Monthly Archives: June 2017

Announcing 2nd Annual Silmarillion Awards!

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I have some very exciting news for you all today! 😀

I’m pleased to announce that this July, beginning next week, myself and 9 other awesome bloggers are going to present . . .

The Second Annual Silmarillion Awards

Some may remember last year’s awards, but for anyone new (or needing a refreshed memory) they are a fan-voted just-for-fun award for recognizing the greatest fantasy characters in several categories… And since characters from The Lord of the Rings (and The Hobbit) are fairly universally recognized as the top of the line in these matters, they are the ones presenting the awards, “Silmarils” (from Tolkien’s The Silmarillion), to said fan-voted characters.

These are unofficial, just-for-fun awards, a sort of “Fantasy Oscars” for beloved characters from fantasy novels. 🙂

We’re also having oodles of fun giveaways, a scavenger hunt for a Tolkien-themed grand-prize, and all sorts of fantasy fun, so you are NOT going to want to miss this! 😀 (You can also get a snazzy commemorative t-shirt or mug to cover costs, if you like; details on Jenelle’s blog here about that and other SilmAwards details!)

This year, we’re switching things up and each taking a different award than we had before. There are also a few different categories that that weren’t here last year! As well as a couple of new bloggers joining us! We’re all very excited. 😀

Last year, I hosted the Strangest Character Silmaril (presented by Tom Bombadil) which was awarded to Puddleglum in rhyme-form. (Now THAT was fun…)

This time, I will be presenting an award that is new this year:

The Most Epic Heroine Silmaril (Presented by Eowyn)

I’m very excited. 😀

The other awards, their presenters, and the bloggers hosting them are as follows:

Notes:

  1. These are LIFETIME awards, which means that a character who won an award in a previous year is not eligible for this year.
  2. Characters from Tolkien’s works are also not eligible for voting, since they are already recognized as the top characters in those categories of fantasy excellence, which is why they’re presenting them. 🙂
  3. And you can’t nominate a character YOU wrote; though you are definitely welcome to tell your own readers about the awards and encourage them to nominate some of your characters. 🙂

Time Line

The time-line is going to be:

  • Round 1: July 3-7: Nominations Begin! Nominate your favorite fantasy characters from beloved books, in the appropriate comment-thread of each participating blog for that category (or “second” someone else’s nomination!).
  • Round 2: July 10-14: Voting Begins! The top 5 characters in each category with the most “seconds” will be up for voting during this week. Be sure to vote for your favorite in each category!
  • Round 3: July 17-28: Award Presentation! The winner of each category will be announced on the hosting blogs on different days throughout this period of time, and the characters from The Lord of the Rings (or The Hobbit) representing each category will present the Silmaril awards to the most-voted-for characters!
  • Round 4: July 29: Celebrate! In celebration of the 63rd anniversary of the publication of The Lord of the Rings, you’re invited to join the fun by posting on your own blog or social media about why you love Fantasy, The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien, etc. Basically, let’s party about all things Fantasy and/or Tolkien!

What do you do now?

I know, it’s SUCH suspense, having to wait a whole week!

But if you need something to do while you wait, may I suggest you:

  • Follow the hosts’ blogs if you don’t already (they’re all awesome!)
  • Get excited!
  • Spread the word around social media (use #SilmAwards2017)
  • If you’re a blogger, you can start thinking up some sort of fantasy-or-Tolkien-appreciation post for the end of July, because you have a whole month to do it! 😉
  • Most importantly, start thinking of your favorite fantasy characters in each of those categories so you’ll be all ready to start nominating on July 3rd!

Stay tuned, as there will be more info (and the awards themselves), as well as giveaways and general fantasy fun, coming next week and all through July. 🙂

(You can also share this infographic I made, below. Or the gorgeous, official SilmAwards logos, above, that DJ Edwardson made.)

Nominations start in one week! So get ready!! 😀

What do you think?

Are you excited? I’M EXCITED. Which award are you most looking forward to? And does it sound like it’s going to be epic or WHAT? 😀 Thanks for reading! ^_^

Writer Ups & Downs

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It’s a funny thing: it seems the writers’ life consists mostly of ups and downs.

