July 2023 Doings!

Hello everyone! Questionably fun fact: I completely forgot that I was supposed to write a Doings! post this week until about 6:20 yesterday morning. In my defense, it's been a weird month and a weird week, and I am tired. July was a good month, but it was far from a restful one. And if you want to know what I mean, well, that's what this post is for, so let's get on with the Doings!

Writing!

• Well, this has definitely been an exciting month on the writing front! We started out with the release of the Fellowship of Fantasy Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology on July 6. I didn't end up doing as much as I wanted with that release, but thankfully the other authors were much more with it. It's currently available in both ebook and paperback formats, so if you'd like to enjoy some feel-good short stories featuring magical doggos and guaranteed happy endings, go ahead and pick that up.
• The week after the anthology release was, of course, the Realm Makers writing conference. I had a great time at the conference, and I'll talk more about that in the Life! section, but there is one element of the conference that I want to mention here . . . which is, of course, the fact that Through a Shattered Glass won the novella category of the Realm Awards! I've said this a few times now, but I was thrilled and honored just to be on the finalist list, and actually winning is amazing. (I am also very proud of myself for managing to not embarrass myself when I went up to receive the award, as I sometimes get nervous around large crowds, and I definitely did not prepare as much as I intended.)
• The last bit of exciting news: shortly after returning from Realm Makers, I announced my next book release: Song of the Selkies, a roleswap Little Mermaid retelling that will release September 19 as part of the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge group. If you want to learn more, click here and check out my cover reveal post! I also finished drafting this novel in July, the day after the cover reveal — yes, I'm cutting it closer than I normally do, but we'll be fine. Even the first draft of this book turned out really well and has gotten great feedback from betas so far, so I'm excited to get to release it into the world.
• Even aside from all the exciting stuff, July has been a really good writing month for me. I ended up writing almost 43K words this month, spread out across three different projects. Finishing Song of the Selkies took most of those words — just over 32K — and involved a lot of 1K+ days. And my last two days of work on it both had a wordcount of around 5K, which is a lot for me! Additionally, I wrote another 4.6K words on the fourth Bastian Dennel, PI book, which isn't a ton but is respectable for the fact that I was only actively working on it for about a week. Finally, I wrote about 6K words in my D&D Feygate adventure, which has been so much fun to put together. The Middle Earth adventure was nice in that I had the storyline laid out, and I just had to translate it into D&D, but I've missed getting to do my own thing. I'm currently having a grand time coming up with potential scenarios, NPCs, and so forth, and I very much look forward to actually running them. We've already played two sessions of the adventure, and people seem to like it so far, so I'd call that a good sign.

Reading!

• July was also an excellent reading month, as you can probably see. Most of what I read continued my Ranger's Apprentice reread, which has been a lot of fun. As I said last month, rediscovering this series has been a lot of fun, and the books hold up impressively well. At this point, I'm done with the reread portion of it, and I'm in between the two Early Years books, which are new-to-me reads. Well, technically, Goodreads claims I read The Tournament at Gorlan back in 2015, but I have no memory of doing so, and that was before I did Doings! posts, so . . . who knows? I certainly don't.
• We only have four new reads for the month. A Storm Grows is a book of poetry by Janeen Ippolito, which I primary read for purposes of a reading challenge. Power Through was my Realm Makers read — I like to read something by a Realmie author while I'm at the conference, and so far, that author has been H.L. Burke both years. Power Through is the third book in Burke's young adult superhero series, and I quite enjoyed it. Of course, it had Wildfyre in it, as well as peak dad!Fade, Voidling, and Jake and Marco both doing some growing, so the odds were very much in its favor. Finally, we have volumes 11 and 12 of Fullmetal Alchemist, both of which I really liked. I don't know why I enjoyed them more than I have previous installments? But they were both very good, especially Volume 12. (Speaking of things I can't explain: I somehow, in the space of approximately three books, got attached to Lanfan, who is very much a secondary character at this point, and I do not know how or why, other than I seriously respect both her courage and dedication.)
• So, yes. The other few books I read are all rereads, and I have nothing much to say about any of them other than that Gothel and the Maiden Prince, like most of W.R. Gingell's work, stands up very well the second time around, as does the Ticket to Write anthology.

Watching!

• Not a lot to report here, since lots of writing, plus travel, means I don't have much time to watch things in the evenings. That said, I did watch How to Steal a Million and North by Northwest towards the start of the month. I very much enjoyed How to Steal a Million — I love a good heist story, and the setup for this one was so fun. Plus, the lead actors played off each other very well.
• North by Northwest, I was a bit less of a fan of — conceptually, it was cool, with the whole "ordinary man gets mistaken for a spy and then has to go on the run" thing, and the action and adventure was great, but the romance elements weren't really my thing. Ah well.

Life!

Left to right: Wyn Estelle Owens as Breen from Mechanical Heart, me as a steampunk cowgirl (feat. my Realm Award!), and Kendra E. Ardnek as the Gardener from her Austen Fairy Tale (which is very good and you should read it).

