Hey'a, everyone! Spring officially begins in just a few days, which is lovely, and that means that it's time to check out a new crop of book releases! We definitely have some good ones coming out in the next few months, so that's lovely. As usual, I'm posting my full list here, but if you just want the quick top picks list, you can find that over on Light and Shadows.

 

Spring 2022 Reads

1. A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin (March 29). Asian fantasy! Tea magic! A heroine determined to save her sister's life! While there are other reads on this list that I'm more excited about, I'd still call this a good start to the season, wouldn't you?

2. Tall and Dark by Suzannah Rowntree (April 2). We're returning to the world of Miss Sharp, and I don't think I could be more hyped! I didn't think that this was coming out until August . . . and then Rowntree's latest newsletter hit my inbox and I learned that I only have two weeks to wait! In my case, not even that, because she was opening up ARC applications and I barely managed to finish the sentence before hitting reply to ask for a spot on the team. Miss Sharp herself doesn't feature in this new series, but Molly Dark sounds like a fabulous new heroine, and we have Grand Duke Vasily back, which is immensely exciting.

3. Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor (April 5). So, we've got two Belle Époque historical fantasies releasing within days of each other . . . but this one sounds like it'll have more magical realism vibes. The blurb suggests Night Circus vibes, which certainly sounds intriguing. And maybe we'll get a good sister relationship between Jani and Zosa? (Side note, I love the names here.)

4. Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher (April 26). I'm not sure what to make of this one — it sounds like it'll have some fascinating dark fairytale vibes, with strange tasks and weird magic and the youngest of three sisters out on a magical quest. On the other hand, I'm kind of concerned that it'll turn out like The Blacktongue Thief, which also had promising vibes but ended up just being unpleasant.

5. Crown and Cinder by Kendra E. Ardnek (April 27). It's the first of the Midnight Curfews and the second in Kendra's series of Austen Fairytales! I'm a beta reader for this one, and so I can already tell you that it's good. Pride and Prejudice derails Cinderella, and vice versa, to magnificent effect! We have some characters reappearing from Rose Petals and Snowflakes, if you read that, and we get a pretty fun take on Lizzy/Cinderella and her particular situation. If you want, you can preorder it now on Amazon — I'm sure Kendra would appreciate it.

6. Cindy Ellen by Rachel Roden (April 28). This is the second Midnight Curfew and the third book in the Wunstuponia series of Western non-magical fairytale retellings. While I still need to catch up on the series, I'm sure this new installment will be good. Again, it's up for preorder on Amazon if you're interested.

7. Mask of Scarlet by Sarah Pennington (April 29). We're so close to the next installment of Bastian Dennel, PI, in which Bastian finds himself on the job of finding Cinderella herself! I'm very excited to share this with y'all, especially after getting some very good feedback from my beta readers. We have more of Bastian, more of his sisters, a bit more Dayo, and some new characters who I think you'll enjoy meeting. If you haven't already, make sure you preorder on Amazon (unless you're holding out for the paperback, in which case, fair).

8. The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah (May 17). This sounds like it has Arabian Nights vibes, which is delightful — I don't encounter enough of these kind of stories. And I do very much like the dynamic of sheltered noble/streetwise rogue, whether it's platonic or romantic, and I think we'll be getting that in here too.

9. Murder for the Modern Girl by Kendall Kulper (May 24). This is Jazz Age urban fantasy, which means reading it definitely counts as writing research . . . right? We've got a mindreading heroine who's been dispensing vigilante justice and a genius shapeshifter who sounds like he has a scientific bent, so those sound like very promising main characters. I think this will be a fun read!

What book releases are you excited for this spring? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Good morning, everyone! So, this week's post was originally going to be about how I'd just finished reading Discworld after actual years and was going to spotlight my favorite books in the series. The one problem? I didn't finish the series this week like I thought I would. (Blame Snuff — it's a much thicker tome than I realized.) Instead, I'm going to spotlight a different book I just recently read: W.R. Gingell's latest release, Cinderella Must Die. Which, let me tell you up front, is an absolutely delightful romp of a fairy tale murder mystery. Intrigued? Good, let's go.

You Should Absolutely Read Cinderella Must Die

1. Because Cinderella + murder mystery is the combo you never knew you needed. I mean, I'm a big fan of just about any blend of fairy tale and mystery (which should be a surprise to no one), but Cinderella as a murder mystery? With the stepsisters trying to clear their names before they can be officially accused as the murderers? It works so well, y'all. It's fabulous, and it's a very well-put-together mystery (also no surprise, since Gingell wrote a whole series of urban fantasy mysteries that are also awesome).
2. It's the first roles-reversed/villainous retelling that's really caught my interest and carried through. Villain/hero swaps for fairytales are an interesting concept — I have ideas about writing some myself in the future. But the ones I've read so far tend to be . . . not what they could be, and the good ones aren't widely available. But Gingell handles both Cinderella-as-villain and stepsisters-as-protagonists very well and makes it convincing. Plus, it's not super dark, as I get the impression a lot of roles-reversed stories are — honestly, it's a very fun read.
3. Jane and Charlie are an excellent sister pair. They come off as very realistic siblings — the kind who love each other have each other's back without question, but who also don't mind teasing each other. They actually remind me (in the best ways) of Azalea and Bramble from Heather Dixon's Entwined, which is awesome. They're clever and persistent and loyal and just excellent characters to spend the narrative with.
4. The rest of the characters are also awesome. I can't list them all because spoilers, but I did very much enjoy getting to know them and seeing their interactions with the sisters. Some of them — Candace in particular — I'd rather like to see get their own spinoff. I will say that Harvey was rather annoying for a lot of the book, but, I mean, there was a reason for it.
5. There's a very clever use of magic in here, and I can't say what it is, but I really love it. I wish I'd thought of it first. Yeah. Any other details will be spoilers, so let's leave it at the fact that Gingell did something very interesting and it makes for a better plot and some very good, well-handled themes.

Have you read Cinderella Must Die? If so, what's your favorite thing about the book? If not, do you want to read it? Please tell me in the comments!

(On a side note: W.R. Gingell just announced her next book, Castle and Key, which is a Bluebeard retelling, and — look, I am magnificently hyped. It sounds like it's going to be very much in the vein of Masque, which is the book that made me fall in love with Gingell's writing, and long story short, I am going to be so happy come July.)

Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, all! As y'all are probably aware, there's a lot of writing advice out there — in fact, depending on how many blogs and newsletters you follow and what kinds of things you search on Google, you probably can't open your email or your internet browser without running into someone telling you how to write better. A lot of that advice, especially in the area of tips and tricks, is pretty standard stuff, but there's some more unusual material out there too — and some of those more unusual tips work far better than you expect when you read them. I've been meaning to make a post for a while about some of the odd tricks that've helped me the most, and since I've spent the last several months Writing (and rewriting and editing) Like Mad, I felt like this was a good time to do just that.

Writing Tips and Tricks
(That Shouldn't Work as Well as They Do)

1. Write in a non-serious font. The original version of this advice was to write in Comic Sans specifically — why? Because traditional serif and sans serif fonts (at least the readable ones) are, well, traditional. Serious. Clean. Meticulously shaped. They pump up the pressure to produce perfection. Comic Sans? It's chill. Relaxed. A little messy. It breaks past the block that makes you revise a sentence over and over again and just lets the words flow. And it works. It has a major benefit of handwriting (lack of pressure) paired with the major benefits of digital (speed and editability). It's wonderful. To be fair, though, any readable handwriting font will work in a similar way. I drafted more than a few college papers in Comic Sans, but I like more scripty fonts for fiction. For example, the Bastian Dennel, PI novels were drafted in Ink Free, and my Super Secret Mystery Project is in Segoe Print.
2. Don't end your writing session at the end of a scene or chapter. Some people even say to end in the middle of a sentence, but I think that's a bit extreme. The point is to avoid the paralysis of figuring out how to start a scene before you even get your writing muscles warmed up — sort of to give yourself a runway for the next writing session. I confess that I haven't always used this one, especially when my inspiration doesn't extend beyond the chapter I just finished, but I'm making a point of doing it in my current project, and I think it's helping a lot.
3. Write your way into a scene. When you don't have a runway from your last writing session . . . make one! It's a draft, you're going to edit anyway, so if you need to, just start writing with a messy description of what's going on as the scene opens and maybe where you're going with it and keep going until you can transition into the real prose. Then go back and delete all the leadup. I've only used this one a few times, but it does help — it's a little like the Draft Zero concept that Deborah O'Carroll has told me about or the similar method that Sylvia Mercedes uses to rapidly draft her books, just on a very small scale.
4. Having problems with a scene? Change the weather. This is one I actually used in Gilded in Ice. (Chapter 15, to be exact.) The exact advice doesn't work for every scene, but the general principle does: if you're stuck on a particular scene, change some detail about the setting or situation and you might just find the words flowing more readily. Changing details like this — whether it's the weather or the time of day or the whole location — helps you pull away from the idealized version of the scene in your head and actually write the version that can exist on paper.
5. If your story feels off now, the problem is probably about ten lines back. This one goes along with the previous tip, especially since I find this also tends to happen when you're trying to force the story or characters in the wrong direction. While it can be risky to engage your inner editor during a writing session, if you're stuck, it may be worth looking back at what happened earlier in the scene (or even earlier in the book!) and trying to find the cause. It's definitely better to look in the moment than to push on with the book and end up having more story weight resting on a cracked support

What are your favorite writing tips and tricks, whether odd or unusual or otherwise? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

February 2022 Doings!

And here we are again! It feels like I just did one of these . . . but, of course, February's a short month, and I did end up delaying my January Doings! by a week, so no surprise there. Most of this month's excitement has been writing-related, so let's just jump right in there.

Writing!

• On the whole, this was a pretty good writing month! It started, of course, with revealing the cover of Mask of Scarlet — which, friendly reminder, is available for preorder on Amazon! And if you can't wait for the release date, you can request an ARC of any of the Three Midnight Curfews.
• On the day of the cover reveal, I also finished editing Mask of Scarlet and sent it off to betas. I know one has finished, and while I haven't looked at her in-manuscript comments yet, I know from her messages that I very much got the reactions I was hoping for. So that is very encouraging!
• After sending out Mask, I did take a few days off from writing (mostly) as a bit of a break before jumping into outlining and drafting my Super Secret Mystery Project, also known (at least to me) as TaSG. If you can correctly guess what those initials stand for, I will give you a cookie . . . and maybe something else? We shall see. :D
• In addition to TaSG/the Super Secret Mystery Project, I've been doing some thinking about future Bastian Dennel books. I think I have a good idea of what the next three or four books in that series are going to be, and I have a plan of when I'd like to release the next two. After that, well, we'll see what opportunities come up.
• On the D&D front, I haven't done a whole lot of campaign/adventure writing, but I have done a lot of thinking about future plotlines and what might happen and where the characters might go. I mentioned last month that the group met the Fellowship — yes, that Fellowship — and was very excited about it. They also informed me that, in addition to wanting to potentially go back to Middle Earth, they would totally be down for more world-hopping adventures, which means I can potentially just combine a different campaign concept I was thinking about with the Defenders of Serys campaign. (And that, my friends, is a great relief.)
• Finally, one last bit of exciting writing-related news: I am officially attending the Realm Makers conference in July! I have a registration and a room reservation (and a roommate), and I am SO HYPED. This will be my first-ever writing conference, and I can't wait to go, learn, and meet all the awesome people.

Reading!

• This has been an interesting mix of reads, to say the least. I discovered back in January that one of the libraries I go to was doing a winter reading challenge for adults, so I tried to tune some of my reading to that, with . . . mixed success. In addition, the other library I have a card at did a Blind Date with a Book event, which I'm sure you all can guess meant I was delighted.
• My Blind Date Books were J.R.R. Tolkien's transaltion of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo and Gregory Maguire's A Wild Winter Swan. The Tolkien-translated poems were excellent, of course. It was interesting both to read the full version of Gawain and the Green Knight (since I've only ever read abridged or sanitized versions) and to read the medieval reimagining of Orpheus. As for A Wild Winter Swan, it was a very well-written book that I nonetheless did not particularly enjoy reading. I'd be happy to own the Tolkien, but I don't even think I'd consider rereading A Wild Winter Swan.
• Other than that, I had two new reads: Death Wind (Elven Alliance #3) and Rise of the Dungeon Master, a graphic novel about how D&D was created. Both were quite good, and I definitely enjoyed them! In Death Wind, I did have some stylistic frustrations with the author's writing (which is nothing new), but the story was excellent. And Rise of the Dungeon Master was very well-written and well-illustrated, and I think the writer did an excellent job distilling and expressing the story.
• I also reread quite a few books, all of them good. The highlights? The Lord God Made Them All is always a delight — it's James Herriot's fourth autobiography, and it's just as much a comfort story as the others. Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass were childhood favorites, and it was fun to revisit them. And Going Postal is one of my favorite Discworld books — no wonder, given that Moist von Lipwig is very much an example of one of my favorite archetypes.

