The long wait for Sabaa Tahir’s A Sky Beyond the Storm has ended! If you enjoyed the other books in her An Ember in the Ashes series, then you don’t want to miss this finale. This is definitely one of my favorite books this year. Expect to see it on my top 10 list coming January 1st.
Because this review is of the fourth book in a tetralogy, it may contain spoilers from previous books.
At the beginning of this book, it seems like almost all is lost. Cities have been decimated, plus the Nightbringer received all the pieces of the star. Keris Veturius has outplayed the Blood Shrike at almost every turn. Laia found and then lost her mother again. And Elias has taken on the role of the Soul Catcher and seems to have discarded his humanity. Is all lost?
Laia is convinced she needs to take down the Nightbringer. The Blood Shrike feels she needs to protect her nephew, the new Emperor, at all costs. Much of this book covers their journeys. Since this is a book, it’s going to get worse before anything gets better. We also see the Soul Catcher and The Nightbringer as they go through their journeys. And one chapter from Keris’s point of view.
This book was so good. It wraps up the past with a beautiful red bow. All the prophecies we’ve seen will make sense. I did cry–for maybe the last 50 pages? But in the end, I was satisfying. It brought joy instead of the desire to throw my book across the room or write fix-it fanfiction. Yes, Ms. Tahir has taken us on a long journey and destroyed our favorite characters–but there is a Sky Beyond the Storm.
A Sky Beyond the Storm is full of lifelike characters. The villains aren’t just cookie-cutter evil people who give monologues–they have a past, hurts, and people that loved them. There are so many memorable quotes in here, I’m looking for the next Top Ten Tuesday where the topic is book quotes. I started writing in my book journal again, where I write down quotes, and I’m so glad I did this for this book.
This was one of the highlights in my reading year. In a year where I’ve been struggling to complete my Goodreads Reading Challenge, I finished this 500-page book in three days. If you’ve read the first three books in this series and loved them, I recommend finishing the series. If you haven’t started, now’s a good time to start.
If you’re interested in my other reviews in this series, they are here:
Hello! Is it just me, or are these bears just too darned happy to have 2020 stamped on their feet? Or perhaps they’re happy because there’s less than a month left in the year. Anyway, November is over, so it’s time for the monthly wrap-up.
Books Read:
I actually increased the amount of books I read this month! Yes! I read 9 books. I have ten books left to complete the Goodreads Reading Challenge. I’m 1 book behind schedule, but I’ve got a couple short stories I can read if I need to. Goodreads also includes video classes I don’t include here (I just finished Renaissance: The Transformation of the West) and I’m almost done with a book I’m reading with my boy for school (a reread for me) so I should be able to pull this off.
Talon – Julie Kagawa
The Scorpio Races – Maggie Stiefvater
Rogue Princess – B.R. Meyers
Keeper – Kim Chance
A Curse So Dark and Lonely – Brigid Kemmerer
Call of the Raven – Wilbur Smith
Slingshot – Mercedes Helnwein
1434 – Gavin Menzies
“Booked For Christmas” – Lily Menon
No rereads this month, I was focused on NaNoWriMo.
Writing:
November means NaNoWriMo, and I won! My book this year was one I initially thought about summer 2019. It’s supposed to be a duology, but we’ll see. I hit “book 2” territory at around 45k words. Depending on how many words I add in rewrites, it could turn out to be one book with two halves. I intend on finishing both parts before doing rewrites.
Then there’s this thing I did, which I waited a year to do:
Yep. I sent out my first query. For my NaNoWriMo book. On December 1st. It was my NaNoWriMo book from 2 years ago, but still. Let the rejections roll in!
Life:
Classes are almost over for coop for the year! I just have one more class to plan for, which will be a party (via Zoom). I think we’ll play Jeopardy!, listen to a song (where the students have to pick out all the words they hear, it’s in the language they’re learning). My German students can all play Pictionary, so we’ll probably do that too. A couple of my Spanish students can’t draw on the Whiteboard, so we can’t do it in that class. It shouldn’t be too difficult to plan for (well, Jeopardy takes a while to set up, but at least I created the board for a previous lesson).
Technically, I started this on December 2nd, but I started taking a course called How Digital Technology Shapes Us, and so far, it’s been very interesting. I finished the first two lectures and it’s gotten me to think: is digital technology making it harder to focus? Sometimes I have trouble clearing my head so I can focus on my books, for example. Twitter is one of those sites that I find myself wandering over to and wasting time with. I don’t know if this will work or not, but I’ve decided to try minimizing my Internet browser when I’m not using it. Out of sight, out of mind, right? We’ll see how that works.
