August 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! After the craziness of July, I'm happy that August was a little quieter — which isn't to say it wasn't busy, but it was a more mundane, routine kind of busy rather than the kind you get when you're celebrating and driving halfway across the country and back. Most of the excitement this month has been on the writing front, so let's jump in there!

Writing!

• The big writing-related news of the month was, of course, the cover and preorder reveal for Illusion's Reign! You can click there to get all the details, but in short: Illusion's Reign is Onora's story and is a prequel to Song of the Selkies. It will release September 27 as part of the Lost Kerchiefs Arista Challenge Group, and it's currently available for preorder on Amazon. I'm very excited, but that probably goes without saying.
• Aside from that, August has mostly been dominated by edits. I spent most of the month working through the big edit/partial rewrite of Illusion's Reign, following guidance from my beta readers. Most of the book was already in pretty good condition and just needed sanding and polishing, so to speak,, but I did end up adding an extra chapter and rewriting large chunks of some other chapters. Then I took a couple days off before jumping in for editing Round 3, which focuses more on word choice and sentence-level issues, and which I finished this past week. Now I'm just waiting for my physical proof copy to arrive so I can do proofreading. All in all, I've been able to stay pretty much on or ahead of schedule, so I'm happy about that!
• Other than Illusion's Reign, I've been working on my next D&D adventure, and I actually made some really good progress . . . thankfully, since we finally got to the start of that new adventure in our last session, which means I can now properly refer to it as the tournament arc. I have enough material prepped to fill the next few sessions, and I think I'm mostly past the hard part of getting the rest put together, so all in all, I'm in a good place . . . as long as I don't get overconfident, anyway.

Reading!

• Yeah, it's been a really light reading month. To be fair, that's partially because The Ward took a solid two weeks — it was a much longer book than I anticipated. It was very good, though! I loved the blend of suspense with found family elements, and the alternate-history world was cool. I'm not sure if this is technically historical fantasy or alternate-world magical realism, but either way, it was very well done. It also satisfied while still making me curious enough to want to find out more about the characters, so I'll absolutely be watching for the next book in the series.
• My other new read of the month was an ARC of Her Fake Superhero Boyfriend, H.L. Burke's upcoming release. It should probably go without saying that I loved this one! Burke's SVR books never fail to delight me, and this one included a take on one of my favorite tropes. Besides that, getting to see more of KC was fun, and I absolutely loved Mira and Mira and KC's dynamic together. They're just so good for each other.
• I do not know why I reread Furiously Happy other than my brain said "I want this" and I said "Ok then." I liked it roughly the same amount as I did the first time around. Nothing much to say here. At least it counts towards my goal of 15 non-speculative-fiction books for the year.
• I continue to enjoy Dracula Daily and Re: Dracula, of course! I have somewhat fallen off keeping up with most of my other books-by-post subscriptions, but I'll catch up eventually . . .
• Finally, I'm currently reading Splintered Mind by W.R. Gingell, since I got my Kickstarter backer ebook copy earlier in the month. I'm about a third of the way in and liking it very much so far!

 Watching & Playing!

• So, the other reason why I read less than usual this month is because my gaming sessions kept going later than planned . . . which anyone else who's played Star Rail will understand, as this month was exclusively taken up by the Penacony storyline, which was a roller-coaster from start to finish. There was much screaming (and also some tears) in the group chat I have with two of my friends who got me into the game.
• Unfortunately, I can't talk a lot about the storyline because it is very twisty and I don't want to spoil anything. I thought I knew most of the major spoilers going in, but I somehow managed to dodge the biggest ones. (That definitely contributed to the screaming.) All I'll say is that it was so good and so hard to put down, and I loved so many of the characters. I think Acheron is my favorite of the Penacony crew — she's an incredibly dangerous woman who has every reason in the world to be a doom-and-gloom edgelord pessimist, but who is instead one of the kindest and most hopeful characters in the game, second only (I think) to Jing Yuan. She's the best. There were a lot of good characters, though.
• So, yes. That was really good, but it was also a really long storyline, and I only just finished it this week (not counting the sidequests). If you play Star Rail and want to talk about it, feel free to message me.

 Life!

• As I said earlier, August was a lot quieter than July, and thank God for that! Outside of writing, my main excitement happened early in the month when my friend Wyn and I met up for an escape room and lunch (and so I could give her back the costume pieces I'd transported to Realm Makers for her). We very narrowly succeeded at the escape room — we had to use all the hints, alas — but we had fun! Plus, it's always nice to get to hang out with friends in-person.
• Also exciting: the D&D campaign I play in reached the climax this month! We've been wrapping up loose ends, gathering allies, and confronting our big bad once and for all. We've also had some really wonderful character moments in the process, including a point at which our ranger had to push back against her (lawful evil) dad's plans for her, giving up some pretty impressive power-ups in the process. At the moment, we're between stages of the climatic battle, but it's been pretty epic so far. Also, my paladin has once again accidentally picked up a cursed item . . . but the curse in question is partially nullified by another of her items, so it kind of turned into an advantage for her. (For the D&D players who were curious: she's under the effects of the Barbarian Reckless feature, but she has adamantine armor, so she has double the chance to get hits, particularly critical hits, on enemies, while they just have a slightly higher chance of getting a normal hit on her. For a paladin fighting a lot of undead, that's a risk worth taking.) I'm still getting a kick out of the fact that she's the only one who seems to get cursed items, though, and that both times, she's gotten the item in question right before a major boss fight.
• Outside of that, life has mostly been business as usual. Work is gearing up for fall kickoff and giving campaign, but the workload so far has been manageable, despite my fears. On the crafting front, I'm starting early on Christmas presents (for once), and I finished several embroidery hoops so they can be displayed. Now I just have to figure out where to put them.
• I did bake some fun things! Specifically, I finally made asiago and sun-dried tomato quick bread, which I've wanted to try for ages. We happened to get some sun-dried tomatoes from a Bible study friend at the start of the month, so I baked a loaf and took it back to Bible study last weekend. It was very tasty, and I definitely ate too much of it (oops). I also made crispy coconut oat cookies, which are essentially ANZAC biscuits from Baking Yesteryear with some extra butter, and those were yummy as well.
• So far, I think only doing one grad school class this semester was the right choice. This time last year, I was already really stressed, even just starting the class. This year has been a lot better, though the fact that I finished the draft and main edit on Illusion's Reign closer to when I intended to also helps. I still do have issues with the lure of busy-ness, especially as I don't like disappointing people or saying no . . . but I'm doing better.

September Plans

• I get to start the month out by seeing my sister (and some other friends) and visiting one of my favorite places, so I'm very much looking forward to that.
• After that, though, we're tackling a very busy and exciting month! As already mentioned, Illusion's Reign releases at the end of September, and while I have a lot done already, there's always more to do: proofreading, uploading final departments, getting stuff ready for online promo, sending out ARCs, and so forth. Hopefully, though, that'll be less stressful this year than it has been in some past years.
• Additionally, September sees the return of the Silmaril Awards! Nominations open on Monday, September 2, and I'll be hosting one of the categories again. Which one? You'll have to wait and see . . .
• No grad school classes this month — that doesn't start until October — but I do need to order textbooks sometime sooner than later. Work will also continue to be busy for the same reasons as it was in August.
• I'm hoping to make it to the Renaissance Festival sometime in September as well, since that's when most of the theme weekends are. If not, though, I'll go in October; it'll be fine. And, of course, September will probably see the ending of the D&D campaign . . . not the group, though; we already have plans for characters for the next adventure! (Which reminds me, I need to finish some backstory stuff for my character. And by "backstory stuff" I mean a family tree and notes on other relationships, because I like coming up with that kind of thing and it makes the DM's job easier.)

How was your August? Any plans for September? Are you planning to go to any fun events — Renaissance Festivals, fall fests, or anything else — this fall? And have you preordered Illusion's Reign yet? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

July 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! July  has been a busy and exciting month — but, you know, in a very good (if also very tiring) way. The big news of the month has already been going around the internet, but it bears repeating one more time, and there's plenty more to say, so let's get going!

Writing!

• If you missed the big news: Song of the Selkies won not just the fantasy novel category of the Realm Awards but also the Book of the Year award! I did not expect this at all (not in a "I don't think I deserve it" way, more in a "This seems like such a huge dream that I forgot it was possible" way), but needless to say, I'm thrilled and delighted. I'm also glad I could actually be at the awards ceremony to receive the award in person — it was an incredible night (but more on that later).
• Outside of that (very exciting) news, I don't have a lot to report. I didn't do much writing this month until this past week when I started edits on Onora's story, but that's not a bad thing. It was nice to take some time off from big projects to enjoy Realm Makers and see family and friends. I did dabble a little on assorted small projects, just for fun, and I worked on D&D writing, but that's about it.
• I did put together the cover for Onora's story, though! It was a bit of a headache to find decent images and put them together, but I finally got something I'm satisfied with (thanks in part to help from a friend who was able to diagnose where my problems were when I was stuck). Keep an eye out in the next month or so for the cover reveal!