Watching!

• As has been the usual, there's not much to say about this category . . . but I did finally finish Episode 5 of Critical Role Campaign 3, and I started Episode 6, so there's that. I continue to love all the characters, but Laudna and Imogen are definitely my favorites. (Orym is, like, third place, just because you can't not love him.)
• (No, I haven't watched the show yet. Yes, I absolutely do want to watch it. I just have to get to the point where I have time to watch it.)

Life!

• Mmmkay, what happened this month that didn't fit into a category I've already talked about . . .
• Oh! We finally got a treadmill! I've been pushing on and off for us to get one for probably ten years at this point, on the basis of "Remember how when we had the one my grandpa gave us, I used it pretty much every day?" and, more recently, "You know how there's nowhere good to walk around here that doesn't require a fifteen-minute drive first?" We held off initially because we didn't want to have to move a treadmill and then because we couldn't agree on what we wanted. 
• But! We finally agreed, and we put in the order around the beginning of the month, and then it arrived the day before the Mask of Scarlet cover reveal. We wanted them to deliver it down to the basement . . . so, of course, they instead put it in our front entryway. And then we had a very interesting night of trying to get it down the inside basement stairs. Eventually, we had to move it back outside, wheel it around the house on a dolly to the outdoor basement stairs, and take it down that way. On the upside, no one was injured, nothing broke, and now we have a treadmill! Which I have used multiple times, though not every day — I'm currently aiming for 2–3 times per week.
• I tried a new biscotti recipe for National Biscotti Day. These ones were Milk Chocolate and Honey biscotti, and they were pretty tasty. They turned out a little darker than I wanted because I didn't leave them in long enough on the first bake and overcorrected on the second, but they were still good.
• We did have several warm days this month, which was nice. Downside: that meant we had to go out and cut a tree into logs for splitting. (The tree in question had been cut down last November or December, but it's at the back of our property and not very convenient to get to.) Upside: a friend from our Bible study came out to help, which meant we finished much faster. Even more of an upside: the friend brought his crossbow to shoot and let us shoot some as well.
• After procrastinating for about six months, I finally went and got my eyes checked and confirmed that yes, I do need new glasses, and then ordered the new ones the next week. I'm supposed to actually get the new glasses this weekend, and I'm rather excited. While I like my sunglasses, I've realized over the last two years that I made a mistake when picking the frames for my regular glasses (which are just for distance, for the record), getting ones that are smaller and looser than I really like. It took buying blue light glasses to realize my mistake. The new ones, however, should be a better fit, and I'm hopeful that they'll be less annoying to wear.
• Otherwise, most of this month's excitement has been at work, where things have been quite busy with the newsletter, Lenten and Holy Week preparations (yes, Holy Week this far out!), and a funeral on top of the usual stuff that needs to get done. I'm certainly not complaining, since I'd rather be busy than bored, but it has been a lot, especially this past week.
• Oh! And the last exciting thing that happened this month: not only did I make Duolingo's Diamond League (two weeks in a row!), but I hit the top spot on the leaderboard! It took a week of, ah, slightly obsessive Duolingo practicing. I mean, it was productive use of my time, but it was a lot of time on Duolingo.

March Plans

• First job for March: finish drafting TaSG/the Super Secret Mystery Project. I've managed about a chapter per night thus far, with a few exceptions when I didn't write anything, so I feel good about this. It's first-person POV, which I think tends to go a little faster. I'm hoping to get this done early in the month so I can move on to the second job for March . . .
• The second round of Mask of Scarlet edits! As I said, I have some comments back from betas, and I'm expecting more in the next week or two. Since this comes out at the end of April, I can't procrastinate on this, but I do want to finish the Super Secret Mystery Project draft before I switch over.
• Of course, things might be slowed a little by the fact that my sister! is coming home! for spring break! And I am so excited to see her again! I'm a bit saddened that I probably won't be able to take time off, but I'll still get to hang out with her a fair bit outside of my working hours.
• Work will probably continue to be busy all month. But, again, I'm not complaining. Better busy than bored, as long as I'm busy with good things and not busy putting out fires.
• On the reading front, I have several series and series-rereads in progress that I want to finish (notably, Oracles of Fire, Legends of Karac Tor, and finally reading the last half-dozen Discworld books). I also have rather a lot of books in library stacks that I really should read . . . but, let's be real, I'm mostly going to continue mood-reading.
• Finally, I'm hoping that spending time on the treadmill will also mean more time to watch stuff. I'd love to actually catch up on Campaign 3, start watching the Legend of Vox Machina show, and hopefully fit Encanto in there somewhere. That said, I'd settle for just watching more of Campaign 3, period.

How was your February? Any exciting plans for March? Any guesses about the Super Secret Mystery Project/TaSG? Are you going to Realm Makers? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

No, I'm Not Going to Watch The Rings of Power

 So, here's the thing. Y'all know I love The Lord of the Rings. Y'all also know that I'm not crazy about movies, but that I try to be generous when it comes to book-to-screen adaptations, even when they're not perfectly faithful to the book. I love the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings films, even if they didn't do Faramir anything like justice. I watched the Hobbit movies in theaters and argued in their favor even when some of their decisions made me more than a little upset. And when I learned that there was going to be a new TV show based on The Silmarillion and other pre-LOTR Middle Earth writings coming in September, I was pretty optimistic. But the more I've heard, the more certain I am, even as early as it is: I am not watching The Rings of Power — and here's the reasons why.

