WIP Soundtrack

          Today on #WIPJoy, we're playing with soundtracks. My characters are in a fantasy world and don't generally have a way to listen to music whenever they want, so I never think of them as having a soundtrack. On the other hand, I create soundtracks for my books religiously, so here are a few songs for each of my main characters. I have way more songs than this, but this is just a sampling of songs that don't leave my playlist when I'm writing these characters.

Kuzunoha
Monster by Imagine Dragons

Deckard
Hero by Skillet

Richard
Hero by Darren Hayes


Himiko
This Life is Mine by Casey Lee Williams

Songs About the Story
Red Like Roses by Casey Lee Williams
This Isn't Love by the Birdsongs

Keeping busy

          My tendinitis is acting up... again? Still? At any rate, I'm under doctor's orders to not abuse it and take painkillers steadily until it starts feeling better. The doctor said a week or two and it been nearly double that now, so hopefully it will be fine soon. On the one hand, I though I'd be dying without my ability to write. And while I will be soon, I have found things to keep me occupied.

1. Reading
          Okay, so this is always my first fall back and this time it came with the added bonus of allowing me to start editing it since every edit includes one full read-through to see where it currently stands. I put the second novel of my Kitsune-Ken series on my Kindle app and 5 chapters in, I can say thats its well written but I will need to rewrite/replan the beginning of it. I changed one thing in my first novel and completely killed the original conflict the novel started off with. That's why I always start off with a base level read through.
          I also picked up a few books, the Howl's Moving Castle series, Your Name and Romancing the Inventor. I haven't started the series yet, but the other two are amazing so far and I would totally recommend them. Fair warning if you do pick up Your Name; it doesn't explain the cultural context of pretty much anything and assumes you'll already know it (sort of like a book set in modern day England wouldn't explain what a biscuit was or why they were having it with tea). So if you know something about Japan, this is an awesome read. If you don't, be aware, its going to take you a bit longer to wrap your head around it.

2. Inktober
          Inktober, if you missed my last blog post, is a monthly challenge to improve your inking skills. Annoyed by my pens inability to blend at all, I went out and picked up some copic markers. They are amazing. If anything, its my art ability that limits their potential. (See pictures below).

3. #WIPJoy
          Unable to do anything by half, I am also filling my resting time with the #WIPJoy challenge. Created by an author who wanted to interact with her story a bit differently, #WIPJoy challenges you to answer questions about your current work-in-progress everyday. I didn't start it until yesterday, so I'm currently behind, but I am catching up. Check out my author page on Facebook for all of those updates.

          So, yeah... this is how I fill up my resting time. What's keeping you busy this week?

Inktober

          I'm going to divert a little from my normal track here and talk about something other than writing for a few minutes here. October has now become Inktober, with a hashtag and everything. Yes, it's another challenge month, and this one I thought was quite fun. The idea is to improve your inking skill and draw a picture in ink every day this month. Since I am a good copy artist, but not a very good artist, I've decided to take part. The drawings don't take more than 20 minutes a day for me to do, but so far, I've had fun. I'll add in the three pictures I've done so far below, but I warn you, they are laughably bad. Please let me know if you'll be joining in #Inktober with me and what your favourite picture of mine is in the comments below.

Day 1 - A character from the video game Journey. Not great, but I had fun creating one essentially from memory.

 Day 2 - Inuyasha. I was going to draw a chibi-Inuyasha, but the eyes got messed up and I decided that regular adult Inuyasha was better... also, for no discernable reason, he's naked.

Day 4 - I missed day 3 and decided today to do a Sailor Moon picture. I told you, laughably bad. I have had the most fun trying to figure out how to shade these pictures though. The pens I have do not mix together at all and most of them are too dark to be used complementarily. 

Business Planning

The worst thing about September is that the cool weather starts coming in and when you're already stressed, you catch bugs every week or so. Last week, I caught a minor one that didn't do much more than kill my concentration. This week, I caught something that has taken me out for two days.

Thus, I'm a bit behind on my numbers. To get back on track, I'm updating my business plan for the next four days.

I have mentioned my business plan, yes? Basically, it's just me writing down what my goals are for the year. I write them in loose strokes, and the closer I get, the more I refine them. This month, my goal is 15,000 words, 1 short story, 8 blog posts and quite a lot of editing, 4 short stories and my novel.

