Tag: Magical Readathon

On the Fifth Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

~ EMM

Today was another LONG day of adulting with not a lot of writing. Sigh.

It started in the dark, but the sunrise was pretty great…

sunrise on the ferry

I had to head over to one of the other islands for an annual doctor exam, but the inter-island ferry commute and waiting around allowed me lots of time to read Manslaughter Park! Reading also helped distract me from my irrational doctor visit anxiety. I’m now about two thirds through the book, and I think I know whodunit. I’ve had a suspicion about one character since the beginning (I’ll put my guess at the end of this post since it may be a spoiler). I’m kind of hoping I’m right, because I think that would be an excellent twist.

But, now that I’m done running errands and checking things off my to-do list, I want to try to get at least a little writing / editing done before I collapse into bed and get back to reading. Given where I’m at in the story, tonight may end up being a “bad decisions book club” night where I stay up WAY too late just so I can finish the book.

In other news, I’ve been very preoccupied with organizing the chaos that is currently inhabiting my brain. This is requiring a pinch of journaling, a growing to-do list that needs sorting, and a lot of thinking about how I want to structure my planning system for 2024. I think I have the start of a plan, but it’s not quite fully baked yet. So, I’ll save that for a future blogmas post.

And speaking of baking… I have a somewhat ambitious holiday recipe I want to try. The baking supplies I needed arrived today, so now I can actually get started on this project. The recipe involves multiple steps that need to happen over the course of several days. I’d like to wait to do the baking part over the weekend, so I need to have a look at the instructions again and figure out when I need to get started. Pictures, process, and results to be documented in a future post…

Now, what I really want to do is get back to reading so I can see if my guess is right. But first, a little writing and some dinner prep.

Potential spoiler is in white text below… Stop reading now if you don’t want to know my guess for whodunit. (Alternatively, highlight the text on the next line if you want to know.)

I think Edmond is the killer.

On the Fourth Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

~ EMM

Today has been a busy day, packed with catching up on everything I neglected while I was gone for the weekend. I made a little more progress with Manslaughter Park this morning, and I’m about to read a bit more before I go to sleep. But, other than that, I haven’t had much time for reading today.

I’m beginning to wonder when the Crawfords are going to show up, and what role they are going to play. I have a hunch that they are going to arrive within the next few chapters, and I suspect they are going to probably be debt collectors. A couple of chapters ago, Lizzie Bennett (who happens to be Sir Thomas’s lawyer), said the debt collectors were on their way and would likely take up residence until they were paid.

On the Third Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

~ EMM

Another long travel day today, so this is going to be a very short update. I’m still enjoying Manslaughter Park, but something feels off about Tom’s character at the moment. In the scene where the will is read, Tom is acting like a total jerk. I feel like Maria and Julia were the jerks, not Tom (or Edmund, obviously). And his behavior especially doesn’t sit right with me when he’s leaning on misogynistic arguments with his sister (like she can’t possibly own a business, she needs to get married, etc.). It just doesn’t feel right. Unless maybe the author is setting him up to be the killer? That would be an interesting twist on the Sir Thomas / Tom dynamic from the original book…

I was curious about this book because 1) I love a cozy mystery, but also 2) there aren’t a ton of Mansfield Park retellings out there in the world. I think that’s because it’s generally the least liked of the Jane Austen novels. Mostly because everyone hates Fanny. She’s not my favorite Austen character, either, but I think that’s because she ends up being sort of a tool for the narrative that allowed Austen to make more direct commentary on things like class, society, and politics in Mansfield Park that in her other, more popular novels.

What’s interesting about reading this book is that, in addition to comparing it to the original, I keep comparing it to my own (unpublished) Mansfield Park retelling. I’ve been working on that book on and off for MANY years now. I think I started it back in 2009, maybe? Coincidentally, the Tom character in my book is also gay, but Yates is not his boyfriend. And I also tweaked the family tree so that my Fanny character and my Edmund character were not technically related, just raised in close proximity. But these are, I feel, the obvious choices to make when modernizing this novel.

I’ve been really wanting to get back to that story, and I think that’s exactly what I’m going to do. But first I want to finish the novel I’m currently working on. In the meantime, I’m going to go back to enjoying Manslaughter Park and trying to figure out whodunit (before Fanny does).

On the Second Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

~ EMM

Not a lot of reading got done today because the day started with a very rainy holiday 5k where I set a new best time for myself!