Thanksgiving was quiet. Just me and my husband and the kids. We’re all staying healthy, which is good. I decided to try to make gifts for some of my family members. I finished a scarf, originally intended for my daughter when her favorite color was purple (it’s not anymore) and that’s going to my sister-in-law. After I finish this scarf for my daughter (maroon), if I have time I’ll make one for my brother. So I may end up knitting a lot. I want to make a sweater too, for myself, but after Christmas.
And then there’s this Sherb from Animal Crossing:
So adorable! I wants him! If I make it sometime next year, it’d be for my boy, but he’s so cute!
If I make all these things, it’ll take a lot of time. I can listen to audiobooks while I’m doing this, or watch video classes, or maybe Survivor. Or maybe even Christmas movies!
Oh, and this technically happened on December 2 too, but this is exciting news: my dh had a really good job interview! He’ll have another interview later this week with the owner; if the owner likes him, he’s got the job! It’s for a very small chain (5) of urgent care offices. People aren’t going to stop going to urgent care any time soon, especially with covid around. It’ll probably pay $20k less than my dh’s last job, but it pays more than unemployment or Walmart. And unemployment (even extended unemployment) is almost gone anyway. So hopefully I’ll have some good news for you in next month’s wrap-up.
So that was November! Did you have a good month? Hope you end this year on a good note. It’s technically the end of the decade, even though people tend to celebrate the ten’s digit changing as the decade-ender.
You know the saddest thing about having so many great books to choose from? Sometimes you don’t take the time to reread some of them. At least, that’s what I think. Today is Tuesday, and that’s what Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is talking about today. I actually do reread books, and often have a reread and a new book going on at the same time. These are some books I plan to reread. Some of them soon, some of them in the far off… distant future.
All That Glitters – Gita Trealease. This book will always be Enchantée to me, I’m afraid. I temporarily stopped rereads for NaNoWriMo, but this is the book I plan to reread in December. J’adore this book! I was fortunate enough to be approved for the ARC of Everything that Burns, the sequel, and I’m so looking forward to it! I really think the first book needs a reread first though.
Chain of Gold – Cassandra Clare. There’s something about the Shadowhunters books that give them rereadability. I’ve already reread Chain of Gold once, last summer but I hope to reread this again in January before Chain of Iron comes out. I absolutely adore Jordelia! I love the variety of characters, and how there’s a ship for everybody. I may end up rereading more Shadowhunters books next year, but I haven’t decided yet.
Legend Tetralogy + Short Stories – Marie Lu. I haven’t reread the complete Legend Tetralogy since Rebel came out. I’ve learned, in my enthusiasm for certain books, that sometimes there’s too much of a good thing. So I’ve started limiting the rereads of my favorites to every other year (generally after I reread them multiple times in a year). Anyway, I still have some fanfiction in the Luniverse to write, and I do have to do the occasional reread in this series to do a good job. Plus I love the story.
On a related note, someone left a comment Sunday on my Legend fanfic “Republican Phenoms” saying they were disappointed that there wasn’t more to the story. They said they had read it a year before and were rereading it. It is such a good feeling to know someone liked your story enough to reread it! I want to do a sequel, but haven’t yet because of how difficult it would be to plan.
Carve the Mark – Veronica Roth. I love this duology! I learned from Divergent not to reread a book too often; I didn’t reread this book in 2020, so I figure I’m safe to read this book again in 2021. I have no definite plans to reread it next year, but I do know that this duology and I have another appointment in the future. I’m sure I’ll read Roth’s Divergent too, just not next year. I reread them this year.
Alex, Approximately – Jenn Bennett. Some books leave me with a happy feeling and a strong urge to reread it. I think Alex, Approximately falls into that category. It has such summery vibes to it. I don’t know if I’ll get to it next summer, but we’ll see.
The Immortal Nicholas – Glenn Beck. I probably won’t reread this book this year, but I do plan to someday. This is supposed to be a realistic story of Santa Claus that brings Jesus into the picture, and it delivered. It also has Krampus as a sympathetic but misunderstood character. The first time I read the book I read this book I ugly cried so much during the last part of the book. The second time I didn’t, but I had read it the previous Christmas. So I’ll probably give it another year before reading it again so it has more emotional impact.
The Discoverers – Daniel J. Boorstin. I don’t know what it is about The Discoverers that makes me love it so much. It’s over 1000 pages and covers history from ancient to recent times. Maybe it’s the way the author describes things, maybe it’s the topics he chooses to zero in on; I’ll probably read this again someday.
