Sweet Vendetta Blues Release Tour: Author & Character Mini-Interviews

 

Hello, everyone! As promised, today I'm joining up with the Sweet Vendetta Blues release tour! Sweet Vendetta Blues is the latest release from Hazel West, and it's set in the same world as The New Emperor's Concerto, which I haven't read but intend to sometime. (Concerto has a hardcover edition preorder going on right now, by the way; details here.) I reviewed this book last week, and for this week's post, I have two mini-interviews: one with the author and one with the book's two leads, adoptive brothers Jack and Sebastian. But first, let me share a bit about the book and author.

About . . .

Sweet Vendetta Blues

It’s been eight years since Jack left his life in the mafia. Eight years since his adopted father was murdered. Eight years since his own brother shot him in revenge and he had to go into hiding, nothing but a dead man.

When the past comes back to haunt him in the worst way possible, Jack is forced to leave his new life as a homicide detective to flee his faceless enemy, leaving a dead partner in his wake. But the bodies keep piling up and Jack can no longer avoid his past when he finds out that all of the deaths turn out to be connected to one person—The Don of Rosa Nera.

Things get even more complicated when his brother shows up out of the blue, leading his own investigation with information that their adopted father, Paccioretti, had gathered before his death. Despite their turbulent past, Jack and Sebastian decide it’s in their best interests to join forces and fight against the enemy who took so much away from them.

Set in the same world as The New Emperor’s Concerto this new novel by Hazel B. West contains the overarching theme of family woven throughout a noir adventure with a cross-country road trip for information and justice. 

Buy the book: Kindle || Smashwords || Paperback || Hardcover (preorder) || Prequel Backstories || Add on Goodreads

 

 

 

Hazel West

Hazel is an indie author, book wyrm, and coffee connoisseur. She typically enjoys writing books with an unconventional flair, maybe with a bit of mythology or literary symbolism, most definitely with a lot of siblings or found family in them. When she’s not writing, she manages an Etsy shop, drinks a lot of coffee, listens to music, or just holes up like an eldritch horror and binges favorite shows and manga. If you meet this rare creature on the street, she has been known to respond to the offer of coffee and old bookstores.

Find her online: Website || Ko-Fi || Instagram || Twitter || Goodreads

And now, what we've all been waiting for . . . the interviews!

 

Interview With Hazel West

Welcome to the blog, Hazel! First of all, how did you get the idea for Sweet Vendetta Blues, and how (if at all) is the final product different from the original idea?

So, the original idea was kind of a branch off of Concerto (the companion novel to this one) and Jack and Sebastian are actually more like my original concepts for Lysander and Flynn, who were originally supposed to have had a darker past instead of just being on opposite sides of a conflict. I still wanted to write that sort of relationship, though, so when I was originally coming up with the idea for SVB I just decided, what if I add family drama into it? I think for the most part a lot of the original storyline stayed intact; it just branched out and became more cohesive. (And then there was a major twist at the end that I didn’t actually know until I got to that point in the story.) I actually go into depth about my writing process in today’s tour guest post as well if anyone wants the full story!

Oh, cool! I'll definitely have to check that guest post out. Now, Sweet Vendetta Blues involves some dark topics and problems that are all too present in the real world. How did you approach researching and writing these in such a way as to balance honesty and sensitivity (and without becoming depressed)?

For me, writing this kind of story is actually therapeutic; I think it was more born as a way to deal with the kind of depression researching these subjects can cause instead of being the purveyor of it. There’s something refreshing about having characters who are morally grey enough to take out the seriously bad people in a way that’s actually satisfying. As far as portraying these topics, I’ve always been a big fan of letting the reader read between the lines. The lack of graphic detail is actually a lot more telling. I think a good example of this is how the issues faced during the WWII era are portrayed in books like The Book Thief and Between Shades of Gray. I think it’s stupid not to acknowledge that bad things happen even in fiction. After all, that’s how you create characters. But you also don’t have to shove it in a reader’s face either. A subtle touch, what you don’t say, often has a lot more impact when crafting a story.

I would definitely agree with that last statement. Now, let's lighten the mood a little . . . Would you rather spend a day with Jack or Sebastian? (Bonus: what would you want to do in that day?)

I mean, no offense to Jack, but I think Sebastian would be more fun (laughs). I would love for him to take me around all his favorite restaurants and gelato stands in New York or even to see a concert. Maybe there’s a My Chemical Romance tribute band in 2228? I’d also like to give him a hug, though I don’t know if he would accept it after all I’ve put him through.

Yeah, characters do tend to be suspicious of the authors who make their lives so difficult. Last question! What projects are you currently working on? What can we look forward to next from you?

I’m not really at the point where I want to give too much detail on my next project, but it will be a standalone action/adventure and for a hint, it’s like Winter Soldier + Spy x Family + Trigun.

Sounds exciting! I look forward to hearing more about it. Thanks for taking the time to share.

 

 

 

Interview with Jack and Sebastian

Welcome to the blog, Jack and Sebastian. To start out, what does normal look like for you right now, and how is that different from what you expected it to look like ten years ago?

Sebastian: (looks at Jack) You want to go first?

Jack: (sighs) Well, I don’t know how you really define normal when the brother who accepted a hit on you from your former boss is now working with you to take down said boss.

Sebastian: It does get a little complicated.

Jack: That’s one way to put it.

Sebastian: (whispers) I’m sorry.

Jack: (rolls eyes) 

Sebastian: As for how I expected my life to go? Um, yeah, definitely not this. 

Jack: I’ve already had three career changes before I was 25, so nothing has obviously gone to plan there.

Oof. Sounds . . . stressful, to say the least. Next question: what is your favorite memory of your brother?

Jack: (folds arms) Well, definitely not when he shot me—

Sebastian: (covers Jack’s mouth) You don’t have to keep bringing that up, you know.

Jack: Fine then. I’m pretty fond of the memory of when I used to tow you on my e-bike in Central Park while you were on rollerblades. And you would always wipe out.

Sebastian: Okay, not bad. That was actually a lot of fun. 

Jack: So what’s yours then?

Sebastian: How bad a liar you were when you tried to cover for Luca after he ate my ice cream.

Jack: How do you—

Sebastian: Oh, please, the only reason I didn’t make a fuss was because I had broken Luca’s favorite mug right before then and neither of us mentioned anything about the disappearance of either item.

Jack: (snorting) Leave it to you to actually win in that situation. 

Ha! Last question: if you could say one thing to one person in your past, what would you say, and who would you say it to?

Sebastian: (takes a deep breath) I…would actually like to tell my younger self that it would actually get better. There were a lot of times that…would have really helped.

Jack: (nods) There are…a lot of people I would like to say things to. But I think that if I could go back now, I would just like to tell Paccioretti that I’m grateful for everything he did for us.

Sebastian: (nods) Yeah, agreed.

Jack: (turns to Sebastian) There’s actually something I’d like to say to you now.

Sebastian: Yeah?

Jack: (sighs heavily) …It was actually me who ate your ice cream.

Sebastian: I hate you.

Well, that was very touching and then it was very . . . brotherly? Thank you both for answering my questions!

I hope you all enjoyed those interviews as much as I did! Now, we just have one more thing to cover before we go . . . the free stuff!

