Adventures and Episodes: March 2021
Ahhh March. The Spring Tease. The randomly warm days, the gusty winds. The mornings when you wake up to a sudden blanket of snow and freezing temperatures about the time you’ve grown accustomed to not needing a jacket anymore... These are characteristics of March in this part of the world.
How has your March been? What have you been up to? How are you coping with the first anniversary of the foul plague and its effect upon the world?
Writing
I FINISHED EDITING THE ORB AND THE AIRSHIP!
I started the month out with 44,475 words, and finished with 100,481 and a third draft on the beginning chapters, as well as some rearranging so that the story weaves together between the two main POV characters better. The rough draft held 112,000 words, so I definitely tightened up a lot. I’m sure there’s still plenty to edit, but it’s at a point where I could send it to my editors. However, first I have to get through the rest of the books, since I’m trying to put this all together at once. Definitely the most difficult thing I’ve ever done!
I started work on Mantles of Oak and Iron last week, and I have a goal for the end of this week to be at 13,000 words on that story.
Reading
It was another pretty fabulous reading month for me. Even though I didn’t finish ANY of the things I said I would in my nightstand books post. oops.
Netherfield by Maria Grace / Narrated by Benjamin Fife
Solid ending to the Pride and Prejudice story. This installment felt the most like its own story with characters from P&P. I really enjoyed the character development that occurred in this book compared to the first two. There were some fun surprises I didn't see coming and a few that I did... but I like it when I can guess what happens next, because 1) it means foreshadowing was done well, and 2) I feel smart.
I can't say a lot about this chapter of the trilogy without giving away massive spoilers, so I'll just end by saying that I LOVED this trilogy very much. I listened to the audio version and the narrator was excellent. This is definitely a new favorite.
The Tethered World by Heather L.L. Fitzgerald
Portal fantasy // wonderful family themes // insider homeschooler jokes throughout // special needs // story meandered a bit and characters felt a little repetitive at times // enjoyed the honest character arcs and growth // fun world-building
The Healer’s Rune by Lauricia Matuska
Political intrigue // oppressed society of humans living in slavery and fear and uneducated // hints of magic // feisty MC who I wanted to shout at constantly because she never moved fast enough! // edge of my seat // bit of a cliff-hanger ending
A Game of Stars and Shadows by Kara Jaynes
Shadows Grow: book 2
more space elves // plus VAMPIRES (which I have a soft spot for) // kind of an interesting love triangle... because MAGICAL BOND THINGY from book 1 // I... actually... kind of love Wilder and feel bad for him?!?!? what is this nonsense? // the tension grows!!
Rebellion Brews: Book 3
NEW CHARACTERS! // the new POVs threw me for a loop for a bit, but I'm enjoying the addition they bring to the story... helping it not be JUST about the Stella/Eldaren/Wilder love triangle, which is fabulous // also, the love triangle doesn't annoy me! Weird.
Earth Roars: Book 4
Wilder becomes even more intriguing // I'm kind of annoyed by Eldaren in this one, finding that I'm growing more suspicious of him as the humans grow less suspicious of him // Sophie is a fun character // Intrigue Grows!
Infected by Tara Ellis / Narrated by Tara Ellis
oddly too close to reality after living through 2020 // a little bit of Indiana Jones meets Urban Fantasy // awesome brother/sister relationship // INTENSE // also zombies // definitely interested in reading the rest of the series
This was another audio book and I quite enjoyed this one, the author did a good job narrating her own work.
Redeemed by H.L. Burke
Supervillain Rehabilitation Project, book 2
fun sequel // angsty teenage superhero addition... who's really a little cinnamon roll sweetie // Prism-Fade much romance (which I'm kind of meh, on, actually) // loved getting to know Tanvi more, and the rest of the team // also WHAT THE HECK ending!!!!!! // on to book 3!
Watching
We watched quite a few fun things this month.