The Cruel Prince – Holly Black. I have the entire trilogy to this series (not the prequel). I purchased the hardback to The Cruel Prince after borrowing it from the library, so I’ve never actually read my copy. But this book is one that needs a reread at some point.
Into the Hollow – Lynn Vroman. I loved this book, and find it a little sad that after two years, it still only has 47 ratings on Goodreads. I guess it just shows you that there are some undiscovered gems out there that just don’t get enough marketing dollars. Whenever I think of this book it makes me want to smile, so I suppose I’ll reread it at some point.
My True Love Gave to Me – Various. This is a book of Christmas stories that I loved. They weren’t all my favorites, but overall, this anthology put a smile on my face. One of my favorite stories from this anthology was Rainbow Rowell’s “Midnights.” I probably won’t reread it this Christmas either, but this will get a Christmas reread at some point in the future.
So what about you? Do you ever get an irresistable tug towards a certain book you’ve read in the past that you absolutely MUST reread again (and again)? Or do you figure that life is too short to reread books? Next week we’re going to talk about the holidays! I don’t know if any of these books will show up again, but we’ll see. There’s a couple I’m excited to talk about, and I’m looking to see your favorite wintry books!
Is anybody else excited about A Sky Beyond the Storm like I am? I’m so glad I buy my books with Amazon gift cards, because nobody in our house has worked since April, and I wouldn’t be able to afford it now.
Anyway, the Kindle edition drops in a little less than 1 hour and 40 minutes. I’m getting the hardback, so I’ll have to wait a bit. It was shipped via Amazon, so it could arrive any time between morning and afternoon. I teach until 3 tomorrow, and then I have a class planning meeting for next semester after that, so I won’t get to dive in until early afternoon anyway.
I reread the books this fall, and came up with a theory of how it will end, based on my reread and the cover to this book. Or at least one aspect of the ending. I don’t know if I’m right or not, but I’m going to put it here. I’m going to make the text color the same as the background in the unlikely event that I’m right. I’ll update this after I read the book with whether I was right or not. You can highlight it to see my thoughts.
So here’s my theory about Laia and Elias:
You know how in the past, there was more than one Soul Catcher? My theory is that Laia will become a Soul Catcher and she will live with Elias as an additional Soul Catcher and live happily ever after.
I’m guessing lots of other people will die (including Helene, based on something Cain said to her), and there may be other Soul Catchers, but after much death and tears, the good people will win the war.
The book is 528 pages, so it might take a few days to find out whether I’m right or not, but whether I am or not, I’m sure it’s going to be an amazing–and heartbreaking–book.
It’s November 30th again, and if you’re like me and participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), hopefully you’re finishing up your 50,000 words you need for the win. If not, you’re still a winner in a way, because you tried! This was my sixth NaNoWriMo, and each year, I learned something new. So if you didn’t get to 50k, that’s okay! Here’s what I learned in six years of NaNoWriMos (and four wins).
2014
I won my first NaNoWriMo! It was my second fanfiction novel and fourth longer work overall (the first three I think are technically novellas). Even though it’s published on Archive of Our Own to this day, it’s probably terrible. But you know what? I finished. After wanting to write since elementary school, I had never written a story of this length before.
2015 – First “Failure”
This year, I attempted to write original fiction (as opposed to fanfiction). I didn’t have a plan, only got past the magical 1,666 words on three days, only wrote 7,652 words total, and stopped writing on day 8. Even though I didn’t win, that’s okay! I’m not really a pantser.
2016 – Second “Failure”
This year, I made it a whole seven days before giving up, but I wrote more on each typical day. Writing the story was like pulling teeth though. I wrote a little over 10,000 words though.
That January, I had started writing a fanfic called Like Normal People. I wrote 13 chapters, stopped when we moved, and then forgot about it. I didn’t write for nearly the entire year.
2017
I didn’t even attempt NaNoWriMo. I don’t think I wrote any fiction that entire year. I’m not 100% sure though, but at this point I didn’t know if I was capable of writing an actual full-length novel. My dreams of being a writer shriveled up.
It’s funny though, because even though I didn’t write fiction, that didn’t mean I didn’t write. I wrote journal entries (lots of these). Blog posts. At some point very early in 2018, I realized that I was writing, even though I wasn’t writing for publication. If I was going to write anyway, why not write towards my dream?
2018
2018 was a very productive year, even though I was working “part time,” which often amounted to between 30 and 36 hours a week. Way more than I wanted to be writing. A very lovely person commented on Like Normal People, hoping I’d finish it. This was at the same time that I felt compelled to write Saving Adelinetta, which is still only 2/3rds done but is partially published on AO3. I wrote five short stories, one of them which was “Happy Birthday,” and two novellas.