As I mentioned I'm a bit behind on my writing, 2,301 words worth, as of this morning. I have finished my short story of the month, a little vignette for my husband called Nala's Tale, a story about one of his characters slaves in our Pathfinder (evil) game. So, I have just over 4k to do, in four days. Even sick, I can try to do 1,000 a day. The whole reason for leaving my current daily word count at 500 is so that if I fall a bit behind, I can still play catch up, after all.

On the blogging front, I have only completed five blog posts, if you count this one, which is a bit short of the eight I wanted. On the other hand, I should get one more this month and that will bring it up to six. Still lower than I'd like, so I'll have to try harder for next month.

The last thing on my business plan is editing. Normally, I try to separate out editing months and writing months, but I decided to put the two together this month and see how it worked out. The first thing on my list was editing my novel. I'm not done it, but since only one person has gotten back to me with comments so far, I'm taking that off my list and will move it into October. The other editing I wanted to get done was four short stories, I have looked over 2 of them and am halfway through editing one. Both of the other ones I looked at need a nearly complete rewrite, which may become a task for next month, but I should be able to finish the one story I'm halfway done before the end of the month.

So, what have I learned? Well, mostly that I need to either up my word count, or lower my editing amount, while I figure out how to increase my speed. Part of that speed will come as I do it more often. Part of that will be higher when my tendinitis isn't acting up and I don't have any sick days. However, I prefer to leave room in my plan for life to butt its nose in and mess everything up. It saves me from some of the guilt of not meeting goals since at least some of it(like my novel not being edited) was really beyond my control.

Do you have monthly goals? How do you keep track of them?

The Verdict is In!!! (Kinda)

          Woot! A little over a month ago I gave my edited novel to my beta readers. They are, for the most part, still working on it, but I have gotten the first one back. I will remind everyone that the changes were quite thorough. I rewrote nearly half of the novel and added another 15,000 words or so to it. So, yeah... lots of changes. But the verdict is in!

This is a picture of a productivity app I use. It's called Forest and it rocks. It's on Android, Apple and Windows!

          For the most part, the verdict is good. This beta reader hadn't read my alpha version and was coming at it completely new. She seemed to really enjoy it and gave me a lot of compliments as well as shared a few of her favourite lines with me. She said that the first chapter works perfectly to get you into the world and tell you exactly what type of a story you're getting. She quite liked the story in general, loved how I tied up all of my threads while still having some frayed ends to pull you into a sequel. She enjoyed seeing the characters grow and enjoyed seeing the character arcs. She even picked up on some of the secrets that I've sprinkled in that will tie into the main threads of the overall series arc. Not enough to solve it, but enough to make her wonder.

          I think my favourite quote of hers was, "It was a cheering/sense of dread moment and if that’s what you wanted to come across, it worked 100%."

         Now, while I'm super excited about this review, it wasn't all good things. She pointed out a few points where I had slipped up, identified one place where I'd cut too much (meaning parts of it are going back to the original way I'd written it) and a few places where I can tie my story and characters to make it an even more cohesive story. 

          The word from my other three beta readers is "good so far, loving the characters, and not done yet." I'm bouncing from anticipation, and can't wait to see what they all have to say. 

Books and Authors you need to check out

          I was at my first ARWA meeting for the year and we got onto the discussion of authors you need to check out. Here is a list of ten that I think you need to read. 

          Patricia Briggs is writes some of the best Urban Fantasy I've ever read. Her books are well-written, easy to read and she deals with real issues as well. I've read her Mercy Thompson series multiple times and would suggest it to anyone!

 

          Anne Bishop is a dark fantasy author who writes from a very feminist perspective and she isn't worried about hitting the hard questions, even if she doesn't always have an answer. Written in Red is my favourite series of hers, but her Dark Jewels series is also in my top five. If you like a touch of horror in your urban/paranormal romance, pick these up.

          Spice & Wolf is my favourite sweet romance that I have gone back to time and time again... a feat considering that this series currently holds 18 titles in it. What may surprise you, beyond the number of books is that it's written by Isuna Hasekura, a Japanese writer and only translated into English. Don't be afraid of the size of the series or the fact that it's translated. The translation is good and the books are light novels, a newly created genre usually saved for manga translations or sweet slice of life books that come in at 50k - 60k words.