I mean, that little yeti is just adorable! This is possibly the best race shirt I’ve ever received.

So I ran, hung out with friends, ate a lot of delicious Christmas cookies, enjoyed two different fires in fireplaces, got to play with a cat, and went out to dinner at my in-laws’ local tavern. Basically, it was the perfect winter Sunday. Or it will be as soon as I get my pj’s on, climb into bed, and get back to the book I’m reading.

I haven’t made much progress yet, but I will say, Manslaughter Park had me hooked as soon as I read the dedication (“To all the readers who thought Fanny Price deserved better.”). I’m excited to see what this author does with this retelling.

On the First Day of Lightfall (Readathon)

~ EMM

Finished reading Full Moon Over Freedom and now I get to pick my first read for Lightfall!

It’s been a long day. After driving all morning and visiting with my in-laws. I’m finally sitting down near their Christmas tree to squeeze in a little reading before dinner.

I only brought my Kindle on this short weekend trip, so I’ve been trying to decide between heading straight to the Wanimals store and reading the holiday romance on my TBR (A Holly Jolly Ever After), or starting at the Old Tails Bookstore and going with the cozy mystery (Manslaughter Park).

I think I’m not quite ready to start another romance just yet, so I’m going with the cozy mystery! Also, who am I kidding? Of course the bookstore would be my first stop on this festive holiday visit to Old Favor Pass!

Here we go! Happy Lightfall to all who are participating in this fun readathon!

Lightfall Reading Journal Spread

~ EMM

Did I miss yesterday’s post? Yes, I did.

The day got away from me, and then we spent the evening hanging out with my niece while her parents went to a work holiday party. It didn’t help that I hadn’t picked a topic for yesterday’s post, and I didn’t like any of the back-up topics I’d brainstormed.

Then I decided to set up a spread in my reading journal (such as it is, currently), but the color printer that we have refused to print anything from my computer. So, I decorated the pages I intended to use with some wrapping paper scraps, and then I gave up.

This morning, I finally got the map and passport and my TBR printed (using a different computer). Now that it’s all set up, I can finally share it with you.

I printed out the map with the prompts and my TBR as well as the Old Favor Passport. I considered gluing the passport into the spread, but I don’t expect to fill up all those circles this year. Instead, I think I might make a washi backing for it and then keep it in the back pocket of my 2024 planner (which I will also be using as my reading journal next year). I’m also planning to do some doodling in the leftover white space.

Once I have that all set up, I’ll post a picture. Probably as part of my daily Lightfall Readathon updates which will be starting on Saturday! And that’s not all… there will be a second post coming today. This is just a make-up post from yesterday. So, check back later for my actual day eight post…

Celebrating Lightfall! (aka Magical Readathon time!)

~ EMM

As soon as I’m finished writing the draft of this novel, I want to bury myself in books and just read non-stop until the end of the year.

Realistically, I know that I’m not actually going to be done after I finish this draft, but I think I can manage to carve out at least one week to celebrate Lightfall (aka participate in another Orilium Magical Readathon). It sounds like EXACTLY what I need.

So, even though I should be writing right now. I’m taking a moment to consider my Lightfall TBR.

The reading prompts are given by store you may want to visit in Old Favour Pass. You can visit as many or few of them as you like.

Here’s what I’ve added so far…

I am probably not going to have time to visit every store during this eleven day readathon, but I sure am going to try!

The Old Tails Bookstore — Book you wanted to read this year but had not had the chance yet.

For this one, I’m picking something that is a genuine WANT to read and not something I feel like I NEED to read. (Let’s just put aside the million reasons I feel like I need to read something. Getting into that would require an entire post. Maybe I should dive into that at some point, but not today.)

You probably would not be surprised to hear that this task was harder than it should have been for me. Ultimately, I picked Manslaughter Park, which is a Jane Austen murder mystery retelling. This is one I have had my eye on since it was very first announced. It was released in June (!), and I still haven’t gotten around to reading it, yet.

Smith & Friends & Sons Arcane Goods & Such — Last book you added to your want to read list (not counting books not published yet).

Phew. An easy one. Or so I thought until I looked at the number of pages.

As I’m writing this, the currently available book that I most recently added to my TBR is the most recent FairyLoot special edition hardcover, Sword Catcher by Cassandra Clare.

Would you believe I’ve never read a Cassandra Claire book? I’ve added several to my TBR over the years. I think I may have even purchased one or two. But I’ve not ready any of them. So, this would be my first Cassandra Clare book. But, folks, it’s over 600 pages! That might really make it hard to read anything else during this readathon.