 

Swag & Giveaways

 

Hazel is offering some fun preorder swag, as shown in the graphic above! Any purchase of the book qualifies for swag, but if you order in ebook or paperback form, you'll need to claim your gift by filling out the form here. In addition, if you preorder the hardcover, Hazel will be signing those live on Instagram and answering some questions at the same time — keep an eye on Hazel's socials for more details.

And as one more bonus for those of us on Instagram, @onemorechap on IG is currently hosting a giveaway for an ebook copy of Sweet Vendetta Blues. Make sure you go check that out if you think you might be interested!

Well, that's all for me. Make sure you check out the rest of the tour stops (there's a full list here), order the book, request your swag, and enter the giveaway. And before you leave, let me know in comments what you think of Jack and Sebastian and whether or not you're excited for this release.
Thanks for reading!

 

Hey'a, all! Hopefully y'all have been keeping up with the Silmaril Award ceremonies this week — we've had some great ones. And hopefully y'all also caught yesterday's very exciting announcement. (If not, make sure you go back and check it out!) Today's post, however, has nothing to do with either of these things. Instead, we're joining the release festivities for Hazel West's new future-noir thriller, Sweet Vendetta Blues. While the official release party isn't until next week, I'm getting in a little early so I can post a review before the Silmaril Awards Ceremony next week (though I will have a post during the official tour on Dreams and Dragons). So, without further ado, let's get on with the Thoughts!

Thoughts on Sweet Vendetta Blues

1. This is a story about brotherhood. And family in general, particularly found family. But the relationship between Jack and Sebastian is really the cornerstone of this book. Their bond is fractured by time, grief, mistrust . . . and, you know, a  murder attempt . . . but even with all that, they're still brothers, and I enjoyed watching them work to mend things between them.
2. This story tackles some pretty dark topics, but it does it well. And by dark topics, I mean: this book involves the main characters trying to take down a human trafficking network, and occasionally people get rather brutally murdered over it. In addition, both brothers carry scars from their past and have ended up in some dark places because of it — namely, there's a struggle with alcohol addiction and reference to an attempted suicide. As I said, the author handles the topics well, with the gravity they need, and she keeps most anything that would be scarring off the page, but it is a presence in the book that you can't miss.
3. It's technically future-fiction, but it's more five-minutes-in-the-future than proper sci-fi. I'll be honest, I kind of missed the fact that this is technically set two-hundred-odd years in the future until I got to Chapter 1 and was hit with "2227" and a prosthetic arm that's more robotic than not. (On a side note: the main POV character, Jack, lost his arm in the past, and although this world's prosthetics are a lot more advanced than our world's, Jack having to deal with that — with the pain, with the fact that it can break and need fixed, and so on — added some interesting tension.) But it was interesting to visit a world that's fairly recognizable, while still shifted significantly from the familiar.
4. It's an odd mix of road trip and thriller. Jack and Sebastian spend most of the book traveling cross-country, tracking down one lead after another and periodically getting attacked by the goons of the man whose identity they're trying to find. So while there are aspects very in line with something noir or thriller, it's not purely that, and I found that interesting.
5. I do think that the writing style could be more polished. I did get an early ARC, so take that comment with a grain of salt, but . . . I've read some of this author's previous books, and I suspect the final version wasn't all that different from what I read. It wasn't difficult to read, but I do think that some extra work on the voice could've elevated this book from good to great.
   

Does Sweet Vendetta Blues sound like the kind of book you'd enjoy? If so, make sure to preorder it on Amazon (for ebook) or from the author (for hardcover), and keep an eye out next week for the release celebrations. And, of course, let me know in the comments whether or not you're excited for this new read.
Thanks for reading!

Through a Shattered Glass COVER REVEAL + Preorder Info!

Hello hello hello! I've been working on Through a Shattered Glass on and off for a bit, and now I have some exciting news! Which you can probably guess from the title, but in case you're the kind of person who skims past the title and just clicks the post: Through a Shattered Glass has a cover! And a release date! And, in a surprise to no one at all, it's going to be released as part of the Broken Mirrors Arista Challenge Group.

So, who's ready to see the shiny?

 

Drop the mirror and you break the world in two.

Alys hasn’t set foot in Wonderland in years. Not since the White Queen’s mirror shattered; not since her best friend, Kai Hatter, was killed; not since Alys fled back to her own world with a shard of enchanted mirror in her eye. She’s done her best to set aside the past and move on — until a red-painted rose appears in her room, and the portal opens once more.

Simultaneously desperate for hope and terrified of what she might find — or cause — Alys ventures back through the mirror. But the Wonderland she finds is not the same one she left behind, and though Kai is less dead than she thought, he still might be past saving. To make matters worse, the mirror shard is still in Alys’s eye, and Wonderland is all too susceptible to its corrupting power.

Only Alys can save the land and friend she loves — but if she’s not careful, she might be their doom instead.

A dark portal fantasy remix of The Snow Queen and Lewis Carroll’s Alice duology.

Releasing December 23, 2022

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

 

Yes, you did read that correctly — this will be my second book released this year. And yes, it is coming out just two days before Christmas, which means I will be extra busy this holiday season. It's fine. (And yes, this means it may or may not arrive in time for Christmas gifts . . . but if it's a little late, it's fine. It spreads out the cheer, y'know?)

As I mentioned, Through a Shattered Glass is releasing alongside the rest of the Broken Mirrors collection, a group of six Snow Queen retellings, which I strongly encourage you to check out! They all sound SO GOOD. You can learn more about them by reviewing the escapades from last night's Facebook party, but I also have some links here.

Snowfield Palace (The Austen Fairy Tale Book 4)
by Kendra E. Ardnek

A young girl struggles to find her place among her betters, only to have visitors send her world spinning.

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

The White Queen's Spell (Sequel to The Dark King's Curse)
by Wyn Estelle Owens

Danger abounds when curses combine, and now it's Ailsa's turn to be saved.

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf || Check Out Book 1

Shattered Reflection (The Shattered Lands Book 1)
by Madisyn Carlin

When her brother is taken, Layree must form an uneasy alliance with an old enemy to save him.

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

Of Ice and Roses (A Flamesend Novel)
by Heather M. Elliott

As dangers mount, what is Gemma willing to sacrifice for the fate of two kingdoms?

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

Christmas Games
by Erudessa Gentian

Beware the harmless Christmas Gift.

Preorder the ebook || Preorder in paperback || Add to your Goodreads shelf

 

Sound intriguing? I think so. Also, for the next week or so, you can preorder all of these in ebook form for just $0.99 each! So if any of these sound up your alley, make sure you get in soon to take advantage of this deal!

Also, if you're as excited about this reveal as I am, you're invited to help spread the word! We've put together a reveal packet with information about all six books. Feel free to share about any or all of them on your socials or blogs.

As a bonus, if you either preorder all six books OR share all six covers, you'll receive a special PDF with a sneak peek of the first chapters of each book. And if you both preorder and share, you'll also receive one of several free ebooks from the Broken Mirrors authors. Full details are available here. And if you want to request an ARC or get in on the release festivities in December, keep an eye on the main release page.

So, what do you think of the cover? How excited are you about Through a Shattered Glass? Which Broken Mirrors retelling are you most excited for? (I hope it's mine . . . but I won't be offended if it's not.) Please tell me in the comments!

August 2022 Doings!