I mean, there’s all these times when we’re either SUPER EXCITED about writing and just so energized, and other times when we’re super down about it and think our writing is worthless etc. etc.

One moment we are all:

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!

And the next:

Quoth the raven: Nevermore.

Our writer lives are a series of mountains and valleys. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

It seems that there’s not an even road, where we are just quietly content in where we are in our writing, things going smoothly but not exciting (because if it’s going smoothly, that IS exciting), or just generally “meh, it’s okay” (because thinking that rockets one quickly to: “there must be something wrong with it if I’m feeling that way about it!” which turns to super down), and it’s all extremes.

(I’m generalizing, and if you’re not this way, then just ignore everything I said. XD)

But I suppose it makes sense, since writers are primarily storytellers, and in a story, things mostly ARE extremes. It’s either enormously happy for our heroes or super-super-enormously, extravagantly bad for our heroes. (Usually the latter; being a book character is a poor career choice, let me tell you. XD) Because in a story, if it was just meandering along a flat place where things were okay or all right, then… there wouldn’t be much of a story.

Perhaps we writers are attuned to that (and are also dramatic souls *cough* *guilty*) and tend to take it in extreme emotions one way or the other.

I’m not saying this is good or bad. XD I’ve just been thinking about it. 🙂 (Again, if you’re not this way, forgive my ramblings and let me know otherwise. :P)

I’ve been going through some writer ups and downs this year myself.

I’ve been writing short stories, which means I’ve been finishing things! But that also means I haven’t been making progress on novels.

I’ve been writing in small dashes of this-and-that, not focusing on any one thing, which means I haven’t made any serious progress on ANYTHING. But I HAVE somehow amassed about 20,000 words of writing this year!

I’ve had some great “clicking” moments that have resulted in excitement over various stories! But I’ve also not been excited enough about one thing to focus on it.

I’ve been writing in snippets, so I haven’t made consistent progress. But I’ve been using Scrivener and that has helped with my snippet tendencies and I’m getting fun inspired scenes down!

I’ve (hopefully) decided what to write for NaNo and gotten super excited about it! But NaNo is 4 months away. (That’s both good and bad. XD)

I’ve written three short stories this year, which total 14,700 words (Wintertale, A Tale of Two Boxes, and a Kedran’s Wood “fanfiction” that will never see publication but was fun to get me back into the series). I’m 2000 words into another short story, Invisible Beauty, and almost finished. I’ve written at least a thousand words of The Secret of Kedran’s Wood a.k.a. KW2 (I haven’t been keeping very good track, just trying to get further since I’ve been stuck) and a snatch of KW3. I’ve written 1700 words of snippets of The Other Half of Everything. And a couple lines of random other things. Plus various plotting I’ve done.

In a way, it’s not very much for six months. In another way, it’s far better than I was doing this time last year during my huge burnout!

Plus, I’ve been doing a LOT of reading and reviewing, getting my story-and-writing-fix that way.

I’m at the point where I have decisions to make of which paths to take as I wander these mountains and valleys of my writing… and these decisions, too, are huge opposite decisions, in keeping with the ups-and-downs-extremes theme of this post. XD

I either need to get seriously back into writing soon, OR take a serious break in order to recharge.

I either need to buckle down and decide that I will focus on one specific story and pick it and stick to it, OR embrace my work-on-multiple-things-at-once thing I’ve been doing slightly and make it work for me.

I either need to start writing in order again and focus on getting things done that way, OR I need to embrace my scribble-snippets-out-of-order-all-over-the-place thing I’ve been doing and make that work for me too. (Scrivener might help. But it’s hard to sew the quilt-pieces together once I’ve made them, so… I don’t know.)

