me Abhorsen vibes, just a little. And Abhorsen is awesome. Plus, I've heard this is a nomance, which is always a plus. (Almost always. I do enjoy a good romance in its proper place. But life can be perfectly fulfilling without romance, and we need books that reflect that.)
   
   
   
   
   
6. Sisters of Sword and Song by Rebecca Ross (June 23). Another sisters-focused book! This summer is just full of them, and I love it! But we also have some Greek-culture-inspired vibes going on, which I'm also really excited about — Greek-influenced stories have been my jam ever since I discovered the Queen's Thief series. As a bonus, I actually won a copy of this in a Goodreads giveaway (whaaaat?), so it's on my shelf, waiting for me to get through my ARCs (and my Redwall reread) so I can pick it up.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Heaven Came Down by Bryan Davis (July 1). Ok, so this actually has two release dates. The paperback version came out on Monday (it's up on Amazon, if you're interested), but the ebook version won't release until July 1 (though you can preorder it). I have an ARC of this, but I haven't quite read it yet — the release date changed from what I was originally told, so I gave other books priority. I'm still excited, though. Davis is an excellent wordsmith and storyteller, and what I have read of this sounds very promising.
   
   
   
   
   
8. The Princess Will Save You by Sarah Henning (July 7). Apparently, this is somehow either inspired by or retelling The Princess Bride, according to some of the early reviews I've seen. I'm trying not to think about that too much, though. Based on the blurb, this story seems to have a lot of potential; here's hoping it doesn't end up just being disappointing. (Early reviews are mixed, but there's only a few of them, so who knows?)
   
   
   
   
   
9. Dust by Kara Swanson (July 21). So, Peter Pan retellings can be hit-or-miss for me, even though I quite liked the book when I was younger. I've mostly avoided them, to be honest . . . but I'm making an exception for this story. It's getting some good reviews from people I trust, and I think there's potential for family-based stories. (Also . . .  it's kind of just really pretty and that makes me want to read it. So, yeah.)
   
   
   
   
   
10. Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy (July 21). Ok, I am a sucker for any kind of crafts-based magic, and this story promises that in abundance. But it's also got found family (!!!) and maybe mystery in a historical fantasy, so . . . yep. High hopes here. Don't let me down, pretty book.
    
    
    
    
    
11. The Dancing Princess by Kendra E. Ardnek (August 24). We wrap up the summer with the Arista Challenge releases, starting with the final Twist of Adventure! I'm an alpha/beta-reader for this, and I can confirm that it's going to be super fun. Besides the fact that it's a 12 Dancing Princesses retelling, it has a Russia-ish setting and some undertones of other cool fairy tales. It's going to be great.
    
    
    
    
12. Wrought of Silver and Ravens by E.J. Kitchens (August 25). Ok, we've discussed my love of ancient Greek stuff already in this post . . . but this one does Sisters of Sword and Song one better — two better, actually. Again, it's a 12DP retelling in the Arista Challenge Tattered Slippers group, and this one has DRAGONS. Storms yes. What else do I need?
    
    
    
    
    
13. Poison's Dance by Tricia Mingerink (August 26). Another Arista Challenge book! Full disclosure, it's the one I'm probably least excited for — but that's a personal preference thing. I had mixed feelings about the first Beyond the Tales book, and I haven't yet read the second. Still, this sounds like an interesting twist on the story, and I'm sure that people who enjoyed the first books in the series will love it.
    
    
    
    
14. A Time of Mourning and Dancing by Abigail Falanga (August 27). This is the Arista Challenge book I know the least about, but it sounds very cool, and the cover looks very Grishaverse-esque, which I call a good thing. Apparently, the author didn't go the usual curse route with why the princesses are dancing, which is cool.
    
    
    
    
15. The Dark King's Curse by Wyn Estelle Owens (August 28). The second-to-last book in the Arista Challenge release, this is the latest from my lovely friend Wyn Estelle Owens, and I am SO STORMING EXCITED. It's honestly the one I'm most looking forward to reading. (Better yet: I get to beta-read it. So I can confirm that it's going to be great, based on what Wyn's given me thus far.) Anyway. It's Celtic and involves Enchantment of Ravens-esque fae and a faery cat and all sorts of goodness. And I CANNOT WAIT for it to come out!
    
    
    
    
    
16. The Midnight Show by Sarah Pennington (August 29). And we finish with my book! If you saw my announcement earlier this week, you know what I'm talking about. If not: this is the Secret Project I mentioned a few weeks ago. It's a Jazz-Age-inspired urban fantasy of music, magic, and mystery, featuring fae secrets, strange dreams, a singer with a shoe problem, and a private investigator who has to untangle it all, and I am so excited to share it with y'all! (And if you want to read it or any of the other Arista Challenge books early, you can sign up for an ARC and even join the blog tour!)

All right! That is all of this summer's exciting reads that I know of, but I may have missed some. If I did, please tell me in the comments — and if I didn't, tell me which of these you're most excited for!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

A Secret Revealed: Introducing The Midnight Show!