• July was, as already stated, a busy month, but it was still a very good month for many reasons. And reason number one, above and beyond anything else that happened, was that it was the first (and only) month this summer in which all my immediate family members were in the same place for the majority of the time. My mom came back from my grandpa's the first weekend of July, and it was so nice to have her home again.
• We didn't end up doing anything much for Independence Day, even though we were all home. Usually, our Bible Study would get together, but so many people were out of town that it just didn't happen. That said, I'm not really complaining . . .
• But now we come to the highlight of the month, which was, of course, REALM MAKERS! Though this was my second year attending, it still had a lot of firsts for me: first time flying solo, first time at the St. Louis location (which I'd heard so many good things about from friends), first formal book signing thing . . .
  • After the craziness of last year (amid which I almost missed the start of the conference), I opted to fly out on Wednesday before the conference. That was definitely the right choice, even though plane schedules meant I ended up arriving super early that day — 9am St. Louis Time. Thankfully, navigating the airport on both sides was much easier than I expected, especially since my dad ended up leaving on the same day and at roughly the same time for a business trip, so I wasn't trying to do everything myself on the way out. And the early arrival time gave me some good writing hours and plenty of time to catch up with friends (namely, Kendra E. Ardnek and Wyn Owens) before the conference proper.
  • It also gave me time to run the Realm Makers-themed one-page RPG one-shot I'd prepared, which was super fun. What happens when three wizards' creature companions — an octopus (who would like you to know that he's a totally normal human man, not an octopus, why would you think he's an octopus), a hyperactive weasel, and a prim and self-absorbed cat — have to defeat the mad inventor and his machines that have put their wizards to sleep? Much chaos, that's what — including, but not limited to, the weasel overdosing on coffee, the octopus using the weasel as a projectile weapon, and the cat deciding that she was, in fact, a god. They did successfully wake their wizards, though, so that's good.
  • Thursday, I helped out with the registration desk in the morning (which was nice because I got to meet some people and also felt like I could recognize people later), and then the conference officially opened in the afternoon. The keynote address with Steven Laube was excellent, focusing mostly on the idea and value of wonder. Also excellent was going to dinner with Wyn and Katie Hanna and chatting about our various books and ideas and tropes and whatnot. (Katie Hanna, by the way, is writing a Western fantasy series that sounds fabulous). Additionally, Thursday was when I finished writing the climax of Song of the Selkies, which was most exciting. 
  • Friday and Saturday were both very busy days, with lots of great sessions. For my continuing sessions, I attended Charlie Holmberg's "Speculative Worldbuilding" series, which was interesting. Some of it I felt like I already knew, but it was cool to see her process and hear her advice and thoughts. She tends to do map-first worldbuilding, which is not my usual approach, but I do see how effective it can be. I also attended a two-part elective by Donald Maass on writing series characters, which gave me some principles I think will be super helpful as I continue to write my Bastian Dennel books. My one complaint about that elective was that the two parts were scheduled right after lunch on Friday and Saturday, so I kept having to rush out of lunch to make it to the talks on time.
  • Friday was also the Awards Banquet, which was exciting for a multitude of reasons. There's the obvious one, of course — the fact that I was one of the people who received an award. I also had fun dressing up; I decided to go as a steampunk cowgirl at the last minute, and I had a grand time talking in an accent that would have done Quincy Morris proud. (As a bonus, I discovered that I actually look rather good in a cowboy hat, if I do say so myself!) Also, Wyn decided to dress up as my character Breen from Mechanical Heart, and I think I might have gotten just as excited about that as I did about the award. I'm not even joking. Additionally, we got to sit with a couple who we'd met at the 2022 Realm Makers, and it was nice to catch up with them. (I should probably go find and friend them on Facebook, but I . . . have not managed to do that yet.) And we ended the night with several rounds of Bring Your Own Book, which is always a delight.
  • The conference ended on Saturday with the book fair. The book fair includes an opportunity to get your books signed by Realm Makers faculty and Realm Awards winners, so that was kind of my first official author signing event! I will admit that I kind of missed being able to wander around the vendor hall like I did last year . . . but it was also nice to get to sit in a comparatively quiet area and meet people and actually have conversations without struggling to hear. And, let's be real, I spent way less money than I would have if I had nothing to do but walk around the vendors.
• So, yes. All in all, Realm Makers 2023 was just as great as it was in 2022 — better, in some ways. The hotel was more comfortable, for one thing, and I didn't feel quite so perpetually overwhelmed. I will say that, contrary to what one might expect, the best and most exciting part wasn't the awards ceremony or the book fair or getting to meet authors I look up to or anything like that. Rather, it was the opportunity to see people like Kendra, Wyn, and Katie in person and the fact that I got to spend four days in the company of people who love the same things I love. That's the biggest reason I went back in 2023, and it's the biggest reason I hope to return again next year (Lord and finances willing).
• The last big event of July was both sad and happy, as my little sister officially moved to another state for her first job out of college at the end of the month. I'm happy for her; I know she's going to be doing something that she enjoys and can get excited about the way I can get excited about my work. Plus, she'll be close to many of her friends, and she has a great church community up there. At the same time, though, having to say goodbye in the knowledge that she won't be back next summer was sad, and I miss having her around and being able to talk to her about stuff. I mean, we've done several video calls since she left, but it's not the same. (Plus, my mom went back to Pennsylvania for a few weeks at the same time, so . . . yeah.)
• I think that about covers it. Work is work, crafting and baking have barely happened . . . My D&D group did get in a few sessions, which were intense. We're trying to take down one of our nemeses, and he's the literal worst, and two of the party members have lost NPCs who they were super close to. One of the party members actually retired over it, so that was doubly sad. The player is still in the group and made a new character, but still . . . sadness. Oh, and the DM said that we're probably only a couple levels away from the end of the campaign, which is . . . terrifying. Exciting! But terrifying! The group will continue with new adventures, though, so we can look forward to that.

August Plans

• My number one plan for August is to do LOTS of edits on Song of the Selkies, plus formatting, tour prep, and all that good stuff. The fact that the book turned out way longer than I planned means I'm on a tight schedule now. I'm committed to making sure everything is done on time, but I do not expect it to be easy. 
• And it will only be made more difficult by the fact that my next semester of grad school starts at the end of the month. I thought about delaying and having overlapping classes again like I did last year, or even about only doing one class this semester, but I know that if I delay grad school stuff every time I have a busy writing season, it'll take me ten years to finish this degree, and the goal is not to do that, thank you.
• In between edits and class work, I'll continue working on Bastian Dennel, PI #4 and my D&D Feygate adventure. I'd like to finish the Feygate adventure this month, and I think that's a pretty reasonable goal, especially since I'm well over half done already.
• I have no idea what will happen on the blogs. I have some regularly-scheduled posts that will need to go up, and I would prefer not to take too long of a hiatus (especially as I know I may take another semi-hiatus sometime in the fall), so hopefully we'll be back to the regularly-scheduled weekly stuff? Assumed I don't get slapped in the face by the need to do three million things?
• Work will probably be busy, but I don't expect it to be notably busier than usual. I do have both the newsletter and Stewardship campaign materials this month, but those are usually pretty enjoyable projects, so I'm not super worried. I'm a little more worried about our directory project, but it'll probably be fine.
• I also want to do some more bread-baking with my fresh herbs while I have fresh herbs to bake with, but we'll see how that works out.
• I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but whatever. My basic goal for August is to survive, edit all the words, and not miss any deadlines. That should be doable, right?

How was your July? What are you looking forward to in August? Did you go to Realm Makers, or have you gone in the past? If so, what was YOUR most exciting part? Have you been doing more new-reading or rereading lately? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Song of the Selkies COVER REVEAL + Preorder Info!

 

Hello, everyone! Some of you may have seen this on Facebook yesterday evening, but if you're not on Facebook (which is probably a wise choice, to be honest), I have some exciting news. That news, of course, is of my upcoming book release: Song of the Selkies, a roleswap Little Mermaid retelling. I've been working on this book for a good while now, and I'm super excited to get to show it off.

So, without further ado, let's give it a chance to shine . . .

Undercover in a foreign land, a princess discovers the secrets behind a generations-old enmity.

The youngest princess of Atìrse, Ceana always planned to marry for the good of her people and let love come later. With her sisters' marriages ensuring peace with the nearby human kingdoms, Ceana sets her sights on their last unallied neighbor: the magical and reclusive selkies. The two peoples have experienced a wary peace for generations, and the time seems ripe for a deeper alliance that will benefit both kingdoms. The last thing Ceana expects is for Fionntan, king of the selkies, to take the proposal as a grave insult.

With relations between the two peoples suddenly precarious, Ceana is determined to set things right. Aided by her grandmother, she disguises herself as a selkie and travels to their hidden home of Emain Ablach, where she hopes to discover the reason behind King Fionntan's reaction. But the more she learns about the selkies, the more she uncovers long-kept secrets of her people — and her heritage — that shake the foundations of how she viewed the world. Her growing friendships with and affection for some of the selkie nobility, including King Fionntan himself, further complicate matters, especially as her admiration for the selkie king begins to blossom into something more. No relationship built on a lie can survive, but revealing her true identity as an Atìrsen princess will doom her efforts towards peace.

In order to bridge the divide between selkies and humans, Ceana will have to overcome generations of selkies' suspicion and reveal the insidious evil that's taken root in her homeland. But the greatest obstacle to her success may be her own heart.