Reading!

• This was a little bit of a lighter reading month — though that tends to be a side-effect of travel.
• The highlight of the month was definitely City of Serpents, the latest Secrets of Ormdale novel! I posted my thoughts on this book earlier this month, but to sum up, I loved spending more time with established characters and meeting new ones, and the story was excellent as ever.
• I spent a lot of the month reading three different anthologies: Unexpected Encounters of the Draconic Kind, Wags, Woofs, and Wonders, and DOSA Files Volume 1. I like anthologies for busy months, as it's easier to find a good stopping point and still feel satisfied, and all three of these contained some excellent stories. I mean, yes, I'm a little biased on two of them, but still . . .
• My other new-to-me reads were The Adventure Zone: The Eleventh Hour, The Lost World, and Down with the Prince. Surprisingly, The Lost World was my favorite of these — it's an adventure story by Arthur Conan Doyle about an expedition to a remote region where dinosaurs haven't died out, and while I can see why it's not as well-known as Sherlock Holmes, it was still exciting and a generally fun read. The Eleventh Hour was also good, with a nice balance of humor and really hard-hitting feels. Down With the Prince . . . I may have set my hopes a little too high with this one; the blurb and general vibes seemed really promising, but I didn't jive with certain aspects of the story, and I also think the prose could've benefited from another editing pass.
• Finally, I'm continuing to enjoy Dracula via Dracula Daily and various Sherlock Holmes stories via Letters from Watson. I haven't consistently done a good job keeping up with all my books-by-email subscriptions, but I still say it's an excellent way to read the classics.

 Watching & Playing!

• I have finally seen The Mummy (1999)! I kept hearing so many good things about this movie — first from my college roommate, then from various corners of the internet — but as has been established, I am really bad about actually watching movies, regardless of how much I want to see them. I also really wanted to see it with my former roommate if I could, since I knew how much she loved it. So, when I visited her on my way to Realm Makers and we were looking for something to watch, I suggested this, and she and her family enthusiastically agreed.
• Having now watched it, I see why so many people love it so much! I don't think it's my new favorite movie, but I would definitely watch it again. Evie, Rick, and Jonathan are all excellent protagonists — Rick especially. He has a very sensible approach to things, y'know? And you have to love the snark. As far as the story goes, I enjoyed that as well. There were a few bits when I had to shut my eyes or look away from the screen (mostly some of the bug scenes), but overall, it was a good time.
• My family also watched The Music Man for Independence Day (well, a few days after Independence Day, but it still counts). I don't have much to say about it other than I still love this movie.
• As far as podcasts and gaming . . . nothing much to report. I'm still mostly listening to Dracula Daily and Lateral, with the occasional episode of E.A. Hendryx's Productivity and Prose podcast thrown in for variety's sake. And I continue to thoroughly enjoy Honkai Star Rail! July's gaming time was mostly spent on story-relevant sidequests, but I finally started the Penacony storyline (the third or fourth chapter of the main story, depending on how you classify the beginning of the game) this past week. I have heard many, many things about this quest and setting, and I am simultaneously nervous and excited. I have enjoyed what I've played so far, though, even if I'm kind of side-eyeing everyone.

 Life!

• The big event of July, of course, was Realm Makers — and because my sister and several of my friends live halfway between me and the conference, I decided to visit them for a few days, turning my conference journey into a just-over-a-week-long trip.
• I spent the first couple days of the trip at my college roommate's house, visiting with her and playing lots of Sentinels of the Multiverse. We haven't really played Sentinels since my sister moved out, so this was a very good time. This is also when I watched The Mummy, as I mentioned earlier.
• From there, I drove down to my sister's house and stayed there for a few more very busy days. I visited her church, joined in her weekly dinner with her friends, and got to put faces to many names that I'd heard frequently. We also visited some family and had a game-and-cheese night with a couple of my D&D friends, which was a delight. We did find some time to just chill together, though, and I really appreciated that.
• Then, on Wednesday, I repacked my stuff and set off for St. Louis! For whatever reason, that drive felt so much longer than the drive out to my roommate's and sister's area had, even though it was about the same length or a little shorter. (I'm going to guess that it's because it was a really boring drive. I like driving in Ohio, but once you get further west, it kinda turned into a whole lot of nothing.) I made it to the hotel, however, and met up with Wyn Owens, with whom I was once again rooming for the conference. Despite both of us being tired from travel, we had a grand time chatting with each other and with assorted others we bumped into.
• The conference properly started Thursday evening with a keynote from Allen Arnold, which was really good. The highlight of the day, however, was getting to help playtest an SVR-themed tabletop roleplaying game that H.L. Burke is developing — she ran a one-shot (set at a writers' conference, naturally), and we had a whole crew of heroes assembled to save the authors from the villain, the dreaded Red Pen (who does not believe in the Oxford comma). The game was chaotic, to say the least, but it was a lot of fun, and we did successfully save the day!
• Friday night was the Awards Banquet, which was amazing . . . and not just for the obvious reasons. I went in costume, of course, though I didn't go as a specific character. I was the Lady Dragon Keeper, which basically means I had a medieval-y dress and some of the dragons my sister has made me, including a new one that attaches to the shoulder of my dress with magnets. The costume wasn't elaborate, but it served its main purposes, which was to show off the dragons and let me tell others how cool my sister is.
• I did not participate in the costume contest, but Wyn did, wearing a Princess Zelda cosplay that featured a very impressive dragon puppet . . . that actually moved. Because her arm was inside it. She had a separate fake arm and everything; it was very convincing. I mean, I saw her put the costume on, and I still had to do double-takes all evening! She was one of the five finalists called up on stage for the Best Costume cheer-off, and after the first round of cheers, the MCs could only narrow it down to a top three, of which she was one. What was meant as a tiebreaker round after that only confirmed the tie, so the MCs then announced that there would be a third try, but this time, everyone could only cheer for one costume. This time, there was enough difference that the MCs could determine a winner: Wyn and her Zelda costume!
• After that excitement, we moved straight into the book awards. I was a lot less nervous this year than last year, but I still was feeling a little anxious as we approached the Fantasy Novel category (which was the fourth-to-last category to be announced). I spend a lot of time around these awards trying to talk down my chances, so when they announced the second-place winner and it wasn't Song of the Selkies, I told myself that I was probably just a finalist but that even that was amazing . . . and then Scott Minor, reading the first line of the winning book, said "As betrothal ceremonies go," Wyn screamed quietly, and I had a delighted realization that I was not just a finalist.
• Walking back (somewhat in a daze) from the stage, I briefly realized "I guess this means I'm technically eligible for the Book of the Year award; that's wild." Of course, I knew there were a lot of other amazing books also winning awards, so my chances still seemed pretty slim — and they seemed slimmer still when Scott reminded those gathered that some second-place winners would might be Book of the Year finalists simply because of how many points they'd earned.
• Then, two books into the finalist list, he announced "Song of the Selkies, by Sarah Pennington, Independently Published," and I had another "Oh. Oh MY," moment. Still, even a finalist position was more than I'd expected — and when he announced Suspended in the Stars by E.A. Hendryx as another finalist a moment later, I felt like I had a pretty good idea who was going to win. If I got second place, that would be incredible.
• He announced the second-place winner — not me. I thought "Well, Book of the Year finalist and Best Fantasy Novel is still amazing, and I am very excited for Emilie. Her book sounds awesome; I'm sure she's earned this."
• And then Scott read the first few words of the Book of the Year's first line: "As betrothal ceremonies go . . ."
• Wyn screamed (quietly, again).
• I attempted to process the fact that something I didn't even think was a possibility had just happened.
• Somehow I made it back on the stage. It was probably very obvious to everyone that I was very flustered and more than a little in shock, but hopefully it was also very obvious that I was delighted and surprised.
• It was a very good night.
• All that said, the awards were not actually the best part of the conference — the best part was spending time with friends, chatting about life, books, and whatever else came up, and getting to actually hug all the people I want to be able to hug the other 360 days of the year that aren't Realm Makers or RM-adjacent. To that end, I actually ended up skipping a few of the sessions so I would have more time to spend talking to people (and so I wouldn't have to rush through lunch one of the days).
• The sessions I did attend were very good, though. Allen Arnold's "Slaying the Seven-Headed Story Beast" was less craft-focused than what I normally do, but it was very insightful and helpful. I was a little worried after the first session, which hit on an insecurity I was struggling a lot with at the beginning of the year, but the last session kind of gave me . . . I'm not sure if it was a push in a particular direction, a sign that a couple things I've been thinking about doing (or not doing) were ok, or both, but whatever it was, it was good.
• Less good: the journey back from the conference, which involved two eight-hour driving days in a row. That was very long and very tiring, especially since I didn't sleep much Saturday night, I got a later-than-ideal start on Sunday, and it rained all day Monday (when I was going through the mountains). Next year, I'm going to break up the drive a little better and give myself more of a break between travel days. Still, I made it home in one piece, and for that, I'm grateful.
• This post is already long, so I'll make the recap of the rest of the month quick. Work has generally been quiet, especially since people have been out of the office most of the month. My family celebrated Independence Day with our Bible study, as usual, enjoying smoked pulled pork barbecue and the televised DC fireworks. The following week, I made cornmeal cookies from B. Dylan Hollis's video, but they did not turn out as intended — they spread a lot. I do not think I will repeat that particular recipe. On the crafting front, I finished the embroidery on both my Cosmere pin hoop and a Schlock Mercenary pin hoop; now I just need to assemble them into their final forms. I'm generally pleased with how both have turned out. Now I'm back to crocheting creatures.
• And that wraps it up! It's been a busy month, but a very good one.