So, you know how I've mentioned a "secret project" a few times in the last few weeks? Well, the time has come for that secret to be revealed! Introducing The Midnight Show, a Jazz-Age-inspired urban fantasy of music, magic, and mystery, featuring fae secrets, strange dreams, a singer with a shoe problem, and a private investigator who has to untangle it all!

This mystery is the case of his dreams — and her nightmares.

By day, Dayo Temitrope is a swinging singer, an up-and-coming star with a shining career ahead of her. By night, she’s . . . well, she’s not sure, but whatever she does leaves her every morning with sore feet and worn-out shoes. And after six months, she’s had enough.

Enter Bastian Dennell, a private investigator just trying to get by. When Dayo hires him to find out where she goes at night, he’s sure it’s his big break: his chance to establish himself and get the funds to pay off his family’s debt. Plus, he gets to work with his favorite singer, even if she isn’t exactly what he expected. What could be better?

But first he has to solve the case — which means navigating a tangled web of strange dreams, fair folk schemes, and show business. It will take all Bastian’s wits, along with the shining talents of Dayo herself, to figure out the truth before the curtains close for good on Dayo’s career.

A jazz-age-inspired twist on the Twelve Dancing Princesses from the author of Blood in the Snow.

Releasing August 29

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

(Want to know who designed that cover? Yours truly! It may have been one of my most challenging design projects to date, just because I had to actually draw stuff, but I am SO HAPPY with how it turned out!)

In addition, I am happy to announce that I will be releasing The Midnight Show with the Tattered Slippers Arista Challenge group. This will be my third year publishing as a part of the Arista Challenge, and I'm very happy I get to do so again! (I almost didn't, but this story snuck up on me unexpectedly, and Kendra let me join at the last minute.) Once again, we have a pretty snazzy author lineup, including both new and returning Arista Challenge authors. You can learn about all the Tattered Slippers books by checking out last night's Facebook reveal party or the release info page. And if you want to help spread the word about this release, we are currently taking signups for ARCs and the blog tour, and we have an Instagram challenge you can participate in!

I can't wait to share this story with y'all. Thanks for your support!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

So, as many of you may have noticed if you follow the book world, historical fantasy — that is, fantasy set in an actual historical setting and time period rather than a completely separate world — has been growing in popularity these last several years. And I, for one, am loving it. Much like fantasy mystery, it's a fabulous blend of my favorite genre and a genre I used to be really into — plus, y'know, I really do love history in general. And the fact that it adds some variety to the fantasy booksphere is just icing on the cake. Anyway, historical and historical-adjacent fantasy (or whatever you'd call books like Ranger's Apprentice that are basically an alternate version of Earth with some name changes) has been on my mind a bit lately, and I thought I'd share some of my favorites in the genre.

Historical Fantasy Faves!

1. The Lost Plot (and the other Invisible Library books) by Genevieve Cogman. Is anyone surprised this is the first book on the list? Hopefully not; my love for the Invisible Library books is probably old news to most everyone reading this. (Unless, of course, you're new here. In which case: this series is one of my favorite things in the world, and if you love fantasy, mystery, dragons, fae, mysteries, and magical libraries, you NEED to read it ASAP. Trust me. It's awesome.) Technically all the books in the series would qualify, but The Lost Plot is the one that feels most distinctly like historical fantasy as opposed to steampunk, as it's based in Jazz Age New York City. It's also one of my favorite books in the series, so . . . yeah. It's great.
   
   
   
2. The Jackaby books by William Ritter. These also should be no surprise to anyone reading this; while I haven't talked about Jackaby in a bit, it's another one of my favorites — the series I obsessed over until it ended and the Invisible Library books released. It's set in 1892 in an ambiguous New England state (I've always assumed it's in Massachusetts, for some reason) and features a fabulous intersection of mystery and fantastical beings and ideas, and it's just a lot of fun. I need to reread it, really.
   
   
   
3. The Wrath and the Dawn duology by Renee Ahdieh. Moving away from American history, we've got this exquisite tale set in ancient Persia. This one might technically be historical-adjacent rather than straight historical, but it's close enough, and I can't recall the details with enough confidence to say for sure. Anyway. It's beautiful, it's a fairy tale retelling (specifically the story of Shahrazad from the Thousand and One Nights), it's twisty, and it has an excellent balance of fantasy and history and tension and political stuff and all sorts of good things.
   
   
   
4. Fawkes by Nadine Brandes. Granted, it took me forever to get around to reading this book. But once I did, it was great! It's set in 17th century England and focuses on the culmination of Guy Fawkes' Gunpowder Plot. The magic system is kind of odd and confusing, but the book as a whole is great, and there's an excellent balance of the fantastical and magical. (Also, family-based plotlines. Storms yes.)
   