I also need to remember tips that I’ve learned in the past that I don’t always remember to put into practice, such as:

  • Draft zero. This is a huge friend of mine, or at least has been in the past, and it could really help me if I’d remember to use it.
  • Timers and wordsprints. Especially the awesome wordsprint timer on the NaNo site. This is also super helpful for if I want to write something and just don’t have the motivation. I’ve only used it for NaNo and Camp so far, but the amount of progress that can happen in 15-or-20 minutes with this thing is astounding, so I should probably go for it again sometime.
  • Music. I know music can be super inspiring and get me in the grove, but I just don’t remember to listen to it much. (It doesn’t help that the speakers on my laptop are shot, so I have to remember to use earbuds, and I just don’t.)
  • A time to focus. I don’t write when I can’t focus, which means I just don’t have a time for it in my life right now. I need to set aside a time every day, or at least occasionally, to block out distractions and just open my Scrivener documents and at least TRY. Normally those times come at night and I’m either too tired, or I decide to read or write a review instead. Problems. 😛

Anyway. There’s a bit of a ramble on what’s up with my writing life of late, and its ups and downs, and partially just to remind myself of some things I should know. (Does that ever happen to you?) Writing is how I understand things in my life, so writing this out helped show me where I am, which is helpful. 😉

I’m going to leave you with a scribble of poetry that was meandering around my head at 2 a.m. when I was trying to sleep but instead thinking about all these things.

Writer ups and writer downs
We will don our paper crowns
Take up our most loyal pens
Find out where the story ends

Thanks for reading! ^_^

The Noble Servant by Melanie Dickerson (Review)

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Title: The Noble Servant

Author: Melanie Dickerson

Date read: June 6, 2017
Rating: 5 stars
Genre: Christian / Historical Fiction / Romance / Fairytale Retelling (The Goose Girl)
Age: YA
Year pub: 2017
Pages: 312 (hardcover)
Series: A Medieval Fairy Tale, #3 (or Thornbeck Forest, #3)
Fave character: Steffan
Source: BookLook Bloggers review program (Thomas Nelson Publishers)
Notes: I received a free review copy of this book from the publisher

My Review

Melanie Dickerson does it again! Another extremely enjoyable novel from a talented author. 🙂

I always enjoy Melanie Dickerson’s fairytale novels, and this one was especially enjoyable for some reason! 🙂 It’s the final book in the trilogy which began with The Huntress of Thornbeck Forest and The Beautiful Pretender, and it tells the story of Magdalen, the friend of the heroine in The Beautiful Pretender, which I was very excited about. However, each of the books stands alone (aside from a few references/characters who reappear, which isn’t so important), so if you haven’t read the first two, you can definitely jump in on this one! 🙂

The Noble Servant is a retelling of The Goose Girl (with nods to The Prince and the Pauper as well), which is not a fairytale I’m as familiar with as some, although I know the general idea of the servant taking the place of her lady and forcing the heroine to become a servant tending to geese. I enjoyed the retelling aspect but likely didn’t pick up on as much of it as I might have if it was a different fairytale. But far from making it less enjoyable because of that, I actually enjoyed it immensely because I had no idea what was going to happen!

I really liked our heroine, Lady Magdalen of Mallin, who was very sweet but capable; and I especially liked the hero, Steffan, Duke of Wolfburg, who was kind but heroic and noble, and had some great lines. They are both nobles who find themselves in servant roles outside Steffan’s castle, and there is a plot by Steffan’s uncle and all sorts of intriguing things. I loved how they both ended up servants for awhile, which was interesting to read about. My favorite thing about the story was probably Magdalen and Steffan. They were super cute together, too. 😉 I loved their dialog! Some of their discussions and times with the sheep and geese were my favorite parts of the novel. ^_^

I especially loved how Steffan really disliked the geese. XD You have a Goose Girl retelling, and the hero doesn’t like the geese the heroine is around because he’s scared of them. It. was. the. best. XD Steffan’s comments about the birds were my favorite. 😀

As always, I enjoyed the medieval German setting (Steffan had even been away studying in Prague! I loved that!), with the smattering of German words, and the castle and the woods and fields, and even a sight of the sea. It was overall lovely and a great setting and time-period. Also, I want to eat those stuffed rolls with bacon, potato, and sauerkraut in them—they made me so hungry. XD

It was exciting at times, and absorbing all throughout, and had a few surprise twists which I did not see coming! Especially with a few of the side characters surprising me. So that was neat. 🙂 Something about it felt a little different than Melanie Dickerson’s previous books, I felt, but not in a bad way. It was just… kind of new. 🙂 While still being slightly similar in a good and familiar way.

Like I said, I wasn’t ever sure what would happen next, and the writing was extremely well done, and kept me turning pages all throughout the book, eager to find out how our sweet heroine and dashing hero would get out of their predicaments, with God’s help, and maybe find a little love along the way. 😉 I couldn’t stop reading and was captivated until the final page.

