January/February Ishness 2023

Yes, I know I rebranded these posts “Adventures and Episodes” a while back. But I’ve been feeling nostalgic lately, and kind of missing the “good old days” of blogging. There was a community of us back there a few years ago, and while it’s gotten a little swallowed up by the other varieties of social media and gnat-like attention spans… I still enjoy the blogosphere. And I miss what it used to be.

And among those things I miss are the tags and collaborative nature that many of our posts were made of. Like “Ishness.” — invented by my dear friend and proofreading wizard, Deborah O’Carroll.

Let’s be honest. Blog tags were basically memes before memes were a thing.

So here I am, throwing back a few years, climbing up into the attic, and rubbing the dust off of something that I always loved. And maybe it’s still shiny and precious under there, like so many things tend to be. I hope so.

And I’m taking this moment to go back to good, old-fashioned blogging.

In the midst of the hubub of cover reveals and kickstarters and book launches… there’s a kind of miserable silence hanging over me.

It’s not because it’s not going well. Much to the contrary, only a week and a half in and we’re nearly halfway to the goal. It’s actually going spectacularly.

Maybe it’s just me, but I have found that the moments in authoring that ought to be the most exciting and fun tend to be the ones that fall the most flat. Even in the midst of excitement there’s this… quiet melancholy. Maybe it’s just a sort of sorrow that it’s almost over. Maybe it’s because people move on to the next shiny thing so quickly. Maybe it’s because it sometimes feels like you’re shouting into a void that’s full of so many other voices clamoring for attention… whatever the reason, it’s right now, right here in the midst of a release or a reveal that I tend to find myself wondering the most acutely, “Why bother?” Maybe it’s a spiritual attack. I don’t know. But what I do know is that it’s good to get outside of my own head and to focus on the blessings and the joys in life. So here we go…

Reading

It’s been a good reading year so far. I waffled around a bunch about what to set my goodreads challenge at for the year and finally settled on 36. I figured with everything going on this year I could handle 3 books a month.

And I’m already 1/3rd of the way through that number, so clearly I still make reading a priority.

Top Four Books of 2023 So far

Coiled by HL Burke - I knew I would like this one, I just didn’t know it would take me so long to get to it. I bought it back in 2018 at the Realm Makers conference, but although I’ve read most of Burke’s books, this was one I hadn’t yet. So I was quite happy when it was picked as the January book for the FOF book club. I truly adored this sweet tale of trials, curses, romance, and perseverance through it all. So many times, the characters could have just given up, accepted their fate, and moved on... but they kept persevering.

Firebird by Kathy Tyers - another one I’ve had since RM in 2018. I picked up The Truce at Bakura back in jr. high right around the same time I discovered Timothy Zahn and was swept away on a delightful (and spine-tinglingly creepy adventure). I did not know she had written anything else until I got to meet her at Realm Makers that year… one of those crazy awesome moments in my life that I totally didn’t plan or see coming! This story is stunningly beautiful, and I only wish I had read it sooner. Looking forward to the rest of the series.

Mercury on Guard by Steve Rzasa - the theme of this year’s reading seems to be “books I am certain I’ll love but haven’t gotten to until now!” This is quite possibly my favorite read so far this year. It’s very Dresden Files, but clean and more sci-fi-y. Mercury is a snarky dude and I love him to bits already. Excited to read the rest of this series!

I have enjoyed every book I’ve read this year so far, but those are my top three so far.

Echo North by Joanna Ruth Meyer - I finished reading this book between the time I wrote this post and the time I posted this post… and so even though it’s not in the picture, I have to share it. Definitely a favorite read so far, even if it was a bit slower than I sometimes appreciated. A beautiful retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon (a fairy tale I only became familiar with in the past couple of years, but has quickly become a favorite). I’ve had this one sitting on my shelf for a couple of years now, and many friends shouting at me to read it (ok ok, not shouting, my dear reader-friends never shout at me) and it feels so very good to finally be able to move it into my “READ” pile!

Watching

Transformers Prime (season 1): we re-introduced the kids to this epic cartoon series and they are loving it. Truly what I consider to be the quintessential Transformers stories.

The Librarians: Derek and I are working our way through the final season of this show. So far, this season has felt a little lackluster and a lot more cornball (and that’s saying something) and unfocused and often the corniness is even a little too cringey even for me… which is saying something my friends, because I love corny/cringey things. I’m starting to see why it was cancelled. Honestly, I would have been happy with the conclusion at the end of season 2, but it’s fun to hang out with these characters a bit longer.