   
   
5. The City Beyond the Glass by Suzannah Rowntree. I actually wanted to put Death Be Not Proud here, which is a murder mystery retelling of Snow White set in Jazz Age New Zealand, but then I realized Death was straight historical, not historical fantasy. But The City Beyond the Glass is my second-favorite of Suzannah Rowntree's books; it's a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling set in Venice, and it's beautifully dark and tense and so forth. Not my favorite-favorite Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, but still very good and just as creepy as such a story generally ought to be. (And, to be honest, most of Rowntree's books could probably fit this list; I just haven't read as many of them as I want to yet.

I'll finish up by mentioning two runners-up that didn't quite make the list. One is Bryan Davis's latest book, Let the Ghosts Speak, a fantasy-ish murder mystery set in 1900s France. It's twisty and atmospheric and really quite excellent, but because the fantasy elements are odd, it didn't quite fit. The other is an older series: Brian Jacques's Flying Dutchman books. The fantasy element of these is more low-key and basically just shows up in the fact of Ben and Ned's existence, but they're still good books. Masterpieces of literature? No. But still good stories.

How do you feel about historical fantasy? Are there any books in this genre that you love that you'd like to recommend? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

May 2020 Doings!

Well, it's been another one of those months where the first half and the second half feel like completely separate temporal divisions. It's weird. But I'm not sure there's ever going to be another month that doesn't feel like that, at this point. So let's get on with trying to remember what happened, shall we?

Writing!

• So. As you may recall, I had two goals at the start of the month: 25,000 words on Blood in the Soil/Earth and 3 episodes and 3 episode summaries in my D&D campaign. Technically, I didn't accomplish either of them.
• As far as the D&D campaign goes: I did manage to write three episode summaries and three episodes. However, two of those episodes and summaries kind of overlap, so . . . it doesn't exactly count. Still, I have four sessions set up and ready to go, and I got to talk backstory stuff with several people, which is making me shift around my plans anyway. Soooo, I'm calling it good.
• I did pretty well on Blood in the Soil/Earth for most of the month, averaging about a thousand words per day until the 23rd or so. I got through several scenes, including some that I've been looking forward to for a long time and some that set up some unexpected but enjoyable character dynamics. However, as the month went on, the novel started fighting me more and more, and even as long as it already was, it seemed very likely that I wasn't going to be done with it by the end of the month, or even in the next two months.
• Having heard the advice multiple times that sometimes the best thing to do with a troublesome project is to work on something else (and knowing that it worked well for other types of projects), I decided to indulge in an extra side project. Initially, it helped; I was getting good writing done on both things. But then the new project (currently referred to as the Secret Project) started to take up more and more attention, and I decided to set Blood in the Soil/Earth aside for a time and focus on the Secret Project instead.
• No, you do not get to know what the Secret Project is yet. Worry not; all will be revealed in a couple weeks. But if you really want a hint, I may have posted something about it on my author Facebook page a couple weeks ago when I first started it . . .
• Anyway, my final count for the month of May was 63,665 words: 34,532 words towards my official goals (20,451 on Blood in the Soil/Earth; 13,022 on D&D) and another 29,133 on the Secret Project. Keep in mind, that number includes a solid 10K-ish words of plotting, character development, and worldbuilding. It's still a pretty solid amount of writing, especially when you consider that I wrote over half of it (roughly 42K) in 15 days.

Reading!

• If you think you're noticing a trend here, that's because there is one: the Great Redwall Reread (which I started back in January) continues in earnest! I can generally finish a Redwall book every one or two days, on average — they're addictive, and they're fast reads, even though they're mostly long enough to have some substance. So far, all my old favorites are holding up fairly well, and many of the ones that I liked less have risen in my estimation. (Notably: Martin, Mossflower, Legend of Luke, Mattimeo, and The Long Patrol. There's a trend here too, if you care to look for it, though it's not as obvious as the overall reading-lots-of-Redwall trend.) Outcast is still my least favorite, though.
• I could say more, but I'm thinking of doing a Friday 5s post with my thoughts on the series as a whole, coming back to it as a semi-adult (I may technically be an adult, but I don't feel very adult-y most of the time), and how it's influenced my writing once I finish rereading the whole series. That might actually be two posts, one for thoughts and one for influence, but we'll see what happens.
• Outside of Redwall: I had another cozy reread, All Things Bright and Beautiful, which is the second James Herriot book. We don't own the other two, so we'll see how long it takes me to reread those. I also read two Kendra E. Ardnek short stories: The Prior Quest (a Bookania retelling of Puss in Boots, not my favorite but also not my least favorite), and Misfortune (a Twist of Adventure Rapunzel retelling; I posted my full thoughts a few weeks ago).
• Finally, we have the two disappointments of the month. Masters and Beginners was one I really wanted to love because it had such a great concept: slice-of-life small-town urban fantasy about caretakers of a magical archive of stuff, featuring family focus, in-world textual "artifacts," and cat fairies. It could've been an instant hit. Unfortunately, the writing style felt unpolished, there was a lot of infodumping (including some huge name dumps, which I do not care for), and the formatting was not great. I know that last one shouldn't detract from the quality of the story, but — look. I spent four years studying design; I can't just turn that off. Anyway. Lots of potential; poor execution. The Narnia Cookbook, on the other hand, was fairly well-executed, but it just wasn't what I wanted it to be. Which is to say: there were no recipes in it that I actually felt inclined to try to make. It did have some nice behind-the-scenes and historical tidbits about different food, though, so that was kind of cool.
• Finally, here's a quick update on reading goals.
  • My total reading is at 42 books out of 99, which puts me roughly on track or a little ahead. Thank goodness for having enough time to read and short enough books that I can pack a lot of them in.
  • I read two non-speculative-fiction books this month, which puts me at six such books out of a goal of twelve. That means I'm a little ahead of the game on this goal, though we'll see how long that lasts.
  • As for books published before I was born, technically I've reached my goal through my Redwall reread. However, that feels a bit like cheating. So, we're going to count all of the pre-Sarah's-birth Redwall as one book. That and All Things Bright and Beautiful puts me at eight books out of twelve, which means I'm still ahead of the game. (And if I read Chesterton, reread The Lord of the Rings, or get back to Wheel of Time like I hope to do, I'll definitely hit my goal fairly well ahead of schedule!)