I can’t think of anything specific that I disliked. Occasionally it gets very slightly exasperating how long it takes the hero and heroine to actually let on that they like each other and get over their worries about not being worthy etc., but that seems to be a classic romance theme, so oh well. 😛 And it didn’t annoy me as much as sometimes.

Overall, it was a very enjoyable story, which I quite liked. ^_^ I’d say that young adults and adults alike would enjoy this charming, sweet romance in medieval Germany, with a dash of retellings and Christianity, mistaken identities, lovable characters, and fun dialog about geese. 😀

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

I review for BookLook Bloggers

Favorite Quote

“Evil birds. What are they doing among my sheep?” He raised his arms. “Shoo, you cruel little beasties.”

…

About The Noble Servant

She lost everything to the scheme of an evil servant.

But she might just gain what she’s always wanted . . .

if she makes it in time.

The impossible was happening. She, Magdalen of Mallin, was to marry the Duke of Wolfberg. Magdalen had dreamed about receiving a proposal ever since she met the duke two years ago. Such a marriage was the only way she could save her people from starvation. But why would a handsome, wealthy duke want to marry her, a poor baron’s daughter? It seemed too good to be true.

On the journey to Wolfberg Castle, Magdalen’s servant forces her to trade places and become her servant, threatening not only Magdalen’s life, but the lives of those she holds dear. Stripped of her identity and title in Wolfberg, where no one knows her, Magdalen is sentenced to tend geese while she watches her former handmaiden gain all Magdalen had ever dreamed of.

When a handsome shepherd befriends her, Magdalen begins to suspect he carries secrets of his own. Together, Magdalen and the shepherd uncover a sinister plot against Wolfberg and the duke. But with no resources, will they be able to find the answers, the hiding places, and the forces they need in time to save both Mallin and Wolfberg?

New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson beautifully re-imagines The Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm into a medieval tale of adventure, loss, and love.

Published by Thomas Nelson Publishers, May 9, 2017

Links

Find the book on: Goodreads • Thomas Nelson • Barnes & Noble • Amazon • Author Website

…

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Vintage Jane Austen: Bellevere House by Sarah Scheele (Review)

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The third novel in the Vintage Jane Austen series is now up for pre-order and is releasing this weekend, on June 17! 😀

This one is a retelling of Mansfield Park, and it’s called Bellevere House, by a talented author friend of mine, Sarah Scheele. I’m super excited. ^_^

In case you haven’t heard, the Vintage Jane Austen series is a collection of novels by different authors, retelling Jane Austen’s classic works in a new setting, a.k.a. the 1930s in America.

They are great fun so far and I hope you’ll give them a try! If you’re at all interested in historical fiction, Jane Austen, retellings, the ’30s, Christian fiction, well-written stories, etc. then you’re sure to enjoy them. 🙂

The books out so far in the series are:

And now on to my review! 🙂

My Review of Bellevere House

  • Title: Bellevere House
  • Author: Sarah Scheele
  • Date read: June 10, 2017
  • Rating: 5 stars
  • Genre: Historical Fiction / Christian Romance
  • Age: YA (ish? I think the characters are more in their twenties so not exactly teens, but I’d say YA and up would enjoy this novel. :))
  • Year pub: 2017
  • Pages: 262
  • Series: Vintage Jane Austen, #3 (Each book is a standalone, by different authors.)
  • Fave character: Ed
  • Source: From the author
  • Notes: I received a free e-copy of this book from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. These opinions are my own.