August Plans

• We're back to working on Onora's story! I will be spending all month editing. Joy. (This is my least favorite part of the writing process.) Thankfully, my beta readers have all given me really good feedback, and I am very appreciative . . . but that does not make me any more excited about having to figure out how to implement it. Ah well. I will survive, and both the story and I will be the better for it. I think we should also be getting a cover reveal sometime this month, so keep an eye out for that!
• Work is getting busier again as we move towards fall and the accompanying flurry of events. We're doing something different (to me) for the fall kickoff event, and I am a little bit nervous about that, but I'm trying to be optimistic. If it goes well and has the desired result (more people volunteering instead of the same half-dozen people doing everything), it'll provide a big improvement for all the ministry staff and current volunteers, so . . . hopefully it goes well. It's not until September, but a lot of the prep is happening now.
• I should be back to blogging this month, if all goes well. I also need to get busy on the next D&D adventure, since we'll need at least the first part of it in a couple weeks.
• I will not be starting a new grad school class this month, as I've decided to only do one class this semester. While that will delay my finishing date a little, it'll also allow me to focus more of my energy on my next book release instead of splitting my attention and stressing myself out. For the record, this decision is part of how I'm implementing what I learned in Allen Arnold's Story Beast talks — he had a lot to say about the lure of busy-ness and the dangers of trying to do too many good things, and that resonated a lot. My intention is wait on the class so I can get Onora's story finished and finished well, and then scale back to a lighter writing schedule in October so I can give the class the attention it deserves. (I do still need to figure out what class that's going to be and register for it, though.)

How was your July? Any plans for August? Were you at Realm Makers (and if so, what was your favorite part)? How well do you handle long drives? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

June 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! June has, thankfully, been pretty peaceful. That's not to say that nothing happened — in fact, one or two quite exciting things occurred! — but mostly it's been very routine. One of the most exciting bits of the month was in the world of writing, though, so let's jump in there.

Writing!

• Let's start with some excellent news: the first draft of Daughters of Atirse #2 is finished! We wrapped up with 34 chapters and just shy of 174K words, which is pretty substantial and a little longer than I expected, but not much longer. It might have been longer still had my characters not decided to go slightly off-script in the climax — I know, normally that makes stories longer, but there's an exception to everything. I also got to have a nice writing day and some treats at a cafe on Juneteenth (which I had off from work), so that helped the process along.
• I finished that last Sunday, June 23. I then took a couple days off from writing as a break before jumping back in to do some light edits (mostly fixing some details that shifted between the first half of the book and the second and rewriting a scene or two), which are going well; I'm about a third of the way through those. Once I finish edits, I'll send it off to beta-readers.
• In other exciting news, the DOSA Files anthology that includes my short story "Save{Point}" just released this past week! Even if you missed the Kickstarter, you can now order it in ebook or paperback form. There's also a blog tour that just wrapped up, but I think you can still enter the giveaways — click here to visit the tour masterpost and find out where to find all the things.
• All my writing energy has been directed towards Daughters of Atirse #2, so I don't have much to report on other projects. I haven't written more D&D, but we did have a couple sessions that were pretty fun, and some of what I read this month inspired some more noodling on the Secret Star Project. And speaking of what I've been reading . . .

Reading!

• I spent most of June rereading the Murderbot series (and first-time reading the latest book, System Collapse). I was happy to find that these books were just as good or better on the reread, and I very much enjoyed the latest installment as well. It's very much an affirmation of the power of stories and storytelling while also being tense and exciting and having all the good things one would hope for from this series. The series is available in Kindle Unlimited, if you're interested in checking it out. (Obligatory content warning: there's a good bit of strong language, some violence (though not graphically described), and a fair number of secondary characters who are some flavor of not-straight (though the fact that the POV character is extremely not interested in any of that helps downplay it enough that it doesn't bother me)).
• Outside of Murderbot, my month was also mostly rereads: I finished rereading Howl's Moving Castle (delightful as ever), revisited the graphic novel of The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom (in preparation for reading the next installment in that series), and am continuing to enjoy Dracula via Dracula Daily.
• I did have some other new-to-me reads, though. When a Dragon Comes Courting was a fun little fantasy romance novellette; I enjoyed it, though the narration emphasized physical attraction a little more than I would've liked. I've also been reading Beka Gremikova's Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind anthology (not pictured, as I'm still reading it as of the writing of this post), which I've meant to get around to for a while. Like in most anthologies, some stories are better than others, but on the whole, it's a good collection.

 Watching & Playing!

• Not much to report here — the only things I've watched this month were a couple episodes of Hogan's Heroes while at my grandpa's house, and as far as podcasts go, I've mostly been listening to Dracula Daily and Lateral. I did try some of Myths & Legends at the recommendation of several friends, but didn't vibe with it the way I hoped I would (alas). Why do I like Overly Sarcastic Productions videos and not Myths & Legends podcasts when they're very similar? No clue, but that's how it is.
• On the gaming front, I spent most of June playing through the Xianghou questline in Honkai Star Rail (which I started back in May, and which was the reason I got into the game in the first place). That was undeniably awesome — I'd heard a lot about how good it was from my friends, and I knew I'd like it on some level because it involved characters I really wanted to meet (and was predisposed to like), but I was not fully prepared for how epic the climax was. Or the pre-climax. Or several of the character quests. It was probably a good thing that I was home alone on the nights that I played the pre-climax and climax because I legitimately screamed at points; it was just that good. Of course, it helped that these particular plotlines focused a lot on two of my favorite characters . . .
• (I will say that I was very grateful to have friends who've already played this arc and could make sure I didn't skip anything important. There are a few pretty important sidequests that I definitely would've missed had people not let me know "Hey, you need to do this thing now, not later," and the storyline would not have been as fun if I'd messed that up.)
• Also related to Star Rail, I ended up starting a group chat with two of my friends who are also into the game so we could talk about the game and I could send them updates on my playthrough and reactions to stuff that's happening (since the Xianghou arc is also their favorite), and that was a fabulous choice. It turns a single-player game into a social activity, and getting to chat and share my experience with them while I play makes the game so much better.

Life!

• June was, thankfully, pretty quiet on the whole — the "big event" of the month was visiting my grandpa over Father's Day weekend. I haven't seen him since Christmas, so it was nice to go out and visit. This trip was a little different than most, though, as my parents went on a retreat the week before we went to my grandpa's, and they drove straight to his house from the retreat center. That meant two things: first, that I was responsible for bringing dessert for the weekend, and second, that I was driving up by myself (not a problem, but long solo drives are always a big of an Event for me). Both things went well, thankfully. I made German Chocolate earthquake cake (an upside-down cake with a cream cheese layer baked in), which everyone said was good, and I only missed one turn on the drive (near the end, and it was extremely poorly labeled).
• Also related to baking: my Baking Yesteryear recipe for the month was chocolate mayonnaise cake, which turned out really well! It was my first time making a full-size Bundt cake, and I was absolutely thrilled when it didn't stick at all to the pan. The cake itself tasted pretty good too, though I can't recommend the icing method included with the recipe — it had an odd flavor to it that I didn't really enjoy. But, again, the cake was good, and I'd definitely make that again.
• Work has been going well. It's been a quiet month, for which I am grateful. There were a few days when there were only two or three people in the office, but I'm not complaining about that.
• And on the crafting front, I'm still working on my Cosmere pin hoop. It's been kind of slow going, since stitching through felt and fabric together is difficult, plus Bible study was cancelled a couple times, and I normally get a lot of embroidery done there (since I use it to keep my hands occupied during discussions).
• I think that about covers it — like I said, June was a quiet month, and I'm grateful for it.