Wallice’s Wonderful Winter Wanimals — Snow or ice on the cover.

This one is easy. Definitely going to have to be A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. I will be stopping to see the winged winter stoats at WWWW for sure!

Shank & Shawl Legitimate Retailer — Steal a book from someone else’s TBR.

Bring on your TBRs, people! I haven’t seen many Lightfall TBRs posted, yet. So, I may skip this store unless I find something good to borrow from someone else’s list. Alternatively… I may use this as a way to sneak in my buddy read book for December (once we figure out what that’s going to be). Now there’s an idea…

Owlcat Craft Cafe — Listen to audiobook whilst crafting (or craft in the title)

So many options! I may change my mind later, but I’ve been trying to get to Bloodmarked for a while now. So much so that I considered it for The Old Tails Bookstore prompt. But, then I saw this prompt, and it’s a much better fit here. I listened to the first book on audio and that worked well for me. So, I think I’m going to grab Bloodmarked on audio from the library and listen to it while I (finally) finish my Star Wars cross stitch bookmarks.

Occult Premonitions — Prompt based on a random tarot card.

Judgement is the card I got from the random card generator. This card felt eerily familiar until I remembered it was Justice not Judgement that I got for the Autumn Equinox TBR.

It took me a minute to get past the giant angel and the naked dead rising from their graves to notice that there’s a sea and some mountains there. Scrolling through the book covers on my the top of my TBR, Shanghai Immortal jumped out at me. Something about that cover felt right for the vibe of this card. So I’m going with that one.

And bonus points if you noticed that several of these books are NOT on my end of the year TBR. I will have an update on how that’s going at the end of next week. I am hoping to finish a few more books before the month is over. But if I want to do that, I need to get back to writing the novel and not this blog post.

While I finish this draft, let me know in the comments if you’re participating in this readathon and, if so, where to find your TBR!

Orilium Reading Wrap-up (aka What I Read in April)

~ EMM

I read TEN books in April!!! I also finished all my Orilium subjects, plus did a few extra that may or may not help me if I decide to try a for a new career path in August (during the Orilium Autumn Equinox Readathon)!

Here’s everything (fiction) I read that fit one of the Orilium Readathon prompts:

  • The Last Ride to Love by Kearney Wentworth (Astronomy) — This is a super cute short story written by a friend of mine. It was previously part of an anthology, but now it’s been released as a stand-alone story that will eventually link to her forth-coming contemporary romance series featuring rugby players!
  • Even Though I Knew the End by C. L. Polk (Inscription) — I really enjoyed this novella. The world-building is really rich and immersive for such a short book.
  • A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas (Psionics & Divination) — This wasn’t my favorite of the Lady Sherlock books, but I always enjoy these stories because I really love the characters. The murder mystery was pretty good, too.
  • This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede (Lore) — The strength of this book is really in its two main characters and their love story. I really wanted to like it more because of that, but the side characters were not that interesting, and I wanted a lot more from the world-building than what I got. It was good, but ultimately kind of disappointing for me. I probably won’t read the companion novel.
  • Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries (Art of Illusion) by Heather Fawcett — This book, on the other hand, was excellent. It had the kind of fae and fairies that I prefer (think Enchantment of Ravens), crossed with a main character that reminded me a lot of Veronica Speedwell. Definitely recommend this one.
  • Reclaim Your Author Career: Using the Enneagram to build your strategy, unlock deeper purpose, and celebrate your career by Claire Taylor (Conjuration) — Not much to say about this one except that it managed to explain “theme” in a way that finally made it make sense to me. I’m still not sure which enneagram I am, but the parts about how to use the core fear and desire of each personality type in your writing were very interesting.
  • What the Hex by Alexis Daria (Elemental Studies) — I really enjoyed this cute novella about a witch returning to her island home for her sister’s wedding and having to team up with her former high school nemesis to fight off a demon who has possessed the groom. A fast, fun read!