Watching!

 

• So, this month has actually been a reasonably good one for watching things, at least as months when I'm at home with limited internet go. And by "a reasonably good one", I mean that I watched multiple actual movie-length things, which pretty much never happens.
• One of those was The Great Race, a comedy-action-romance movie that my roommate loves and had recommended to me. My parents happened — mostly by coincidence — to have it out from the library, so of course I wanted to see it. It was fun, partially because it's the kind of movie that knows it's utterly ridiculous and therefore isn't going to take itself too seriously. And pretty much all the main actors were a bit overdramatic, but since everyone was doing it, it worked. So, yeah, that was good.
• The next was not a movie but rather a musical — specifically, Cats, via The Shows Must Go On, a YouTube channel that's posting legit, legal recordings of Broadway musicals every weekend. I'd been meaning to download (via YouTube Premium, don't judge me) and watch one of the shows for a while, and when I saw Cats was being posted, I figured that would be a good choice. I could find out what it was and what it was about without dealing with the weirdness of the movie . . . and then I actually watched it (with my family, no less) and discovered that however weird the movie is, it can't be that much weirder than the actual show. I mean, it's probably less weird if you see it in theaters and don't have a camera zooming in on awkward moments, but still . . . what the pumpernickel did I watch? And why the pumpernickel did anyone think a movie based on this show wouldn't be as weird as anything?
• (I would like to add that it did not help that the costumes in the musical were, for the most part, kind of, ah, skintight. And with the stage makeup and so forth, in some cases, it didn't matter that the actors were technically completely clothed; I still felt like they were mostly naked. It was not a comfortable experience.)
• The final new-to-me movie that I watched was Charade, which someone described to me as "The best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made," or something to that effect. It was definitely something — a treasure hunt/mystery combo, very twisty, lots of character drama and dynamics and questioning who's telling the truth and who's lying and who's killing people and so on. There was a surprising amount of comedic stuff, though, which kept it from getting too angsty. (Actually, no one really angsted about anything. It was nice.) I did guess where the money was fairly early on, but the rest of the movie made me second-guess myself multiple times, so it gets props for that.
• (I also rewatched Singing in the Rain because I needed something set in the 20s for reasons. It was just as good the second time around as the first time, though I'm still confused about the point of the whole "Gotta Dance" sequence. It's weird.)
• In addition, I finally worked my way through the first episode of Critical Role. Well, actually, I've been doing that for a couple months now. But I made significant progress this month! (I really want to try to get into it because I keep seeing animatics on YouTube and reading stuff about it on other media and so on. It's just . . . the episodes are three hours long. And sometimes I have trouble focusing in D&D sessions where I'm actually playing; focusing when it's other people playing is even harder. So I basically have to watch them in parts, but it's still a lot of time. Though having watched the animatics, I feel a little more attached to everyone and therefore feel like I have more of a stake in what's going on. So, yeah.)

Life!