I wrote the fanfic “Happy Birthday” on April 22. That summer, I was planning on writing a story for NaNoWriMo again. It was going to be based on the English civil war, but with a Russian feel to it. In August, I had a vision to change the characters from my story “Happy Birthday,” add elves and magic, and turn it into a full length novel. This became my second NaNoWriMo win. I ended up incorporating the original story I was going to write into the backstory for what is now THE BRIGHTNESS OF SHADOW, which I’m going to start querying tomorrow.
2019
After the previous year, I knew to plan more thoroughly for NaNoWriMo. I wrote a fanfic novel earlier in the year and then won NaNoWriMo with my… still untitled book. Yes, I wrote the 50,000 words I needed for my 3rd win, but the story seemed to go off the rails. I love the characters and the idea of this story, it just wasn’t well thought out enough. But you know what? I learned that I could write another original novel this year. And someday, I hope to go back and rewrite this story, with more planning.
2020
I started planning THE BALLAD OF COCONUTS AND SNAKES in the summer of 2019. This was the first book I wrote a query to before starting the book. I had no idea how I was going to write the book at the time, because the original query had amorphous ideas of a guy being held by a god on a desert island and being rescued by a girl (I had to edit this to avoid spoilers), but I had a general idea of how this would turn out before the month began. And this became my fourth NaNoWriMo win.
I’m not sure if this will be a single book or a duology. It has a natural breaking point in the middle, but I’m an underwriter and at this point, I’m not sure it will be long enough to make two books. Since I know the basics of the entire twoish-book story, I’m going to go ahead and write the first draft of both halves of the book and then just edit what I think will be book 1 before querying. And I think this one will reach the query stage too.
So that’s been my NaNoWriMo journey so far. If you’ve won this year, wonderful! But if you gave up, or didn’t make it to 50k, that’s okay too. We’re all growing in our writing journey and if you didn’t do it this year, or aren’t happy with your story, try again next year! The more you write, the more confidence you have that you’ll be able to do it again. At one point, I never thought I’d be able to write a novel at all, even though I desperately wanted to.
Hello! It’s Tuesday again, and time for Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Sorry I didn’t post last week, I so wanted to post about the pets and kids that I named after book characters, but I was so darned busy. Maybe I’ll use it next freebie week. Anyway, this week is Thanksgiving in the US. Some people have suggested cancelling Thanksgiving, but I don’t think you can cancel it any more than you can cancel your birthday. You can choose to go to work, cross out the word “Thanksgiving” on your calendar, and eat hamburgers instead of turkey on that day, but that doesn’t change the day. Besides, it’s good to be thankful.
So this week we’re posting about things we’re thankful for. This year it might be more difficult. Last year I posted about more bookish things, so this year I’ll post about more 2020 related things. Some of them are still a little bookish.
Financial Miracles. This has actually happened to me twice in approximately the last month. And these aren’t isolated incidents either.
So about a month ago, I needed to pay for my sponsor child. We started sponsoring him last year, when money was (relatively) okay. If I would have paid the bill, we would have been left with about $7 in the bank account. I paid it anyway, because we could survive on $7 until the next unemployment check came in. Two days later, we got a check in the mail: my mom had sent us $1000 because she didn’t want us buying groceries with a credit card.
Last week, it happened again. We usually make a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. It costs $25 to pack a shoebox online. I’ve been wanting a nice DSLR camera for about 10 years now; I’ve been trying to save up for one with my Zazzle money, but it always seems like my boy needs school books or something. Anyway, I felt that I needed to spend some of my savings on making a box for a kid, and a day later, I got a check for $95 (it’s the money I get teaching for half a semester).
Health. I think this is one thing we often take for granted, but not so much this year. My family has (so far) escaped the coronavirus plague. I like to think that I selfishly wear a mask whenever I leave my house (I consider it a selfish, yet harmless to others act because even though other people benefit, I’m protecting myself), but there are some people that do everything right and still get sick. And even though I bought masks in January, I didn’t start wearing them until March 20th.
I Didn’t Give Marie Lu Coronavirus. This seems like a weird thing to be thankful for, but here’s the story for this. The Penguin Teen Tour came to Denver on March 5. I was already starting to get concerned about the coronavirus. About my only precaution at the time was I wasn’t touching door handles. Anyway, the next day I felt a little nauseous. Even though nausea isn’t a symptom of coronavirus, my writer brain starts thinking “what if I got people there sick yesterday?” Because there was a huge crowd there. Fortunately, the book signing was not a super-spreader event. Two weeks later, there had only been a total of 363 cases and 4 deaths in my state (those were the days, right?).