I quite enjoyed this book! 😀 I loved the humorous style and the banter. The characters were far from the unpleasantness level their counterparts achieved in the original book by Jane Austen, which means that Bellevere House wasn’t as depressing to read as Mansfield Park was, for me. XD

Comparing the two, Bellevere House is definitely more of a re-working/re-imagining than a straight-up retelling of Mansfield Park, but I actually really enjoyed that, and it was fun to pick out the changes and the way things were sometimes tipped on their heads, but all masterfully done. (One random but handy thing: the hero and heroine aren’t blood relatives, since Ed is the son of a previous marriage of Faye’s uncle; I know cousins married all the time back in Austen’s day, but it would’ve been slightly more problematic in a book about the ’30s. XD)

When I read Mansfield Park, I felt like it was something of a chore to get through (which I don’t usually feel about Austen’s works), exhausting and depressing. The light, skillful writing in this retelling made Bellevere House a pleasure to read; I zipped right through it and had a blast. 😀 They’re overall quite different books. Jane Austen’s original novel was an excellent book with many intriguing things to say, so I’m not saying either of these is better than the other (they’re so different it’s hard to compare), but due to the original’s depressing nature, I couldn’t enjoy Mansfield Park, the way I ended up enjoying this retelling of it. 🙂

Faye was a good main character, more strong-willed than her counterpart Fanny, and I liked Uncle Warren, and especially Ed and Jane Watson (more on them later). I didn’t care for Helene Carter (but I never cared for her counterpart in the original book) and I didn’t like Horace Carter either, and wasn’t sure what anyone saw in him, but… oh well. I didn’t loathe either of them the way I loathed the Crawfords, so that was less stressful, fortunately! 😛 There were a few times when Faye would think of a character a certain way and I disagreed with her and just didn’t SEE them that way. But overall the cast was quite an amusing bunch. XD

The setting was very well done, and even though there weren’t a lot of long descriptions, I felt entirely immersed in the 1930s in Illinois, Florida, and New York in turns. The description of New York City was particularly fantastic. I loved that bit! It was so vivid. (Although Faye did seem a little naive to act like nothing about the city could be dangerous.)

I find it fascinating how the Vintage Jane Austen books I’ve read so far have all been so different from each other, yet all equally delightful in different ways, and somehow fitting together as a series despite that, with their 1930s setting, Christian thread, and of course, connection to Jane Austen. 🙂 They’re so DIFFERENT but I still like them all!

One of my favorite things about this book is the style it’s written in—particularly the opening chapter, which just draws you in with this… how can I describe the style? It’s witty and humorous and kind of… I don’t know… chatty? I adore funny stories, and the writing in this is SO FUN. I can’t get over it! 😀 It just flows really easily and quickly and seemingly-effortlessly, and was a pleasure to read. 🙂

OTHER FAVORITE THINGS INCLUDE:

The mess that Grover made with his money-making scheme and how it ended. XD That entire part was such delightful (horrible) chaos and silliness, and the characters knew it, and it had me constantly on the verge of laughter. 😀 So funny!

Ed. (And Ed and Faye.) So, in a sense, there wasn’t as much of him as there could have been, and he’s actually rather different than the Edmund of the original (in a way), but I loved his character all the same. 😀 He was kind of egotistical at times (which was super amusing) but deep down a great guy, and he was just so fun to read, especially his parts with Faye. I loved them together, and they were a fun/adorable almost-romance even when they didn’t know they were a thing. 😀 He’s a little complicated and hard to analyze, which I’ve found my favorite characters are, so. There you are. 🙂

Favorite quotes about Ed:

He cracked his crooked smile that made all women swoon except the ones who wanted to slap him. Faye was a fence-sitter on the subject.

***

Ed frowned. “Well, it’s a terrible picture of me! Here, give me that. I’m going to tear it up. There ought to be legal action against publishing a bad picture like that without my permission . . . .”

A wild scuffle ensued as they tried to keep Ed from destroying the article before they could read it.

(Can you see why I like this funny book and this character? XD)

Jane Watson’s parts at the end were FABULOUS. Like… so so so fabulous. 😀 I absolutely loved those bits! When I first read it, I didn’t really like her, but she grew on me and now she’s one of my favorite things about the book. XD A very strong-minded journalist, she just makes such a striking appearance in the story. Many of her lines (as well as her article at the end) were simply gold. 😀

When she’s expounding on her time as a nurse in the Great War, recounting the horrors of the time and all she went through, and finishes with:

“And I’d have you know, through all of it, I still had perfect nails! Because I am completely swell.”

I JUST LOST IT. XD THE. BEST. (Can you tell she has a strong personality? XD)

And this fantastic quote from the news article by her, which was my favorite:

“We delude ourselves if we think that decency is not rewarded in other people simply because we refuse to practice it ourselves.”

