Ishness: Random Things I’m Enjoying Edition

Long time no blog, eh?

I thought it would be fun to toss a random list onto the blog, of some things I’ve been loving lately, in an attempt at something upbeat. *nervous laugh* And because blogging! It used to be a thing! So here we are.

In no particular order, and with no attempt at being an exhaustive list, here are . . .

Some things I’ve been loving lately:

Book

The Windward King by K. T. Ivanrest — I recently finished this and it was SUCH a delight! Buddy story, shapeshifting, castles, pirates, fabulous characters, betrayal, royalty, snark . . . it had everything! ❤

Music

The Rose (Cara Dillon) — Replace “love” in this song with writing and it felt . . . something. I could also listen to Cara Dillon’s voice all day long!

My Land (Celtic Thunder) — This makes me think of returning to my storyworlds and hanging out in my WIPs again. ^_^

Movie

I’ve been catching up on some movies including several superhero things. It’s been fun. 🙂

The Batman (2022) — I finally saw this one and aside from some dark stuff I just . . . really enjoyed how Batman-y it was. Just. Yesss! Because Batman. XD

Blog Posts

I really enjoyed this amazing post about Noblebright Fantasy and a return to blogging. Let’s do this, people! Wonderful read from K.M. Carroll.

I related so hard to this wonderful post by the lovely Emily Grant about being stuck. I feel like she said everything so much better than I can and sort of summed up a lot of how I feel about being stuck on blogging, writing, etc. It made me feel less alone, so maybe it will help others who may be in those trenches. ❤

Upcoming Events

FicFrenzy (March 15-April 15) — I’m super excited for a writing challenge my dear writing buddy Christine Smith is hosting! Check out the page about it here. ^_^

March Magics — The creator of March Magics (a celebration of the books of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett) is hosting this one last time and I’m sooo looking forward to it. I even tracked down another short story by DWJ that I hadn’t read yet and I’m saving it for that.

A Kickstarter

The image kind of says it all, but I had the chance to read The Orb and the Airship early and it was definitely one of my favorite reads last year! I am SO excited about this gaslamp fantasy series and I totally recommend checking out the Kickstarter page and following it to be notified on launch (which is February 20). Any interest or sharing is sooo appreciated! I love this world and these characters SO MUCH just from the first book and I can’t wait to see where they go in the rest of the series. It’s seriously so good. 😀

A snippet from one of my WIPs

“What are we doing, again?” I whispered, quieter this time, as we turned a corner and made our way up a steep, narrow white marble staircase up toward a gallery of white stone columns.

“Being very, very quiet,” he breathed in my ear, giving me the urge to smack his face even if it might result in both of us toppling off the steep stairs. “And,” he went on, “avoiding the honestly alarming librarian. But mostly,” he finished, as we came out on the gallery and hid in the shadow of column, “looking for a book.”

“A book,” I repeated, and looked at him. He raised one eyebrow very slightly, as if in a shrug.

As one, we craned around the pillar, poking our heads out to lean enough to see over the long gallery railing of white marble—and gazed down from our new vantage point at a literal maze, so large that it looked a little shadowy and hazy at the far end. A literal maze built of bookshelves overflowing with books.

“Well,” I said, a little scathingly, “I think you’ve found one.”

unedited snippet I wrote last month for my WIP The Other Half of Everything

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Thanks for Reading!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little look at some things I’ve enjoyed lately.

Normally I’d try to make it perfect, extensive, with more pictures and other proper-marketing-things but . . . I just want to blog. A bit. And not worry about perfectionism or likes or any of that sort of thing. (We will not discuss the writing update post I haven’t posted due to its now-out-of-date nature… Ahem.)

Have a lovely Wednesday, readers. ❤