July Plans

• Once Daughters of Atirse #2 is with beta readers (which should be soon), I plan to give myself a few weeks' break from writing. That's not to say that I won't write anything, especially since I do need to work on my D&D stuff — I'll just mostly be doing it as I feel inspired, and I won't stress if I don't make my day's wordcount (because I mostly won't have a set wordcount to make). I'll definitely prep my next D&D adventure, and I may do some noodling on side projects. I'll also work on some writing adjacent projects, like the cover for Daughters of Atirse #2 and commissioning character art.
• Of course, most of my writing break will be taken up by one very exciting thing: Realm Makers! I'm so excited to be back at the conference for a third year, especially since I'm hoping to visit some family and friends on the way out to St. Louis. I'm looking forward to seeing my author friends and writing buddies (and meeting some of them in person for the first time), hearing what the speakers have to say, and, of course, finding out the Realm Awards winners. I've been hyped for this trip for months, and now it's almost here! (And I'm praying very hard that nothing goes wrong at the last minute.)
• For those attending and curious about buying my books or getting them signed: I'll be consigning some of my titles through the Realm Makers store, and a lot of those will be pre-signed. However, I'm happy to sign (or personalize) books if you catch me during the conference, and I think that I should have a stable signing spot during the Book Fair on Saturday night.
• My blogging semi-hiatus will continue for most of July, though I do plan to post my mid-year book roundups next week, and I may end up doing one review post midway through the month. We'll see.
• As for work, the new associate pastor is starting this month, so hopefully that will go well! Between that and the fact that my trip will mess with bulletin schedules, things may be a little more exciting than they have been . . . but I'm not terribly stressed about it. It'll still be less crazy than some other seasons.
• I think that covers all my big plans. I'll continue with my reading, crafting, and baking goals as I have been doing. The only other semi-significant thing happening is that I need to make some decisions about the fall semester of grad school (namely, which classes I'm taking next, and when I'm taking them), which is . . . a little stressful, but it'll be fine.

How was your June? Any plans for July? Will I be seeing you at Realm Makers? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

May 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! I'm happy to say that May has been a better month than April (and far superior to May 2023), though it did start out with a certain amount of drama. I am very relieved that it's effectively summer now and I can have some time to not stress about grad school. But I'm getting ahead of myself; before I talk about general life stuff, let's see how my writing is going.

Writing!

• First of all, an update on the DOSA Files anthology. The Kickstarter was successfully backed to the second stretch goal, so paperbacks will be shipping sometime mid-June, and the audiobook is officially in the works! If you missed the Kickstarter but still want a copy, no worries — you can preorder the ebook on Amazon, and the paperback will be available for purchase June 27. We'll be doing a blog tour to celebrate the wide release of the anthology, so if you want to help spread the word, please click here and sign up.
• As for Daughters of Atirse #2, I am still not quite finished, despite my best intentions, but I am closing in on the climax and the end of the book! Just a few chapters left! My wordcounts weren't quite where I wanted them to be — I was hitting somewhere around a thousand most days, but not much higher, and there were more than a few days with counts in the 400–600-word range. Still, I made very good progress, and I'm trying to focus on that rather than berating myself for not having been done with this a month ago.
• In more exciting news, as you might have heard earlier in the month, Song of the Selkies is a Realm Awards finalist! I'm very excited to have made it to the top five (especially considering what other books SotS was competing against — there were some big names and amazing stories on the Long List!), and I look forward to finding out who the ultimate winner will be at Realm Makers in July.
• Finally, an update on my spare-time projects — which, to be clear, I work on when I either can't work on Daughters of Atirse or I'm already done with my Atirse writing for the day. I finished the Travel Interlude for my D&D group, but I have not gotten back to working on the next adventure. I'll be honest; the fact that this group hasn't met at all in May kind of tanked my motivation for doing D&D writing.
• I'm also poking at another project that's still in the fun planning/ideating/worldbuilding stage, referenced in my Taleweaver's Desk update as the Secret Star Book. Normally, I wouldn't be doing even this much on a new project when I still have Onora's story and D&D writing to focus on, but I'm allowing myself to work on it here and there as I have time as a reward for surviving my most recent grad school class. I don't know exactly where that's going to go, so I won't say more about it for now, but I am having fun with it, as it's very different from most of my other projects.

Reading!

• April may have been my month of highly-anticipated releases, but May was still a pretty good reading month. The highlights of the month were H.L. Burke's new release, Game On, Brandon Sanderson's Tress of the Emerald Sea, and my (terribly self-indulgent) reread of The Goblin Emperor. I already reviewed Game On, and my love for The Goblin Emperor is well-established (it's a cozy epic fantasy about a forgotten young man, barely out of boyhood, who gets put in the midst of court intrigue and politics and who chooses to not play the games and instead be kind and I love it, I love it, I love it), so I'll focus mostly on Tress. I am so behind on reading it, but I do see why people raved about it so much (far more than they seem to have raved about the other Secret Projects). I enjoyed the characters — Tress herself is a delight, and I really liked most of the supporting cast as well — and had fun spotting the various Cosmere connections. The magic system with the spore-seas and the abilities of the different spores was also fascinating and really cool both visually and conceptually. Oddly, though, the one thing I didn't love was the storytelling voice in some sections; even though I think it's cool that the story is narrated by Hoid, and while I liked most of his asides and flavor commentary, some sections just didn't hit right for me.
• The other highlight of the month, of course, is the return of Dracula Daily, a Substack newsletter allowing readers to read Dracula in real-time as a series of letters, diary entries, telegram entries, and other similar types of installments that land in your inbox on the appropriate day. This is the third time I've read the book this way, and I enjoy it every time.
• I also continue to enjoy my reread of the Chronicles of Prydain, especially since I read my two favorites in the series this month. The Black Cauldron features one of my top three favorite characters in the series (Adaon, the only one of the three who isn't part of the main band), while The Castle of Llyr is more generally a favorite because I like the story.
• Mistress of Wardwood is an anthology of stories related to The Erlking's Daughters, and it was also really fun. My favorite of the collection was "Inheritance," which focuses on Enzella and Micah, but all the books were really good. If you read The Erlking's Daughters and you want the anthology, you can get it by signing up for the author's newsletter! (That will also get you Aeronwy's Stolen Child, which is a reverse changeling story that I think sounds really fun and have pretty high on my TBR list.)
• As for the last two books pictured, The Song of the Rose and The King's Captive were both good stories, though they didn't wow me. To be clear, I can see other people really enjoying them, but neither was quite what I wanted from their respective concepts. I may still read some of the other installments in the two series, though, as there was enough I liked to get me curious.
• I'm wrapping up the month by being thoroughly self-indulgent once again and rereading Howl's Moving Castle (not pictured, because I'm in the middle of it just now), because it's May and I was tired and vaguely grumpy the last time I needed to pick a new book to read, and either of those on their own would normally be a good reason for me to reread this, and so both together managed to overpower all the should-reads. It is, as ever, delightful.

 Watching & Playing!

• In addition to being the start of Dracula Daily, May also features the return of Re: Dracula, a podcast audio drama form of Dracula following the same real-time format as Dracula Daily. This is my second year listening, and this time around, I'm doing a bit better at actually listening to the episodes as they release (though I still tend to get behind on weekends). We're still pretty early in the season, so if you're looking for a new podcast, I highly recommend checking it out!
• I'm also continuing to enjoy playing Honkai Star Rail; as I've said before, it's a pretty good motivation to buckle down and get my writing done earlier in the day or evening instead of getting distracted by YouTube videos. (I may have complained about lower-than-ideal wordcounts, but trust me, the fact that those counts still mostly average around 1K is thanks to Star Rail motivation, not in spite of the game.) I did finally start the third main quest line and met one of the characters I've been most looking forward to meeting (Jing Yuan, to be specific). I actually got into the game after two different friends both raved about him. As both friends tend to have excellent taste in favorite characters, I figured I needed to find out more about him for myself, and so far, my impression is that he is indeed the Actual Best.
• My sister and I also took advantage of Memorial Day weekend time off to play more of Portal 2 Co-Op. We've done everything now except the secret sixth stage and had a grand time of it . . . though it did take us forever to get through the last two levels, one because we kept dying and one because we couldn't get the stupid portal where we needed it. Still, we finished the main game, and it was fun to spend time with her that way!
• I did actually watch a few things this month — well, rewatched, anyway. We watched Romancing the Stone back around Mother's Day while my sister was here, as we haven't seen it in a while and my sister wanted an adventure-type movie. Then I watched Charade (aka probably my favorite non-fantasy movie in existence) with my parents on Memorial Day weekend. Both were fun; I don't have much to say about them that I haven't already said.