I also read some others that didn’t fit any of the prompts:

  • Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon — I read this for fun as a distraction to keep me from checking social media while I tried to “digital detox” this month. The short sections made it work really well as a replacement for “bored” scrolling of Instagram and the like.
  • Atomic Habits by James Clear — I listened to this one on audiobook. I kind of hate self-help books because they tend to be very repetitive, and this was not an exception to that rule. However, I feel like the concept of “habits” is one of those things that gets watered down so much through pop-productivity media (like the BuJo community, for example), that a lot of the science gets lost. Sure, habit trackers are great, but habit trackers alone aren’t going to help you build or change your habits. This book explains how to build (or break) habits in a really helpful way (if you can get past the “basic bro” examples).
  • Dragonholder: The Life and Dreams of Anne McCaffrey by Todd McCaffrey — This is less of a biography and more of a rambling blog post in book form. I picked it up because one of the pieces of advice in Steal Like an Artist is to read biographies of your favorite authors (or people who influence your creative work). In that regard, this was interesting, but not exactly what I was looking for…

Ultimately, I think I read so much in April because I was limiting my computer/phone use to only necessary stuff. This was because I read Digital Minimalism in March and wanted to give his digital detox a try. It’s kind of shocking how much more time you have when you’re not checking email, Discord, and social media on repeat. I have relaxed my restrictions a bit now that April is over, but not by much. We’ll see if that leads to more books read in May as well.

What I’m really hoping my attempts at digital minimalism will lead to is more focused writing time. One of the reasons I gravitated toward that book (after reading Deep Work) was because I was realizing that nearly every time I context switch, I get pulled into a distraction loop checking all the things before I can settle back down and get back to work (if I ever get back to work). This leads to me getting an hour or so of solid writing in the morning and then struggling to get back into it after I take a break. Not ideal. So, I’m learning and playing with process to try to figure out what works for me.

That said, I’ve had a lot of (mostly legitimate and irl) distractions in my life over the past few months. In general, I’m feeling really scattered. So, taking a break from all the online noise is really nice.

How did your readathon go (if you participated)?

Orilium Spring Equinox TBR

~ EMM

I know we’re already a week into April, and I’m only now sorting out my TBR for the Orilium Spring Equinox, but I’m still participating! It took me a while to get myself organized because I was visiting friends and family last week, and I didn’t have any time for reading. But I’m back now, and I’ve got my plan together, so it’s time to hit the books!

Before I get into my TBR for April’s readathon, let’s recap how my “Year in Aeldia” is going…

You may remember that I decided to use this Magical Readathon challenge to work my way through my backlog of Fairyloot special edition hardcovers. So far, I’m doing pretty well. I just finished the March prompt to read a book over 500 pages. Yes, I technically finished reading it in April, but I’m still counting it because my end of March travel plans messed up my schedule more than I anticipated.

Now that that’s done, I can officially start the April readathon!

I decided to focus on the subjects I need to advance to the next level in my Story Weaver calling. Mostly this decision was based on the fact that I’m starting late, and I only need four courses for that calling.

Here’s what’s on my TBR:

  • Art of Illusion –> match clothes color to cover color –> This is a pretty flexible prompt, and I want to get in at least one Fairyloot hardcover this month. So, I’m going with Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett. The dust jacket on my copy is cream, but I prefer to read without the dust jacket. The naked hardcover is purple, which is a bit harder to match given that my wardrobe is mostly grey and black. But I do have one purple long sleeve shirt and one purple t-shirt I can wear while reading this book. If I’m feeling extra, I’ll try to find an appropriately cream colored sweater to wear over my purple shirt (you know, like a dust jacket, get it?).
  • Inscription –> book from your highest shelf –> The highest shelf on my bookcase is reserved my favorite books, and I don’t really want to do a re-read of any of those, so I’m interpreting this prompt as the book I most recently hauled, which was an option given in the video that went over all the prompts. I just downloaded Even Though We Knew the End by C. L. Polk to buddy read with friends, so that’s going to be my book for this course.
  • Lore –> book with a map –> I was a little worried about this one because I feel like a lot of books that have maps are also tomes, and I don’t have time for another tome this month. After browsing the first pages of several books on my Kindle, I realized that This Vicious Grace by Emily Thiede, which has been hanging out near the top of my TBR for a while now, has a map!
  • Psionics & Divination –> book with clouds on the cover or in the title –> The most recent addition to the Lady Sherlock series is one of my highly anticipated 2023 releases. It just came out in March, and it has clouds on the cover! So, I’ll be reading A Tempest at Sea by Sherry Thomas for this course.

If I have time, I may try to squeeze in a few other courses to see if I can qualify for any of the other callings in August. I have several books I’d like to read this month that didn’t make it onto my official TBR. Almost all of them will fit with a prompt for one of the other subjects. Either that, or I’m going to at least start the Alchemy side quest. It’s just a matter of how much time I have for reading in April.