• To be honest, I have very little grasp on what happened this month. Most of it was writing, reading, D&D, and job searching, and I've already talked about two of those.
• Probably the most exciting thing that happened was that some of our neighbors invited my dad and I over to take pictures of their carnivorous plants because the pitcher plants were blooming. So that was pretty cool. Everything was much smaller than I thought it would be — I imagined that Venus flytraps were the size of my palm, for example, but they're really not much bigger than my thumb. I went over twice and got some good shots the first time. The second time didn't go quite as well, sadly. (I avoided getting stung both times, though — these neighbors also keep bees, so I was a bit worried about being close to the hives.)
• On the job search front, I've had a little bit of luck. Though I've gotten several rejections, I did get a few interviews, and one of those companies hasn't rejected me yet. So, yay for that!
• The D&D campaign I run only met once in the month of May — well, technically twice, but the second time was overflow from the one real session. We finally finished the finale of the season, which was great. The fight did go super long because I overestimated my capability to run a large battle, but it worked out. And there were character revelations, which were . . .  less dramatic than I expected? But still pretty dramatic. I think everyone's pretty happy with how things ended, and they seem to be excited to start up again in the near future.
• I did end up joining a new campaign, which was good because my old campaign only managed to meet two weeks out of the whole month. I'm playing a full spellcaster (bard/wizard multiclass) for the first time, and it's . . . interesting? I am not used to having so few hit points, y'all. My character went unconscious in the first real fight of the campaign; that hasn't happened to me in months. And apparently I've been confused about how many spells you can use per turn the whole time I've been DMing. So, that's a thing. It's fun, though.
• On a related note, I have discovered that I really love multiclassing characters, to the point where if you look at my PCs and my major NPCs, there's, like, two who aren't multiclassed to some degree. And neither of those two are PCs. (My paladin recently multiclassed into Fighter so she could get the Dual Wielder fighting style and I could stop having to worry about what bonus did or did not get added to her offhand attack. It's something I've been thinking of doing for a while, but it didn't seem appropriate in terms of character development until now, when I decided that all the minor crises of faith she's had over the campaign have probably added up to a full level of not-paladin.) Plus, most of my favorite characters that I want to play in future are also multiclassed. So, yeah.
• I did get to do some baking over the course of the month. You heard in my last Doings! about my Sourdough chocolate cake. The following weekend, I made oatmeal cookies (with cranberries, pecans, and chocolate chips in them — they were supposed to be a small batch, but they ended up making nearly three dozen, so . . . not sure what's up with that) and strawberry gallettes (basically mini freeform pies). Both turned out quite delicious. I also made another two loaves of artisan bread, which, on the upside, didn't fuse this time! Unfortunately, they still didn't turn out very pretty. But it is what it is.
• I've also been playing Undertale on and off. I'm still on my first playthrough, and I'm doing Total Pacifist mode, so it's taking a while. (I also can't play every day, only a couple times a week at best.) So far, it seems like a great game, though I did have a lot of trouble navigating the menu controls. I kind of wish they have you some kind of instructions on that. But that could just be the fact that I'm not super experienced with video games in general. I'm also realizing that I was spoiled by my other gaming experiences that let you save whenever the heck you want and not just when you reach a save point. The fact that I had to keep redoing certain puzzles that were between a save point and a spot where I kept dying was part of the reason I didn't get further along faster.
• Finally, a bit of exciting news: we are finally going to get actually good internet at our house! Unfortunately, it's still going to take a while. But it's definitely coming!

June Plans

• #1 plan: finish the draft of the Secret Project and send it off to betas ASAP. This was actually supposed to have happened already, but there were delays. Should happen in the next few days, though.
• I'm also participating in the 100-4-100 challenge, despite the fact that I barely keep up with Go Teen Writers or the GTW community anymore. I'm using Blood in the Soil/Earth for that in hopes that it'll keep me from completely neglecting it while working on the Secret Project and other stuff.
• My last writing project is, of course, continuing to work on D&D and figure out how to potentially reshuffle things to include some of the backstory that my players are giving me for their characters. So I'm excited about that! Can't say too much, though, because some of the people in the campaign read this blog.
• Outside of writing, I'm still working on the getting-a-job thing, though right now that mostly looks like waiting to hear back from a few places.
• I also have a design project in the pipeline that I'm really excited about. I'll probably share something on the blog and social media about it later this month too. Can't say a whole lot, but it's the first time I've done a project of this type professionally. It's going to be great . . . as long as what I think I can do works out like it's supposed to, anyway.
• Beyond that, it's just more of the usual: baking, reading, waiting for the actually good internet to happen. Watching stuff. Hopefully finishing the first Undertale playthrough. Praying that the world finds a better new normal than this in the near future.

How was your May? Any exciting June plans? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah

Favorite Sourdough Recipes (That Aren't Just a Loaf of Bread)

Hey'a, everyone! So, this has been a bit of a crazy week. I picked up a new project (more info coming soon!), and that plus my normal stuff is keeping me pretty busy. Today's post, however, is not about any of that. Instead, it's about something I've been doing for almost a year now: sourdough. If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I've been having lots of baking adventures over the past year, trying to accomplish the perfect sourdough loaf and looking for new recipes to try. Today, I thought I'd share some of my favorite recipes that aren't just loaves of bread — after all, by this point, anyone who picked up sourdough during quarantine and hasn't given up on it yet is probably looking for something new to do with it. A lot of these also use discard, which is great because it's no fun to just waste half your starter every time you feed it. So, without further ado, the absolute best sourdough recipes I've tried.

(Ok, a moment of further ado: have you taken my social survey yet? If so, thank you very much! If not, please go do that; it only takes a few minutes, and it'll help me figure out what I'm doing with my life in terms of connecting with y'all. Now, back to the recipes.)