Discover a magical new world in this Little Mermaid retelling from the author of Through a Shattered Glass and the Bastian Dennel, PI mysteries

Releasing September 19, 2023

Preorder on Amazon || Add to your Goodreads shelf

For those who read that blurb and now have questions . . .  yes, this is a kissing book. (Technically, it's a romantic epic fantasy, but that's a technicality.) Don't worry; I'll still be writing plenty of nomance and low-romance books in the future! But I wanted to do something with the idea of a princess who wants to get married, and who wants the arranged marriage that so many young adult heroines spend a lot of time and energy running away from, and that meant that there had to be a love story in here alongside everything else. It's very much a slowburn, though, and it's super sweet. I had fun writing it, and I think y'all will like reading it just as much.

Also, in a turn of events that will surprise absolutely no one who's been following me, Song of the Selkies is releasing as part of the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge collection! One of the other covers for that release has already been revealed, and the rest will be uncovered on Saturday. Check out the Facebook party to learn more! Additionally, all the Stolen Songs books are on a special $0.99 ebook preorder special for just a little while longer, so make sure you place your preorder soon!

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

Mid-Year Book Celebration 2023

Hey'a, all! We're halfway through the year, and that means it's time for my annual Mid-Year Book Celebration, a roundup of my favorite (and least favorite, and other most notable) reads from the first six months of 2023! This post mostly exists because, if it didn't, my End-of-Year Book Celebration would send me into an indecision-induced spiral of procrastination and panic. But also, it's fun to check in with my goals and review what I've been reading, and it means I get to spotlight twice as many books as I otherwise would! As usual, I'll post a short-and-sweet Best Books of 2023 (So Far) list over on Light and Shadows, but for the full rundown, read on!

2023 Mid-Year Book Celebration

But, of course, before we get to the specific books, I want to share some statistics. So far this year, I've read 74 books and 20,343 pages, which is roughly 20% more than what I'd read around this time last year. That also puts me well over 75% of my way to my goal of reading 101 books this year. Most of the books I've read have been in the 200-400 page range, with an average length of 274 pages, which isn't surprising — it's a nice, approachable length that I can get through in about three days. And, of course, I've been rereading several series this year, and all of them fall into that length category. And my average rating this year has been 4.4. stars, the same as last year, so I'm definitely enjoying most of what I read.

As for my specific reading goals:

• Out of the 12 books published (or written) before 1975 that I'm aiming for, I've read ten, which sounds great . . . except when you remember my stipulation that  only three should be children's books. Of the ten pre-1975 books I've read, only four (Frankenstein and the Lord of the Rings trilogy) were written for adults. The other six (two Oz books, The Wind in the Willows, The Secret Garden, The Last Battle, The 13 Clocks, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh) are all at least partially aimed at children. There is still hope, though, as I'm in the middle of several pre-1975 adult books that I'm reading via email subscription, so that will bolster the numbers some as the year goes on.
• How about my goal of reading 15 non-speculative fiction books? So far this year, I have read five books that are not some form of speculative fiction, which is a bit behind where I should be, but not as far behind as I worried I was. Entries in this category include an animal-focused memoir, a Donald Maass writing craft book, a book of poetry, and a couple classics. (Note: if you're looking at the results of my reading tracker, you may notice that the "Non Spec-Fic" graph shows six books in that category, but one of them was miscategorized.) I do need to focus a little more on this category — maybe via some Brother Cadfael mysteries — but for now, I'm not stressing about it.
• As for my recommended reads list . . . I have read one (1) book off of it, Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons. I am going to get to at least some of the others. I just . . . haven't yet. (I've also had a time and a half trying to find some of them, so I have that as my defense.)

If you want more statistics or you want to see the full list of everything I've read, you can check out my Goodreads Year in Books or my tracking form results. But right now, let's take a look at some specific books I'm highlighting . . .

1. Best book you've read in the first half of 2023:

This is such a tough choice, but I have to go with Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer. This retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon was absolutely incredible in every way, from the characters to the writing style to the storyline to the ending (oh, the ending!). It's hard to find an East of the Sun retelling I dislike, but this was one of the best I've ever read. (I only wish I'd picked it up sooner so I could have reread it a few times by now!)

That said, I read a lot of excellent books this year, so we have a couple runners-up:

The Orb and the Airship by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt is a magnificent adventure story that's one part steampunk shenanigans (featuring a crew of airship pirates) and one part epic fantasy quest story (featuring lovable farm boys venturing off into the unknown, accompanied by a mysterious stranger). I love pretty much everything about this book, but I'm especially fond of Captain Marik and his crew. This probably would've taken the first spot were it not for the fact that I love the style and ending of Echo North so very much.

The Lord of Dreams by C.J. Brightly is, like Echo North, a book I should have read ages ago, but didn't get to until just this year. While the beginning was rough, the rest of the book was utterly amazing in world and characters and the way in which the story is woven. Brightley does a wonderful job of showing the weirdness and wonder of her fairyland, complete with a mad and marvelous faery king, and I especially like how she decided to handle the idea of magic that runs partially on belief.

Finally, Wraithwood by Alyssa Roat gave me the same vibes as a lot of the portal-fantasy-adjacent, unwilling-kid-ends-in-weird-house-and-magical-shenanigans stories that made up much of my preteen and early teen book diet, but it's much better than most of those stories were. I enjoyed getting to know Brinnie and her uncle Merlin, and I also liked how the author handled the magical world — especially the way she sidestepped some of my least favorite tropes and instead used those spots as opportunities to do cool stuff.

2. Best sequel you've read in the first half of 2023:

The results of this category should surprise absolutely no one — these days, it's hard to find any best-of list of mine that doesn't include either W.R. Gingell or Suzannah Rowntree. While I've enjoyed both of Gingell's Worlds Behind books, Behind Closed Doors was especially good. The scheming, the character dynamics, the glimpses into various characters' backstories . . . it's all very good, as is the reappearance of a few characters from the City Between series. Equally as delightful is Rowntree's Dark Clouds, book two in Miss Dark's Apparitions. I hardly know where to start with all the things I love about this Leverage-esque heist story, save to say that the crew's dynamics, the daring schemes and escapades, the excellent villain, and the relationship between Molly and Vasily are all top-notch, and they combine to form a story that's so good, it's a wonder I managed to put it down long enough to get some sleep.

And, of course, we have a runner up for this category: Kendra E. Ardnek's Thornrose Estate. While it can't quite compete with any book involving either Athelas or Grand Duke Vasily, this blend of Northhanger Abbey with Beauty and the Beast (and a little bit of Sleeping Beauty) is still a delight. I loved Calla — she's definitely the most relatable of the Austen Fairy Tale protagonists, at least to me. Additionally, Hansel is an excellent love interest, and I loved that we finally got answers to so many of the questions that the last book left us with. I think it's safe to say that this is (and probably will remain) my favorite of the Austen Fairy Tale stories.

3. Best book you've reread first half of 2023:

I've had a lot of really great rereads this year, but the City Between series (unsurprisingly) takes the top spot. I would honestly categorize this series as one that, like much of Brandon Sanderson's, work, you have to reread to fully enjoy. You read it the first time around to discover the story — you read it the second time to discover all the little hints and clues that you missed the first time because they were so neatly woven in that they seemed insignificant. (You also read it the second time because you love the characters and want to go back and spend time with them again, but that should go without saying.)