Oof. Not going to lie; August has been a bit of a rough month. Not entirely bad, to be sure, but also far from ideal. Given that July was a high in a lot of ways, that's not entirely surprising — problems always hit harder when you're coming off something really fun and exciting — and I'm hopeful that September will swing back to a calm and cheerful equilibrium. Hopefully. It may just end up being more crazy. But before we get to that, let's take a look back at August.

Writing!

• This month was a little discouraging on the writing front. If you've been following my weekly goal posts on Facebook and Instagram or if you read my Taleweaver's Desk post a couple weeks ago, you know why: I ended up scrapping most of what I'd written and going back to scratch with an adjusted outline and a mostly-new draft. There were a few chapters that I could mostly salvage, but . . . not many. I think the new version is going to be better, but it's still frustrating. I'm currently working on the new Chapter 6, which is behind where I wanted to be, but . . . it is what it is.
• Edits on Through a Shattered Glass are also stalled because feedback from one person kept getting pushed back . . . I know she's super busy with her own writing, and the story is pretty strong already, so I'm not upset, nor am I super worried? But I would also like to get back to this so I'm not rushing at release time. (Also, I can't finish the cover design or work on formatting until I have at least one more round of edits done, and I want to work on those things!)
• On the upside, D&D writing is coming along reasonably well. Not quickly, by any means, but still well enough that I'm counting it as a win. And my group says they're enjoying it, even if it is more or less glorified communal fanfiction.

Reading!

• This month actually started really well on the reading front, as I devoured the rest of H.L. Burke's Supervillain Rehabilitation Project (excellent, particularly the last two), her Supervillain Romance Project duology (also delightful), and the first Supervillain Rescue Project book (every bit as good as the rest). I absolutely love these books, and I can't believe it took me so long to read them! I would say that Refined, Reunited, On the Run with a Supervillain, and Power On are my favorites, but they're all quite excellent.
• A couple other highlights of the month: Grave Peril and my Secrets of the Mountain reread. Grave Peril is the third Dresden Files book, and while I wasn't thrilled about a lot of the content (even more so than usual), I was pleased to meet Michael — I've heard quite a few people speak highly of him as a character, and he definitely lived up to what I've heard. And, of course, I love Secrets of the Mountain, and it was doubly fun because I know quite a few secrets behind the story now and because I got to read it in hard copy instead of on a computer.
• Then we got to about midway through the month, and I got distracted by a new book called How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North. The conceit is that it's a guide from an alternative future for stranded time travelers who get stuck in the distant past and need a shortcut to recreating a version of modern life; the actual content is a breakdown of different physical and cultural inventions and some degree of how they work and what goes into them. It's not exhaustive, but even with what it does cover . . . well, some of the chapters are fine, but there's one chapter that took me about half a week to get through because it's so. long. And while the voice is fun, and the author does a good job of not getting too technical, it still dragged a bit. I haven't finished yet, so we'll see what my final verdict is.

Watching!

• I didn't get to watch a lot this month, partially due to being busy and partially for other reasons.
• I did get to introduce my sister to Firefly, though, so that was exciting! Unfortunately, we only had time for the pilot, but she seemed interested in watching more at a later date.
• I also watched a couple episodes of The Librarians because . . . mostly because I wanted a change of pace, I guess? And because I didn't feel like watching something on a tablet/mobile device, and my other more active shows are limited in what devices I can easily watch them on.

Life!

• Why have I spent so much of this month tired? July made sense — I was running around like mad getting ready for Realm Makers and then being at Realm Makers. But this month . . . I don't know.
• The month had a very exciting start when, on the very first day of August, my car started vibrating and shaking on my way to work. I pulled off, Googled things, and did a visual inspection of the wheels in case I had a flat, but because I was still pretty close, I decided to take the car home and have my sister drive instead . . . which was very much the right decision, because when I turned the car back on, it was shaking worse than before, and I had to floor the gas pedal to get above 10 or 15 miles an hour. So, you know, that's mildly problematic. Thankfully, it kept going until we could get home and quickly leave again, and some very helpful neighbors offered advice on what was probably wrong and where to go to get it fixed. It turned out to just be an issue with the spark plugs, and I'm grateful that it wasn't worse, but it was still . . . you know. Scary and stressful. (And then I had tire trouble at the end of the month . . . yeah.)
• The rest of the month hasn't had anything quite so stressful, but it's still been a bit not-ideal, as I spent two weeks dealing with some fairly significant ear pain — not debilitating, but I couldn't use earbuds and couldn't sleep on one side, and it eventually got bad enough that I went to the doctor over it. As with the car, the problem ended up not being a serious one — just painful and unpleasant in the moment — but it did not make for a great month.
• On the upside, I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a couple years now: upgrade from a desktop to a laptop! I've been struggling with my laptop for the last couple years due to the low amount of storage space — constantly having to pare down programs and files in order to get Photoshop to work or to upgrade things, keeping ninety percent of my files on an external drive (which meant my laptop was no longer particularly mobile), and trying to figure out why two-fifths of my drive was being taken up by OneDrive stuff that I knew I'd deleted. I knew that the easiest way to resolve the issue would just be to go up to a desktop, but didn't find one within my price range until this year's back-to-school sales. As a bonus, once I had everything transferred over to the new computer, I could start over with my laptop from scratch and get rid of the OneDrive error! So now I can actually use my laptop as a laptop without constantly running out of storage space and having to decide if I want to be able to write, work on graphics stuff, or play games (because there wasn't space for all three).
• What else . . . my sister left to go back to college midway through the month. I miss having her around, but she seems to be having a good start to her semester.
• At work, I had a couple very light weeks, and then everything got thrown into overdrive this week and last week. We're gearing up for several big events in September and October and trying to update various graphics, systems, and whatnot around the church, so . . . yeah. It's been a bit stressful. We did have an indoor picnic midway through the month, though, so that was fun.
• We also went to visit my grandpa towards the beginning of the month, and it was nice to get to see him again. It wasn't an especially eventful visit, but it was enjoyable. (Also, we were celebrating his birthday, so my mom made Almond Joy cake, which was delicious.)
• Oh, and I finally finished a crafting project I've been working on most of the summer! Not the scarf I've been working on for a couple years, but still a win.

September Plans

• Please, let September be quiet.
• Oh! But not too quiet, because September is the Silmaril Awards! The nomination posts go up Monday, and I am SUPER excited. I get to host one of my favorite categories this year; it's going to be fabulous. I also have a bunch of characters I'm excited to nominate in other categories.
• I need to make progress on Bastian Dennel, PI #4, but I also need to get at least one round of Through a Shattered Glass edits done, possibly two. And I need to get a preorder up.
• On a completely unrelated note, the cover reveal for the Arista Challenge Broken Mirrors collection is coming up on September 14! I hear there's a pretty shiny lineup of releases, so that's going to be exciting. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that.
• I'll also be doing some traveling this month to attend a friend's wedding. I'm looking forward to celebrating with her and seeing my friend group in person again — plus, I'll probably get to visit my sister at her college during the same trip. (I may also try to hit a Ren Faire and/or one of my favorite non-VA coffee shops during said trip. We'll see how things work out.)
• I would really like to finish the scarf that I've been working on for ages this month. I don't know how successful I'll be, but . . . I'd like to get all my projects finished before I start anything new. (And I really want to start another embroidery project, but I can't decide what design I want to make — do I want to do something related to a favorite book? Something around song lyrics that I really like? Just something cute and neutral?)
• And, at work, the busy schedule will continue as those big events I've mentioned draw ever closer . . . oh well. At least this is a long weekend, so I can get a little bit of rest.