          Laura VanArendonk Baugh won the Lummis award of 2012 for her novel, Kitsune-Tsuki and its easy to see. If you are looking for an author who steeps her fantasy in the mythologies of other cultures, check out her books.

          If you are looking for an incredible book about a Chinese-Canadian girl dealing with mental issues and the death of her elder brother, E.L. Chen's The Good Brother is the book you want. I ranked it easily in my top five reads of last year. Check this out.

          Molly Harper writes brilliant books... the only issue I have with them is that most of her main characters sound the same. I fully admit this is probably because she had the same reader doing all of them on audible and that is where I get them from. If nothing else, this series is comedy gold though, and I highly suggest you all pick up the Nice Girl's Don't series (or by its correct name, the Jane Jameson series) and I even more highly suggest you pick it up on Audible. 

          Dan Wells writes horror and dystopian fantasies. Both are worth picking up. He's one of the authors on the podcast Writing Excuses, and if you aren't listening to it yet, you should be.

          Mary Robinette Kowal's first book, Shades of Milk and Honey is a Jane Austin Tribute, Pride and Prejudice with magic. Its awesome.

          As a final suggestion, I'll gift you with Under the Hawthorn tree by Ai Mi. Written by a blogger author in China, this has been translated into many languages, was picked up by a publishing house and I've been told there's even a movie. While the translation reads like a translation (the phrasing is a bit wooden) this takes nothing away from the story and I cried at the end. If you haven't read it, do so.

          So, which ones have you read? Which ones are you excited to pick up? What would you suggest to somebody who says, "I'm looking for something to read"? Please leave your answers in the comments below!

A Response To Why I Write

          A friend of mine, Kate Larking, blogged earlier this week at Anxiety Ink, talking about why she writes. At the end of her blog (which I totally suggest you check out), she asked what our reason for writing was. It reminded me that it's very important to know why you write, even if your answer is only, "I like to."

          Personally, I write first and foremost, because I enjoy it. Writing is frustrating, but I apparently like frustrating things. Just look at who I married if you want a real world example. (Okay, so most of you don't know him... it's a context joke. Just laugh, trust me on this one.) I would like to say that I could stop writing if I wanted to, but I would be lying. I can give it up and distract myself with other things I enjoy, but I always go back to writing, so yeah, I don't think I could stop if I wanted to.  I write because when I write I am happier. If you want to see what I look like when I'm not writing, just look at how I am when I'm not able to work on my books.

Nanowrimo's Key to Creativity that I received for supporting their recent site upgrades by donation.

          Friends have pointed out to me that I choose everything, from my jobs to my technology choices, around what I require for my writing and that I essentially am always working on my stories in my head, even while working or doing other jobs. There is always some part of my mind working on it. I study writing, words and story and each year go to at least one convention to learn more. I also usually take part in a variety of online writing courses, purchasing the Great Courses audio books on the subject when I can't.

          The thing that surprised me to realize this year was that I have nothing in there about publishing. I have changed my life for my writing, but that does not mean that I have to publish. To be satisfied with my life, I don't need to ever publish. Sharing my writing with my friends is and will always be enough for me, even if I dream of more than that.

          I don't know about you, but there is something very freeing about that.

Back After the Unexplained Hiatus

          Well, I am back. And I even have good news to share! I finished editing my novel. I consider this one the second edit, though in reality, it's the fifth, I think, and it will go through another before I send it to my editor. 

         Speaking of which, I actually spoke with my editor a few weeks ago. We discussed my exceptionally flimsy business plan, which is what happens when your plan is, "make this writing thing a business". She brought up a whole bunch of interesting possibilities and suggestions for helping me to make this my career. One of which included the possibility of not releasing any books this year.

          The main part of this outrageous plan is actually based on how people are buying their books now. Apparently, if your book is a series, as mine is, prospective buyers are waiting until you have a few books out so that they have some proof that you can publish. While my second book is written, it is currently unedited. So I'm going to edit it in the coming months, and hopefully have it ready to be looked at next year, so both can go out just a few months apart. It will certainly make the wait easier for you guys.

          One thing she did suggest and I am seriously considering is putting out some of my short stories in the meantime. According to the conference, they are still doing quite well and it would get my name out there for when I do release my novels. That's still up in the air, but expect to hear more on it later.