No, I'm Not Going to Watch The Rings of Power (And Here's Why)

1. They literally cannot be really faithful to the source material. Does that sound overly harsh? Yes. But the showrunners have admitted as much — they don't have the rights to The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, or anything outside The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and the Appendices. That means they're filling in a lot with their own inventions. I will give them credit for stating outright that this is basically a high-budget cinematic AU fanfic (though they said it in a fancier way); it's kind of refreshing to have that established at the outset. But that's not the show I'm looking for
2. They did this to Elrond:Look, out of all the characters in the show, Elrond is the one I have the most investment in. And this . . . this is not Elrond. He's described in the First Look article as a "politically ambitious young leader," and . . . no. No. No. I live with the character assassination of Faramir in the LOTR movie because the movies are, in most other respects, true to the books. I will not accept them doing the same to Elrond in a show that's not going to make up for it in almost all other respects.
3. I don't trust Amazon. Look, I'm not here to critique Amazon in general. I'm not even here to comment on how they've done with some of their other recent fantasy-book-or-story-to-movie adaptations. I'm here to say that I don't trust Amazon to get what The Lord of the Rings and the Middle Earth books in general are really about, as evidenced by the fact that they compared it to Game of Thrones, of all things. Honestly? In the hands of someone who understands the themes and the stories and the concepts Tolkien was trying to convey, this show could be good — even with the very drastic changes they're making, even with the amount of original content they're adding, even with how they're treating Elrond. But I don't trust Amazon to get that, and I don't trust Amazon to pick showrunners who'll get it either. (Again, they called Game of Thrones the "spiritual successor" to The Lord of the Rings. Spiritual disowned-wastrel-nephew, maybe. Hardly a successor.)
4. I don't want The Lord of the Rings to become Amazon's MCU or Star Wars. Maybe this sounds weird to people. I don't know. But while I liked the MCU movies (up until I stopped being able to keep track of them) and I enjoy most of the interactions I have with Star Wars and Star Wars-adjacent stories, they're . . . kind of a lot. It's one thing after another, produced so fast that you barely have time to realize a series is running or a movie is releasing before it's over, and from what I've heard, that speed is reflected in the quality of some of the shows. And, look. All three storyworlds — The Lord of the Rings, the MCU, and Star Wars — have the potential to support this volume of story. But I think that the people behind the new MCU and Star Wars stuff aren't consistently respecting the story or the fans — they're doing this because this is what sells, and they'll keep stretching the material further and further as long as it keeps selling. I don't want that for any of these three storyworlds, but I want it least of all for The Lord of the Rings.
5. There are other shows I'd rather watch and stories I'd rather enjoy. You know how long my backlist is? It's so long. Even if you leave off shows I'm currently watching, even if you restrict the list to only shows and no movies, no YouTube series, no other forms of media, there's a lot I want to see. There's a lot I know will be good because it's been recommended to me by friends I trust. So, I'm not going to put time and effort into a show I wouldn't look twice to it if it didn't have The Lord of the Rings pinned on to the title when there are so many other stories I could enjoy instead.

So, that's my take. Is there a possibility I will change my mind in November, once there's several episodes actually out and I know if my worst fears have come to pass? Maybe, if literally everyone says it's great. And I am still holding out hope that the animated War of the Rohirrim movie will make up for the failings of The Rings of Power, since it at least has some of the Lord of the Rings leadership on board. But for now? I'm pulling out before I can be disappointed.

Are you planning to watch The Rings of Power? How are you feeling about what we know about the show so far? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Mask of Scarlet Cover Reveal

All right, all right! Who's ready for a cover reveal? (It's me. The answer is me. I'm ready. Hopefully y'all are excited too!) Today, we're debuting the cover of Mask of Scarlet, the third book in the Bastian Dennel, PI series. Like the other covers in the series, it was designed by yours truly! But before we get to that . . .

Nah. I'm kidding. Let's get this shiny out for y'all to admire.

 

Bastian Dennel is a detective, not a matchmaker. 

But he’s also not one to turn down easy mazuma. So when one of Innsjøby’s richest young sheiks hires him to find his so-called true love — a girl he’s met only once at a masked party — Bastian is on the case. After his last few high-risk adventures, he’s ready for a job where the hardest part will be collecting his payment. Sure, all he has to go on is a guest list and a description . . . but how hard can it be? 

Of course, easy money always has a catch, and what should’ve been a simple search turns out to be anything but. Everyone seems to have their own opinion on who this mystery girl should be, whether or not it matches reality, and even the Families are getting involved. To make matters worse, Dayo is acting cagey, and Bastian doesn’t know why. 

Bastian’s business is the truth. But what can he do when everyone around him has already decided what they want the truth to be? Find out in this Jazz-Age take on “Cinderella,” book three of the Bastian Dennel, PI mysteries!

Releasing April 29, 2022

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf || Check out the rest of the series

Mask of Scarlet is releasing alongside Kendra E. Ardnek's Crown and Cinder and Rachel Roden's Cindy Ellen as part of the Three Midnight Curfews, a group release of Cinderella retellings. This is my first time publishing outside of an Arista Challenge release . . . though, I mean, there's still a lot of overlap, given that Kendra was still the one to put it together. You can learn more about the other books at the links below.

Crown and Cinder (The Austen Fairy Tale Book 2)

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf || Austen Fairy Tale Book 1

Cindy Ellen (The Austen Fairy Tale Book 2)

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf || Discover the series

 

And, of course, a cover reveal means special promotions! Today through February 11, The Midnight Show and Gilded in Ice are both available in ebook form for $0.99 on Amazon. A lot of y'all have probably picked those up by now, but if not, now's the perfect time to do it!

So, what do you think of the cover? How excited are you about Mask of Scarlet? Please tell me in the comments!

 

January 2022 Doings!

 

It's the first Doings of 2022! Whoop whoop! January feels like it's been a pretty busy month, mostly because it included, as Bastian would say, a lot of lates and earlies — up as long as I could manage to draft or edit, up before the sun to get to work on time. All in all, though, it wasn't a bad month.

Writing!