How was your August? Any exciting plans for September? Are you excited for the Silmaril Awards (and have you started thinking about who you're going to nominate)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Full disclosure: I almost canceled my blog post this week. I'm tired, I have novel writing to do, all the ideas I came up with were either dependent on my reading particular books this week (that I didn't read) or just weren't right for this particular moment in time, and did I mention that I'm really storming tired? (This is about 75% my own fault because I've been going to bed really late, but the reasons why are not fully under my control, so.) But! I didn't feel right canceling twice in a month, and so HERE WE ARE with a topic that I came up with at approximately 4:00 yesterday afternoon. That being: reads that have surprised me in a good way with how much I liked them. There don't tend to be many of these — which isn't a bad thing, because I don't tend to read books I don't think I'll enjoy, which means I'm more frequently disappointed than unexpectedly delighted. But! That is not always the case; sometimes I read things expecting them to be eh and instead discover that they're marvelous. These are those books.

 

Surprisingly Excellent Reads

1. Lady of Dreams by W.R. Gingell. It is entirely possible that W.R. Gingell is some sort of magical being based solely on my feelings about this book. It should not be possible for a magical realism character drama that's more or less a blend of an Austen novel and a K-drama to entrance me this much. And yet. It is absolutely in my top five favorite Gingell novels, which means it's beating out the majority of City Between books. It's just so lovely. (I should reread it, honestly.)
2. Stolen Mayfly Bride by Sarah K.L. Wilson. When I initially read through the list of books in this series, this was one of the ones I had the lowest expectations for. It just sounded weird, you know? But it was written by an author who had blown me away with another of her books (Heart of Shadow, if you want to know), so I gave it a try . . . and it's just lovely. Wilson knows how to write fae well, she knows how to write clever characters, and she knows how to craft a truly excellent arc.
3. Night Watch by Terry Pratchett. I procrastinated on this book for multiple years before I read it. Not even kidding. The plot sounded just enough like a particular trope that I can't stand that it turned me off, even though there's usually not a lot that can put me off a Vimes story. But I had to read it in order to progress in the series . . . and, as it turns out, it's arguably one of the best of the Discworld series. It's not quite as fun as some of the others, but it's very good.
4. Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston. I'm not one for contemporary or rom-com, but as y'all know, I've been trying to expand my horizons these last couple years, and a friend recommended this to me as a Christmas read. I expected it to be ok, but it turned out to be quite delightful — focused as much on family and friendship as it is on romance, surprisingly fun, and not horrendously angsty. I actually liked it enough that I said I was going to reread it in my review. I haven't gotten around to that yet . . . but maybe this winter? We'll see.
5. Space Boy by Stephen McCranie. This is cheating a little because I read it as a webcomic, not a book, but it does have print edition, so . . . it counts? Right? Anyway. I actually gave up on the comic the first time I tried it; I didn't love the vertical format, and the story didn't catch me. I tried it again a couple years later . . . and proceeded to binge read all the episodes published up to that date in a matter of a few days. It's a lovely, hopeful story, part slice of life and part intrigue/mystery/action (more the latter at this point, but more the former for the first hundred episodes), and I'm glad I gave it a second chance.

What books have surprised you with how much you enjoyed them? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hello, everyone! Technically, this post is a bit late — they're supposed to go up the second month of each season — but around July 20, I was at Realm Makers and not in any position to write blog posts. Plus, given what happened right after Realm Makers with regard to my writing, it was probably just as well that I waited. So, here we are, in August, with a broad-view update on my writing projects! As usual, if you want more information on any project in this post, you can feel free to ask me in comments or check my Works in Progress page.

 

On the Taleweaver's Desk Issue 5: August 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.

Bastian Dennel, PI #4

What is it? Book 4 in my Bastian Dennel, PI series and my first murder mystery.

Status: Three chapters and a bit down . . . many more to go.

I've had this idea playing in my head for a while (ever since I read a particular writing prompt in a screenshotted Tumblr post), and I'm glad I finally get to write it. It's turning out a little differently than I expected, and it had a rocky start — nine chapters in, I realized I didn't have enough tension and had to go back and start all over. But the new outline seems promising, this draft is flowing better, and I have high hopes for how it'll turn out.

Through a Shattered Glass

What is it? A dark-ish portal fantasy remix of Lewis Carroll's Alice books combined with The Snow Queen.

Status: Drafted, edited one-and-a-half times, and ready for the rest of edits.

I got some excellent feedback from my alpha and beta readers on this book — a fair number of suggested changes, but also some excellent reactions and a very definite sense that the story is doing what I intend it to do. I need to start edits soon, but I'm waiting on feedback from one more person and trying to get to a good pause point in BDPI#4 before I do. On the upside, I also have a very shiny cover finished! Keep an eye out for the reveal of that and for information on preorder and release date in a couple weeks.

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: Still slowly writing Season 4 Module 2.

Summer is not the best time to move quickly through a D&D campaign, haha. The party is still in Middle Earth, since we're only averaging about a session a month, maybe two if we're lucky, and I'm trying not to write too far ahead — since I know what's going to happen overall, I'm writing up to decision points and then pausing so I can figure out what to prep next (as opposed to my usual method, where I try to prep a full adventure including material for the most probable paths the party will take). Even so, I'm somewhat hoping the group will be done with the Middle Earth adventure and ready to head back to their own world for a while by the end of the year.

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 last 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 rewrites. Definitely won't happen this year unless there's a miracle . . . but I do keep getting more and more thoughts about character dynamics and how to improve how I write my main character.

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 last 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. Every so often, particular songs pop up in my playlists and give me feels about characters in these books, and I want to work on them . . . but the relevant character bits are from sequels to this rather than this particular story.

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. I did have some new thoughts about character dynamics and what changes I want to make in the rewrite recently, though.

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. There's a particular character who's getting a whole new arc, and I'm really excited to write it . . . when I have time.

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 a pretty good idea what books 5 and 6 in BDPI are going to look like, assuming I have time to write them both and release them in a timely fashion. I also have ideas for several other books in the series, though the exact order is up in the air. If anyone is curious, possible stories I want to turn into cases for Bastian include The Little Mermaid, Jack and the Beanstalk, Pwyll and Rhiannon, The Nutcracker, The Goose Girl, and maybe The Princess and the Pea. I also have another fair-folk-heavy idea that I want to write involving a minor character from Gilded in Ice, but I haven't figured out a fairy tale to center it on yet.

Novellas from the world of Blood in the Snow

What are they? Currently, three 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), 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.

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.

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'm also moving some of what I had planned for it into Defenders of Serys, which is going to be great.