Speaking of characters you want to spend time with: I also reread the Lockwood & Co series this year because so many people were talking about the show that it made me miss Lockwood, Lucy, George, and the rest. I'm happy to say that, while you don't have to reread this series, it certainly doesn't suffer on a second read-through, and some of the hard spots in the series are a lot easier to get through when you know what's coming in the end.

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

I am so behind on Brandon Sanderson's secret projects that it has ceased to be funny. At this point, three of the books are out in some fashion, and I haven't read any of them. At first, I was holding off because I wanted to wait to read the Tress in physical — then I was waiting until I thought I'd have the time and energy to properly enjoy the books — and I suppose that last excuse is mostly what I've been using since, along with the fact that any time I have been in a place and time when I thought I could have started one of these, I've also been in the middle of reading through a series. Oh well. Maybe after Realm Makers . . .

5. Most anticipated release for the second half of 2023

I can't actually properly answer this question for, oh, eleven days or so (and I will leave you to speculate about why that might be), but The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher might take the top spot anyway. This is the long-awaited sequel to The Aeronaut's Windlass, one of my favorite books and a steampunk adventure of epic proportions. I'm so excited to return to this world and these characters — Captain Grimm and his crew especially. And I do think this release will necessitate a reread of book 1, which I'm also looking forward to very much.

And, of course, we have to mention the next book from W.R. Gingell, Worlds Behind #3, Wet Behind the Ears. I am always excited for more of Athelas, especially given where the last book left off. (Gingell knows how to do endings that simultaneously satisfy and make you ravenous for the next book, I have to tell you!) And from what I've seen on the author's social media, I am very much looking forward to what we might discover in this installment . . .

6. Biggest disappointment:

I read the sci-fi/horror classic Frankenstein via email subscription from February to May, and I was . . . not impressed. I had very high hopes for it, having enjoyed Dracula so much, but the book just didn't do it for me. I recognize why it's a classic, but it is not fun to read — and to be clear, that's not because of old-fashioned writing style or because it's an old book or anything like that. It's entirely because the main character is an annoying little snot. Possibly that's the point, but in the end, I think that if I want a tale of hubris, I'd rather just read Greek mythology.

7. Biggest surprise:

I read Cruel Beauty exclusively because the author was going to be at a signing with W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree, and I didn't actually expect to particularly like it — after all, I'd had mixed feelings about Crimson Bound, and most people seemed to think that one was the better of the two. But Cruel Beauty turned out to be lovely indeed — dark and mysterious, with an ending that more than made up for the few flaws I'd encountered in the rest of the book.

8. A book that made you cry:

I didn't cry, but Into the Heartless Wood by Joanna Ruth Meyers does have the distinction of being a book with a decidedly bittersweet ending and a lot of sadness in the middle that I nonetheless liked enough to buy.

9. A book that made you happy:

While it's not quite making the best books of the year, Miss Percy's Pocket Guide to the Care & Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson was an absolute delight — it's dragons and snark and humor and scheming in an Austen-esque Regency setting. I also appreciated that the romance was present and sweet without being overdone. I haven't gotten my hands on the sequel yet, but I hope to later this year.

10. Favorite post you've done this half of the year:

Most of my posts this year have been reviews, Doings!, or Taleweaver's Desk updates, but I did write a post back in January, "What Ideas Are Worth Writing," about how I decide what story ideas I'm going to pursue and prioritize. I really like how that one turned out, and I think it's a good read. I also wrote a post for my grad school program about how I research for worldbuilding . . . but that one isn't up on my blog yet, so I can't link it.

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

I may not have read them yet, but that does not stop me from appreciating just how pretty my Kickstarter copies of Tress of the Emerald Sea and The Frugal Wizard's Handbook are. (The downside of the prettiness is that I'm terrified to actually read them in physical form lest I mess them up . . .)

How's your reading been these last six months? What are the best books you've read so far? Any that surprised you with how much you enjoyed them? Also, have you ever had the experience of owning a book that you feel is too pretty to actually read? Tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

July 2023 Doings!

Hello, all! Between work, writing, travel, general life stuff, and the fact that my intended blog hiatus ended up being significantly less hiatus-y than intended, June has been a very busy month. Not a bad month, necessarily. Lots of good things have happened this month on all the different fronts, many of which I'm excited to share with y'all. But things have been busy all the same, and I have spent more time sleep-deprived than is necessarily pleasant.

Writing!

• I have had a very productive writing month this May, I have to say. I racked up about 28k words on my Selkie Story, which is just about finished with its first draft. It's ended up a lot longer than I originally intended, which is why I'm finishing it so much later than I hoped I would . . . but I'm very pleased with it, and I think it'll be even better once it's fully finished and edited. A lot of those words were written on the road — the lack of consistent internet makes it a little easier to focus, so long drives when I'm the one driving are often pretty productive. (Of course, depending on the trip, the days in the car often have to be productive to make up for days of no writing at all. But still, it's good.)
• I also spent a fair bit of time this month designing the cover for my Selkie Story, which should be revealed sometime next month. I have to say, I'm super excited to show it off. I had to dust off some parts of my graphic design skill set that I haven't used since college to make it, and I think the result turned out quite well indeed.
• In addition to my Selkie Story writing, I did a fair bit of D&D writing — 5.7k words worth, to be specific. I finished writing my Middle Earth adventure (finally) and worked more on the next module, which I've been referring to as the Feygate Adventure. I also finished writing a non-D&D adventure that I started working on last year but had to set aside due to other projects taking priority. I got to playtest that one with my group last weekend, when one of our number was on vacation and we didn't want to do our usual campaign, and that was super fun! I'm looking forward to running it again with another friend group soon.
• The other writing-related news, of course, was the whole business with Uncommon Universes Press closing down and the change of publisher for the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology. That was largely resolved with minimal input from me, thankfully. You can read my blog post about it here for more info.

Reading!