CONCLUSION:

Sometimes it seemed sort of like a light-hearted romantic comedy, at times slipping in slightly deeper/darker topics or bits of Christianity, and the characters were all individual, many of them lovable, and well-written, and it was quite an enjoyable book! 🙂 Some of the story ended up rather differently than its original counterpart, particularly one character’s ending! I’m on the fence about how a couple of things turned out, but on the whole I’m happy with most of the ending. ^_^ (Definitely a happier book than the original. XD) I don’t read this genre much, so it’s not like my favorite book, but I’m giving it 5 stars anyway, just because I enjoyed it. 🙂

Overall, I had so. much. fun. reading this! 😀

Now I shall sigh that it’s over, and anxiously await the next Vintage Jane Austen book, because I’m quite addicted to these. XD

…

About Bellevere House

It’s March, 1937 . . .

And Faye Powell couldn’t be happier. After moving to live with her uncle, a wealthy banker, she’s fallen into the swing of life with his exuberant children—including Ed. The one she will never admit she’s in love with. But she hadn’t reckoned on the swanky Carters getting mixed up in that vow. Ed seems to be falling for charming, sweet Helene Carter. And when her cousin BeBe suddenly trusts Faye with a secret about Horace Carter, Faye’s in over her head. Will she betray the confidence BeBe’s given her? Will she lose Ed to Helene? The days at Bellevere House are crowded with surprises and only time will tell how God plans to untangle Faye and Ed’s hearts.

Find the Book

Amazon • Goodreads

Author Bio

Sarah Scheele scribbled incessantly as soon as she could read and write. A heavy background—some might say an overdose—of literature during her childhood set writing into a loop she has yet to escape. That education in classics gave birth to several of her stories, including a rewrite of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park for this collection. She used to wonder why Edmund and Fanny couldn’t have a better resolution?—and so she decided to give them one. Today she does many things with her time. But then she writes, which is the most important thing to mention in an author’s biography. Sarah lives on a farm in Texas with a ladylike cat and a tomboyish Pomeranian.

You can connect with her online here:

Website • Blog • Facebook

…

 Thanks for reading! ^_^

Spring Ishness! {2017}

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[Note: Apologies if you got this twice and/or if the link didn’t work! I accidentally posted it wrong and therefore deleted it… so it might have been wonky. >.> SO SORRY. Let this be a lesson to look at things more carefully before posting…]

Half-March, April, May (2017)

Time for my second Ishness of the year! (Yes, these have been less than regular, of late. XD)

Last time, I talked about the first two and a half months of 2017, so this time I’m talking about what I’ve been doing since then, in April and May and part of March. How time flies! *still in shock that it’s JUNE*

This… may be a little long. >.> I hope you’ll forgive me. XD (But really, I usually take nearly this long to talk about just one month, so doing two and a half all at once might even be more efficient. XD)

WRITING ISH

As you probably know, I did Camp NaNo in April! ‘Twas super fun! 😀

I wrote a total of 12,085 words for Camp, which is not bad, considering my original goal was 5K.

I worked on a few short stories for that, including A Tale of Two Boxes.

I’m calling Camp NaNo April 2017 a great success. 🙂

I slacked a bit on the writing front in May after all the Camp NaNo writing; I only wrote six-or-seven-hundread words, but I have been doing some plotting for my Kedran’s Wood series, Starrellian series, and The Siren and the Skyship. I also did #WIPjoy (on Twitter) in April for the 5-year anniversary of The Owl of Kedran’s Wood. I had so much fun playing around in that world for that and my anniversary post! ^_^

These days, I’m scribbling snatches of KW2, The Other Half of Everything, and a short story I’m writing that started as a dare, continued through Camp, and which I hope to finish sometime soon; it’s a fairytale-esque short story called Invisible Beauty.

So it’s slow, but I’m still poking along in my writerly pursuits! I currently am having a hard time pinning myself down to focus on one thing at a time. I’m a slitherer-outer like Howl, and not proud of it. *cough* If I would just tackle one project, I might actually get stuff done! *sigh* But I also need to work on making sitting-down-to-write into a habit, because I’ve slacked on that in the last couple of years.