What have you been working on of late? Which potential Bastian Dennel, PI fairy tale mystery are you most curious about? Tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Hello, my name is Sarah, and I no longer know what I am . . . at least when it comes to the planning vs. pantsing debate. For those who haven't heard these terms before, they refer to how one approaches the process of writing a story. A planner is usually characterized as putting in a lot of time preparing before writing a word in the actual manuscript; they'll make outlines (sometimes extraordinarily detailed ones), fill out character profiles, do ALL the worldbuilding, and more. A pantser, or seat-of-the-pants writer, generally prefers some variation on winging it, or figuring it out as they go along. In between are the plantsers, those who do some combination of the two, which is the category I usually put myself. However, for some of my more recent novels, I've found myself doing more and more actual planning, specifically outlining, not necessarily because it's my natural inclination, but because it seems necessary for the stories I'm writing. So, because of that shift — and because I recently read a rather interesting planning vs. pantsing article from the lovely folks at Tor Publishing that got me thinking about the topic — I'm going to take today to share some thoughts on planning, pantsing, and the space in between.

Thoughts from a Reluctant (Possible) Plotter

(Because this is still a thing people talk about, right?)

1. Even at my most pantser-ish, I don't write without some kind of plan. Not anymore, at least. I generally do want at least a rough idea of where I'm starting, where I'm going, and where I might pause along the way. I might not always write it down — for short stories, I rarely do any planning outside my head — but I can't sit down with a concept and a first chapter and go for it. Well, I could. But I probably wouldn't — if nothing else, because if all I have a concept and a starting point, I probably got the idea yesterday, and all the ideas I've been chewing on for months or years take precedence.
2. More planning means less time stuck . . . sometimes. You would think that the more detailed the outline, the more you build your characters and the world, the more likely it is that the actual writing would go smoothly. But for myself, there tends to be a point at which "time spent planning" and "time spent stuck" cease to have any kind of correlation. I actually have an idea of why this is . . .
3. It's easier to diagnose — and fix — story problems during writing than outlining. I've been dealing with this recently, and it's the reason why I just had to start BDPI#4 over from the outline. I had a solid outline with, for me, quite a bit of detail. I'd put a good bit of thought into the outline. But it wasn't until I actually started writing that I started to realize that my story in its current form had some problems. I think this is often why I like working with looser outlines; they give me more space to fix issues without throwing everything out of whack.
4. The more detailed the outline, the more likely it is I'll have to redo the outline. Ok, I don't have a ton of data points for this, and I know that there are stories I've written with very loose outlines that I ended up having to rewrite the story itself from more or less the ground up. But I can say with reasonable confidence that I've only rewritten two outlines (Gilded in Ice and BDPI#4), and both were pretty detailed. I can also say with considerable confidence that the more detailed the original outline, the more annoyed I'll be about going back to the drawing board.
5. My last point actually comes half from that Tor article I referenced earlier (which you should read, by the way): planning and pantsing really are just two different ways of doing the same thing (feeling out a story and a world), and which one is preferable may depend on story as much as author. The reason I'm planning more might be that I'm getting more comfortable with outlines and that I have to write my books faster . . . but it's also because I'm writing different types of stories. Between Two Worlds, which had a very loose outline, was a fantasy adventure that was primarily character-driven. It needed to be flexible enough to accommodate moments when the cast did something unexpected. My Bastian Dennel books, on the other hand, are very plot-centric. Characters need to be in the right places at the right times; they need to discover the right clues in the right order. That demands a more detailed outline, if only so you can make sure you know what they need to find and where they need to be before you point your characters in its direction. So, even if I'm currently writing a lot of detailed outlines, there's no guarantee that'll always be the case — it'll depend on what stories I'm telling.

What are your thoughts on plotting, planning, and plantsing? Do you notice a difference in what kind of outlines you make for different types of stories? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

July 2022 Doings!

 

This was SUCH a good month, y'all. It was also a very busy month, which meant I spent a fair bit of it stressed, but still, SO GOOD. Am I partially saying that because I just got back from Realm Makers and I'm still really happy about how it went? Sure. But there were plenty of other reasons to be pleased with my July as well. That said, we're going to do things a little out of order and start with the Life section, since that's where all the exciting news is.

Life!

• REALM MAKERS!
• But first . . .
• This month was kind of interesting in that I had something going on pretty much every weekend (and also that I didn't have a single full workweek all month). Oddly enough, Independence Day weekend was the quietest weekend of the month. I spent most of it working on various crafting projects in preparation for Realm Makers, though I did get a break Friday evening to watch our town's fireworks. They were being set off from the park right behind our house, so we just walked down the road until we found a spot where the treeline was a little lower and watched from there without having to deal with crowds.
• The next weekend, my grandpa came down to visit for the weekend, which was fun, and we had the first of a series of livestream-related tech issues at work, which was objectively not. (Side note, if anyone has any idea what could cause a livestreaming system to automatically start streaming with no outside input and with no stream having been scheduled, I would dearly love to know.) Still, it was a good weekend on the whole.
• Then we got down to one-week-out-from-Realm Makers, and everything kicked into high gear as I finished all my final prep, in between D&D sessions (featuring one party's inability to roll anywhere in the double-digits on persuasion) and my sister's roommate coming over for board games and ginger beer, and another set of livestreaming problem spread over the course of the week. I did not get as much sleep that week as I probably should've, but I did get everything finished, and I even managed to do some writing.
• And then.
• And then.
• REALM MAKERS!
• So, yeah. Realm Makers was such a great experience, even if there was a hiccup or two in there. I roomed with the lovely Wyn Estelle Owens, which was a pleasure, and also made part of the trip up and back with her, and I got to meet Kendra E. Ardnek and several other Arista Challenge authors and other writers who I know online in person. (Side note: Kendra in real life is pretty much exactly what you'd expect from her online persona, just slightly shorter.) Wyn and Kendra also introduced me to some of their friends, and through friends of friends I discovered that there's a group of Realmies who live near me and occasionally meet up, so that's awesome. And, of course, I was able to meet some of the authors whose work I've read and loved and who, in some respects, were part of the reason I started writing and writing the type of stories I do in the first place — people like Wayne Thomas Batson, Jill Williamson, and Gillian Bronte Adams, all three of whom were absolutely lovely and kind and just . . . I don't know how else to say it except that, talking to them, you can tell why they write what they do and specifically why they write the types of characters they do. It was all very wonderful and encouraging, and I figured out pretty fast why the first keynote speaker (Tosca Lee!) emphasized a lot the relationships you build at events like this and elsewhere. As it turns out, the real treasure really is the friends you make along the way.
• (Also, the very first night we were there, while we were eating dinner, I was watching the line at the counter and freaking out because! there's Gillian Bronte Adams! there's Jill Williamson! there's Nadine Brandes! ahhhhhhhhhh! the cool authors are here! And then I ended up in front of Gillian while waiting in line for the Awards Banquet, though by that point I'd met her a couple of times already with varying levels of excitement versus coherent intelligence on my part.)
• It wasn't just meeting people that made Realm Makers so cool, though. I very much enjoyed the actual sessions, and I feel like I learned a lot — or, at least, I learned what I needed to in order to make the stories I'm currently writing and the ones that I'm going to write better. I picked Donald Maass's The Emotional Craft of Fiction series for my Continuing Sessions track (three 2-hour sessions spread over two days), and I think that was a very good choice; his advice, combined with some of what Tosca Lee said in her talk on keeping readers reading past midnight will, I think, help me get out of the little bit of a slump I'd run into with my current draft. I also got to sit in on both of Carla Hoch's classes, which were super fun . . . though I did get a little frustrated with some of her comments related to particular historical clothing items and whether or not you could move or fight in them. She reminds me of Marisha Ray, in a good way.
• I did manage to cosplay two of the three days of the conference. We got checked in too late for me to throw on the cosplay I had planned for the first evening, which was probably just as well — it involved collapsing daggers, and I learned after arrival that the no-weapons ban was actually nothing-that-looks-like-weapons, so . . . yeah. But I spent Friday dressed as Petra from the Rizkaland Legends, and then for the Awards Banquet, I changed into my take on Ailsa from The Dark King's Curse. I was very pleased with how both of those cosplays came off, though I'm not sure anyone but their authors recognized them. Then, on Saturday, I did a very low-key cosplay of Pet from The City Between, which did get recognized by one person and commented on by a few others. I think next time I go, I'll skip the daytime cosplay and just do something for the Awards Banquet and maybe the Book Festival, but it was fun to do this year.
• Speaking of the Awards Banquet, that was very cool. It was rather loud, which made conversation hard, but I enjoyed seeing everyone in their various costumes and cosplays. And, of course, it was exciting to see the Realm Awards get presented. I was delighted when Gillian won Book of the Year, and I was also super excited that H.L. Burke won an award (especially since I'd just started reading the series that the winning book was in). And then after the Banquet, Wyn, Kendra, and I headed off to the Hospitality Suite, where I got to eat more food (though not much more — the Banquet food was fancy, but it was also quite filling), meet a couple of Texan Realmies and a UK Realmie, and discover the game of Guillotine, in which you play as executioners in the French Revolution trying to get the most high-profile executions. That was fun.
• And then, of course, Sunday came, and everyone had to head back home. That drive was a bit more tiring than the one up, for some reason — maybe because I was already tired? In any case, I was glad of my decision to take Monday off so I'd have some recovery time.
• But now things are quiet again, and I'm settling into preparations for newsletter and Stewardship and more signage stuff at work and trying to get all the lingering tech issues sorted out, and I can get my focus back on writing my stories. Speaking of . . .