• This month involved a lot of revisiting old favorites, as you can probably see — out of the twelve books I read in June, seven of them were rereads. And I'm happy to say that all were delightful, though I knew that they would be. Some, like House of Many Ways and The 13 Clocks, I've read many, many times before (though I haven't read The 13 Clocks since before college). Cinderella Must Die is more recent, but there's never a bad time to throw a W.R. Gingell murder mystery into the mix. And I started a reread of the Ranger's Apprentice series, partially because some online friends kept posting fanart that made me miss the characters and partially because my sister was rereading the series and was talking about it. I will say that I'm very pleased with how well the Ranger's Apprentice series, at least the early books, holds up. The last time I read them was apparently before I was on Goodreads, so it's been a bit. But they're pretty much what I remembered, which is to say, pleasantly clean and easy-to-read adventures that don't go overboard on the romance, and I'm enjoying revisiting Will, Halt, and the rest of these old friends.
• On the new reads side, I finally finished my last yet-unread Discworld book, Small Gods, and completed the series. I'd procrastinated on this one because I knew it was tackling the topic of religion, and I wasn't sure how much I actually wanted to read it. Having at last gotten around to it, I don't think I'll read it a second time (it had some interesting thoughts in it, but was, on the whole, not as fun as most Discworld books), but the completionist in me is glad to have read it once.
• I also read two books for the book signing I attended (more on that in a minute): Into the Heartless Wood and Cruel Beauty. Into the Heartless Wood is by the same author as Echo North (which I devoured back in May), and while I preferred Echo, Heartless Wood was also lovely — half Beauty and the Beast, half Little Mermaid, with some very interesting magic and a nice take on a non-human perspective. Cruel Beauty is also Beauty and the Beast, but blended with various Greek myths (notably Pandora and Cupid and Psyche), a little bit of Bluebeard, and, magnificently, Tam Lin. I had mixed feelings about the start, and there was a bit more sexualness in the middle than I normally go in for (though it bothered me less as the couple in question is, y'know, married), but the ending was so lovely (allegorically so, even!) that I couldn't really complain.
• Moving on: Tide and Scale, I've been reading on and off throughout May and June. It's an anthology of mermaid and mermaid-adjacent stories, and is, as anthologies often are, a bit of a mixed bag. But it does include a Rapunzel retelling by my friend Wyn Estelle Owens, and I loved that one, so that's all that really matters to me.
• Finally, we have Wraithwood, which I picked up because its sequel is a Realm Awards finalist and I wanted to know if I should pick up a copy. The answer, as it turns out, is an unequivocal yes, abso-storming-lutely. I loved Brinnie and her story, and I heartily applaud the author for avoiding a lot of the tropes in contemporary not-quite-portal fantasy that usually bug me the most. Notably, she managed to provide a good in-world reason why characters refuse to tell the protagonist things, which I love. This is an author who looked at a plot problem and instead of just smoothing over it or handwaving things, saw an opportunity. And to that I say: well done.
• I am, of course, still reading various classics via email subscription. Notably, I've started Robert Louis Stevenson's Kidnapped, which I know nothing about, but which seems promising so far! (I'm about two chapters in at this point.) I am also somewhat regretting my decision to pick up the Moby Dick Whale Weekly subscription, but I started it and so I'll see it through.

Watching!

• Not a lot noteworthy in this section other than to say that my sister and I watched a few more episodes of Leverage. We're up to the departure of a certain character (can't say who) and still quite enjoying the show. And I have to say, the episode in which that character departs and the episode right after it may be going on my list of favorite episodes in this show. Both were super fun, even with the emotional bits, and I just really enjoyed watching the team in both cases.

Life!

• This month has, as I've already said, been a busy one — we were either traveling or had something going on almost every weekend.
• The most exciting trip was midway through the month, when my sister and I trekked up to Ohio so I could visit with my former roommate and attend the W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree book signing. (It was, for the record, not exclusively their signing, but they were the authors I was primarily going to see.) The signing was, for the record, awesome. I absolutely loved getting to meet some of my very favorite authors (and discovering that they're just as wonderful of people in real life as they seem to be online) — if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you probably saw my post about the signing and about both Gingell and Rowntree actually recognized my name from our online interactions. I also got to meet up with some online friends and fellow fans while I was there (and introduced them to Bring Your Own Book), which was also lovely.
• My visit with my roommate was just as lovely as the signing, for the record. Even though I see her on D&D video calls most weeks, I still miss being able to spend time with her in real life. Also, her family had just gotten a new dog, so we got to meet the pup (who is very cute). We also played lots of Sentinels of the Multiverse and, notably, finally attempted the Oblivaeon endgame-type scenario. We lost that one in the last stage, after spending about eight hours playing through it, but I was still impressed with how well the makers set it up. Even though it was a long game, the gameplay varied enough that it didn't drag like I worried it would.
• Then we got home from that trip, had about four days to recover, and set off for Pennsylvania so we could see my mom and grandpa again. For those curious: my grandpa is still recovering well, even if he really wants to push the limits of what he can do while wearing a neck brace. We're hoping for good news at his next doctor's appointment.
• Amid all the traveling, I've been doing quite a bit of baking — and cooking, since my mom's not here and my sister and I are mostly trading off that responsibility, but the baking is mostly more exciting. (The exception to the mostly is that I made ham and spaetzel for the first time, which is quite an undertaking because you make the spaetzel from scratch, and it turned out really well.) I tried out a new pretzel roll recipe at the start of the month, and that was very tasty. I also made a lovely Scarborough Faire Sourdough loaf to take up to my grandpa's house, with three out of the four herbs (parsley, rosemary, and sage) taken fresh from my plants. I was very pleased with how that came out. In between, I made shortbread (to give my roommate's family), rolls (for my dad to take to work), and flatbread pizza (also using fresh rosemary and basil pesto from my plants!).
• All the travel this month means my D&D group hasn't been able to meet much, but the sessions we've had have been fun. Stressful — a lot of people almost dying — but still fun, with some very exciting moments and some excellent roleplay. I also got to join back up with the library D&D group this month, so that was cool. It's a little bit of a struggle because I created a character who's supposed to be very outgoing and action-oriented, hoping that would help me stay involved rather than just being in the background. But because the rest of the group knows each other better than they know me, and because we meet online, it's hard to actually get into character or play my character how I want to play her.
• On the work front, things keep swinging back and forth between SUPER BUSY and really quiet because no one's in the office. I did get to take pictures of handbells and stained glass windows for the summer handbell concert, though, and that was delightful. I love the church's stained glass windows, and bells are a lovely shape to photograph, and it was just generally a very fun morning, y'know?
• I did have high hopes of doing more crafting this month, mostly in the direction of costume accessories for Realm Makers. Alas, that was not to be. Aside from working on my embroidery, I did basically no crafting of any kind. Ah well . . . maybe next month. Or, more likely, maybe August.

July Plans

• Ok, for real this time . . . the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology releases on July 6, just under one week from today! There was a little bit of a hiccup with this caused by Uncommon Universes Press shutting down, but the book is going forward, and there's still time to preorder the ebook if you want to read my short story, "Grim Guardian," or any of the other seven stories included in this anthology. While I haven't been able to do as much as I wanted to with this launch, it's still a thing that's happening!
• In more exciting news (aka news that has had me internally vibrating with anticipation on and off for literal months): REALM MAKERS! IS A THING! WHERE I WILL BE! My books will ALSO be there, at Kendra E. Ardnek's table (because she is a fabulous person and will be handling my sales). I'll be hanging out at her table as well on and off throughout the conference, between sessions and mingling and such. I'm so hyped, and also my brain cannot entirely believe that it's so close. I'm looking forward to seeing my writer friends (and making new ones), learning from the experts, and the general adventure of it all. And, of course, I'm excited to see the results of the Realm Awards, especially with Through a Shattered Glass in the running.
• Continuing on the writing front: I'll be working hard this weekend and next week to try to get my Selkie Story fully drafted and in the hands of beta readers before I leave for St. Louis. (I also need to make sure I have beta readers to hand it to . . . that's a task for this weekend.) I'm so close to the end that I can taste it, and I've been daydreaming variations of the climax for about a month now. Once I finish that, I'll return to BDPI #4 and try to get that wrapped up — though I may take the week of Realm Makers off from actively working on any particular story. (Oddly enough, writers' conferences aren't a great place to get actual writing done . . .)
• Moving on to the rest of my life, we're expecting that my mom will be back home (at least for a while) this month, while my uncle takes a turn helping out my grandpa. I'm very much looking forward to having her back home, but I'm also perpetually paranoid that something will happen to prevent her return . . .
• As for work, it'll probably be pretty quiet, with the occasional burst of lots of activity. The first part of the month will definitely be busy, since I'll have two short weeks and I'll be working ahead to cover my time out of town. The rest shouldn't be bad. One exciting thing: the kids summer VBS thing is coming up in August, and it's a space theme, which means I'm going to have so much fun designing promo materials. (I've already had fun with the first round of promo. But now I get to have more fun. It's great, and I would like to thank the kids ministry director for her absolutely stellar choice of curriculum, pun entirely intended.)
• Finally, a word on what to expect around the blogs: I'm still hoping that July will be a semi-hiatus, but my Mid-Year Best Of/Book Roundup posts, various book releases and book news things, and one or two other things I have in mind mean it might be pretty full anyway. At the moment, my plan is to post as my time, energy level, and priority list allows, but not to default to not posting if the post in question isn't time-based.