• The first draft of Mask of Scarlet, aka Bastian Dennel, PI #3, is officially finished! And, if all goes to plan, by the time you read this, the second draft will be at least 70% done as well. It was a much cleaner first draft than Gilded in Ice, which I expected — there aren't quite as many elements to balance, and I didn't have to adjust the timing and pacing as much. Most of the biggest changes were in the first three or four chapters, which I wrote before I had all the story details I needed worked out.
• In addition, Mask of Scarlet has a release date — April 29 — and soon will have a cover as well! The reveal is on February 9, so keep an eye out for that! Plus, The Midnight Show and Gilded in Ice will both be $0.99 (ebook) that day, if you haven't picked up either of those yet.
• The book is also up for preorder on Amazon, so feel free to go check that out! Normally I hold off on the preorder until the cover reveal, but I'm releasing it a little early this time.
• Finally, on the D&D front, my group finally reached one of the parts of the adventure I've been planning for the longest: an encounter with the Fellowship — yes, that Fellowship from LOTR! They met Merry, Pippin, Boromir, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, roughly in that order (and that should give you a clue about when in the story they met the Fellowship), and did effectively derail the course of one of the greatest fantasy epics of all time . . . but, of course, in this case, that was exactly what I hoped they'd do. (It's always worth noting when derailing a plotline makes a DM happy.) Of course, what I didn't anticipate was how much they'd want to either stick around in or come back to Middle Earth . . . so we'll see where things go (literally) once they finish up their current quest.

Reading!

• Things I intended to reread this month: The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time book 2) and the rest of Legends of Karac Tor.
• Things I did not reread this month: The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time book 2) and the rest of Legends of Karac Tor. Oops. (In my defense, The Great Hunt is, as far as I remember, a lot of growing pains for Rand and Mat, and I just have not had the energy to deal with that or the amount of sadness in the latter three Karac Tor books.)
• On the upside, the month started out very well — I finished The Dark Archive (only one book left before I'm caught up on the Invisible Library books!) and read Between Kings, the final City Between book. Both were excellent, especially Between Kings. It wasn't my favorite in the series, but it was a very good finale, and I was happy with where the characters landed.
• I also continued my Dragons in Our Midst reread by moving on to the Oracles of Fire series. I've gotten through two of the books, and I'm enjoying them much more than I originally did.
• Back to new reads — I cleared a few books off the backlist and read The Cruel Prince, The Innocence of Father Brown, and the first three volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist, all of which I enjoyed for very different reasons. The Innocence of Father Brown was definitely the best of the three — no surprise there. The mysteries are clever, and I like the characters of Father Brown and Flambeau. I would honestly put them on a level with the Sherlock Holmes stories in many respects. As for the other two: The Cruel Prince was exciting, though not something I'd go out of my way to recommend — if you want a book about fae, there are better ones out there. Fullmetal Alchemist was an enjoyable read — I almost said a fun read, but that's not quite true, given some of the themes it deals with. But it wasn't all grimdark, and it has a nice brotherly relationship and some interesting lore, and it doesn't lean as heavily into certain uncomfy tropes as other manga I've read. I do plan to keep going with all three series as I'm able to get ahold of the books.
• And then we have some assorted rereads: Ticket to Write by R.M.S. (a compilation of bus ticket poetry originally posted over on Against the Shadows), Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett (which is a very interesting take on a lot of fairy tales all put together), and Paper Crowns by Merriam Neal (a fun novella with a magical cat; very nice as a stress-reliever).

Watching!

• Focusing most of my time and energy on Mask of Scarlet has meant that I haven't had a lot of time to watch stuff, much to my disappointment — I'm missing my Critical Role, and I also desperately want to watch Encanto, since I keep hearing so many good things about it. Plus, Legend of Vox Machina just launched in animated form . . . it's a real problem.
• The little bit of movie-watching I have done has mostly been with my family. We rewatched Charade at the start of the month, right before my sister went back to college, which was a lot of fun. It's my favorite older movie for a reason, you know?
• But, yeah. Hopefully I'll be able to get in a little bit more watching-of-stuff once I finish this round of Mask of Scarlet edits.

Life!

• January started off pretty well — although it snowed, which I distinctly don't love, that plus the cold and ice meant I got almost a week of either snow days or holidays or work from home. So that was nice. Less nice: the fact that all the other times it's snowed or sleeted or been otherwise inclement, it's been on weekends or days that I would have off anyway. Also, I'm sick and tired of being cold, and it's only a month and a bit into winter.
• ANYWAY. Moving on from complaining about the weather: my sister headed back to college in the second week of January, which was sad . . . and also meant I was home alone for three days. More importantly, it meant I was responsible for keeping the fire going for three days, during which I'd mostly be at work. Thank God, I actually succeeded at that — and I didn't set myself or anything else on fire in the process. I still can't start a fire . . . but it didn't go out on my watch!
• After that, the next big thing — and, honestly, the most noteworthy part of the month — happened at the very end of the month, when the Director of Admin at the church where I work retired. She'd worked there for 45 years in various positions, so that was a pretty big event at the church. It was really something to hear everything people had to say about how she'd influenced the community, not just of the church itself, but of the neighborhoods and city. For myself, I'm sad she's gone — she was my direct supervisor, and was genuinely a great person to work for and with — but her successor is lovely, so the transition hasn't been too difficult.
• On the baking front, we've had a bit of a mixed month. I coincidentally happened to make a chocolate layer cake on J.R.R. Tolkien's birthday, so that worked out nicely . . . except for the bit where the cakes ended up not being fully done in the middle. Oops. We salvaged as much as we could and filled in the rest with the mini-mini cake we'd made with left and trimmings from leveling off the top. If nothing else, it tasted good!
• Then I made pretzel knots about a week later, which were delicious. And the last thing I baked was a loaf of sourdough bread with cranberries and walnuts . . . which failed miserably because I didn't correctly adjust the baking time to account for the mix-ins. That was a thoroughly miserable day.
• On a happier note, Michaels has been having yarn sales all month, so I've gotten to add a lot to my stash. I've decided to make myself a capelet, and I'm already a third of the way done, despite only having worked on it a few times over the month. I'm using the new O'Go yarn from Bernat, and it's a pretty nice format aside from the fact that you can only go through the skein one way. I also got yarn to make something for a friend . . . which may be a Christmas present, so this is officially the earliest I've done anything regarding Christmas gift acquisition.
• Also — this is technically a February thing, but it was on the first, so it's fine — I had my first Connect Group meeting with more than one other person! So that was fun! People seemed to enjoy it, so hopefully we'll continue to have more than just me and one other person.
• And, of course, we have D&D adventures! In one campaign, we've spent the month preparing for the first big boss fight we've had in a while. We've literally traveled to another plane to take this being on, and we've pulled together a ton of our allies . . . it's exciting, y'all. In addition, some of the members of the Underground are getting together to do monthly one-shots, and we had our first one about a week ago! I ended up playing a Knowledge Domain cleric with a fantasy!German accent, and she was pretty fun . . . though I'm going to have to get used to being squishy after having played a paladin so long. It's weird going from 84 HP to only 31, y'all.