Writing!

• I don't remember where I left off on Bastian Dennel, PI #4, but at the moment, I'm finishing up Chapter 8 and about to start Chapter 9. Progress is slow, but steady, and given that I've been balancing SO MUCH this month, I'm happy with that.
• I do think I'm going to have to do something more to make Bastian's life difficult, though. I thought what I had planned would be enough, but . . . honestly, he's taking it too easily. I'm not entirely sure what that's going to look like but I'll figure it out. Hopefully it won't require that I go back and rewrite all I've done, though I suppose if I'm going to scrap things, it'd be better that I do it sooner than later . . . We'll figure it out.
• On the Through a Shattered Glass side, I've received most of the feedback I was expecting, and I've gone through it and gotten an idea what I need to adjust. In general, everyone seems to like it, so that's good.
• All Realm Makers swag came out pretty well, though I didn't give away half as much as I wanted to. I'm trying to decide what I want to do with the remainder — I could send it out by mail, or I could just save it for another event. I'm not sure.

Reading!

• This was a somewhat eclectic reading month: one part mood-read, one part reading for summer reading programs, and one part reading based on particular occasions.
• The highlight of the month was the release of Castle & Key, the latest (and possibly last) of W.R. Gingell's Two Monarchies series. This one was very much in the vein of Masque, blending Gothic fiction like Jane Eyre with the tale of Bluebeard, and while I didn't love it quite as much as Masque, it was still excellent. Susan is thoroughly practical, pleasantly determined, and unrelentingly inquisitive, and I love her.
• Other bright spots: Fool Moon, the second Dresden Chronicles mystery, was a decided improvement over Storm Front, and it had less Content, though there were still a couple pages I had to skip over. My reread of Castaways of the Flying Dutchman and The Angel's Command was also fun, though I think my opinion of which I prefer has flipped — Angel used to be my favorite of the trilogy, but I think it might be Castaways now. And I finally started reading H.L. Burke's Supervillain Rehabilitation Project series because I wanted to read a Realmie book at Realm Makers, and I'm thoroughly enjoying that. It's the superhero blend of action and slice-of-life we've always wanted.
• I also read another volume of Fullmetal Alchemist, in which I got a few answers but also many more questions. (I also met a friend's second-favorite character, though, so that's cool.)
• Things I Learned from Knitting is another Stephanie Pearl-McPhee memoir. I definitely preferred Free-Range Knitter, but this one was good too.
• The disappointment of the month was The Blue Salt Road, which I picked up on a whim because of selkies and lyrical writing on the first page, but ended up frustrated with because the ending leans more bitter than sweet. It's not a bad book, and others may like it better than I, but yeah.

Watching!

• So, if I had a nickle for every time my family has spent Independence Day watching a movie about Russian or Russian-adjacent Jews that involves a pogrom and a metaphorically and/or narratively resonant fiddle, I'd have two nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's kind of weird that it happened twice.
• This year's movie was Fiddler on the Roof, which was very good, but won't be making my favorites list. I'm glad I watched it once, but I don't expect I'll watch it again in the near future.
• I didn't have a lot of time to watch stuff on my own, but I did watch a bit more of Critical Role Campaign 2 (I'm two-thirds of the way through Episode 78, still enjoying it) and the Familiar Problem one-shot (because I was hoping to run my own Familiar Problem session at Realm Makers; alas, I didn't finish my prep for that in time). I also got in another couple episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, and I can see why people rave about the show. (I also got to have a nice long conversation with Wyn about FMA, both anime and manga, on the way up to Realm Makers, so that was fun.)
• (Oh, and my family watched Singing in the Rain and Hello Dolly while my grandpa was here, but my thoughts haven't changed on either movie, so this note is mostly for reference by future-me.)

August Plans

• I don't have a lot of plans for August, but I hope it's a quiet month. I know that we're thinking that we'll visit some family at one point during August, but otherwise, I don't know of anything big happening.
• I know that I need to make some serious progress on both Bastian Dennel #4 and TaSG edits, so I expect that those projects will take up most of my free time. I'd also like to get back on track with exercise — that was one of the many things I kind of let slip over the last few months.
• And I want to make sure I get in at least one more game of Sentinels with my sister before she heads back to college in the second half of the month.
• But yeah. I'm also hoping and praying for no more tech issues at work — I've had my fill in July!

How was your July? Any exciting plans for August? Were you at Realm Makers (and if so, what was your favorite part)? What do you think I should do with my leftover book swag? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Mid-Year Book Celebration 2022

Hey'a, all! As a reminder, I will be on blogging hiatus for most of July . . . but! I can't have a July without a Mid-Year Book Celebration, even if that would make my life much easier. So, here we are! As per the usual, I'll post the short-and-sweet Best of 2022 (so far) over on Light and Shadows. But if you want all the different categories . . . read on!

Of course, we can't have a book celebration without statistics. I've read 63 books (or 64, depending if you count my copy of both Alice books in one volume as one book or two) and 16,267 pages so far in 2022, which means I'm well over halfway to my goal of 99 books. Interestingly, while this is almost 20 more books than I'd read at this time last year, but it's only about 700 more pages. My average rating is about the same as it was this time last year: 4.3 stars. While every book hasn't been a winner, most have been, plus I've been rereading a lot.

Now for some more specific reading goals . . .

