End of November Update
Well hello there, dear Reader!
I hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! (Or, if you are in a different part of the world, a lovely Thursday).
It’s been a while since I did an update post. November was pretty epic, and I have some things to let you know about the rest of the year, so let’s dive in!
Writing
I got a massive amount of editing done this month. I edited 72,000 words on Towers of Might and Memory, which completed this first pass of edits on the whole series. I already have notes back from my developmental editor on books 1 and 2 and he is working on book 3 at the moment, so I will be diving into those come January.
I tried really really hard to take a break, I really did. And I succeeded, somewhat. I took a few days off and enjoyed doing some things that didn’t involve writing. I went for walks. I baked and cooked. I cleaned my house. I read for fun. I watched a few episodes of Heartland. It was lovely.
But it’s funny how sometimes an intentional break gets the gears going. I also outlined two whole new stories. I’m not ready to share much about them yet, but I can tell you that they are both retellings. I’ve also given them fancy code names, because that seems like the “in” thing to do.
The first is codenamed: Project Dodgy Redemption
And the second is codenamed: Project Dreamer
I’ll let you make of that what you will. As of right now, both of these are going to be more closer to novella length, 20,000 - 50,000 words (or, for non-authors, that means approximately 100-200 pages. ish). It’s all very “ish” at the moment. Oddly enough, neither of these projects are the Super Secret project I was talking about last month. That Super Secret Project is still moving along nicely and I will hopefully be able to tell you about it soon. I am very excited about it!
Reading
I’ve been doing a ton of reading this fall. I’m going to keep the list to just Oct/Nov reads to save on postage.
Witchblaze by Rabia Gale
*incoherent screaming and sobbing* // Arabella has quickly become one of my favorite heroines // I spent most of this book wanting to smack both Bella and Trey and shout, "just KISS already!" at them // Beatrice!!!! *sobs* // so much backstory got unpacked in this book and I loved it // but THAT ENDING! NOOOOOOOO!
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
I still don't like Dickens' writing style.
But I am bumping this up to 2 stars for a couple of reasons:
1. I actually managed to read the whole thing without my eyes glazing over and giving up and either getting the audio book or just re-watching the movie. (This was major, y'all!)
2. Nancy. I did not think Dickens was capable of tugging at my heartstrings through all his unnecessarily wordy descriptions of ALL THE THINGS... but Nancy's story actually made me get a little misty-eyed.
I still like the musical movie better
Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead
A re-read for me. I am listening to the entire King Raven trilogy as my current audio book listen. You can read my 6-degrees style review from the first time I read it HERE
The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
Marching through my first read-aloud of The Chronicles of Narnia, we finished up The Magician’s Nephew a few weeks ago and then dove into The Last Battle. It is a little sad to be almost done with these, but I’m sure we will read them again together at some point.
Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
I quite enjoyed this story // I spent much of the story kind of disliking the main character, but by the end of the book I had grown to love him // Emma is fabulous // ending made me tear up a little // loved the color power stuff, quite unique and fantastical //
We also finished our 2-year journey of reading through The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings with the kids. It was such an epic adventure, sharing this, one of our favorite stories, with our children.
Watching
The Lord of the Rings
Of course, now that we’ve read the books, we are watching ALL the LOTR movies and The Hobbit trilogy. We watched LOTR first and it was…. beautiful. It’s always beautiful. But it was so much fun getting to share it with my kids, who really enjoyed it so so so much.
Now we are watching the Hobbit trilogy, and while we warned them that these were more different than the books than the LOTR movies, it has prompted them to pick up the books and start re-reading them for themselves, which is something I am all in favor of!
Leverage
Derek and I finished our re-watch of Leverage, which was a blast and a half. It remains high up there in my list of favorite tv shows ever.
Wheel of Time
Started watching the new Wheel of Time show. I’m feeling… conflicted so far. You know what? I started to write up my thoughts and reactions and then realized I had written a blog-post-within-a-blog-post, so I’ll just make it it’s own post later, ok?
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Finished my 3rd? 4th? rewatch of this series. Such a great show. Aaaahhhh. Beautiful. Poignant. Fun. Humorous. A little ridiculous at times. And Zuko remains my favorite. Tears at the end. That last 4-parter episode is INTENSE, yo.