 Life!

• Praise God from whom all blessings flow, my editing and publishing grad school class is done. The last couple weeks of the class were more frustrating than I expected or than they needed to be (mostly due to communication issues and disagreements about how to interpret the final project instructions), but I got through them with a good grade, so I am grateful.
• And right after my class ended, my sister came down to visit over Mother's Day weekend! She arrived in time to meet us at Bible study, then stayed until Monday morning. Getting to see her was lovely, and we had a really nice time with her.
• Work was also generally quiet, as we're still in the lull between Easter and summer and people were out of the office a lot for either travel or training. The one exception was that our associate pastor had her last Sunday on May 19, so the week leading up to that date was pretty busy. We're all sad she's gone, but her role is being filled by another member of the programs staff, so I think the transition should at least go pretty smoothly. And we didn't have any tech issues on her last Sunday, despite a near miss with the livestream sound! (This might not seem significant, but our tech has a tendency to malfunction on or around significant Sundays, plus we had a substitute running slides and sound, so I was more than a little nervous and was praying very hard against any issues.)
• Work being chill and grad school being done has given me a little bit of extra free time and energy. Some of that has gone towards resting, and some of it has gone towards weeding and reorganizing my bookshelves. My scheme of having all my nonfiction and classics on one bookshelf and all my fantasy and speculative fiction on the other two was foiled by the fact that my textbooks are too tall for the shelf where I wanted to put them, but at least I won't have random stacks of books in front of other books. I'm not quite finished, but I'm nearly there, and I'm still holding out hope of having a free shelf where I can put owned-but-unread books so they're easier to find and prioritize.
• On the baking front, I made up for missing my Baking Yesteryear recipe in April by making two things this month. First, I made dream bars, which . . . well, people said they tasted good. The recipe didn't say to put parchment in the pan, but I should've done so anyway because I couldn't get my spatula under the crust to get the bars out in one piece, and I also think I chopped my nuts way too finely because my bars looked nothing like the picture. Then I made peanut butter styrofoams, essentially peanut butter meringues. These also didn't look like the picture, but they tasted good! And given that it was my first time making any cookie in that family, I'm counting them as a definite success!
• I've also been doing some fun stuff with crafting. Early in the month, I learned that one of the local librarians is into weaving and has a few small looms for weaving bands/straps. She was willing to bring them to the library so I could see them and try them to decide if I wanted to get into the hobby myself (and also for story research purposes). So, a few weeks after that, I got to try an inkle loom and a card loom! As I said, both are band looms, so they're making narrow straps rather than a full piece of cloth, but the inkle loom is larger, and you raise and lower the threads by hand, while the card loom is smaller and uses stiff cards with holes in them to raise and lower the threads. Neither is the kind of thing I could carry around and do wherever I happened to be, so I don't think this will turn into a major hobby, but I'm still toying with trying to make my own card loom so I can do that as an on-and-off thing . . .
• Aside from that, I crocheted my mom an African violet for Mother's Day, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I've since made the pieces for two or three more of them, but haven't gotten around to assembling them yet. Now I'm back to embroidery, working on a pin hoop for my Cosmere pins. (Fun fact: embroidering through a double layer of fabric is really hard on your hands, especially when one of those layers is felt! But I am managing.)

June Plans

• First of all, a housekeeping note: I will be taking June and July as a semi-hiatus from blogging. I'll still do my main yearly/monthly posts like Doings, my summer releases list, and my Mid-Year Book Celebration, and I'll do some kind of post for the DOSA Files release, but I won't be posting regular Friday 5s. This is partially for practical reasons — July is going to be super busy for me — and partially because I want to take a bit of a break. If all goes well, I should return to my regular posting schedule in August, hopefully with a bit of a buffer built up.
• My primary project for the month is finishing up Daughters of Atirse #2 and getting it out to beta readers. I am optimistically hoping to have it drafted by sometime in the vicinity of June 8 or 9, then take a week off to rest before doing fairly light edits and sending it on to beta readers. Sending the story out at an earlier stage actually worked well for Song of the Selkies, and I'm hoping it'll work better still if I get the book out further in advance of when it needs to be release-ready. As far as other projects go, I should make progress on my next D&D adventure, and I hope to continue poking at the Secret Star Project when I have spare time for it.
• At work, we're starting summer programming, but we're also in a transition period between the previous associate pastor leaving and the new one moving into that position, so we're a little less busy than we normally would be around this time. Not that I'm complaining; after this winter and spring, I'm still appreciating any quiet seasons I can get.
• As for the rest of my month outside of what I've already said, my main plans involve seeing family, continuing with my crafting, baking, and reading goals, and finding opportunities to rest and recharge (and also attempting to hide from my allergies, which seem to be worse than normal this year).

How was your May? Any plans for June? Are you reading Dracula Daily or listening to Re: Dracula? Is this a busy season or a quiet one for you? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

 

Hey'a, all! So, we all know that many bookworms are a bit like dragons, in that we tend to hoard books and dislike even the suggestion that we might get rid of a single volume. Unfortunately, at some point, weeding the collection does become necessary — namely, when one runs out of both shelf space and space to put more shelves, which is my current situation. This means that, over the past few weeks, I've been working on going through my books, figuring out what I'm keeping and what's going to our local used bookstore (and also figuring out how to organize what I'm holding onto). It's still a work in progress, but I've gotten enough of the way through to have some thoughts to share with other bookworms tackling the same sort of project.

On Getting Rid of Books

1. It's ok to get rid of books that everyone else loves (even if they're classics). One of the big choices I've made in the process of weeding my shelves was deciding to get rid of a few series that are wildly popular, but which I'm kind of meh about. Some of these are books that I did like at one point, but which I enjoy less now. Others are books that I thought I should like, even if I hadn't read them yet, because they were popular, influential, and practically classics. The common thread was that they were books I was keeping because I felt like I was socially obliged to own them, not because I really still wanted them. But I'm not a public library, so why should social obligation force me to hang onto books I don't expect to read often (or at all) when I could instead clear more space for the stories I love?
2. There's always the library. Speaking of libraries, this is probably the most helpful thing for me to keep in mind when figuring out whether to keep or pass on a book. After all, in most cases, getting rid of a book doesn't mean losing access to it — not when I have library cards at three or four different libraries. If I decide I want to reread something or give a particular series another try, I can most likely borrow it either in physical or digital form. Maybe I won't be able to pick up a book on a whim, but that's not the end of the world. Granted, this is less true for indie books than it is for traditionally published ones . . . but most of the books that the first point applies to are traditionally-published. Plus, a lot of my indie collection is duplicated in digital thanks to ebook sales and giveaways.
3. Books are meant to be read. This is the other most helpful thing for me to keep in mind. The chief purpose of a book is to be read. If I'm keeping a book because I think I'll reread it, even if I might not do so in the immediate future, that's great. But if I don't think I'll read or reread it, then holding onto it is kind of silly — like someone who lives in an apartment building keeping a lawnmower. It's better to pass the book on to someone else who'll enjoy it and want to reread it again and again, whether I do that directly or via a used bookstore. And if I'm wrong and it turns out I do want to read or reread it after all? Again, that's what the library is for.
4. It's ok to keep books for sentimental reasons even if you're not likely to reread them. While this might seem to contradict the previous point, I think it is a valid exception. I have some books on my shelves that I don't think I'll reread in the near future but which I don't think I'd ever give up if I had a choice. For example, I have a pair of fairy tale retellings that, to be frank, I don't like half as much now as I did when I first encountered them — but I had them signed by the author at one of the first author events I ever attended, so they're special to me and I'm reluctant to part with them. As another example, I still own a fair number of my favorite books from when I was a kid, before I discovered fantasy — books I've outgrown, but to which I still attach fond memories — but I keep them on a separate shelf from the rest of my collection, so they aren't competing with current favorites for space. Even if these books aren't being read, the fact that I have them still brings me pleasure in the form of reminders of good memories, and that's a valid reason to hold onto them.
5. Having a separate shelf for owned-but-unread books would probably be a good idea . . . if I had the space. I feel like this would help both with future efforts at book-weeding and with making sure I actually, y'know, read the books in question. The shelf would serve as a reminder of what books I still needed to read, and it would also give me a single place to look when I'm trying to decide what to read next. I could start there and check to see if any of my unread books fit my mood at the time, then move them to their proper places after I finish. However, doing this would require having at least one shelf clear of other books, and I'm not sure that's going to happen even after I finish weeding. We'll see.