In other news, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE SCRIVENER! ❤ Ahem. I guess you probably knew that, but it needed repeating. *cough*

SNIPPETS ISH

With semi-amusing commentaries about them from moi.

[I’m not posting snippets of A Tale of Two Boxes, since you can read the whole thing HERE. :P]

The sun sank relentlessly toward the horizon, staining the path and sky and grey stone castle with urgent shades of red.

— Invisible Beauty

[Time-limits are fun. The sun setting is a bad thing here, in case you can’t tell…]

***

In a last desperate rush, she pounded down a long winding staircase into the depths of the castle dungeon, and there at last she found the sorrowful prince—chained in his own keep.

— Invisible Beauty

[I’m currently stuck there. Great place to stop, no? ;)]

***

But, I reasoned, it wasn’t the end of the world. It could be worse. Teague could have been an axe-murderer instead of just a writer. I’d live with it. I’d have to.

— The Other Half of Everything

[Because only Meridian would compare writers to axe-murderers. -_-]

***

“I’m through playing games,” Tare growled. “What do you want?”

“Well, being able to talk with you is a start. You’re a hard one to find, Tare.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

— The Secret of Kedran’s Wood

[Because if there’s one thing Tare doesn’t like, it’s being found. Because that normally entails someone looking for him. Which is almost never good…]

READING ISH

I think I read about 16 books since my last Ishness, before June hit?

Notable books read:

  • Hexwood by Diana Wynne Jones, which is my favorite book so far this year.
  • Well, The Fatal Tree by Stephen R. Lawhead might tie for that spot, actually. O_O (NEW FAVORITE SERIES. ❤ Seriously, just read them, people. Book one is The Skin Map. Go. I can wait…)
  • Other masterpieces include Sentinel by Jamie Foley (SO MUCH FUN) and The Beast of Talesend by Kyle Robert Schultz (SO FUNNY, and Beauty and the Beast retelling and just hilarious).

But really, they’re nearly all “notable”. I’ve enjoyed almost all of these, SO MUCH. ^_^ Much good reading of late!

I should do a reading roundup for this year… Maybe I’ll do a half-way-point post on my book blog in early July, rounding up my reading so far with brief thoughts? Sound like a good idea? If anyone’s interested…

WATCHING ISH

I actually haven’t been watching many new-to-me movies of note, lately. Who has time for movies when there are SO MANY EPIC BOOKS TO READ?? But I did see a couple of interest…

  • Shipwrecked — One of my earliest childhood memories of movies; I think it’s been living subconsciously in my mind and kind of defined epic when I was little. It was amazing to see it again and see how similar and how different it was than I remembered! (Like how the characters are SO YOUNG but when I was little I assumed they were practically grown-up, like… like… old TEENAGERS or something. XD …And now even teenagers, of which I was one not so long ago, seem young. Time is strange.)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (Pirates 5) — More nauticalness! Yes, I went and saw this at the theater. Some of it was a mess, but as long as one ignored that, overall it was better than I thought it would be, and I basically had a blast. XD (Not the after-credits scene though. NO. JUST NO. O____O) But much funny, and it was fun to be back with some old character friends. 🙂 And and and I WAS SO EXCITED ABOUT CERTAIN THINGS AND JUST YES. It’s about Will and Elizabeth’s son and he’s trying to break Will’s curse and just alskdjlfkj all the adorbz oh my word. ❤ Not a perfect movie, but overall fun and I’m glad I did get to see it. 🙂
  • Man of Steel — Yep, I FINALLY saw this. I know it came out ages ago, but… *shrug* It’s actually my first Superman movie? Somehow I just haven’t ever watched one. (Too busy with Batman and Marvel movies, I suppose?) Not my favorite, but overall it was pretty fun and I… guess I really enjoyed it. 🙂 (And of COURSE Superman’s dad was the Gladiator…)
  • Studio C — Mainly, if I have time to watch something and am not reading instead, I’ve been watching Studio C. Because yes, I finally got addicted to them. XD I’d heard them mentioned by many friends before, but didn’t really know much about them and hadn’t ever watched any, but I recently got absolutely hooked and from time to time disappear in the black hole of hilarity that is Sudio C and their addictingness. XD

LISTENING ISH

  • Lindsey Sterling. Because all the gorgeous.
  • Also Cara Dillon because pretty voice.
  • And my 2016 NaNo playlist somehow resurfaced so I’ve been listening to The News Boys and Skillet etc., which is making me think of my story The Library and the Stars and… yeah.