How was your June? What are you looking forward to in July? Will I see you at Realm Makers? What's the best book signing you've ever been to? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

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

Summer 2023 Reads

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey'a! So, as you may remember, earlier in the year, Jenelle Leanne Schmidt ran a Kickstarter campaign for her new series, The Turrim Archive, which starts with The Orb and the Airship. Because I am still a sucker for all things steampunk and because I was insanely curious after hearing about this series on Jenelle's blog for the last five years, I backed the Kickstarter, which meant I got a super-early copy of the first book (before the ARC readers, even) . . . and y'all, it is so good. And since the book releases for general purchase today, I thought now would be a great time to tell y'all why you absolutely need to pick up a copy.

You Need to Read The Orb and the Airship

1. It's a super cool blend of steampunk and traditional epic fantasy. The scope of the world and half the plot feels very traditional epic fantasy — Wheel of Time-ish, but without the constant distrust and suspicion. You've got the old man in a mysterious tower with equally mysterious powers, the small-town boys heading out into the world, the threat of great and ancient evil, all that good stuff. But many other elements of the world, as well as the other half of the plot, are very much steampunk, with trains and airships and inventors and sky pirates — not to mention that the boys are setting out for military school, not a quest. Or, at least, that's what they intended when they started their journey . . .
   
2. Marik and his crew are just plain awesome. If you love Firefly or The Aeronaut's Windlass, Marik's half of the plot will probably be your favorite part of the book. (It certainly was mine.) Marik is a captain in the fine tradition of Mal Reynolds and Francis Grimm, a hero by nature and an outcast by circumstance, loyal to his crew and his principle. I loved his interactions with his crew and how he really does view them as his family. 
3. The friendship between the boys is lovely. Grayden and Wynn, our main characters for the more epic fantasy half of the plot, may not have drawn me in as quickly as Marik did, but I still enjoyed reading their friendship. Though they're very different people, they've known each other forever, and they support each other and have each other's backs in the best way. Things just get better once Berengar joins their group — I can't say a lot about him because of spoilers, but he's my favorite character after Marik for very good reason, and I deeply wish he existed in real life so I could be friends with him. He's a big guy, but his heart is bigger than his muscles, and he's absolutely loyal, and I just love him a lot, ok?
4. The story is satisfying on its own . . . but it also definitely sets you up to wish for more. On its own, The Orb and the Airship is an exciting adventure that brings together exploration and airship heists and daring rescues, along with a healthy dose of character tension, and then brings it all to a highly satisfying conclusion. That said, once you discover the world and the characters — and once you read the last chapters — you'll definitely find yourself eager for the next book in the series. (I know I am !)
5. There's no stress about stumbling into something inappropriate. A major frustration I have with both steampunk stories and certain epic fantasy series (that may have already been named in this post) is that, even while they're exciting and fun to read, every so often I'll run into scenes or elements that make me decidedly uncomfortable — they may not be explicit, but they're clearly meant to excite in a certain way. That's not a problem here. This is a book that I, as an adult, enjoyed quite a lot, but I'd also have no problem handing it to my preteen, just-getting-into-fantasy self (or to any currently-extant preteens in my life, if there were any). Such books are often hard to find, so I'm glad this one exists.

Sound like your cup of tea? You can order The Orb and the Airship in ebook, hardcover, or audiobook on Amazon now! And in the meantime, what about this book sounds most appealing to you? Please tell me in the comments! (Also, if you've already read the book, feel free to tell me what YOU loved best about it in the comments section! I am all for mutual fangirling.)
Thanks for reading!

Wags, Woofs, and Wonders Anthology Update

Hello, all! So, if you preordered the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology, you probably recently received a notification that your order had been canceled. If you did, don't panic — the anthology is still happening. Unfortunately, Uncommon Universes Press, which was publishing the anthology, shut down this week. (Read more about that here.) That means a lot of things for the UUP authors . . . but, thankfully, it's not the end of the anthology, which will now be published by Fellowship of Fantasy.

Every dog has its day.

Is there anything as faithful or loyal as a dog? Always ready to lend a paw, cuddle up next to you, or chase away foes (because their noses know!).

This feel-good collection features eight magical stories of whimsical, true-hearted, and rascally hounds. From a blind dog with surprising gifts to a watery pup with a winsome secret to a fiery hound, ready to test his new dog-sitter to his limits. Danger may lurk, but don’t worry! Every story is guaranteed a heartwarming, happy ending.

This sixth anthology from the Fellowship of Fantasy and Uncommon Universes Press showcases incredible authors dedicated to telling doggone good fantasy fiction that will make you laugh, sigh, and cuddle your own furry friend.

Releasing July 6, 2023

Preorder the ebook on Amazon | Preorder the ebook elsewhere | Add on Goodreads

If you already preordered the book, you will need to preorder it again. The paperback will, I believe, be available on Amazon and possibly via other retailers on or around release day. Additionally, the change in publishers mean that ARC signups are open again! Click here or contact me directly in the comments or my socials if you'd like to receive an ARC in exchange for an honest review, and keep an eye out for more ways to help spread the word about this release. If you have any questions, feel free to leave those in the comments!
Thanks for reading and for understanding about this unusual circumstance.

May 2023 Doings!

Hello, everyone! This has been quite a month, to say the least. What I hoped would be a nice, relaxing month with plenty of writing and time with my sister (and the rest of my family) has ended up being anything but that. Well, the writing has been happening. But as for the rest . . . not so much. Also, on a quick housekeeping note: my blogging will be a bit intermittent in the next couple months (June and July). I have planned posts in both months due to time-sensitive things like book releases and mid-year book celebrations, so it won't be a full hiatus, but I don't know how much I'll post outside those pre-planned, time-based posts and my Doings posts. I don't love taking even a partial hiatus so soon after my last one, but between travel plans and writing deadlines, I think this is the best choice.

Writing!