February Plans

• First things first: I need to finish editing Mask of Scarlet. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to power through that this weekend and get it to betas at the start of next week; that may or may not be reasonable depending on how accurate my memories of the second half being mostly clean are.
• Also, as I already mentioned, I have a cover reveal for Mask of Scarlet on Wednesday! So I'm hyped for that!
• Back to the writing: once I finish MoS, I want to give myself a day or two off, and then I have my Super Secret Mystery Project to attempt. Unless I call it off . . . but I don't want to do that without giving it a fair shot, especially because I want to take some time and write something that's not Bastian Dennel, PI. (Don't panic — I love Bastian, and I'm not leaving for good. But I do need to shake things up every now and then.)
• I also need to write the next Defenders of Serys adventure, but not immediately — I have enough material for another two or three sessions, and I also don't know what the next adventure is going to be. On the upside, I know the two most likely possibilities, and of those two, one is building off an existing story, and the other will be pretty straightforward. So it won't be the end of the world if I have to hurry to get it written. (What really does need to get done soon is the map for the final combat . . . which is sort of going to be five maps in one, so I should probably get cracking on that.)
• Outside of writing and writing-adjacent activities . . . there's actually not much. This month's photo competition theme is street photography, which I probably won't do much for — it's too cold for many people to be out and about, and I don't have time to go find them anyway.
• At work, we're already starting to gear up for Lent and Holy Week — two of my big projects this past week were both connected to Lent, and the assistant pastor is putting together stuff for the Good Friday service (which will involve a lot of graphics work on my part), and . . . yeah. That'll undoubtedly continue through February.
• I'm also really hoping that February will be the month that I make Diamond League in Duolingo. I'm not actually competitive about this, but I am a completionist, and one of the only achievements left for me to get is to get the #1 spot in Diamond League. I have a plan of how to get that spot . . . but I have to get into that category first, and that's the struggle.

How was your January? Any exciting plans for February? How are your New Year's goals or resolutions going (if you set any)? Have any fun projects going? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

On the Taleweaver's Desk Issue 3: January 2022

Hey'a, all! It's a month into winter, and that means it's time for another issue of On the Taleweaver's Desk, the part of the blog where I unpack the "big picture" of my writing activities and the status of my various writing projects. I think I'll probably be sticking with the format that I put together last time for now, but again, if there's any way you think I can improve this setup, let me know. As always, if you want more information on any project in this post, you can find that on my Works in Progress page!

On the Taleweaver's Desk
Issue 3: October 2022

On the Desktop

These are the projects you might find open on my laptop or desk if you took a peek at it during a normal day. They're currently in progress and at the top of the priority chart.

Mask of Scarlet (Bastian Dennel, PI #3)

What is it? Book 3 in my Bastian Dennel, PI series, a Jazz Age mystery take on Cinderella (with a little inspiration from "The Red Shoes" for extra spice).

Status: First draft finished; first rough edit in progress; cover reveal coming soon!

Three months later, it's done! Well, drafted, at least. That's two months longer than I planned to take drafting this, but it's fine — in hindsight, I was kind of overambitious with my goal. I'm currently in the middle of doing a rapid, rough edit before I send this off to beta readers — essentially, I'm reworking some key scenes that I know have to change, making sure the changes that I made halfway through get carried back to the beginning, and fixing glaring issues, but it's not the full-on rewrite that I often do. Then it'll be ready to go to betas at the end of the month! I also have a cover reveal coming up on February 9; fill out the form here if you want to be a part of that (or if you want to help officially announce the group release it's a part of).

Super Secret Mystery Project

What is it? You don't know (unless you're one of, like . . . a half dozen or so people). It's a mystery and will remain so for . . . mmm, probably about a month and a half or two months.

Status: Going to start writing it soon! Have been thinking about it inordinately much for the past few months!

Yeah. Because I don't want to give too many details before I'm absolutely certain that the plans I have will work out (I don't like making promises I can't keep, y'know?), there's not a ton I can say about this. But I'm planning to write it in February while Mask of Scarlet is with beta readers (unless I can't resist the urge to start it sooner), it's a retelling of technically three stories (only one of which is, strictly speaking, a fairy tale or folktale), and it could arguably be considered portal fantasy.  

D&D Campaign: Defenders of Serys

What is it? Defenders of Serys is the homebrew D&D campaign that I run for my D&D group.

Status: Thinking about the second module of Season 4. Should be writing that, oops.

I haven't really worked on this much? Honestly, I thought about sliding it down a section to Stacked on the Side just because I finished planning the first adventure and then didn't write any more because I needed to focus my energy on Mask of Scarlet (with the exception of couple of extra sessions of material to account for the fact that one of my players was going to miss a full month of play). That said, it needs to go back up the priority stack because I only have three or four more sessions' worth of material, so here On the Desktop it shall stay!

Stacked on the Side

These are the stories that I'm not actively working on (at least not officially), but I'm keeping close at hand because I plan to get back to them soon (or I just work on them sporadically as the urge takes me).

There are no significant changes to any of these projects since my October 2021 update, but I'll leave the list here for anyone who hasn't seen it before!

Blood in the Earth

What is it? Blood in the Earth is the sequel to Blood in the Snow and a retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses crossed with the myth of Hades and Persephone.

Status: First draft finished; awaiting revisions. Despite my earlier hopes, I probably will not get back to this story this year.

Once Upon a Dream

What is it? A light steampunk (or gaslamp fantasy?) Sleeping Beauty retelling; the predecessor to The Midnight Show

Status: Edited several times over. Awaiting another round of rewrites/expansion/edits.

Shelved for Now

These are stories that are also on hold, but which I don't have specific plans to work on very soon. They're still within easy reach should I decide to return to them, but they aren't a top priority.

There are no significant changes to any of these projects since my October 2021 update, but I'll leave the list here for anyone who hasn't seen it before!

Dust of Silver

What is it? Classic-ish fantasy retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses crossed with Rapunzel, the first book in what has the potential to be a rather long series. Also, a rewrite of a book I wrote years ago that won't let go of me because CHARACTERS.

Status: Several chapters into the rewrite, though those several chapters haven't been touched in a few years. I swear I'll get back to this . . .