Sourdough Recipes (That Aren't a Loaf of Bread)

1. Sourdough Crumpets. This is the most recent addition to the list, but it's also my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE thing on it. I've spent most of my life wondering what the pumpernickel a crumpet is and thinking it was something like a macaroon or macaron. In reality, it's more like a cross between a pancake and an English muffin, and it is SO GOOD. It's also super easy; you just take starter, add a little salt, sugar, and baking soda, mix it up, and drop it on the griddle in some crumpet rings. (I substitute biscuit cutters, though I'm thinking of buying some actual English muffin/crumpet rings in the near future just so I can have them consistently sized.) I like these best with butter and buckwheat honey, but they're also really good plain and hot off the griddle.
   
   
   
2. Buttery Sourdough Buns. These rolls are rolled up like a cinnamon bun, but they're usually buttery and savory, more like a crescent roll. I will confess, though, that I almost never stick to the recipe for what goes inside the buns. They just say to do butter and a bit of paprika, but me? I load these up with SO MUCH CHEESE. Usually, it's whatever shredded cheddar or whatever similar cheese we have in the freezer, but the last time I made these I used shredded romano, grated parmesan, and some basil and they were delicious. (For the record, I still do use the melted butter; it's just that I put cheese in there too. Also, you do have to roll them up tight or some of the cheese will fall out.)
   
   
   
3. Soft Sourdough Rolls and Crusty Sourdough Rolls. Cheating? A little. But I'm not going to choose between my two go-to sourdough roll recipes, not when they're both equally delicious. I absolutely LOVE rolls — like, the way my roommate loved Colonial's breadsticks. I know it's just a lump of dough or a mini loaf of bread, but they're SO YUMMY, especially when you split them partway open and load the inside up with butter or honey or other fillings and then eat it like that. The soft sourdough rolls are excellent for sandwiches — and I do mean excellent — though they're also great just as a side. (If you're making them as a side, though, make them smaller. You can always eat more of them.) The crusty sourdough rolls are delicious with anything, but I especially like them with Italian-type foods like lasagna and cataloni.
   
   
   
   
4. Sourdough Pretzels. My family's pre-crumpet favorite, though we haven't made them in a while. These are probably the second-easiest thing on the list, unless you're like me and really struggle with rolling dough into ropes for twisting. They're really at their best fresh, when they're hot and salty and sourdoughy and chewy and all that. You can also just leave them as lumps so they become pretzel rolls, though I'm still figuring out sizing to make them function well for sandwiches and burgers and such.
   
   
   
5. Sourdough Pizza. How many times have I featured this on my Instagram? It's a very time-intensive pizza crust, but it's so good, and I think it's well worth the extra effort. I normally do the two thin crusts version (mostly because I didn't learn until recently that the single thick crust was an option), which works really well. (I will say, though — preheating your stone isn't always the best idea, no matter what the recipe says. We tried that, and it ended up being far too hard and crispy on the bottom.)

Are you into sourdough? Please share some of your favorite recipes (even if it's just your preferred loaf recipe; I'm thinking of expanding soon). And if you're not into sourdough, if you have a favorite bread product recipe, please go ahead and share that too; I'm always excited for new things to try.
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

A Quick Request

Hey, friends! Want to do me a favor?

 

I'm in the process of reworking my authorial social media strategy (and by that I mean "actually creating said strategy"), and as I learned over and over again as a PWID major, a big part of that is finding out where your audience is and what they're looking for. So, I've created a brief survey to find out how I'm currently connecting with all y'all, how you prefer to connect with and hear from authors and creators in general, and what you'd like to hear about from me. It should only take a few minutes to fill out, and it'll help me out quite a lot. You can fill it out below or at this link.

 

Thank you all very much for sharing your thoughts! I appreciate the help!

-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

What's this? A list post that's not promoting a recently-released book? MADNESS. I bet you didn't know we still did those, did you? But we are currently between book tours, which means I get to think of other things to talk about. And that means that I can do the thing I've been meaning to do since the beginning of May, which is some graduation reflection. Specifically, I wanted to look back and reflect on some things that have changed or stayed the same for me or about me since I arrived at Cedarville — other than the obvious things, like the fact that I'm four years older and know a lot more about writing and design and marketing and such and live in Virginia again instead of New York. (Of course, I just mentioned all those things, so I don't even have to include them on the list!)