Heartland
I forced myself to relax and take some days off of writing after I finished my edits halfway through the month, and got back to my show. I watch this one on my own, and it’s just lovely. So peaceful and fun.
Jungle Cruise
This was kind of a “wannabe Pirates of the Caribbean” and as such, it did a good job not being just a like-for-like retelling. Had a neat twist I didn’t see coming about halfway through with the main character. However, because of the agenda-shoving-down-the-watcher’s-throat in the middle of the movie, I wouldn’t watch it again. I am so sick of that.
Black Widow
This… fell kinda flat for me. I just can’t get excited about a movie whose sole point and purpose seems to be screaming that all men are evil.
I feel like it could have redeemed itself quite a lot if they had also made the villain a woman… but they chose not to consult me before releasing this film.
I did like the “sister interactions” between Natasha and Elena. They were very real and made me laugh.
Could have done without most of the rest of the movie, though. It just… should have come out earlier. Like… around the same time as Spiderman: Far From Home. It would have worked well as an epilogue for Natasha, and probably wouldn’t have been so agenda-ridden had it been made a few years earlier. As it was… well… it’s not one I’ll be owning or watching again.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Okay, I was really expecting this to be way more horrible. It wasn’t even a little bit horrible.
That’s not to say it was in any way fantastic. It wasn’t.
But it was fun.
A solid super-hero/kung-fu movie with some fun fantastical elements. Shang-Chi himself is exceedingly likable as a character. He was my favorite part of the movie.
The ten rings are pretty snazzy. (Even if they aren’t actually rings…) The special effects were great. The soundtrack was meh. The dragon was EPIC. The girlfriend was… distracting because she did the voice for Sisu in Raya and… yes. She was the same exact character, except without being an awesome dragon. So there’s that.
I’d give it… maybe a B-
It wasn’t great. It wasn’t awful. Not much to object to. Not much to write home about.
Okay, I should stop before you get the idea that I just don’t like movies
I love movies. Well-made, well-written, well-acted movies that have heart and soul… I will rave about them endlessly.
But a lot of what’s coming out lately seems… soulless.
And I just can’t get excited about it.
Maybe it’s because I feel like I have to be on-guard constantly. I don’t know. Or maybe the caliber of movies has actually diminished. The Marvel franchise definitely seems to be floundering around a lot.
Have you seen anything new recently that was excellent? I’d love to hear about it and give it a try!
Life-ing
Life has been pretty hectic around here lately. We had a cold go through the house a few weeks ago, and that kind of stops you in your tracks for a bit. Everyone is fine now.
My husband’s job has been super crazy busy.
But really, we’re just kind of going through the normal routine. School. Work. Cleaning. Making food. Hanging out as a family. Everyday heroic stuff.
Listening to Wintertide on repeat
My sister’s new Christmas album is out and it is gorgeous.
And now that it’s after Thanksgiving, nobody can get upset with me for listening to it constantly.
of course, I listened to it constantly in the time I had it before Thanksgiving, too
Future Plans
I’m hoping to get some progress made on Project Dreamer or Project Redemption in December, just a little bit. I started writing the first or second chapter of Project Dreamer last week after I got the outline written and so far, it’s zipping along very nicely. (And no, I’m not sure if it’s the first or second chapter… the format of this project is a bit… out there, but I’m kind of loving it anyway). I’m just dabbling, though, because I’m trying to take December mostly off from writing. Or at least from having any sort of “writing schedule” or “writing goals.” I want to just spend time with my kids. Play board games. Listen to Christmas music. Go sledding (if there’s snow). Wrap presents. Things like that.
In January, I plan to dive back into Turrim Archive, going through the notes from my developmental editor and making changes and tweaks.
My line editor is not available until July… so that definitely gives me plenty of time to get through the next round of edits on this series, which is nice.
I have started chatting with a cover artist, and hope to start working on the covers for this series over the coming year, so that is SUPER exciting!
At some point in the future, I do have a Cinderella retelling novella all written that I want to polish up. I even have a cover for it. I just need to send it through edits and pick a title. So that’s in the works, as well.
How has your fall been? Did you celebrate Thanksgiving? Did you “win” NaNoWriMo? Did you hit any epic goals?
Do you have any guesses about any of my 3 super-secret projects? I’d love to hear your guesses in the comments!
Been reading or watching anything super awesome I should know about? Got a new fandom I should try? Let me know in the comments!