Star Trek: Enterprise
Still working our way through this one as a family. I am reminded with every episode how much I LOVE this show. Archer and Tripp and Hoshi and Te’Paul and Malcolm and Travis and Flocks… I love them so so so much! It’s such a fun show, and honestly, I think I love it even more because it doesn’t feel like Star Trek as much as other shows do.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Honestly, I am still struggling to really get into DS9. The writing often falls very flat, and episodes often end in a sort of … “yeah, we were going along and then we ran out of time” sort of fashion. The acting has gotten better, and I haven’t noticed random blocking issues (as in, a character gets up, walks in a circle for no reason, then sits back down… yes, that did happen in an episode)
I’m finding myself more compelled by a couple of the characters, but none of them are really grabbing me.
Dreamer
Had so much fun introducing the kids to this beautiful movie. It’s still extremely high on my list of favorites! It is just so sweet and wholesome and lovely.
Prince Caspian / Voyage of the Dawn Treader BBC versions
These may not be the eye-candy extravaganzas that the newer versions are… but if you’re looking for a movie representation of these books that is extremely true to the books and captures the true HEART of the stories… you can’t find better than the BBC versions. We’ve been reading the books, and I look forward to finishing up this movie series by watching The Silver Chair on the next rainy afternoon to come our way.
The Ugly Dachshund
I had never seen this before, and it was cute. A little frustrating, as watching poor Brutus get blamed over and over for stuff the dachshunds had done was… difficult… but it was a fun movie for the whole family.
Pride and Prejudice: 2005 Keira Knightley version
Still my all-time favorite version of Pride and Prejudice. In the book and often in the movies there is a “bite” to many of the character interactions that just doesn’t exist in this version. Donald Sutherland is and forever will be my favorite Mr. Bennet.
The Current War
This was an INTERESTING watch. Inspired by the competition between AC and DC power to bring electricity to the 19th century United States and the race between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
By far my favorite thing we watched this month. Lest you be misled… this is not just Joss Whedon’s Justice League with 2 extra hours. This is an almost ENTIRELY different movie. And I loved every minute of the four hours I spent watching it. This movie is absolutely amazing. While the plot is… basically the same… the driving force is given back to Batman, the characters all get more back-story, and you get a ton more information on Darkseid and Steppanwulf and why they are here and what happened on Earth in the past… it’s just BETTER, okay? (Also, I’d say that in the 4 hours, there were potentially only about 30ish minutes of footage that you’ll recognize from the first movie… everything else was new).
Currently only available on HBO Max (we signed up for a single month’s subscription from approx $15… which is less than you’d spend on 2 tickets to see it in a theater).
Avatar: The Last Airbender
The kiddos don’t remember this… so we’re getting to watch it again!!! Yay!!!!
Life-ing
We have a really great children’s theater group here, and we took the kiddos to see their latest show “A Winnie the Pooh Birthday Tail” which was adorable (and many of our friends were in it, which always just makes everything better).
Other than that… just enjoying the warmer spring days when they show up, enjoying the gray, rainy days that signal spring in these parts, and enduring the random morning blankets of snow!
We’ve had to redo our back steps to make them meet code, so that’s been our weekend project this month… and probably into April.
Next we plan to build some furniture for downstairs. (And by “we” yes, I totally mean “Derek”)
April Plans
My current goal for writing is to be halfway through Mantles of Oak and Iron by the end of April.
Here on the blog I’ve got some board game reviews coming, and I’ll be participating in several cover reveals and release tours that I’m excited about!
The fan art contest!!! <— check out this post for details. Accepting submissions starts April 1st!
I’m having a blog tour/IG blast to screech about all four of The Minstrel’s Song books now being available in audio! If you’d like to help with that there’s still some time to get in on the party, you can sign up HERE!
And that’s pretty much it for my March!
How has your March been? Watched or read anything this past month that you really loved?
Fellow writers, how’s the writing going?
Any big Spring Plans?