What's your process for getting rid of books (if you have one)? What do you think of keeping all owned-but-unread books in one place? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

April 2024 Doings!

Hello, all! May is here, summer is in sight, and let me tell you; both of those things are such a relief. April was another stressful month, unfortunately, though it did also include some really good days and a fun adventure or two. Most of that stress was, unsurprisingly, caused by grad school and having a lot of tasks that all needed to be done at once across multiple areas — including writing, so let's start there and recap what happened.

Writing!

• April was the second RealmieWriMo event in the RealmSphere, the social media site specifically for people connected to the Realm Makers writing conference. It was also the deadline month for H.L. Burke's DOSA Files anthology. As such, I had high hopes for what I wanted to accomplish: drafting a story to submit for the DOSA Files and writing 40,000 words to finish Daughters of Atirse #2. Unfortunately, I may have been a bit . . . overambitious.
• Let's start with the undeniable win: I did write and submit my DOSA Files story, "Save {Point}", drafting half of it in a marathon of writing on April 19, then doing a very rapid first edit and sending it off to beta readers the next day. By Thursday, I had comments back and final edits done, and I submitted the story to Heidi — and if you saw my post earlier this week, you know the rest of the story! "Save {Point}" and nine other stories in the SVR-verse will be coming out in a few months, and Heidi is currently running a Kickstarter to help fund the launch. We've hit our base goal, but we're still hoping to get to the stretch goals, one of which is an audiobook of the anthology. If you haven't already, make sure you check out the Kickstarter and consider backing it!
• As for Daughters of Atirse #2 . . . well, splitting my focus between two stories slowed me down a lot, as did grad school, stress, and the fact that I had stuff happening on the weekends a lot more this month than I did back in January. After a few too many days in which I just didn't have time to write more than a few hundred words, I dropped my goal down to writing 30,000 words and getting as close to the end of the story as I can. And I did achieve that, so . . . yay?
• In all fairness, even if I'd gotten all the way to adding another 40K this month, the book still wouldn't quite be finished, so I have that as kind of a consolation.
• Wrapping up this section with an update on the D&D campaign I run: the Travel Interlude still isn't done, but it's most of the way there. The next adventure hasn't been touched, but that can wait as well. I did, however, manage to improv my way through an extended in-character discussion of an aspect of my campaign world that I haven't reviewed in ages, which is something I definitely couldn't have done five years ago, so I'm kind of proud of myself for that.

Reading!

• If nothing else, I can at least be pleased that this was an excellent reading month!
• You've already heard about several of the highlights of April's reading: Dark & Dawn, Castle of the Winds, and The Erlking's Daughters were all some of my most highly-anticipated reads of the season (possibly of the year), and not one of them disappointed me. No Man Left Behind, the conclusion of W.R. Gingell's Worlds Behind series, was likewise delightful, and I think it wrapped up all the storylines and character arcs very well indeed. Tragically, it's hard to express just why I was so pleased with it without giving significant spoilers.
• Aside from these, I spent most of the month in H.L. Burke's SVR universe. Early in the month, I reread Reunion, the final book in the Supervillain Rehabilitation Project series, in preparation for writing "Save {Point}." Then I jumped ahead to Power Up, the final book in the Supervillain Rescue Project series, and followed that up with Captured by a Supervillain, Engaged to a Supervillain, and Accidentally a Supervillain. All four were excellent, but I think Power Up and Accidentally were probably my favorites from that group. And, conveniently, the ARC for Game On, the first book in Burke's new Supervillain Legacy Project YA series, hit my inbox just as I was finishing up Accidentally, so I've been reading (and very much enjoying) that. Watch for my full review a bit later in the month!
• For anyone curious: my group reread of the DragonKeeper Chronicles is still happening, and I will be rereading DragonLight at some point. However, ARCs took priority, plus I've been waiting for other people to be ready to start. Hopefully I'll get to that in May.

 Watching & Playing!

• Once again, not a lot to report in this section. I still haven't been watching much — no movies, very little YouTube, and only one show episode. I did get to introduce my parents and a friend to Leverage with another rewatch of "The Rashomon Job," so that was fun. That's the third time I've watched that episode, and it's still so good.
• I did figure out an answer to my podcast app problem and ended up switching to Pocketcasts on a friend's recommendation. So far, aside from a slight hiccup in the beginning when I couldn't figure out how to find all my downloads, it's worked out pretty well for me. It has pretty much all the podcasts I wanted to try, and I like the interface (again, other than that tricky bit with the downloads) and the level of customization it offers.
• As for what I've listened to on the app, that's mostly been Lateral, a trivia show hosted by Tom Scott, occasionally interrupted by a new episode of Dear Hank and John or a week or so of Wolf 359. I intended to listen to all of Season 3 of Wolf 359 this month, but . . . well, I'm at an intense, high-stress part of the story, and I just wasn't in the headspace for it. I wanted something lighter, and Lateral fit the bill. And, y'know, it is a really fun show; I have fun trying to figure out the answers alongside the participants. (Occasionally, I beat them to it, and that's very satisfying.)
• On the gaming front, I'm still enjoying Honkai Star Rail, and it's still proving very effective motivation for getting my writing done without getting distracted (in addition to being almost as good a de-stressor as reading is). I've finished the second main quest line, and I really liked the ending in most respects! Now I'm running around trying to clear some side quests before continuing with the third world and quest line. At this point, I'm comfortable enough with the mechanics that I can actually think more about strategy and tactics and figuring out which characters work best with each other or will be most effective for certain missions — though those thoughts are constantly in tension with my desire to build a party that's narratively and thematically relevant and my desire to just use all the characters I like best or think are coolest. It's a problem, but a good one.

 Life!

• As I said before, April was . . . frustrating. Don't get me wrong; there were some really lovely bits! Just most of it was, again, frustrating.
• The vast majority of that frustration came from my grad school class. I mentioned in my March Doings post that the class seemed overly focused on one particular type of writing (journalism — and, to be clear, this was not described as a journalism class) and felt like it was calculated to hit on all my greatest frustrations (and some insecurities that I didn't know I had) while taunting me with how much of the material I already knew. Unfortunately, that has held true for the rest of the semester, and as a cherry on top, the class is structured around one big group project. I will say that my project group was a lot better than some others I've worked with, but even the best group is still a lot more stressful than doing something yourself. I will also say that, had the class been presented as a journalism class, or even described as focusing primarily on journalism, it would have been a lot less frustrating. As it was . . . well, it's the first time in my life that I've literally felt sick from stress (in the past, I've topped out at a twitchy eye and short temper), and I do not recommend the experience.
• Aside from grad school, April was busy in other ways as well. The first weekend was actually pretty chill — my parents went out of town to visit my sister and see the eclipse, but I'm saving up leave for later in the year, so I had the house to myself for a few days. And while I prefer home with everyone in it, it's sometimes a nice change of pace to be able to listen to music without headphones, play D&D over dinner, and have an impromptu lunch-and-shopping adventure after church. (Well, technically, I could do the last one when other people are home . . . but if my family's here, I'd rather eat with them.) The weekend after was also comparatively calm, or I assume it was — I honestly don't really remember it, ha!
• On the 20th, though, Realm Writers Mid-Atlantic (an author group I'm part of) had our yearly in-person meeting, and while I usually enjoy getting to see others face-to-face, that was stressful. That same weekend, I had a major grad school assignment due, I was finishing up my DOSA Files story, and I had two boxes full of books to prep for Heather Halverstadt and RWMA to sell at events, on top of normal weekend stuff. It was . . . a lot. I ended up being late for the meeting and missing lunch, and I don't function well on an empty stomach, so . . . not the best of times, y'know?
• Last weekend, though, was a lot more fun, even if it was also tiring! My friend Wyn Estelle Owens came down to visit, which was delightful, and we went to the National Zoo together, which was even better. My family used to go to the National Zoo a lot — it's probably my favorite part thing in DC — but that kind of fell off sometime when my sister and I were in our teens. I loved getting to go back and revisit it, especially with a friend. I also rode the Metro for the first time in probably at least twelve or thirteen years, so that was an adventure. It was nice, though, as the train ride gave Wyn and I plenty of time to chat without having to worry about missing a turn in DC traffic. I will say that I was exhausted from all the walking by the end of Saturday, but it was definitely worth it.
• Work, at least, was pretty chill. We spent most of the month in the post-Easter calm — between spring break and the fact that we're coming off a busy season, no one plans many events. The one exception was that our associate pastor announced that she was being transferred to a new church this summer. I'm sad that she's leaving, but not too stressed about it, as I know who's going to replacing her.
• Unfortunately, with all the craziness that went on this month, I didn't really do any baking (aside from a grasshopper pie that, as of writing this post, I haven't tried yet), so I'll have to double-up on Baking Yesteryear recipes either this month or next month. I also don't have any particularly exciting news in the crafting department; I've mostly been making pieces for crochet plants because that's easy and practical (in that crochet plants make good gifts and good office decorations).
• D&D has continued to be exciting! We had another ancient dragon fight, which almost went very badly due to an antagonist from the campaign's past (a former player character who got kidnapped and turned to the dark side) showing up unexpectedly with a bunch of shadow-monsters and causing so many problems. Also, we found out that, in the process of killing the dracholich that I mentioned back in my March Doings, we also kind of accidentally fixed an part of the world that's basically Moria with more undead, and I'm still not over it. Like, we found this out at the beginning of the month, and I still periodically pause and remember it and get excited. (For a little extra context, when we first learned about this region at the start of the campaign, I kind of wanted to try to fix it, but got the impression from the DM that it really wasn't the kind of thing that was fixable, so the problem dropped off my radar. And now . . . we've done it. By accident (by which I mean that it happened as an after-effect of the dracholich fight). And I just think that's delightful.)