• I have successfully tracked my reads beyond just using Goodreads. I switched over to using a Google form based on the one Kendra E. Ardnek uses (literally; she let me copy hers, and then I modified some questions). It's much easier than the spreadsheet, though there are still some things I want to adjust. (For instance, my decision to track particular tropes was . . . frankly unnecessary. I'll finish it this year, but I don't think I'll do it again next year.)
• Towards 12 books published before 1975, I have read seven books. Three of them are Narnia; two are Lewis Carroll. But the other two are Chesterton and medieval poetry, so it's not all rereads. Plus, I'm in the progress of reading Dracula via email subscription.
• Of my goal of 15 non-speculative fiction books, I've read either seven or nine, depending on whether or not you count books of poetry. That puts me at either halfway through or a bit over halfway through, so I think that's pretty solid.
• As far as catching up with the Tor.com Wheel of Time reading series . . . I have managed maybe two chapters of The Great Hunt? It's a very frustrating book. I can probably still meet my goal if I really get with it, but honestly? I will be pretty pleased with myself if I just finish this one book by the end of the year.
• And finally, we have my effort to read more poetry. This has had mixed results? I haven't quite managed once a week like I originally intended, but I've made up the weeks I've missed with some weeks in which I read a whole book of poetry. Most of what I've read has been out of a book of George Herbert's poems that I got for a class at Cedarville, but I've also read one of the Ticket to Write anthologies, Tolkien's translation of Gawain the Green Knight, and some miscellaneous poems by Poe, thanks to another email subscription.

All right! Overall, I think most of my numbers are looking shiny . . . but not as shiny as the books, so let's get on with it.

1. Best book you've read so far in 2022:

 

A lot of my reads this year have been rereads . . . but even if they weren't, the answer to this category would probably still be a tie between Cinderella Must Die (W.R. Gingell) and The Goblin Emperor (Katherine Addison). These books are vastly different; one is a Cinderella retelling featuring a villainous Cinderella, a very clever pair of stepsisters, an indomitable aunt, and some very clever magic. The other is one part epic, one part political intrigue, one part mystery, one part character drama, and, inexplicably, one part feel-good fantasy even though it should not, by all rights, be as heartening as it is. But they're both excellent, and I love them immensely.

2. Best sequel you've read so far in 2022:

We have another tie here, this time between My Soul to Take (Bryan Davis) and Crown and Cinder (Kendra E. Ardnek). Again, these are vastly different books, but both very good. My Soul to Take is a worldhopping post-apocalyptic fantasy that leans a bit dark, but also has some wonderful family themes and an uncrushable hope. And Crown and Cinder is what happens when Pride and Prejudice and Cinderella mutually derail each other, plus fire magic and Kendra E. Ardnek's signature humor and style — I would argue that it's one of her best books yet.

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

There are so many that could fit this category. I am doing terribly at keeping up with new releases. But the specific ones I'll call out are Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams (which I did buy in hardcover earlier this year, so there's that!), The Untold Story by Genevieve Cogman (which I've kept getting distracted from reading), and The Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar (which just came out, so I think I have an excuse.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year:

I mean, I'm hoping to get Through a Shattered Glass out this year . . . and I hear Wyn Estelle Owens is working on another book . . .

 

 

But if we want a book with an actual cover? The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson. I'm super excited to return to Scadrial and the adventures of Wax and Wayne. Plus, it sounds like we're getting a lot more Cosmere connections with Marasi! So much to look forward to!

5. Biggest disappointment:

I don't know why I finished A Wild Winter Swan (Gregory Maguire). Probably because I was procrastinating on something. But it was deeply frustrating. Not as much so as some other books I can think of, but still . . . not great.

6. Biggest surprise:

 

I picked up Stolen Mayfly Bride (Sarah K. L. Wilson) with low, low expectations. The other book in the collection I'd read was, to be frank, a candidate for the last question I answered. But once I got into the book, I was entranced. Wilson knows how to write fae, she knows how to write romance, and the writing style was marvelous and poetic. This was a KU read, but honestly, I think I'm probably going to end up buying a copy.

7. Newest favorite character:

While I've met a lot of great characters so far this year, there's no question who my new top favorite is: Maia Drazhar (The Goblin Emperor). I love him so much, y'all. He starts out the book awkward and anxious, a cast-off, half-foreign emperor's son who's grown up far from the court and without many people to love him, who wants only to avoid offending or causing trouble for anyone and who's so genuinely and helplessly kind and caring. And he grows into an emperor who truly wants to serve his subjects, who learns to stand up for himself and others, who uses his position and power to help those he can (even those who would be overlooked). He's just wonderful.

 

And on the topic of The Goblin Emperor . . . while I don't love them quite as much as Maia, several other characters also make the favorites list, specifically Csevet, Cala, Beschelar, and Csethiro.

8. A book that made you cry:

I don't think there were any actual tears, but The Goblin Emperor did produce a lot of Emotions, so . . . there's that?

9. A book that made you happy:

 

 

Search for the Astral Dragon (Bryan Davis) didn't quite make my "favorite book" choice . . . but it felt a lot like Davis's Dragons in Our Midst series, which meant that, in a way, it also felt like coming home.

10. Favorite post you've done so far this year:

I am very pleased with my "Writing Tips and Tricks (That Shouldn't Work as Well as They Do)" post that I put up back in March. (I'm toying with the idea of doing more posts about writing craft . . . thoughts, anyone?)

11. What books do you need to read by the end of the year?

All of them, haha. But specifically . . . several Wheel of Time novels, The Untold Story, The Lost Metal, and Bryan Davis's Song of the Ovulum series (as a reread). Will I get to any of them? Who knows. I certainly don't.

 

Well, that'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!

June 2022 Doings!

Hello, y'all! June is ended, July is here, and I have another month's worth of Doings to report! But first, a quick bit of housekeeping: I'll be taking a blogging break for most of the month of July, both because I want the extra bit of attention to focus on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 and because Realm Makers, writing, work, and family stuff mean I'll likely be pretty busy. I will still post my Mid-Year Book Celebration/Book Roundup next Friday as usual, and I'll be on the socials, but otherwise, things will be quiet for the month. I haven't yet decided what to do about the On the Taleweaver's Desk update, but I may push it off until early August, since it would normally go up the same weekend as Realm Makers. We'll see.

Writing!

• Writing-wise, this month's focus has mostly been on Bastian Dennel, PI #4, which is currently title-less. In contrast to Through a Shattered Glass, which I wrote very rapidly, this one is coming along quite slowly. I spent almost a week working through the initial outline until I got stuck, at which point I decided — y'know what? I know who did the murder. I know why they did it. I know what clues I need to lay and some red herrings to slip in. Let's just get this story started.
• (Realistically, I think this was the best option. The problem was one that wouldn't be easy to solve without knowing the story better than I did at the time, so hopefully things will come together once I get closer in the actual draft.)
• On the Through a Shattered Glass front, the book went out to beta readers early in the month, and I've been slowly getting feedback from various people. I haven't really read most of that feedback because I've been focused on BDPI#4, but I look forward to doing so.
• And on the D&D side of things, I did just enough prep to cover the two times we met over the course of the month, plus the start of our next session (whenever that ends up being). The first of those two sessions went about how I expected it. The second . . . well, I didn't really know how my players would react to the situation, but I don't think I was expecting what actually happened? In a good way, though. I also figured out how I think I want to approach large-scale combat, which is good, because that's coming up pretty quick.
• Oh, and I got to have some fun designing author swag (business cards, stickers, and bookplates) in preparation for Realm Makers! That was exciting, though also stressful once I realized how expensive sticker singles can be. I eventually figured stuff out, though, and everything so far has looked very nice.