Between Two Worlds

What is it? A portal fantasy adventure about what happens when you come home from the adventure, only to discover that the adventure isn't quite as done with you as you thought.

Status: Awaiting another round of edits/rewrites while I write other things and daydream about its sequels.

The Way of the Pen

What is it? Self-aware fantasy adventure about a girl and her author.

Status: The first draft is sitting on my shelf, patiently waiting for its turn back in the spotlight, as it has been for some time.

Berstru Tales series

What is it? A classic epic fantasy series and the longest-running series I've worked on (either in the number of books written or in how long I've worked on it.

Status: Needs to be rewritten from the ground up, but the bones are good. I did come up with more new and exciting ways to make the characters' lives difficult, so . . . there's that?

A Tower of Portals Campaign

What is it? A second D&D campaign inspired by one of my favorite video games.

Status: On hold; worked on as I come up with new ideas and have time.

Awaiting Delivery

These are the stories that are on their way, but haven't quite arrived yet to the point where I can write them: ideas I'm toying with but haven't even started to draft because they're still too nebulous.

Additional Bastian Dennel, PI novels

What is it? Exactly what the heading said.

Status: I have between three and five reasonably solid ideas that I'm pretty confident I'll write, as well as few other concepts that basically amount to "Hey, this fairy tale would be really fun to rework as a mystery and throw Bastian into." I also have a rough idea of which three I'll write next, though that's subject to change.

Novellas from the world of Blood in the Snow

What are they? Currently, three and a half ideas for spinoffs, most of which are also fairy tale retellings: one Puss in Boots (no, really), one Orpheus and Eurydice (probably crossed with a similar Japanese myth, Izanagi and Izanami), one Snow Queen (that's the half an idea), and one that's not currently a fairy tale retelling but would be about Gan and Azuma before they were animal-keepers at the emperor's palace (inspired the summer I spent watching a lot of Hogan's Heroes.

Status: Won't be written until after I edit Blood in the Earth. And the half-an-idea Snow Queen, which had the best chance of being written before then, has been . . . supplanted. Of the others, I have rough ideas of scenes in two of them, and a general concept for the last.

Unnamed Fantasy Murder Mystery

What is it? Exactly what the headline says. A prominent noble is murdered; his adoptive daughter is poised to inherit his lands and position — but some are saying her hand was behind his death.

Status: Still just an idea. Still not going to be tackled until after Blood in the Earth.

Mechanical Heart Sequel

What is it? Exactly what the title says.

Status: Still half-formed. Not a high priority, as Mechanical Heart stands very well on its own. May or may not actually happen.

Worldhoppers Inc./Mythology D&D Campaign

What is it? Yet another homebrew D&D campaign. Or two. Technically it's two possible themes for series of connected one-shots and short-term adventures, with a few adventure ideas for each theme and a chance that I'll just try to combine them.

Status: Probably not going to work on this until I have a lot of spare time, need a new campaign for my D&D group, or have reason to prioritize the Welsh myth adventure.

I think that's everything! Which of these stories are you most interested in? Any questions you have about any of them? (If you ask in the next week or so, I might be willing to provide extra info or hints!) What projects are you currently working on?
Thanks for reading!

You may not have picked up on this, but I really like D&D. And my favorite part is arguably creating and developing D&D characters . . . as evidenced by the fact that I have more D&D characters than I'll ever actually play, even when you don't count NPCs with character sheets. It's a nice outlet for the ideas that probably won't fit into any of the stories I have planned (of which there are many). At this point, I have characters built in each of the D&D classes except one . . . but there are definitely some classes and subclasses that I like more than others. So, in honor of the fact that I might get to actually play a new character soon, I thought I'd take today's Friday 5s to highlight some of my favorite D&D subclasses.

In Which I Ramble About D&D Characters

1. Fighter: Eldritch Knight. The Fighter class in general is usually not my go-to, but the Eldritch Knight, a warrior-magic user hybrid, is the exception — it's the only subclass I have two distinct created character concepts for. I think it offers some nice hooks for character development (notably, how and why did this character pick up the ability to do magic?), but it doesn't tie you as much to a particular character type in the way that many other martial-caster hybrids do. I haven't actually gotten to play an Eldritch Knight yet, but one of the players in my campaign does, and I look forward to the day I get to as well.
2. Warlock: Celestial Pact. On the flip side from the Fighter, I find several of the Warlock subclasses interesting — I'd probably play all but two of them, given the chance. It's hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to choose, I'd go with the Pact of the Celestial. It's so contrary to the typical associations of the Warlock class, plus it gives a very nice character hook in the form of "If this character is pledged to a celestial, near-deity being, why is this character a Warlock instead of a completely different class?"
3. Monk: Way of the Cobalt Soul. I know it's not an official, published D&D subclass (though it's a Matt Mercer original, and it's on D&D Beyond, so it's practically official), but I just really like the vibes of the Cobalt Soul Monk. Like, the Monk class in general is fun (it would be my first choice if I wanted to play a martial-only character), but this particular subclass is probably my favorite — it's the perfect balance between the academic, nerdish type of awesome and the more, ah, battle-ready type of awesome. (Is my love of this class influenced by my love of stories like The Invisible Library? Absolutely. Is that a problem? Absolutely not.)
4. Rogue: Arcane Trickster. Fun fact: my first character was almost an Arcane Trickster Rogue (read: Rogue with magic). I decided not to because I wasn't confident enough to pull off the character concept I'd come up with . . . but it would've been fun. As you've probably picked up on by now, I really enjoy half-caster classes (they do a little of everything!), and the Arcane Trickster gives you some nice character hooks without doing too much to suggest a particular backstory or character type. (That said, I do eventually want to dust off that first character idea and play her someday. We'll see if and when it actually happens.)
5. Paladin: Oath of Devotion. I'll admit, this is makes my list for personal reasons than stylistic ones — my first D&D character (who I'm still playing!) is an Oath of Devotion paladin. But I do love the class concept all the same. It's the archetypal holy warrior, the knight who stands in the way of darkness with a sword and shield of light (figuratively, not literally) and defends all that is good, who puts their life on the line for friend or stranger or, in some cases, even an enemy. And even if I don't always play my paladin that way (she asked for none of this, y'all), it's very much an archetype I love.