BLOGGING ISH

Blogging has been somewhat tricky sometimes, due to less-than-stable internet. >.>

I recently (and currently) have extremely unreliable internet, which loves to go out for days at a time seemingly for a lark. -_-

But I do what I can!

Here are my latest posts, in case you missed them; and/or just for my own personal reference of what I’ve posted lately. XD (Feel free to skip this bit!)

Posts on The Page Dreamer in the last two and a half months (in reverse order):

Posts around here in the last 2 and a half months (also in reverse order):

LIFE ISH

I don’t even know why I put this category here because I really don’t do anything interesting that can’t fall under most of the other categories. XD

I started a bullet-journal around when I posted my last Ishness (I know I had mentioned it) and it’s… almost full already? O_O Ahem. So I’ll probably have to find a new one come July. The past couple of months have been an interesting experiment in streamlining my to-do list processes. It’s very similar to what I used to do, just slightly tweaked. BUT I LOVE IT AND IT’S GREAT. I mean, it makes me realize how behind I am and how I always bite off more than I can chew, but at least it’s all tidily listed. 😀 Hee. It’s been my constant companion and SO helpful. And I’m so glad I decided not to try to make it fancy because who even has time for that. IT’S JUST LISTS, PRETTY MUCH. Which makes me happy. 😛

I’ve also been to a couple of writer workshops, which were interesting; got to see a visiting dear friend which absolutely made my year; went to a library sale; went kayaking and got an atrocious sunburn but had so much fun. That’s mostly it in the excitement category.

And just… life, ya know? 🙂

SUMMER PLANS ISH

Somehow, June has begun (WHAT?? Help me out here. Time is insane and definitely up to something mischeivous) and so begins the long double-month of June-and-July. We should just call it Junely and be done with it. 61 days of a long, hot, summer month that starts with Ju and I therefore mix up.

As for my plans during Junely and August-ish perhaps… well. Let’s see.

  • Reading/Reviewing: I have much reading and much reviewing to do… Kind of behind on that. *eyes stack of books I need to review soonish and twitches* I review slower than I read, and therefore I must do some catching up. XD
  • Blogging: Posts you might see around here and my other blog are mostly… erm… reviews? *surprise* (Sorry, I’ve just been reading SO MANY good books that need reviewing. XD) I might throw a couple of other ideas in there as well. And I’m going to be part of something very exciting, blog-wise, come July, so stay tuned! 😀 I think y’all are going to be pretty excited about it. 😉 Haven’t thought ahead to August blogging yet (good grief, let’s keep it down to a sane two-month plan of blogging. *cough*).
  • Writing: Just for the record, I currently do not intend to do JuNo (June NaNo) or Camp NaNo in July. Just… I probably won’t. (Don’t quote me on it though, in case the lure of cabins and stats-graphs is too much for me.) I do, however, hope to work on writing, regardless. We’ll see if anything happens. I have tentative plans. Fingers crossed that I can do something about them. I DO WANT TO WRITE AGAIN.

So yes, the usual things are up for the summer. Reading, writing, etc. I don’t have plans (at the moment) for anything exciting or vacationy. (I’m not going to Realm Makers, for instance. *sobbing like an octopus trying to find matching shoes*)

Basically, I DON’T KNOW WHAT MY PLANS ARE BECAUSE I’M AN INDECISIVE OTTER WHO JUST WANTS TO PLAY WITH THE LATEST SHINY THING AND THEN FLIT ON TO THE NEXT ONE. I don’t do decisions or plans. Ahem.

(Why did I call it summer plans, then? Shush, do not ask me this.)

FIN (ISH)

SO. There you have an update on what this writer has been doing of late!

I’m kind of in shock at how far into the year we are, but at the same time I feel like I’ve been very busy, so. I guess that’s good?

I can’t imagine why people would like hearing about what’s up with me, but sometimes I hear ’tis so, hence I hope this was at least a little interesting!

What do you think? What’s been up with you, my dearest Roadlings? Any summer plans? Thanks for reading! 🙂