May Plans

• I have one week left of this grad school class. Thankfully, I think it'll be less stressful than the rest of the class has been. And once it's over, I have the rest of the summer off to focus on other things! Like, for example, writing.
• I recognize that I've said this for the last two months, but I once again think I should be able to finish drafting Daughters of Atirse #2 this month. I'm not going to set a specific wordcount goal for the month, but I'm going to aim for somewhere in the vicinity of 1K or 1.2K per day until the story is done, and I think that should get me where I need to be.
• I also need to finish the Travel Interlude and the next adventure in my D&D campaign, but I can take those pretty slow and still be ok.
• Aside from Game On, I've more or less reached the end of my ARC pile, so I expect May will be mostly mood-reads and DragonLight. Though I do also have multiple sizable piles of library books, so hopefully my moods will include most of those. I also still need to reorganize my bookshelves, which might be a task for this weekend if all goes well.
• As for work, we'll have a couple transitions this month (both with the associate pastor leaving and with some other procedures around the church changing), so we'll see how that goes. That said, I'm not too worried.
• Overall, I'm hoping that May will be a much quieter and less stressful month than April . . . but as long as it's better than last May was, I won't complain.

How was your April? Any plans for May? If you play action-type RPGs, how do you usually build your parties? What are some books, games, or other media you've been enjoying lately? Please tell me in the comments! And don't forget to check out the DOSA Files Kickstarter!
Thanks for reading!

 

March 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! It's Good Friday, and March is almost over, and that means it's time for Doings! March has been better than I expected in some respects and worse in others, but on the whole, it's been a decent month filled with some very good stories. I'm excited to tell you about it, so let's get going!

Writing!

• In some respects, on paper, March looks like another not-great writing month. I didn't finish drafting my DOSA Files story (I barely started it), I didn't finish my next D&D adventure or the travel interlude I added at the last minute, I didn't get a full 40K words on Daughters of Atirse #2, and I definitely didn't finish Atirse #2.
• That said, I feel like March was still an improvement over February. I may not have hit 40K on Daughters of Atirse, but I got close — 33K, probably rising to 36K over the weekend, which is nothing to sneeze at, especially as I was working through a troublesome section of the plot. I'm also pretty happy with the quality of most of what I wrote, and I think it's reasonable to expect that I can finish the draft next month. I also commissioned character art of two of the main characters, and I cannot wait for when I get to share it. It's so pretty, I can't even. It's by the lovely Scarvenartist, who's also done art for Gillian Bronte Adams, and I cannot recommend her highly enough.
• Additionally, even if I didn't finish either D&D project, I made progress on both, and the travel interlude is pretty close to finished. And I'm back to having time to get the original adventure sorted out, as the party chose to travel via the route most likely to involve Problems. I will note that they were warned that they were going the dangerous route; they just decided to do it anyway.
• I am a little upset with myself for not working more on the DOSA Files story, but it's ok. I needed to prioritize other things, and that's how it is sometimes.
• Overall, though, I'm happy with how my writing went this month. I'm also pleased that I didn't really have to resort to the plan I mentioned in my February 2024 Doings, taking extra time to rest before I start writing. Between the warmer weather and the fact that work was less stressful than I expected, I generally wasn't as tired in the evenings — and I had another factor giving me some extra motivation to focus, but I'll talk about that in a later section.
• Also, on a more definitely-successful note, I did have an author event this month that I think went well! On March 2, I joined Heather Halverstadt and Realm Writers Mid-Atlantic at a nearby craft fair, with all my books in tow. While the event was tiring (even though I didn't stay the whole time), I got to have some really good conversations there, and I sold some books, so that's also lovely. (Side note: if you found me at that craft fair and you're reading this now, hello! Welcome! So glad to have you! Please say hi in the comments!) Plus, my family went out to a new location of our favorite Mexican restaurant afterward — that's not really writing-related, but it was in the same event, so it totally counts for this section.
• Oh, and I found out that Song of the Selkies and "Grim Guardian" both made the Realm Awards long list, so that's exciting! We're still waiting to find out if either will make the finalists as well . . .

Reading!

• The books I read at the start of this month feel so far away in relation to now. It's weird. Anyway —
• Let's start with the new-to-me reads, which include one just-for-fun read, one class read, and three ARCs (one of which isn't pictured). Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries popped up on everyone's 2023 best-of lists, so I knew I had to get my hands on it, and having read it, I agree with everyone's assessment. This was an excellent book; I did have a little trouble getting into it, but once Bambleby showed up, I was properly hooked. We have fae, academia, adventures, Howl-and-Sophie vibes . . . it's great. If you enjoy Suzannah Rowntree's Miss Sharp and Miss Dark books, this will probably be right up your alley.
• As for the ARCS: I already reviewed Water Horse, so I recommend you go read my thoughts instead of me repeating myself. Nobody's Hero was a fun, fast-paced superhero adventure in the same vein as H.L. Burke's Supervillain Rehabilitation Project series; I'm not obsessing over it, but I liked the characters, the world, and the storyline, and I'll probably read the next book. Finally, not pictured is Dark & Dawn, book 4 of the Miss Dark's Apparitions series, which I'm currently reading but will almost certainly finish over the weekend. As of writing, I'm about halfway through and thoroughly enjoying it — the character dynamics are impeccable as ever, and I am extremely eager to see where this job goes for Molly and the rest of the group.
• The class-required-read was How I Know God Answers Prayer, a memoir by 19th-century missionary Rosalind Goforth in which she recounts various occasions in which God answered or didn't answer her prayers in notable ways. I didn't love it, but I liked it more than I expected to, and it's arguably been the best thing I got out of the class so far, so . . . there's that.
• We also have two miscellaneous rereads. Towards the end of February, Prydain Chronicles-related stuff kept popping up in my internet circles, and I got an itch to reread the series. I only managed The Book of Three before other books (that either had closer due dates or review-required dates) took precedence, but revisiting that one was fun, and I plan to finish the series in April. And DragonFire, which I read for the book club/readalong some of my friends and I have been doing, was naturally enjoyable. It's not my favorite in the series, but I do appreciate it more every time I read it.
• Finally, we have several email-subscription books. I finished Fellowship of the Ring towards the beginning of the month, as I was running behind reading the daily entries. The subscription went down after that, so I will not be continuing the reread at this time. I already have enough other email subscription stories to read! For example: A Study in Scarlet, courtesy of the Letters from Watson Substack, which I started in January and finished midway through this month. I didn't much like A Study in Scarlet when I first read it, as I preferred the short stories, but I enjoyed it more this time around. And I finally finished reading Dante's Divine Comedy, which started on Good Friday of 2023. I confess that I've been skimming the cantos more than actually reading them for a while now, but . . . at least I can say I've read it!
• On the topic of email-subscription books, I've been very much enjoying the Letters Regarding Jeeves Substack, though I'm not very good at keeping on top of it. I've never read the Jeeves and Wooster stories before, and this seems to be an excellent way to do it. The small doses mean I can appreciate the humor without getting caught up in secondhand embarrassment, and the stories themselves are pretty clever.

 Watching & Playing!