          Lastly, since my book has been sent to my betas, I have started writing a new book. It's in a completely different genre; paranormal romance. It's about a mage who wants a perfectly normal life, being a sound engineer at the theatre.  Her goals are blocked by an old flame, a former gang member who wants to draw her back in and there is a sexy romance between her a woman she saves. I'll let you know what's happening with that later, but currently I'm 10k in and hoping to finish writing it later this year.

Scalpel vs Chainsaw

          It's a week into April and I'm not even at four hours of my goal yet. Not that I'm horribly surprised. I knew that my first week would pretty much suck. I had a vacation planned with my hubby for our anniversary and I did not have time during the vacation to work on it. Still, I have done some every day that I wasn't on vacation and I'm currently working on it on the other half of my screen. It's my hope to get a few hours of work on it tonight and tomorrow to catch up.

          So today, I am going to talk about something that I've been dealing with this week and that is making the decision to cut your work. Sometimes in editing, you have to cut, not only a few of your words but a rather large amount. I had to do this earlier in the week. During editing, I realized that one entire chapter couldn't be saved. Just to make sure we're on the same wave here, I am not talking about killing your darlings. What I'm talking about is making the decision to slice entire chapters out of work.

          It's still extremely an extremely difficult decision to make. For me, cutting out a line or even a paragraph is a meh, sort of experience. I know I'm making it better and thus, I don't bother sweating the small stuff. Cutting an entire chapter feels a lot different though. To me, it's more like making the decision that all of my writing sucks and has to be reworked. It's even harder if I know that it was a chapter I had trouble writing in the first place.

          I made that decision this week. One entire chapter wasn't doing its job and wasn't doing it well enough to even re-tool the chapter, where I go through and essentially destroy the original chapter, only keep 10% of the words, kill the other 90%, and add new ones back. It's a bitch of a thing to do, but sometimes you have to chainsaw your work, rather than using a scalpel.

          Ah well, time to get back to it.

Camp Nanowrimo

          If you've been following me for any amount of time, then you probably already know that I'm a big fan of Nanowrimo. Though I understand why some are opposed to it, I have always believed that if you're writing, then you're a writer. You may not be good enough to be published; in fact, you may write only for yourself or for your friends. There is a difference between author and writer. You have to be a writer to be an author, but you don't have to be an author just because you write.

          Arguments aside, I love it, but I don't usually take part in the camp's that happen twice a year. Generally, I'm busy, editing or not writing... Even when I do try it, I've failed. This year, though, I have a novel that I need to get done. I've been editing and dragging my ass on it for far too long. I've set myself up for a challenge of 50 hours. That should be more than enough time to finish this novel. Then I can see about getting it to my editor and back again, hopefully in time to publish before this year's WWC in August.

          So buckle up, its going to be a bit of a crazy April! Are any of you joining me? What are your goals for the month?

What I Learned This Week

It's been a while since I did one of these; way too long in my opinion. It's due to me not working on my novel as much as I should be. I'm getting back into it. This month, I've already done almost as much as I have the two months prior combined. Sometimes, the hardest thing is understanding why you're trying to sabotage yourself. Which is what I've been doing. Still, I'm looking forward to getting it done. Hopefully next month. I have signed up for Camp Nanowrimo and put myself down for 50 hours or whatever it takes for me to finish this novel. Hopefully, I'll have damn good news for you each week on it!

That's not what I actually wanted to talk to you about today, though. Today, I want to tell you about what I learned this week. I've been working on my edits and one of my characters is getting a lot more screen time than she was before. Unfortunately, her chapters have never come easily for me to write and these were getting to feel like I was pulling teeth.

About this time, long time blog followers will note something missing... I haven't said which character yet. No, that isn't me being coy at all. It's for a reason.

You see a name is important; very important. Especially for me. Even in my Pathfinder games, I will search for the right name for days, trying to figure out exactly what I want. I will search for names that have the meaning I want, that sound the way I want that name to flow. I look for names that resonate, not only for me but for them and the way they want to be portrayed.

Skylla isn't human, but she was human when she was born. She's a hunter by trade, and lonely by choice. But her name was wrong. It was a Celtic name meaning archer or some type of warrior... and while that's what she is too, it wasn't right. Skylla doesn't sound like a warrior's name. Also, she isn't Celtic. All of the characters from my book have names that we have in our world.