Mission Impossible 2: We recently acquired the entire MI series so far and somehow I missed the night we watched the first movie. The second installment was every bit as ridiculous as I remembered… and yes, this movie is all about Tom Cruise’s hair. shakes head

Turbo: Kids and I watched Turbo the other night and it was hilarious and adorable. I’d seen it before, but didn’t remember a lot of it, so it was fun.

The Chosen (season 3): We continue to absolutely adore this tv show. I really need to do a full post about this show at some point, but suffice to say for now that it is quickly becoming my favorite show of ever. We went to see the final episodes of the latest season in the theater and it was a truly epic conclusion and a fun experience. I hope they release more episodes in theater, because there’s literally nothing else in theaters I have any interest in seeing.

Wingfeather Saga: the whole family has been enjoying this show, and it spurred my 8-year old to start reading the books (his older sisters have already read the entire series). He’s a few chapters in and said, “It’s my favorite series ever!” so that’s fun. The animation style took some time for me to get used to, but it is kind of gorgeous in its uniqueness.

The Tuttle Twins: Friends introduced us to this show and my kids really enjoy it. It’s been hilarious and educational, so that’s always cool.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Derek and I got to go see this live-performance in the cities with some friends and it was a truly delightful experience. The theater was one of those old-timey ones with seats that adults can barely fit into and a stage that was designed before sound equipment existed… (so the acoustics were EXCELLENT!) Richard Thomas (John Boy in the Waltons) played Atticus and absolutely knocked it out of the park. The entire cast was fantastic and it was a lovely day out.

The Secret Garden (2020): Derek got me the new Secret Garden movie with Colin Firth for Christmas and we finally watched it the other night and… it was interesting. The first half of the movie is suuuuper slow, but also very true to the book. The second half of the movie feels extremely rushed and deviates spectacularly from the book… so I’m not sure how I feel about it? It’s well done, if slow. The acting is great. The videography feels like someone was trying really hard to be super artistic, and it is gorgeous… but it feels a little… untethered. Like the writer/director weren’t sure exactly what genre they wanted the story to fit into, and they added so much of their own interpretations/story in that there just wasn’t enough time for it to feel satisfying. Or something. I really wanted to like it, and I think I did… but it also… fell flat in a lot of ways.

Listening

Lately we’ve been listening to a ton of Valhalla Calling me by Peyton Parrish, and lots of Brittany Jean music, as well - specifically “Dear Heart” and “Rise and Fall” lately.

An interesting combo, to be sure… a good mix of encouragement and getting ready to go to battle. ha!

Life-ing

We had family come for a nice long visit in January, and while we did manage to get sick for a bit while they were here, it was a very nice time.

We’ve had a lot of snow, which is always fun. We’ve gone sledding a few times and ice skating once so far… we had a bit of a long melt there at the end of January/beginning of February, but then we got another 13+ inches of snow last week and the kids and I worked together to build a truly epic snow fort and it is awesome!

Homeschooling continues to go well. Elf Princess is enjoying her online French class, and I’m enjoying brushing up on my French as well as I audit the class alongside her! (I took 4 years of French in high school but haven’t kept up with it due to having nobody to speak it with since then… but it’s amazing and very cool how quickly it’s all coming back!)

Authing

It is my goal in life to get the content edit done on The Prisoner and the Pirate by the end of April. I’d like to get it back to my editor for another round of content/developmental edits before we move on to line-edits because this particular draft is a massive timeline mess at the moment that I need to weave together. I think I can do it… but it’s going to take buckling down and really focusing. Hoping to use Fic Frenzy to get a lot of that work done.

Obviously the Kickstarter is doing its thing. I might fail spectacularly, but we’re learning a lot through this experience and I’m glad we tried it, regardless of the outcome.

We’re getting started on the audiobook for The Orb and the Airship, so that’s exciting. We had planned to use Findaway Voices this time around, but due to their additional fees on their royalty share program we’ve had to go back to ACX.

Otherwise… Derek says that I need to start working on Echo 2… which I would love to do. I feel like I’ve been in “editing purgatory” for the past 3 years and it would be lovely to do some drafting again. I’m not sure I can really dive into that project yet, but I’m going to try and see if I can set aside one day a week for drafting this new story. It might not work, but I won’t know until I try.

And that’s all I’ve got as far as updates around here. What have you been reading, watching, or listening to? I’d love to hear from you, dear Reader!