Reading!

• I expected that this would be a month full of rereads. That said, only about a third of them were the rereads I expected.
• I started the month by finishing up my Jackaby reread. That went well, though I don't think I liked the second half of the series (the last book especially) as much on the reread as I did the first time around, particularly since I've grown more familiar with one of the central myths and am now annoyed at how Ritter handled said myth.
• The other main rereads of the month were about half the Chronicles of Narnia, sparked by the fact that we watched the movie version of Prince Caspian and that made me want to read the actual book. And then I figured I might as well reread some of the other books that I've been thinking of revisiting . . . Lewis's style is a major shift from most of what I've been reading lately, but it's been fun to go back to these old favorites.
• In between the rereads, we had three new-to-me books. The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm is a collection of short stories from the world of Algaesia, and it was . . . fine? To be honest, I feel like it's the least interesting out of everything I read this month.
• The other two new reads are much more exciting and were both last-minute impulse reads. Free-Range Knitter was something I picked up on a whim at the library and ended up quite enjoying. It very much falls into the genre of "Unexpectedly popular 2000s blogger memoirs," but, hey, it was an enjoyable read, and it had some nice observations about knitting and life and people.
• And then there's The Goblin Emperor, which abruptly shot up from somewhere in the depths of my TBR list after I saw a dozen-odd fanart pieces on a friend's social and realized that I needed to read this book immediately. It was, let me tell you, one of the best decisions I made all month, because this book is so good. It's not particularly fast-paced, and it's mostly concerned with the main character figuring out how to be emperor and navigate an unfamiliar and not particularly friendly court and grow into the person he's meant to be, and yet I stayed up long past midnight one night reading it. There's intrigue and mystery and occasional assassination attempts, but most of the book is very character-focused, and . . . I just love it, ok? Possibly because I really love the main character, Maia, who is an absolute sweetheart. He was never supposed to be emperor, but now that he is, he's trying his best to be a good one and to not repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. (I'm also very disappointed that there's not a true sequel — the other books in the world are about a side character and don't really have anything to do with this story.)
• Oh, and I'm still reading Dracula via Dracula Daily . . . and I may have signed up for a bunch of similar serial story e-newsletters. I have no regrets, but I may when they all start at once in six months.

Watching!

• Glory hallelujah, we are done with the Reani episodes of Critical Role. I'm sorry; I recognize that the player was trying to do something interesting, but I just did not vibe with her. I am pleased with my decision to go back to Campaign 2 instead of pushing on with Campaign 3, though. It's been fun to be back with the Mighty Nein. I'm currently halfway through Episode 69, and I've enjoyed the last few episodes, particularly the developments with Fjord.
• Aside from Critical Role, I watched a couple movies this month: a rewatch of Prince Caspian, as I already mentioned, and Jurassic Park, which I had never seen before except for clips and snippets. My roommate enjoys JP, though, so I was excited to see it. I liked it, though I did end up hiding behind a pillow during a few moments when I suspected there was going to be something particularly gorey on the screen. I can definitely see why it became such a cultural phenomenon.
• I also started watching Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, though I'm only a couple episodes in. A friend helpfully pointed me towards the best place to watch it, and I'm trying to get through it in relatively quick fashion. It's nice to have something to watch where the commitment is 20 minutes plus ads instead of an hour or better. I will have to get used to the voices, though, as there's exactly one character who sounds like I imagined him. Colonel Mustang and Al are the two who throw me off the most, though. (You would think Mustang would be the one who I expected, since I knew Travis Willingham voiced him, but nope! Every time he says anything, I'm like "Wait. What? Oh, right." I'll get used to it, I suppose.)

Life!

• The main themes of this month have been "Sarah makes stuff!" and "absolutely NOTHING happens when it's supposed to unless we paid in advance for it." It's fine.
• I actually did a fair bit of baking this month. I started June with my first sourdough loaf using fresh herbs from the ones we planted in May, and that turned out very well, though I probably should've chopped the herbs a little smaller. Then, a bit later in the month, I gave focaccia a whirl and was pretty pleased with the result. (I also made some regular rolls, but, y'know, I've made those a dozen times before.)
• I intended to get a lot of cosplay prep done in June as well. Unfortunately, that didn't go quite as well. I did finish my flowy-sleeved top (it's far from perfect, but it'll do what I want it to do), and I found a few of the other items I needed, but I didn't make as much progress on either dress as I wanted to. Apparently, purple is not an "in" color right now (so I haven't been able to find any purple dresses in stores, let alone ones with pockets), and I kept hitting a particular delay on the dress I'm making — specifically, I needed my sister to help me drape a pattern, and she was continually not available at the same time I could do work. On the upside, we did eventually resolve that, so I have a pattern. Now I just need to cut everything . . . and sew everything . . . and make adjustments . . . and embroider things . . . yeah. There's a lot left to do. At least this weekend is a long one.
• One of the highlights of the month, though, was just last weekend, when my sister and I got together with a friend to do an escape room! This one was a little harder than the one we did last summer, but I actually feel like it went somewhat better — if nothing else, we got out with more time to spare, probably because everyone had at least a little experience with how these kinds of puzzles work.
• At work, things have alternately been super quiet (because half the office is out) or comfortably busy. We have made progress on some of the big projects, though, so that's good. They're going slowly, but so do most things that involve change.
• Oh! D&D news! The group I play in had our first really big boss fight, which was super exciting. We were taking on our warlock/fighter's patron (an aberrant dragon), which involved gathering reinforcements and traveling to another plane and all sorts of stuff. It was pretty epic, especially the final fight — especially since the boss ended up having, figuratively speaking, two health bars. But we survived! With minimal insanity! And leveled up twice! And we got our first-ever legendary item!
• I think that about covers it. June was definitely a much quieter month than May, but you know? That's far from a bad thing.

July Plans

• REALM MAKERS! We're now in the month of, and I am SO HYPED. There's still a lot left to do — cosplay prep, finishing up some of the swag that I didn't complete last month, figuring out some final logistics, figuring out if I need to pre-sign books (since Kendra E. Ardnek will be selling my books alongside hers) and so on — but it's going to be good. I'm excited to learn, but I'm arguably more looking forward to the opportunity to meet others in the writing/author community.
• Most of my plans revolve around Realm Makers, but aside from it . . . we'll have family visiting midway through the month, which should be nice. I'm looking forward to that.
• Work will probably continue to be quiet, since we'll have people out on either mission trips or vacation.
• Writing-wise, I'll be splitting my time between Through a Shattered Glass edits and Bastian Dennel, PI #4 drafting. I don't know yet what that split will look like, but I'll figure it out once I see how much editing needs to be done.
• And on the reading front, most of my book choices will probably be influenced by the various adult summer reading programs I'm doing through local library systems. At the moment, I'm attempting to essentially do three challenges (two systems, two variations within one of those systems) with no overlap, but I may put in some retroactive overlap if we get towards the end of the summer and it looks like I'm not going to make one or more of them.
• That seems to be everything. There may be something I'm forgetting about, but if there is, oh well. I'll remember it tomorrow night, probably.

How was your June? Any exciting plans for July? Will you be at Realm Makers (either virtually or in person)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!