This week, I discovered that Skylla's human parents were from different cultures. Yet she wasn't named from either of those cultures. Searching both cultures I found two names that I quite liked. So I combined both names, not only into the meaning that suits her but into a name that suits her. Her name is now properly Isashi.

The interesting part of this was that it also led me to rename one other character. The name I had given to him was a name I love and one that was the name of a character in a book series I quite enjoy. But the name wasn't his, and due to its French connotations, it sounded like a girl's name. It was confusing most of my alpha readers, especially since that character isn't from a French background. I looked back to what his name originally was. It suited him better and the meaning suited him better. Even better, I found out that it was from the culture I wanted in that area. So, Jocelin is now Deckard.

What about you? Are you a sucker for names? Do you have trouble writing characters that are mis-named or is that by far, the easiest part of your writing process? Let me know, in the comments below.

Baby Steps

          I'm going to start doing small posts to get back into doing this on a weekly/twice-weekly basis. To that end, today's post is just going to be a quick update on where my writing is. I have been writing, nearly every day since I finally finished reading Anne Bishop's latest novel, Etched in Bone. I'd been waiting a year to read it, so from the moment I received it, there was very little writing being done.

          Since then, I've written a rough draft of a new chapter and written some on a new one. Right now these are very rough and honestly, I sorta hate them (one I finished and realized that what I had learned from that chapter was one way NOT to write that chapter), but I think the main issue with them right now is that they feel like puzzle pieces that don't fit. A lot of it is transitions and some of it is the fact that they are still rough, without the faintest of editing yet. I think that once I've worked on them more I'll fall in love with them and as I work on making them fit in with my novel, they will start fitting in a lot better. Right now though, I have the difficult task of working when I feel like I can't write. But I am determined to get this done, and so I'm hoping that these added chapters will be done soon and I can start the editing. I really want this book to be done, sent to my editor and out for the rest of you soon. I also don't want to send out an inferior novel just because I'm impatient. Its a difficult line to walk. Not perfect, but not inferior either.  Hopefully you'll agree with me that its been worth it when you read it.

          But that's enough for now. I'll see you all next time!

Preorders and (Amazing) Purchases

          Bleh, failure after failure... All my fault. February has hit fully, which means painful tendonitis flare-ups and an intense desire to read, forever. Still, lazy doesn't mean I get off scott-free. I have been reading a whole hell of a lot, mainly in preparation for next month and the release of a new book by my one of my favourite authors. Buying that book may have led to me going a bit insane with the books, though... Let me regale you. 

          When Anne Bishop first released Written in Red, an urban fantasy in a not-earth setting, I held off getting it until Christmas of that year and even then, it was not the book I was most excited about. I had a lot of amazing books that year, but Written in Red was one of my favourites. Every year since then, she's released another one, with the final book being released this March, finally. Even after so long, I have been excited as hell for this novel. I've been reading the entire series again, just to make sure that I'm 100% caught up on the entire story before the last one comes out on the 7th. 

          That wasn't the end, though. I found other items that made me drool in anticipation. Spice & Wolf had mentioned an upcoming release last November of a Collectors Edition with all 17 of the past books in it. I was super excited for it, even if the price tag of nearly $200 depressed me. Anyways, as I assume you've figured out by then, I found out that it was being released on February 28th. I couldn't resist, even with the price tag and knowing that I already own all 17 books in physical copies. 

          I received that book today. 

           It's amazing. The book is huge, a near-perfect square. The writing inside is reddish and every drawing of the series has been made larger for this set. The quality is incredible I am so excited. I will probably never read it, sure I would cry if I damaged it. Take a look at my pictures. What do you think of it?

          I am so pleased with my purchase, you have no idea. I have convinced my husband that it needs a velvet-lined stand to display it in. 

          I also found out that Isuna Hasekura has written another book for the Spice & Wolf series that will be focusing on Holo and Lawrence's daughter. Apparently, he's handing over Holo's crown to her, and a full book of her and Cole's adventures will be coming out later this year, or early next... at any rate, I ordered that as well, though I think it won't be releasing until May this year. 

          Then I found out that Patricia Briggs is releasing books as well this month.... I should rise again to continue writing soon, but for today, and for the next week or so, assume that I'll be writing. 

          What about you? With so many books being released right now, are there any that you're super excited about? Let me know in the comments below.

Plotting away...