I’m Completing My Legend Set! Some of you may know that I love the Legend series by Marie Lu. One thing I didn’t have was the short story “Life After Legend.” I had read it (I went out and bought the Warcross paperback edition specifically for that), but I really wanted the original booklet. It came out before I started book blogging and pre-ordering books by my favorite authors. Anyway, last week someone posted about how they had a difficult bookish wish. I posted that I had a difficult bookish wish too. My friend Mary on Twitter asked me what my bookish wish was, and when I said it was “Life After Legend,” she said she had a copy to give to me.
It gets better. I’ve been looking for “Life After Legend” on eBay periodically for a couple years now. I never find it. After I posted on Twitter about my bookish wish, I checked eBay again. No, they didn’t have “Life After Legend,” but they did have a physical copy of “Life Before Legend.” I didn’t even know that was a thing except as a Kindle book. So I picked that up and it’s sitting on my bed right now.
The End to my Reading Slump? If you’ve seen my seasonal TBRs and Monthly Wrap-Ups this year, you know that my reading has been horrible this year. I went from reading 11 books in January to six books last month. Six. I’ve already read seven books this month! My fall TBR is finished with the exception of A Sky Beyond the Storm (which doesn’t come out until next week). Now if I could only start blogging more.
Online Teaching is a Success? I teach Spanish and German to homeschoolers. When they said they were going to move all classes online this year, I was skeptical. I had never taught anything online before. Well, it turns out that it’s so easy to teach online! It allows me to put in all these pretty pictures and stuff. Part of it sucks because class prep takes forever, and sometimes the kids have their cameras off and I feel like I’m talking to myself, but it’s been working out. Right now we’re supposed to return to in-person instruction next year (don’t know if that will actually happen), but I’ve already requested a TV for the class, because it’s so helpful for me to put all the information on the screen.
No Coop This Week! I know I just said that online teaching is going well, but it’s also a lot of work. This week is fall break, I have two weeks after that, and then I can relax. If I was smart, I’d start class prep for next week, so I’m not in a rush Sunday and Monday next week.
37,470. That’s the number of words I’ve written in NaNoWriMo (so far). And I haven’t written today. I have a post scheduled for November 30th about this, but there were two years that I failed NaNoWriMo, and one year I didn’t write at all. So I’m thankful that I’m on track to win again.
Photo by Neil Cummings. Creative Commons License
It’s Time to Query! Every year, agents always say never to query your NaNoWriMo letter on December 1st. So last year, what did I say? “It’d be funny to start querying my NaNoWriMo novel on December 1st.” And so, I am. I have two queries ready, I plan to send out five.
The reason why they tell people not to query their NaNoWriMo books on December 1st is because they don’t want people hitting 50k on November 30th, winning NaNoWriMo, and sending out their unedited first draft the next day. The NaNoWriMo novel I’m planning on sending out was finished sometime in January of 2019, and I’m on my seventh draft.
Pandemics Don’t Last Forever. I think some people have a hard time understanding this one. I’ve heard people say “I won’t leave my house until there’s a vaccine!” As if they still plan on holing up in their houses in 2050 when nobody’s even contracted the virus in over a decade (they were saying this before scientists even knew if a vaccine was possible or not).
People aren’t still afraid of the 1918 H1N1 virus, are they? With that particular strain of the virus, people could be healthy at breakfast and drop dead by lunchtime. I’ve had multiple people say to me “but H1N1 is still around!” H1N1 is a particular description of what the virus looks like. There’s multiple H1N1 virii, just like there’s more than one coronavirus. The particular strain of H1N1-1918 is no longer out killing people. And the coronavirus that’s ravaging the world right now will simply be a memory in a couple years.
And I’m very thankful about that.
Next week, we’re going to talk about books I want to read again. I’m often rereading books and typically have one book I’m rereading (although right now because of NaNoWriMo I’m not). See you then!
Hello! Have the weeks been going by really fast for you? I think it might be just because I’m so damned busy with school right now. At least it’s my boy’s birthday so the only school he has tomorrow is our coop (which still is a lot of work for me). And after today, there’s only three more weeks of coop, so at least there will be a break soon. Anyway, it’s Tuesday again, and today we’re talking about “Book Titles That Would Make Great Song Titles.” We’ll see what I come up with.
Make Up Break Up – This seems like it would be a catchy pop tune. It kind of has a 80’s/90’s feel to it. Probably sung by a girl band. Something about a couple that breaks up and then gets back together (over and over and over again).
Chain of Gold – I imagine Chain of Gold as a love song. Something about two people being bonded together by a chain of gold, or something like that.