• First off, don't forget that the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology releases in just one month! Make sure you preorder the ebook or the paperback to get your copy of these eight enchanting tales of magical furry friends, including my own slightly spooky story, "Grim Guardian." (This actually has nothing to do with what writing I've done this month, but I haven't promoted the release as much as I usually would, so . . . bear with me, ok?)
• [Note: I originally said that the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology releases in "one week." This was very incorrect and is the reason I should not write blog posts when I'm stressed and running low on sleep. The actual release date for the anthology is July 6. You should still preorder, though.]
• In other writing-related-but-not-actually-writing news (that you may have already heard), Through a Shattered Glass was selected as a finalist in the novella category of the Realm Awards! I am absolutely thrilled to have made it this far, so you'll forgive me mentioning it a second time on here. The winners won't be announced until the Realm Makers conference in July, so I have another reason to look forward to that weekend . . . you know, as if I wasn't already vibrating with excitement every time I thought about it.
• Happily, this has been a much better writing month than April was, with over 30K words and seven chapters added to my Selkie Story, plus a reworked outline for the rest of the book. My weeks have kind of alternated between not coming close to meeting my writing goals and blowing straight past said goals, so that's been interesting. I am, on the whole, happy with what I've written, and I'm looking forward to writing the rest. Hopefully I can get it done before my deadlines! I've also started working on the cover for the story, which will probably be in a different style than most of the covers I've made so far, and that's going to be an interesting challenge.
• I've also been somewhat productive on the D&D front, though less so. The campaign I run only met once all month, so motivation to finish writing the LOTR module has been low. On the other hand, I started writing the next adventure for the campaign, and I am so excited to get to actually run it. We'll be back in my original homebrew world, delving into some backstory for one of the PCs and tackling a problem that should be a little quicker to solve than most of the last few adventures, and it's going to be awesome. I'm nowhere near done writing, but I'm still exciting.

Reading!

• Yes, I've been stress-reading, why do you ask?
• Actually, that's a bit of an exaggeration — these mostly weren't stress-reads. Some of these are books I've been reading in email subscription form and just finished this month — those include The Wizard of Oz (always a pleasure), The Return of the King (wrapping up the last few chapters so it doesn't take another year or two to finish), and Frankenstein (Victor Frankenstein is a whiny little snot who doesn't deserve the title of mad scientist, and I'm not afraid to say it). Others — mainly Snow Quest Like Home and Thornrose Estate — were beta reads. Both were good, but Thornrose was definitely my favorite of the two (and one of my favorite reads of the month).
• That said, I had a lot of good reads this month. Behind Closed Doors is book 2 in the Worlds Behind series, and it was even better than Book 1 — I'm starting to develop a theory that the second book in almost any spinoff series will be better than the first one because the first one is laden with too many expectations.
• I also read and loved two books that people told me about ages ago, but I procrastinated on reading: Lord of Dreams and Echo North. Both were absolutely amazing, with magic and romance and mystery (and mysterious love interests). Lord of Dreams also had fae and portal fantasy, though my enjoyment was dimmed a little by my initial frustration with the heroine. And Echo North was a retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon, so you can probably imagine how much I loved it. I definitely wish I'd read both much sooner!
• The month also included two Beauty and the Beast retellings, The Scarred Mage of Roseward and A Thieving Curse, both of which I enjoyed more than I expected. (A Thieving Curse was better, though, and it stands alone despite being the first in a series.)
• That covers most of my reads this month. The rest is mostly rereads, with the exception of Martha Wells's Exit Strategy, which was cool in the same way the rest of the books in the series were cool. Wells is very good at writing nonhumans in a way that is both alien and recognizable, and the book on the whole was very exciting.

Watching!

• So, I have officially gotten my sister into Leverage, and I've continued getting her into Firefly! I am quite pleased to have someone to watch my shows with — it's more fun to watch things with people, but my tastes and schedule are different enough from those of my parents that it's sometimes to make anything happen. My sister, on the other hand, likes most of the same things I do, so that works out better. We've been enjoying Firefly, of course, and it's fun to see her reactions and predictions to the characters and situations that I'm already familiar with.
• With Leverage, since I didn't want to start over from the beginning, we temporarily jumped ahead to The Rashomon Job, the same episode my friend used to introduce me to the show. It's late enough in the show that you get an idea of the crew's dynamics, but the flashbacks also give you a very good idea about the individual crew members . . . and also, it's just a really fun episode. After that, we went back to where I had left off in Season 2.
• While I did watch a fair amount of other stuff this month (because we were at my grandpa's a lot, and he likes to watch TV shows, mostly older ones, in the evenings), the only other noteworthy thing is that, having watched one full episode and several partial episodes of Monk, I have come to the conclusion that I do not care for that show at all. Which is, you know, a bit sad because normally I can get behind a good mystery show even if I don't love the characters, but that one mostly just annoyed me.

Life!

• This month has been a rollercoaster, and I would like a break, please.
• Well, that's not actually accurate. The first week of the month was the rollercoaster. The rest of the month has just been busy.
• So, yes, May started with much excitement — I was finishing up my second grad school class, my sister was graduating, I was going to get to see some friends in Ohio; it was going to be great. And it certainly started out that way! I submitted my final project for the grad school class on Thursday; it was a little longer than I wanted, but all the extra length was in graphs that I couldn't size down, so I was generally satisfied. Then we arrived in Ohio, my grandfather in tow, on Friday, where we launched into a busy day of helping my sister pack and attending various senior celebrations. I had also made plans to hang out with some local friends Friday evening (skipping one of the senior celebrations that was basically just a chapel service). Sadly, one of the friends came down with a bug last minute and couldn't make it, but I had a pleasant time with the other friend.
• Then it was Saturday, the day of graduation, and the rollercoaster really started . . .
  • To be clear, the actual graduation ceremony went very well. The president made an excellent speech. Other people also made speeches that I don't really remember. I had a good internal laugh about the fact that formal academic garb seems to have not changed much in the last four hundred years. My sister walked across the stage and got her diploma. That was all fine. And walking around after the ceremony to take pictures of my sister and her friends in their robes also went fine.
  • And then — then, while my grandpa and I were on the way back to my sister's dorm (my parents and sister having gone on ahead for various reasons), Grandpa tripped over a parking lot bumper — fell — hit his head —
  • Thankfully, if you have to fall and hit your head, Cedarville on graduation day is a pretty good place to do it — its biggest program is nursing, after all, and between the graduates and their parents, there were multiple people with medical training nearby, including an EMT and a nurse. They were able to check him over (conscious, oriented, all limbs functioning) and keep him comfortable while someone else called 911 and I called my parents (because, as mentioned, someone else was already calling emergency services).
  • It probably didn't take that long (don't panic) for the actually on-duty EMTs to arrive, though it seemed like forever (don't panic). My parents followed the ambulance to the hospital (don't panic), while my sister and I returned to her dorm to try to get all her things packed before her move-out time (don't panic), wondering the whole time what was going to happen from here (don't panic).
  • Eventually, it was determined that Grandpa had broken a couple vertebrae, and while the exact severity and treatment of the injury was still uncertain, we definitely weren't going back to Pennsylvania that day. So, we made arrangements to stay with some nearby friends until we knew what was happening. Sunday gave us no more answers, though we spent almost the whole the day at the hospital with Grandpa. (Well, I wasn't there most of the day, because he could only have so many visitors at a time, and someone needed to do laundry, and I was the most logical person to handle that — but I still visited in the evening.) We knew he was doing quite well considering his injury, that he could walk and move around and was healthy enough to complain about the hospital food. We just didn't know when he could leave the hospital, or if he'd be able to travel, or anything.
  • (Sunday night was also when I found out about the Realm Awards finalist list, via H.L. Burke congratulating me and another person in her Discord server on making the list. It was an interesting day.)
  • We expected to be there most of Monday as well, so I made hasty arrangements to work remotely that day so I could move my last day of leave to Tuesday (when my dad and I could drive back to Virginia). Then, abruptly, the doctors declared that yes, he could leave (thank God), yes, he could travel back to Pennsylvania with us (thank God), and yes, he could go home instead of going to a rehab center (thank God). He'd have to wear a neck brace for a while, but that was more or less expected. So, we quickly repacked what we'd unpacked, loaded ourselves back in the car, and drove back to his house. From there, my dad and I returned home on Tuesday so we could be back at work on time, while my mom and sister stayed to help Grandpa.
• Since then, we've driven up to Pittsburgh two out of the three weekends: once on Mother's Day weekend and once on Memorial Day weekend. My mom's stayed up there the whole month, though my sister came back with us after the Mother's Day trip. Both the amount of travel and the not having my mom around have felt really weird, and I look forward to when things go back to normal, even if all the driving means extra writing time without the distraction of the internet. On the upside, Grandpa continues to do well — he was very active before this happened, and I think that's helping him now. Of course, he's also frustrated by not being able to do things now, but better that than any of the alternatives.
• On the one weekend we didn't go to Pennsylvania, my sister and I went to the Virginia Ren Fest with a friend. That was pretty fun — it's not as big as the Ren Fest in Ohio or Maryland, but they had a nice assortment of vendors, and the location (on the grounds of a winery) was pretty. The one downside is that we managed to go the single day on which they didn't have a joust — just our luck, right?
• Aside from all that, I've mostly spent the month writing and trying to keep up with all the things that need to be done. Work, at least, has been mostly quiet, though it's starting to ramp back up as we move into summer stuff. I'm also nearly done with another embroidery project (most of which was done during my trips to Pennsylvania so I could have something to do with my hands that wasn't scrolling through my phone), this one fanart for a band I like. I'm pleased with how it's turned out, despite a near-disaster when I spilled water on part of the water-soluble stabilizer (oops).