Graduation Reflection

1. I'm rather more confident when it comes to people things. For one thing, I'm more comfortable talking in front of people. I think the fact that I was required to do it at least a little in almost all my classes sophomore year helped, as did playing and running D&D this past two years. I actually got to the point where I would volunteer to speak for my group any time we had presentations or such — not because I necessarily enjoyed it, but because I didn't mind doing it. I also became more comfortable taking charge of groups — to be honest, I may have gotten too comfortable doing that, which probably did not do wonders for my popularity. But once I didn't mind actually talking, I found that the best way to stay in the loop about what was happening was to be the one running the loop. So . . . that's what I did. (That may also have contributed to my willingness to talk in front of people; I was the one who was in charge of everything and knew the most about what was going on, so I was the one who did the most talking about it.)
2. I'm also more comfortable with criticizing professors when they deserve it. I remember back in freshman year, I mentioned in one LATE Club post that I was terribly bothered by how negative my classmates' attitudes towards a particular professor seemed to be, not because I thought they were wrong but because I didn't think we should talk so much about it. I . . . am over that now. I still do try to keep in mind professors' good points, and I respect that they have their positions for a reason, but if I have a problem with them, I will talk about it. (Respectfully, and not to random people on the street. But still.
3. I actually have less solid goals than I did when I started? When I started at Cedarville, I had a very specific idea of what I wanted to do — job type, industry, location, everything. (And, yes, it was basically a full-time version of the internship I'd just completed, but in a different state). Now, though, I'm interested in so many things that I'm kind of like "I could do this . . . or this . . . or this other thing . . . they all sound good, really." I'm not sure if this is progress or not, but it does make job searching easier, so there's that. (It's just weird, though — I had a sort of idea that you go to college and you leave with a better idea of what you want to do with your life, but the opposite happened to me.)
4. I somehow developed a social life? And became a person who organizes things? And by "things" I mean group events. (In terms of actual orderliness, I am exactly as inclined to organization as I was before college. Which is to say, I'm mildly obsessive about some things and can't be bothered with others.) Sometimes group events involving upwards of a dozen people. Sometimes even things involving whole clubs of people. This is coming from me, a confirmed introvert. I'm really not sure how any of that happened, but I'm glad it did . . . except for the fact that I get lonely more easily now. So that's not ideal. (The fact that I still have D&D to hang out with a lot of my closest friends helps, for the record.)
5. And finally, something that's apparently stayed the same: I don't move on super easily unless the rug gets yanked out from under me. This is actually something I've been thinking about with the whole COVID-19 thing and the fact that neither of my senior years have gone the way I wanted them to or given me all the time I wanted with my friends. In high school, I moved to New York the summer before my senior year, which meant that all the last moments with my friends had to be compressed into the space of a few months. And then COVID-19 sent everyone home from college with even less time for goodbyes and last hurrahs and so forth. And I hated both of those, but . . . there was actually a benefit? I didn't want things to end, and I didn't want things to change, and I didn't really want to get on with the next stage of life in either case . . . until all the things and people I was attached to in that stage either got stripped away or reset, and suddenly I was ready for the potential of the next stage and excited to move on. So, I'm not saying that God orchestrates my life so I get slammed with catastrophes every time I need to move on from something, buuuuut . . . there's a trend developing. That's all.

For my fellow 2020 graduates: what do you see about yourself that's changed since you started college? Do you feel like any of the things I mentioned apply to you as well? And if you're not a 2020 grad (which a lot of the people following this post probably aren't), feel free to share something that's changed for you in the last four years! I'd love to hear your perspectives!
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade)

A Twist of Rapunzel Blog Tour: Interview with Kirsten Fichter

Hey'a, everyone! It's a two-post, two-tour week; today we're back with the Twist of Rapunzel double release tour! This tour features Kendra E. Ardnek's Misfortune and Kirsten Fichter's Diamond. And for today, we have an exclusive interview with one of the main characters of Misfortune, the Daughter of Blood and Misfortune. (Yeah, it's a mouthful.) in addition, we'll have another interview with Kirsten Fichter here this coming Tuesday, and you can find my thoughts on Misfortune over on Light and Shadows. So make sure you check out all of those — after the interview.

About . . .

The Book

Once Upon a Twist #3
 
Diamond leads a quiet life with the woman she calls Mother. There isn’t much to pass the time save for excursions in the forest and one-sided conversations with her pet rabbit, Hobie. Men are cruel beings who care only for themselves and must be avoided at any cost. After all, Diamond’s own father gambled her away once. What other terrible fates might await her if people knew she existed?

Seth Stendahl is an alchemist with a middling proficiency in the Rohesian tongue. After growing up with and surviving six sisters, there shouldn’t be anything too difficult for him to master – except maybe breaking his leg and being locked in the top of a ruined watchtower.

This is Rapunzel with a twist like you’ve never seen it before.

Find it online at: Amazon || Goodreads

Explore the rest of the series: Goodreads

The Author

Kirsten Fichter is a twenty-something Christian writer who loves being the wife to her favorite person ever, mommy to two precious blessings, a piano enthusiast, a dragon buff, a serious bookworm, and an INFP synesthete. Fairytales have always fascinated her, and she has made it her goal to rewrite as many as possible and become known as the “Grimm Dickens” (i.e. mixing Grimm fairytales with a Dickens style). Diamond: A Rapunzel Story is her third published fairytale retelling. You can find out more about her on her blog, A Synesthete Writer.