So, yeah. I would like to say that I'm off to make yet another D&D character, but I'm probably actually going to go try to finish Bastian Dennel, PI #3, which is an objectively more productive use of my time. But in the meantime, do you play D&D? What are your favorite character classes or subclasses, either that you've played or that you really want to play? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

End-of-Year Book Celebration 2021!

Hello, hello, hello, my friends! The time has COME for me to review the second half of my 2021 reads! As you may remember, back in June, I rebranded these posts as End-of-Year (and Mid-Year) Book CELEBRATIONS. I mean, I'm not freaking out, but I am getting very exciting and celebrating all the goodness. If you want the short and sweet version, head over to my other blogs for my Top 5 Reads of the second half of 2021. Otherwise, for all the details, read on!

2021 End of Year Book Celebration

As per the usual, let's get the statistics out of the way first. I read 122 books and 37,923 pages in 2021, well over my goal of 77 books and only a little under my total for last year (126). 78 of those have been read since my mid-year post, so it's safe to say that the second half of 2021 included a lot more reading than the first half did. In all fairness, the first half of the year also involved much longer books than the second half. If you want some additional stats, you can check out my Goodreads Year in Books. As for my more specific goals:

• Starting at the end: I have successfully kept a book tracking spreadsheet for the last few months! Making sure it was bookmarked in an easily-visible location helped quite a bit, since it served as a little reminder every time I saw it. Plus, once I built up enough momentum, I didn't want to give up on it. (I am very much a completionist, haha!)
• I read 7 books published before 1975, which is a bit short of my goal of 12 such stories. Part of the problem is that I intended to read more C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton, and then I just . . . didn't.
• We get a cheerier result in books that aren't speculative fiction. Out of my goal of 12 books, I've read either 11 or 12, depending on whether or not I count Isle of Swords. Eight of those are even nonfiction, which I feel I can be reasonably proud of.
• On the flip side, we have my goal of 1 epic-length Tolkien or Jordan fantasy novel every two months, which . . . did not happen. On the upside, I did finish rereading The Lord of the Rings, and I started rereading The Wheel of Time, which was the point of making the goal, so I count that as a win.
• 1 epic-length Tolkien or Jordan fantasy novel every two months, which . . . did not happen. On the upside, I did finish rereading The Lord of the Rings, and I started rereading The Wheel of Time, which was the point of making the goal, so I count that as a win.

And now, let's get to the bit y'all are probably interested in: the highs and lows of the second half of 2021's reading! As a note, I am adjusting the list of questions to remove the ones I don't really have an answer for or tend to answer the same way every year. They'll come back if I have a good answer for them.

1. Best book you've read in the second half of 2021:

 

HELLO Vespertine (Margaret Rogerson)! I was so hyped for this book (hyped enough to buy the OwlCrate special edition, even), and it absolutely did not disappoint. It had big-time Sabriel vibes, some magnificent antagonist-to-friends dynamics, and LORE, all wrapped up in an excellent storyline. I haven't been the best about keeping up with new releases, but I'm so glad I caught this one.

 

2. Best sequel series you've read in the second half of 2021:

 

(It's my post, I can change questions if I want to.)

 

The City Between series by W.R. Gingell was absolutely one of the highest points of my reading year — maybe even the high point, even if I read it at a time when I was feeling rather low otherwise. The books are short-ish and highly addictive in both how fun they are and how thoroughly the characters make themselves at home in your heart and then give you all kinds of emotions when tragedy strikes. (I wasn't being dramatic when I said I was undone by the ending of some of the books, y'all. Well, ok, I was, but it was necessary drama.) The last book releases at the end of the month, and I don't know what I'll do without my magnificent Aussie urban fantasy now that I've discovered it . . . thankfully, the author is going to write spinoffs, so hopefully I won't have to find out!

 

3. New release you haven't read yet but want to: 

 

 Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams just came out earlier this month, and I haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so! (We'll see if I end up buying it myself or if the library will come through and get it.)

 

4. Most anticipated release for next year: 

 

Apparently we're getting The Lost Metal next November, so I'm definitely hyped for that! I'm also looking forward to Kendra E. Ardnek's Crown and Cinder, which is Pride and Prejudice crossed with Cinderella.

 

5. Biggest disappointment:

 

T. L. Huchu's The Library of the Dead is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy mystery set in Scotland, and it had so much potential — something like a cross between Jackaby and Sabriel. Instead, it was just frustrating and disappointing and vaguely confusing. Alas.

 

6. Biggest surprise:

Romance-heavy, slow, character drama with light enough fantasy elements that, were it not set in a somewhat different world than our own, it could pass for magical realism? Not the type of book I'd expect to fall in love with. But I loved W.R. Gingell's Lady of Dreams and its sequel Lady of Weedsintensely, and I look forward to when I get to reread them.

 

7. Favorite new-to-you author:

 

I'm not sure if this counts, since I've only read one of her books, but I did love Sarah K. L. Wilson'sHeart of Shadow, and I'm looking forward to both reading the sequel and picking up some of the author's other works!

 

8. Newest fictional crush/ship:

 

Just . . . all the W.R. Gingell couples, but the ones I love most are spoilers and therefore cannot be spoken of.

 

Also, on a related sidenote, I would rather like a sword like the one in Heart of Shadow. That is all.

 

9. Newest favorite character:

 

Too many to list! Most of them, again, from W.R. Gingell books. But since we said newest: Artemisia and the Revenant from Vespertine are both fabulous, and I love them.

 

10. A book that made you cry:

 

Between Cases — cry isn't quite the right word, but there was internal wailing and undone-ness (as I believe I've mentioned).

 

11. A book that made you happy:

 

I read the full version of The Story Girl (Lucy Maud Montgomery) for the first time this year, and it was absolutely delightful. I don't know why more people don't love it.

 

12. Most beautiful book you've bought/received this half of the year:

 

I mentioned I bought the Owlcrate edition of Vespertine, yeah? It is very pretty. That is all.

 

13. Any other books you want to babble about for any other reason?

 

I did a ton of rereading in the last six months, and the highlight of that was probably revisiting Bryan Davis's Dragons in our Midst series. It used to be one of my favorite series, but I haven't read it in ages. It is just about as good as I remembered — though it took until now for the realization to hit that several characters probably do have a West Virginian accent, which is just kinda . . . huh.

 

Well, there's my celebration! How about you? What were the highs and lows of your last six months, reading-wise? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!