Alright! I am back and writing again. My arm is still hurting a bit... it seems that the fall managed to exacerbate my tendinitis, which had been reasonably good until then. However, with time all things heal... and get even better! I had time to finish reading over that section and have a plethora of idea to throw in to change the part that my editor suggested cutting. Don't get me wrong, quite a bit of it will still be cut, but a lot will be added as well, including an entire section with Skylla that wasn't in before. It will take a bit of work to do, but that doesn't scare me; I wrote a book. If work scared me, I'd never have begun all this in the first place.

However, my tendinitis is still here, which does mean I'm taking it a bit slower than I would like right now. I'm starting off with a regime of a minimum of 250 words a day. If I'm on a roll at that point, I can continue writing to my heart's content, but if I'm hurting I can stop, knowing I've done my work for the day. So far, its working well. I'm hoping to have a few chapters done of it sooner.

I'm also considering sharing my first couple of chapters on here... if that's something you think you'd like, let me know in the comments below.

Lastly, I can share some exciting news with you all! I finally got my professional pictures taken. It will take me a few weeks to get my pictures back, but when I do, I will have a headshot ready and waiting for my novels as well as a fun picture for things like Facebook and maybe even Twitter. I can't wait to show them off! Keep an eye out for those coming soon!

Super Short Update

          It has been too long. Sorry for that. I got caught by another minor cold followed by a slip on the ice that drove posting here out of my mind. I'm nearly all better now... the slip took out my hand for a few days, but its working now, even if its still hurting when I type too much. I've been drawing a bit and doing a lot of reading. I have gotten a bit of editing done, and gotten my new photos taken, so I should have those to show you soon.

          So, yeah, just a super short update to let you know why I haven't been posting. Since my hand is still hurting a bit if I use it too much, I'll go back and rest, hopefully coming back with a full post later in the week.

Goodreads Reading Challenge

          Every year since I've found out about it, I have taken part in it. Last year, I only just made my goal of 100 books and so this year, I finally decided to lower it. Instead of 100 books, I'll be going for 75. It's an easy goal, it will keep me reading and, most importantly, I should be able to avoid feeling super stressed out about it. Last year, and just a little bit the prior year making that goal of 100 books stressed me out. It isn't good for my writing, or me in general, to get that stressed out over such a little thing. Especially since it isn't a competition. My goal is not to wow people with how many books I read each year. Those that will be wowed, would be as wowed by me reading 20 books as they would be by my reading 100.

          Having said all that, I have read 7 books to date this year (available here if you want to see which books they are). I have four books on the go in my to be read pile now and you can check out what those are, right here.

          Another thing I'm doing this year is to try and be creative in more ways. To that end, I'm working on drawing more this year. If you want to follow my work, you can check out my drawings here. The ones I'm working on now will all be going into my scrap file, since they're just scrap work, essentially. I used to work on my art a lot more often, but once I started writing, it went to the backburner and recently, I don't draw much at all. Because of that, my pictures aren't really very good yet. However, I am working with an app that gets you to draw something each day, so I can only hope my work will improve as time goes on. Right now, I only have one drawing up and one inking practice sheet, but it should be interesting later on.

          Are you working on being more creative this year? Did you sign up for the Reading Challenge of 2017? Let me know in the comments! Lastly, if you want to keep your Friday evening open this week, I'll be hosting an evening of #fntwp on Twitter again. Come and join me if you want to write, talk about writing or have some questions you'd like to ask me there!

My Year in Books- 2016 Edition

          Hello, everyone! Welcome back. I have a few things I'm going to have to get working on, but I told you earlier this year that I wanted to let you know what my year in books was. So I took a picture of the Goodreads graphic and I thought you'd find it interesting as well.

         Firstly, I read 100 books in 2016! A few of them were rather short, and one was actually a children's book (still counts). It made up for at least one of my books actually being a trilogy in a single volume, I feel. That 100 books was 31,739 pages worth of reading! I was more than a little stunned when I realised that as well.

          The shortest book I read was only 36 pages long; the children's book, Nobody Likes a Goblin by Ben Hatke. Offhand, if you have young children and are a bit of geek, I totally suggest this one. The writing is fun and simple for kids, but if you game, it's even better. Goblin is "hanging out his friend Skeleton" and the picture clearly shows them playing a D&D/Pathfinder type of game in one page. Another is when Goblin finds the heroes who have stolen his treasure, they have taken a buxom wench as part of the treasure. The woman herself seems quite displeased with that turn of events as well. It was entirely hilarious and worth reading.