Find her online at:  Blog || Goodreads || Facebook || Twitter || Instagram || Amazon

Interview With Kirsten Fichter

1. Hello, Kirsten! Welcome to the blog! To start out, can you tell us a little about yourself? Who you are, favorite hobbies (other than writing), favorite books (outside your own), coffee or tea?
Hello, and thank you so much for having me! I grew up the second of six homeschooled siblings, but I am now married to my best friend who’s currently working on his PhD in theology; I’ll be a doctor’s wife in a few years! *winks* Most of my time is taken up being mommy to two precious kiddos, a 2-year-old daughter and a 7-month-old son. I love all things dragons, I enjoy playing the piano, and I’ve memorized just about every Disney song out there. I’m a big fan of Kit-Kats, and I take a little coffee with my creamer, thankyouverymuch.

When it comes to books… Charles Dickens and J.R.R. Tolkien are without a doubt my favorite authors; I love big, thick, juicy books that REALLY explore worlds and characters. I love reading and I’m addicted to second-hand books. It’s hard to say “no” in thrift stores when you find amazing stories for $3 or less! Thus, I do not have enough bookshelves to house my collection.

2. Ha! I have that problem too! Now, looking at your book: what originally inspired Diamond, and what additional inspiration did you find in the process of writing the book? 
Rapunzel has long been a favorite fairytale of mine, so I always knew I was going to retell it. While I was working on Spindle Dreams (book #2 of my series), a missing child kept popping up in my head, and I knew she was the key to unlocking a villain for both books. And then came the age-old question: WHY? Why was this child missing? Who was she? What would happen if she wasn’t the one in the tower? From there, ideas just catapulted out of control.

My additional inspiration came right at the end of my planning/beginning writing stages – I found political tensions that were not quite resolved from the previous book that needed attention. I was not planning on politics showing up in this book, but the tensions soon became pretty crucial for the plot. And then one of my characters showed up with an interest in alchemy after I’d binged on Disney’s Tangled and the succeeding TV series – and so alchemy became a big part of the book as well.

3. Cool! Rapunzel is one of my faves as well, and I keep thinking that I should check out the Tangled show. Beyond just inspiration, what challenges did you deal with in writing this book, and how did you overcome them? 
One of my biggest problems with this book was getting into Diamond’s head and character. I am big on writing dialogue and arguments when it comes to discovering characters, but Diamond doesn’t have a lot of people that she can talk to. Thus, I had to learn who Diamond was by simply watching what she did, rather than listening to her talk. And let me tell you, that was rough. I tried to focus on her thoughts, trying to discover why she did what she did, while at the same time bringing her to life and making her seem real for the readers.

4. That definitely is a major challenge. However, advice is often a way we can get past challenges. What's the most unusual or unique piece of writing advice you've ever received? 
My dad always told me, “Don’t fall in love with your own writing.” Even though I enjoy the books and adventures I put together, I always need to remember that a writer is always learning. There is always room to improve. No draft will ever be absolutely perfect, but you can’t let that stop you. Keep looking for ways to better your writing and keep practicing.

5. That really is good advice! Now, for a fun question: if the main characters of your book suddenly came to life in your living room, what would they do, and how would you react? 
First off, I’d be super flabbergasted and really not know what to do for a few minutes. Then, I’d probably offer everyone coffee or water or tea. And then sit awkwardly trying to think up things to say to them. That may sound odd, but I’m a true introvert, and if it’s not writing, I struggle with words. *shrugs* I can see most of the characters trying to weasel my plans for their futures out of me, and they would probably not be pleased with my answers – not that I would want to tell them everything, of course.

6. Ha, yeah. That is true. What is your favorite place in which to write? (Physically, I mean, not in the story.) 
I struggle with writing around people. I get way too distracted, so I typically retreat to my bedroom for solitude. I’ve done a lot of writing straight from my own bed. Ideally, I’d love to camp out on the porch and write outside, but I get distracted with birds, and the wind, and… pretty much everything. Finding good time to write has become problematic in the last few years since I have two kids, so I’ve learned to use naptime to its fullest potential.

7. I can imagine that would be a challenge. What do you plan to work on next? What can we expect to see from you in the future? 
I’d love to have the next few books in this series out within the next few years, and I’m really excited about where these characters are taking me! I’m excited to announce that I’ll be retelling Snow White and Rose Red for the next book, and we’ll be following Diamond’s adventures for a bit longer. I have several other retellings plotted for the series, but I’m not able yet to pin down where each book will fall in my overall timeline. One day, I’m hoping to break into the traditional publishing world with some thick books that will do Tolkien and Dickens proud.

Thank you so much for having me! This interview was a lot of fun!

What do you think of the Daughter of Blood and Misfortune? Are you intrigued? Please tell me in the comments! And don't forget
Thanks for reading!
-Sarah (Leilani Sunblade) 

Tour Stops for May 19

Kendra E. Ardnek – Special Announcement 

Kirsten Fichter – Easter Eggs in Diamond 

Interviews: 

Dreams and Dragons – Kirsten Fichter 

Books, Life, and Christ – Kendra E. Ardnek 

Reviews: 

World of Chronicles – Diamond

View the full list of tour stops here!