Sensational – This is another one of those songs that I’d imagine would have a catchy beat and fast tempo. That kind that would get you out on the dance floor.
Sparrow – I imagine Sparrow as this haunting love song, where the girl dies or something. Which would kind of be appropriate because this is a story about a girl that is abused by her boyfriend.
11/22/63 – This may be a weird choice, but I think this could make a song like Smashing Pumpkin’s “1979.” But this song would probably have been best if it was released in the 1970s. The guy could be singing about what he was doing the year Kennedy was shot, his love, that sort of thing. The date is too long ago to make a great contemporary song, but since this book involves time travel, I think we can allow the song to come out in a different time too.
Today Tonight Tomorrow – The whole book would make a great song. The first verse could be about how the main singer hates the girl, the second verse could be about how he spends a wonderful evening hanging out with the girl, and the third verse could be about the future he imagines with the girl.
Tell Me Everything – I think this would work as either a catchy pop song or a slower song where the main character caught his or her loved one cheating on them. The upbeat pop song might be about people getting to know each other that want to know everything about each other.
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes – I can’t remember–was this actually a song in the book? Either way, this would make a decent medium-tempo song. One that tells a story about a girl who was so lovely, she was the boy’s songbird, but he eventually finds out she’s behaving like a snake. Or it could be an instrumental song that tries to convey that same meaning.
Summer Days and Summer Nights – This song would remind me a little of “Summer Lovin'” from Grease. Maybe a duet, but not necessarily so.
Heartless – It wouldn’t surprise me if there actually was a song with this title already. This is another song that could fit into a variety of styles. It might work as a ballad where someone is weeping over their heartless lover that jilted them, or as a song with a heavy rock beat to it.
So there’s ten songs with titles that might double as song titles. I thought it would be harder than it turned out. What books did you choose this week? Next week we’re talking about “Characters I’d Name a Pet After.” Next week, half of these are going to be characters I actually have named a pet (or child) after, and the other five will be characters I would name a pet after.
It’s Tuesday, and you know what that means! Time for another Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today we’re supposed to talk about non-bookish hobbies (does writing count? LOL). So I’m left with a conundrum because I spend most of my free time reading. I don’t really consider making dinner or teaching my boy algebra a hobby. Today I see this as maybe a wish list of things I’d do if I had unlimited time and (perhaps) money.
Photography. This is something I actually have time for sometimes. I take some of my photographs and turn them into Zazzle products (like this squirrel postcard). My phone case is of a dolphin photo I took several years ago; I actually bought two phone cases with the same design, because I love it so much. Probably when it comes time to replace my iPhone XR, I’ll get the same dolphin case. Unless I take another photo I like better.
And this is pretty much exactly what my current phone case looks like.
Seeing New Places. This is one of those “yeah, I know I want to do this, but do I really do this?” sort of hobbies. I really want to get better at this one though. For Columbus Day/Indiginous People’s Day, my dh and I took a drive to see all the beautiful leaves, and we went to this place about three hours away and tried to walk alongside the river. We didn’t exactly get there because the land along the river was too muddy. And of course, I took pictures.
We drove to Kansas that Saturday, because I’ve never been. I decided I was going to try to see one new place one Saturday every month. My dh wants to come with me. When I mentioned I wanted to go to the Denver Art Museum in November (there’s an exhibit I’d like to see that’s there until December 7th), he wasn’t too thrilled about that. So I’ll go two places this month: one that I’ll go to by myself, and one we can enjoy together. Without making the conscious effort to go, I’ll stay home and read books all afternoon.
Exercise. Another thing I don’t do nearly enough, but I try. We had to let our gym membership lapse last month. I loved being able to go swimming two or three times a week. The river to the right (the picture is of my dd (with the orange hair) and her friend) is fed by glacier water. I was hypothermic when I got out of that water. My doctor upped my thyroid medicine by 50% once I got back from this camping trip, so that might have been why. I like to go hiking when I get the chance, but usually I only find time to walk to the Pokéstop at our local park. I try to do that every day though.
Genealogy. This is a “hobby” I haven’t touched in at least six years. But I do like it. I like history, and think it’s interesting to learn about all my ancestors. I’ve been able to trace my ancestors to Ivar the Boneless, which was pretty cool. I was fiddling around in Ancestry and found an ancestor that lived in Jamestown, but I didn’t document it right. Perhaps I’ll get the chance to track that ancestor down again someday.
Scrapbooking. Another hobby I haven’t touched in years. I just never think to do so. Plus then I have to get out all the supplies, which are buried under about 20 books. Someday I’ll probably work on this more, when I’m not spending half the day teaching my boy.