         The longest book I read was Anne Bishop's, The Black Jewels Trilogy. The book contains the books Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows and Queen of Darkness. Pagewise the volume itself is 1,204 pages long. A great book for anyone looking for something to read. Anne Bishop books all contain a very feminist outlook, this one detailing what actually happens when women take too much of the power back and start abusing it to boot. As well, her books have been perfectly described by a friend of mine as "Violence meets Marital Bliss" which strangely works super well together.

          The most popular book I read this year, by far, was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I shared that books genius with nearly 2,250,000  other people! The least popular book I read was a manga of Overlord, Vol. 3 by Kugane Maruyama. Only 8 other people worldwide read it with me. Sort of an insane difference, isn't it?

          I learned that I tend to rate books rather highly since last year my average star rating was 3.9 and that the highest star rating all around for a novel that I read was Brandon Sanderson's Bands of Mourning which overall have a 4.46 average rating on Goodreads.

          Next week, I'll talk about this reads Reading Challenge with Goodreads (Yes, I'm doing it again, with a lower total this year). Today, I'll leave you with an apology; I forgot to mention in my last post that I had also received Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I can't wait to read it later on this year.

Finally Getting Better

          It has been a bleh couple of weeks folks. Even admitting that January/February is usually when I get my worst illnesses of the year, this one has been a doozy. I have a touch of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) or something like it; basically, I don’t do as well when the I’m not getting my preferred amount of light (I used to joke that I was obviously photosynthesizing. I get a little bit depressed, I’m a little more likely to get sick and I’m much more likely to wallow in my own depression about it. Normally by the end of March I’m champing at the bit, desperate to see green plants and bright sunlight again. Enough so that every year I take pictures of the new green buds just because they fill me with so much pleasure.

          Anyways, now that you’ve had the long story, I can say (short story) I caught the flu and it took me out for two weeks. Now I’m mostly over it, just a bit of achy muscles, a stuffed up nose, and a bit of tiredness in general left. It means that I haven’t gotten much writing or editing done in the last two weeks, though I am very glad that ‘less’ in this case doesn’t equal ‘none’. I finished editing two chapters of Hunter and have a paragraph started for a completely new chapter I’m adding to the novel. I can't wait to get even more done on it. I recently figured out an entire section to add, while quietly cutting down the storyline that my MC deals with in town.

          Speaking of my editing experience, I must say, when I first saw the changes my editor suggested I was horribly disappointed in myself. Now, I can see why she made the suggestions. Her comments really made me look at my story and decide not only what I wanted but what would make my book even more exciting for my readers. I can't wait to get even more of those changes done. 

          Lastly, I finally had a chance to get to Chapters so I can now tell you about my New Years novel. The one I chose is an awesome little fantasy called Skyborn (by David Dalglish) about twins who join their local army; using magic and mechanical wings as their weapons. It sounds interesting and I'll be starting it after I finish reading the novel I'm currently reading.

          Have any of you read any of David Dalglish's novels? What did you think of them and this one in particular? Oh, make sure you come keep an eye out for my next post where I'll be talking about what I read last year in Goodread's Reading Challenge and what my challenge for this year is!  

Unlucky

Bleh, my new year has sucked so far. I started feeling sick on the 2nd of January and the flu has not receded yet. I haven't even gotten to my local Chapters to pick up my New Years book. I'm hoping to go on Friday. I have been sick enough that I haven't even been able to read or write lately (though I have been able to listen to books. Thank the gods for Audible). Words were too much for me. I seem to be on the mend finally and I'm hoping to be back at work tomorrow and writing soon. Until then, I'll keep this as a short update and get back to resting.

Oh! I did forget to mention one other book I recieved this season in my last update. I got Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I'm really looking forward to reading this one when I get a chance; certainly before the movie comes out.

One other thing, I signed up for Goodread's 2017 Reading Challenge again. I tend to read about 100 books a year, but I found that I really had trouble reaching it last year. This year I decided to go for an easier goal of 80 novels.

Anyways I'm going back to bed in the hopes of getting back to work soon. What have you read this year? Have you signed up for the Challenge? Let me know in the comments below.