• This section is heavy on the "playing" and light on the "watching" this month, so I'm glad I expanded it! Somewhat unsurprisingly, I've watched pretty much nothing this month — no movies, no streaming shows, and (somewhat more surprisingly), hardly any YouTube.
• I have, however, enjoyed a lot of podcasts! (Or, a lot for me, anyway.) I finished the second season of Wolf 359 (very good! much exciting stuff going on!) and then took a couple weeks' breather because dear goodness the last several episodes were intense. Also, I needed to catch up on Dear Hank & John before I got ridiculously behind, and I wanted to work through more of my test episodes from the long list of recommendations I solicited back in January.
• That list, for the record, is still very long, but I'm slowly getting through it and getting a better feel for what kinds of podcasts I actually like and what I don't vibe with. And I do have everything on that list actually written down in a note instead of just held in my Google Podcasts queue, so I won't lose it all when I inevitably have to switch apps!
• On a that note, Google is apparently discontinuing their podcast app and forcing a switch to listening to podcasts via YouTube Music . . . but I don't like the YouTube Music podcast interface, so I'm looking for a new app. If anyone has recommendations of what they use, please share!
• I've also been doing a lot of gaming this month, specifically playing Honkai Star Rail, a space-fantasy action RPG recommended to me by a friend. I'm not very far in — only partway through the second main quest — but I'm really enjoying it! The storyline is fun, the artwork is gorgeous, and there are a lot of cool characters to meet and get to know. I did have trouble figuring out some of the mechanics at first (especially because this is my first time playing this kind of game), but I was able to pick up the essentials without too much trouble, and the friend who recommended it helped me figure out some of the other stuff I was confused about.
• Also, weirdly enough, I think the fact that I'm gaming more has helped my writing productivity? I don't play unless I'm satisfied that I have everything else done that I need to do that day, and having something that I'm looking forward to doing after I write gives me extra motivation to not get distracted. And that extra motivation and focus mean that my writing flows better, which in turn means that I'm more likely to pass my wordcount goal because I'm really into what I'm writing or because, when I reach my goal for the day, I'm a hundred-odd words away from some very satisfying manuscript wordcount and I might as well just push a little further and get there. I don't know how long this will continue to work, but as long as it does, I'm happy!

Life!

 

• March was a bit less stressful than I expected in some ways and a bit more stressful than expected on others.
• Work was actually a lot more chill than I thought it would be. Usually, Lent and Easter make up one of our busiest seasons, and I expected the fact that this year would be worse than usual because there was so little time between the end of Christmas and the start of Lent. However, one of the projects I thought would take up a lot of time (new devotionals for Stations of the Cross) instead got cancelled, so all I had to do was update the devotionals we had. That still took time, but not nearly as much. I also managed to work ahead on a lot of the graphics, which lowered the overall pressure even further. And while I did spend most of this past week racing to front-load as many tasks as possible, just in case I ended up sick by Wednesday, I remained healthy aside from allergies (praise God!) and ended up with a really light Thursday as a result. So, I'm definitely thanking God for all of that.
• Grad school, on the other hand, was much less chill. My technical writing class ended well; though the final assignment took more time to put together than I thought it would, the end result turned out really well. The new editing and publishing class, on the other hand, has been . . . frustrating. I don't agree with the professors' positions on certain types of writing (because I feel like they're promoting a particularly unhelpful misconception), and the first big assignment of the class (due this weekend) has been . . . problematic. I wanted to work ahead on it so that I would have it ready to turn in this past Tuesday or Wednesday and I wouldn't have to worry about it on Easter weekend, but instead I had three false starts before I figured out how to write it in a way that didn't make me kind of hate everything. Part of the problem is that the assignment is essentially a personal essay about my faith development, which sounds like it should be easy . . . but I don't actually like writing about myself that much outside of blogging. I almost always feel like I'm being overdramatic, and the angle I initially tried to use for the assignment was particularly vulnerable to that concern. Thankfully, I think I've figured out how to get around the problem, which is to write the thing mostly about books and fantasy media and bring myself in slant-wise. Basically, though, the whole class just seems calculated to hit on all my greatest frustrations while taunting me with how much I'd like to just be able to say "I have published seven books, and I did all the editing, layout, and such myself; also this is literally 70% of my day job; do I really need to be here?"
• Still, it's better than grant writing!
• I want a more cheerful subject, so let's talk about food. My Baking Yesteryear recipe for March was Cowboy Cookies, basically oatmeal cookies with coconut, pecans, and chocolate chips mixed in. They were very tasty, and I definitely think I'll make them again, though next time I might toast the coconut longer and substitute butterscotch chips for half of the chocolate. And March 14 is, of course, Pi Day, and I celebrated with pie or pie-adjacent foods at every meal: quiche at breakfast, store-bought apple pie at lunch, and homemade spaghetti pie and pecan pie at dinner. It was, as you can probably tell, a very good day.
• D&D has also been going well. In my long-running group, we fought an ancient dracolich in our most recent session, which was really cool but also terrifying because, you know, ancient undead black dragon. And half our party can't even hit it properly because we're primarily melee fighters and the dragon has both wings and an annoying habit of hanging out in the shadows, out of reach of our lights. We did beat it, though, after a magnificent Touch of Death from our cleric and a fourth-level Divine Smite from me (the one hit of mine that I remember actually landing during the entire fight). We're getting steadily closer and closer to the end of the campaign, and it's exciting, though also really weird to think about — we've been playing this for five or six years now. We do have plans for another campaign after this, though, so our group hopefully isn't going to break up anytime soon.
• The 4e campaign I just joined had its second session this month, which was mostly taken up by combat. Adapting to 4e's style of combat was a little bit of a challenge for me, but thankfully, one thing carries over from 5e: the rogue's best tactic is to hide, shoot, and hide again! And rogues are shaping up to be just as fun to play as I thought they would be.
• On the topic of D&D, I had my first actual run-in with someone who genuinely believed D&D is a gateway to the occult, so that was interesting (and kind of feels like an . . . achievement? milestone?). The person in question is a newcomer to our Bible study who overheard me mention to someone else that I play D&D on the weekends and stepped in to voice her concerns. I'd been internally preparing for a version of that conversation for a bit (because I knew she had a similar objection to Harry Potter), but I was still pretty nervous — I really did not want the center of dissent in the Bible study, even if I was pretty confident that most people would back me up if things got ugly.  Thankfully, the person making the comments was speaking from a place of genuine concern, not judgement, and it turned out that she doesn't really know a lot about D&D, so once I explained to her what D&D and fantasy in general were for me and my faith, we were able to reach an amicable conclusion. And the conversation did later inspire my idea for what to do about my current grad school assignment, so I guess I have to thank her for that, ha!
• We'll wrap up with Easter, though it hasn't quite happened yet as of writing. We won't be celebrating with our Bible study like we normally do, due to people being out of town, but we still have plans I'm looking forward to, namely attending our church's Saturday service and inviting a few friends over for Easter lunch. I'm making a coconut cake; it's going to be great.

April Plans

• As I said already, I think I can reasonably finish Daughters of Atirse #2 (which is so close to having an actual title, by the way) by the end of April, so I'm aiming to do just that — or, at least, to get within a few chapters of finishing. As such, I'm putting my loose wordcount goal at 40,000 words again, and we'll see if that works out. April is going to be another Realm-Makers-equivalent-to-NaNoWriMo month, so that should help give me the boost I need! There's nothing like a daily check-in and word sprinting buddies to help keep you on track.
• I also need to properly draft, edit, and submit my DOSA Files story, which I haven't given up on yet. While there's not much on paper at the moment, I've been letting it mature in the back of my mind, and I think I worked out one of my last major plot problems. And it's only 10,000 words, max, so writing it shouldn't take that long.
• I'm hoping that the current grad school class will become less frustrating as time goes on. I'm hoping that this past week is about as bad as it's going to get. If it is, the rest of the class will be annoying, but bearable. If it goes downhill from here . . . well, we'll see what happens. Work, at least, should be chill — the period right after something like Easter or Christmas almost always is.
• On the reading front, I have a couple more ARCs that I'm looking forward to, and I also hope to get back to my Prydain reread. And if I have a free weekend sometime, I have high hopes of going through my bookshelves to reorganize, weed out the books I know I'm not going to read or reread, and make space for new stories. (This is something I've been planning to do for a while now . . . but it's spring now, so hopefully that will make a difference.)
• Outside of all those things, I'm looking forward to more gaming, more D&D, and continuing to work on assorted small craft projects until I can psych myself up for another big thing.

How was your March? Any plans for April? How do you listen to podcasts? What are your Easter plans (or how did you celebrate, if you're reading this the week after Easter)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!