June Plans

• I basically need to do ALL THE WRITING to get my Selkie Story done by the deadline, plus I need to do a cover, tagline, blurb, preorder setup . . . all that good stuff. So that's going to be the bulk of my free time.
• Work will also be busy — there's no big projects, but there are several mid-sized ones, many of which require people from outside the church staff to get me specific information. If you have ever worked in a position where you are reliant on receiving information from people who you cannot directly remind about things like deadlines and the reasons for deadlines, you know exactly why this is stressful. If you've never had such an experience, you are fortunate and should pray you continue to be so blessed.
• (For the record, I continue to enjoy my day job. And I recognize that the reasons behind my needing information from these people means that they have a lot of other things on their minds and plates. It's just . . . very frustrating when I'm prevented from doing my job due to circumstances I can't control, knowing that the same people who aren't getting me the information are the ones who may very well be mad when things aren't done right because they didn't get me that info by when I needed it, even with a month's worth of warning.) 
• Also looking forward to doing some travel to places that aren't Pennsylvania — by which I mean that I'm going to drive eight hours (with my sister) to visit a friend and attend a book signing. It's going to be great. It will make writing difficult. But it'll still be great. I'll also be prepping for Realm Makers in July, which will be a bit less intense than last year since I still have most of what I put together for last year. So that'll be good.
• Finally, I will continue working on my crafts. Not sure what I'll do next after I finish my current embroidery piece, but I have a bunch of ideas, so I'm sure I'll figure something out. Or maybe I'll go back to working on some knitting and crocheting so I can have some new wraps ready for fall. We'll see.

How was your May? What are you looking forward to in June? Do you think that second books in spinoff series tend to be better than first books? Have you been traveling much, or do you have any exciting travel plans? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Hello, all! As some of you may be aware, Kendra E. Ardnek just dropped four new Beauty and the Beast retellings: Snow Quest Like Home (which combines B&B with The Snow Queen and a few other stories — plus bonus crossover with another series!), Fairer Than Beauty (a Twist of Adventure in which the main character did not want to be in this story), The Dragon (a Western fairytale I haven't read yet), and Thornrose Estate, which blends Beauty and the Beast with Northanger Abbey and rapidly claimed the spot of Favorite Austen Fairy Tale. Seriously, y'all — I loved this story so much, and I think you will too. And, of course, I'm going to give you all the reasons why.

Reasons to Love Thornrose Estate

1. Calla is such a relatable heroine. This may be a surprise to those who read Snowfield Palace, but once we see Calla out of Rina's shadow . . . oh, I would so be friends with her! As with her Austen equivalent, she's a bookworm and, dare I say, fangirl who takes refuge in her favorite stories and tends to view life in narrative terms, and it gives me life every time she reflects on the narrative appropriateness of particular occurrences. And I think her struggle — trying to navigate life away from home and family in a world where there always seems to be info she's missing and working to figure out who she is in the face of who others are telling her she should be — is something that will resonate with most of us.
   
2. Hansel is an absolute delight of a love interest. Simultaneously the voice of reason in many circumstances and an absolute sweetheart with regard to his loved ones, including Calla, Hansel is the most sensible person in the entire book, and I love him for it. He's his sister's staunch defender, and he reaches out to help and support Calla when others leave her floundering, and he's just generally wonderful. I only wish that we could've seen even more of him than we did, since he and Calla are so lovely together.
3. The villains are eminently loathable. You know how, with regard to the Harry Potter fandom, fans tend to hate Umbridge so much more than Voldemort because Umbridge is a familiar villain, one of a type they've probably encountered themselves at some point? That's what Kendra does here with the villains in Thornrose. We have the manipulators, the false friends who make it seem like they care for you but are only really using you for their own ends. (Can't say who those are, but if you've read Snowfield, you probably have a good guess about one of them, and if you've read NA, you can guess the other.) And we also have the John/Gaston character in Johnston, a man whose pride makes Calla's strengths into something he has to "forgive" and who's more than happy to ignore her discomfort with his attentions if it means getting what he wants. And, let me tell you, it is so satisfying to see them get their due in the end.
4. So many mysteries to unravel — and it's very satisfying to get some answers! If you've read Snowfield Palace, you know that Kendra left us all on quite the cliffhanger with many, many unanswered questions. Thornrose Estate finally gives us some answers, but sparingly, and Kendra weaves them in with other mysteries: why can't Calla remember half her life — and why does she keep losing bits and pieces of more recent memory? Why do so many important people seem to have such an interest in her? And what the pumpernickel is going on with the Forest? Calla's memory means she's often just as uncertain as we are, but we know just enough more than she does to put pieces together, and the effect is just so good. It's one of the main reasons I ended up devouring the second half of the book in one night.
5. Northanger Abbey and Beauty and the Beast are an excellent pairing. Kendra hasn't missed once on her fairy tale and Austen combos! I will say that this is much more Northanger Abbey than it is Beauty and the Beast — while there are plenty of B&B elements, this doesn't really read like a straight retelling of that fairy tale. The story does make up for this somewhat by giving us two in-world versions of B&B that Calla loves and uses as the chief basis for trying to figure out all the strangeness she's stumbled into. That said, even if you look at it as just a Northanger Abbey retelling, Thornrose Estate is excellent.

If you haven't already preordered Thornrose Estate, you can pick it up on Amazon now! So, how excited are you for this retelling? And who's the most relatable protagonist or familiarly-loathable villain you've ever encountered? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!