Transcription. This is actually something I’ve done in the last year, but I don’t do it as often as I’d like. I occasionally volunteer as a transcriber for the Smithsonian Institution. I think it’s kind of awesome how I’m helping researchers make historical discoveries. Last time I did this I transcribed some of the Freedmen’s Bureau papers during Black History Month. While most of the time I’m not transcribing any juicy historical tidbits, I know that my contribution, added with others, makes a difference. I have also worked on Project Gutenberg, but much less recently.
Needle Crafts. This is something I tend to do about one week a year. I’ve been working on this one cross-stitch project for probably at least 10 years. I have some projects that I’ve lost, so then I go buy new ones. I always go for these mega-large projects too. I have no interest in little squares that say “God bless this house” or whatever. My current project has dolphins.
Languages. Me and Duo are buds. I have… 24 flags after my name in my Duolingo account. I don’t know them all well (my best languages are Spanish, German, and Russian), but I dabble in several languages. I have a 2,039 day streak on Duolingo, which amounts to a little over 5 1/2 years. I have had to use streak freezes during that time, I admit. I also paid to get my streak back once or twice. So I guess I can say this is one hobby I engage in almost daily.
Learning. Now, you may say this is a bookish hobby and I’m cheating, but that’s not necessarily true. There are video courses I take. Then I often listen to audiobook classes when I go for a walk or cook dinner. What better motivation to make one go for a walk, than to know you have something to listen to? Sometimes I listen to audiobooks on my walks, but that’s a bookish hobby; we’ll just ignore that. I guess I do this hobby almost every day too.
Puzzles. I don’t usually do many jigsaw puzzles, but I do like to do other kinds of puzzles and brain games. I’ve been making a little bit of money playing timed crossword puzzles, but not very much.
So that’s a list of several hobbies that I don’t usually make time for. I just started playing Animal Crossing with my kids about a week ago, but since I haven’t been playing that long, I didn’t really count it. Maybe if Top Ten Tuesday does this again at some point in the future.
What are your non-bookish hobbies? Are you like me, saying “what’s that?” Or are you a normal person where books is only a small–er–medium part of your life? Next week, it’s back to books, with “Book Titles that Will Make Great Song Titles.” See you then!
Hello! It’s November 1st, and time to say hello to the holiday season and hustle and bustle until the end of the year. But before we get there, what happened last month?
Books Read:
I realized this month why I was having such a hard time getting things read. My husband is home all. the. time. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but when he had a job, I’d wake up, fling the curtains wide open, and read before or after (often both) teaching school. Now, I can’t fling the curtains open because he’s often sleeping. Then my boy comes in at 11 PM to write code on my dh’s computer, and after that, my boy comes and sits on my bed to watch a video by Jaiden Animations, and then they watch Cutthroat Kitchen. Who can read with all that going on?
Anyway, I only read 6 books this month. I don’t expect it to get any better with NaNoWriMo starting today. I need to read 19 more books to finish my Goodreads Challenge. Worst case scenario, I can squeeze in Life After Legend I and II in a half hour. While I don’t plan on reading a lot of short books to win my Goodreads challenge, since I know I’ll be close, I might choose to squeeze in a few books that way.
Hopefully my dh will get a job next year and I can get my reading on track.
Anyhoo, this is what I read:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue – V.E. Schwab
The First Hostage – Joel C. Rosenberg
Make Up Break Up – Lily Menon
The Red Scrolls of Magic – Cassandra Clare
Mirror Gate – Jeff Wheeler
A Reaper at the Gates – Sabaa Tahir (reread)
I almost finished Julie Kagawa’s Talon in time to include it on this list, but I started NaNoWriMo instead. I had an hour left in the book and I had to go to sleep. I’m starting The Scorpio Races today, which is something I planned to do for nearly a year already (since it starts on November 1st, I’ll start reading it on that day).
Writing:
Woo! Time for NaNoWriMo! In the summer of 2019 I started to come up with the germ of this story: a girl, who is a lady-in-waiting to the princess, is being held as a prisoner in her enemy country after she was captured in a war. When she discovers that they intend to kill her, she ends up running off with the handsome gray ace son of a duke, and they end up getting shipwrecked on a deserted island.
I always thought it would be funny if I started querying my NaNoWriMo novel (from 2018) on December 1st. THE BRIGHTNESS OF SHADOW is not ready, and since I’m writing another novel now, it’s unlikely to get ready in the next 30 days. But you know what? It’s 95% ready. I’ve had someone say to me “Why isn’t this published already!?!” Will that last 5% make the difference between a rejection and an acceptance? Probably not. Especially since the first half of the book is completely ready to go, and the only pages I haven’t gone over for the last time (before querying) aren’t even pages an agent will see unless they request a full.
That last 5% is holding me back. It’s been sucking my motivation. It’s been keeping me from moving forward. So, on December 1st, I’m going to send it out into the world and see what happens. I will finish that last 5%, but I won’t let the fact that it’s not done yet stop me from querying. Because, although I know they say not to send out a novel until it’s as good as you can make it on your own, the tiny sliver of change that I can make myself is insignificant.
So December 1st, I’m sending out my first batch of queries. And if it gets accepted, I’ll have a funny story about how I started querying my NaNoWriMo novel on December 1st, which is something agents say never to do. They generally mean don’t send out the NaNoWriMo novel you just finished though, not the NaNoWriMo novel you started two years ago and have already edited it so much that–even though you love it–you want to move on to the next stage.
Life:
Not much is going on over here. It’s the same nearly every week. Sunday: church, then start getting ready for Tuesday’s Spanish and German classes. Monday: teach my boy school and finish preparing for Tuesday’s classes. Wednesday through Friday: recover from teaching language classes and teach my boy. Saturday: maybe do something different?
My dh and I went for a drive at the beginning of the month to go see the falling leaves; that was different. Then we went to Kansas because we’ve never been there before. I want to go somewhere new every month, because we’ve been here in Colorado for about six years and haven’t seen much yet. For November, I want to see the Denver Art Museum. Since dh doesn’t want to go to the art museum (I really don’t want to go with him and have him rush me anyway), we’ll also go on a drive somewhere nearby.
I don’t celebrate Halloween, but I started playing Animal Crossing and I went to an Animal Crossing Halloween party with my daughter. The characters were so adorable! My boy went trick-or-treating and dressed up as a plague doctor. I want to wear the plague mask to Walmart sometime. I took my mask today but chickened out. I’ll do it when I’m only going in for a couple things.
So that was October. Hopefully if you’re doing NaNoWriMo, you’ll get what you want out of it. I’m not holding my breath for the elections, but hopefully by the time I write my wrap-up of next month, we won’t be in the middle of a civil war and people are killing each other.
It’s Tuesday again, and you know what that means! Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl). Today is supposed to be a “Halloween Freebie” but I don’t celebrate Halloween (I may include it in a book someday, but partly it involves my now dh’s former fiancée and a trip to Knott’s Scary Farm). So I decided to twist the topic and write about creatures that are in books I read that are often associated with Halloween. So let’s get started!
Shadowhunters books have all sorts of supernatural creatures: vampires, werewolves, warlocks, and even the occasional ghost! These aren’t scary books or anything like that though.
Stephen King is typically known for his scary stories, but 11/22/63 isn’t exactly one of them. It’s a time-traveling story where a man goes back and tries to prevent the shooting of JFK. There is a reference to a killer clown though.
So Chosen Ones wouldn’t be my go-to book for Halloween (then again, I don’t celebrate Halloween anyway), but this book does have zombies. So I guess it fits in this week’s theme.
The first line of Skyhunter is “Ghosts travel in packs.” They’re not exactly what you’re probably thinking of, but this is a ghost book like Chosen Ones is a zombie book.
Slasher Girls and Monster Boysis a book of horror stories. Some of these stories are scarier than others, and some do have some bona fide creatures that go bump in the night.
Vampires definitely count as creatures that go bump in the night. Twilight also has werewolves too, although those take a slightly less prominent role.
Happily, Renée Ahdieh’s book about vampires is going to be a trilogy. Goodreads still doesn’t reflect that a third book was picked up, but I saw it on Twitter.
While The Lady Rogue doesn’t exactly scream “scary!” it is a story that revolves around the real Count Dracula. Dracula reminds one of vampires, which fits into today’s topic.
And while we’re on the subject of the real Vlad the Impaler, Kiersten White’s And I Darken is a retelling of this historical era–with a twist. Dracula is female in this story. This book isn’t really paranormal, but it does give some of the background to our most famous spooky tales.
An Ember in the Ashes is also not a scary story, but it does contain some creatures that often only are seen wandering the streets on October 31st. There are ghosts, wights, efrits, and other fantastical creatures.
So that is this year’s Halloween Freebie on Top Ten Tuesday. There are a lot of similarities between this list and last year’s list; sorry about that. I don’t read a lot of scary books, I guess.
Next week, we’re going to take a completely different tack and talk about non-bookish hobbies. Those exist? Maybe I’ll just have to include things I’m interested in but don’t ever have time for. We’ll see.
So what did you write about this week? Since this is a freebie week, I’m sure we’ll see quite a variety.