Are you participating in the Orilium Readathon this month? Either way, let me know in the comments what you’re reading in April!

Catching up on what I’ve been reading

~ EMM

I really did plan to do a month-end round up of everything I’ve read in February. But somehow it’s now the middle of March, and I’m only now sitting down to write the post. And that’s only because I got to a sticky part in the novel I’m currently writing, and writing a blog post seemed a lot easier than writing the rest of the scene I got stuck on.

Outbox

What I’ve read since my last post:

  • Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore — I liked this one more than I thought I would after slogging through all the ship facts in the first third of the book. By the time the whole ship part was over, I was really invested in the characters, especially the telepathic foxes. The survival journey was really well written, and made even better by showing the shared trauma from enduring such an ordeal. Seems like a weird thing to say, but Kristin Cashore doesn’t shy away from the trauma caused by fantasy plots, and she writes characters recovering from trauma really well.
  • Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young — This book is set on an island near Seattle, not far from where I live. Some people in their reviews think it’s set on the San Juans, but there’s no way they’re doing day trips to Seattle from any of the islands up here. Based on how it’s described, I think it most closely resembles Vashon Island, but with magic. Not that any of that matters to the story itself, which is a small town secrets, unsolved murder plot with magic. And the writing does a beautiful job setting the mood and the scene. Usually I’m one of those readers who skips long descriptions, but the ones in this book were so well done they actually added to the story.
  • From Bad to Cursed by Lana Harper — I think I liked this one even better than the first book in this series. I listened to it on audiobook, and the main (point of view) character had a very distinctive narrative voice that I enjoyed. Very contemporary. I think this is still my favorite series of all the small-town-witch-romance books I’ve read so far.
  • Built to Last by Erin Hahn — I’ve read all of the books published by this author, and this is her first adult romance. As contemporary romances go (at least the ones I seem to read), it’s really low stakes. There’s no third act break-up, which is an interesting choice, and one that I think works given the fact that this is a second chance romance. Still, there wasn’t a lot keeping these characters apart. You’re mostly just watching them become more and more attached to each other in the midst of a low stakes external plot. Which, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate. It just wasn’t what I was expecting given how much she seems to put her YA characters through the ringer. I feel like this is “cozy contemporary romance,” if that’s a thing. (And if it is, I like it.)
  • Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage — Unlike probably most people who read this book, I’ve never watched Myth Busters. The only thing I knew about this guy was that my husband watches some of his videos on YouTube and wants a shop like his. When I was searching for an audiobook we would both enjoy listening to on a brief road-trip, I stumbled onto this one. I picked it because it’s about being a maker (aka someone who creates and/or invents things). What I discovered was, even though there’s a lot in here that wasn’t really directly relevant to me (a writer who never really got into cosplay), I was surprised at how much I did find really thought provoking and useful in terms of the creative process and mentality. Overall, I really enjoyed it, and it sparked a lot of interesting conversations with my maker husband on our trip.

Now that we’re all caught up… I finally updated the bookshelf spread in my Passion Planner to show the books I read in January and February.

Inbox

What I’m currently reading (and trying to finish by the end of this month)…

  • On my Kindle: An Impossible Imposter — I am not happy about the backstory reveal in this one, and I’m really glad I waited to read this until the next book in the series came out because as of right now, I might have stopped reading the series after this book if I didn’t have the next one ready to go. That’s how much I hate this twist. But we’ll see how I feel when I finish it…
  • On audiobook: Unraveling: What I Learned about Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World’s Ugliest Sweater — I’ve just barely started this one, and it may end up being a DNF because the introduction was a real downer, but the interview I heard with the author was compelling, and people seem to really like this one, so I’m going to plow ahead (probably at a faster listening speed, though).
  • In hardcover: Babel — Another one I’ve barely made a dent in, and I’m supposed to have it finished for a buddy read by next weekend. Oops. I have vowed to finish it by the end of the month at the absolute latest because…..

April is the Orilium Spring Equinox (aka the April Magical Readathon hosted by G at Book Roast)! I’m already working on my TBR, but it’s a bit up in the air still because there are several directions I could go. I’ll do a separate post on that closer to the end of March after I decide if I want to attempt a new Calling, or if I’m going to study the same subjects as last year and continue to advance as a Story Weaver.

Speaking of weaving stories… It’s time for me to get some sleep so I can get back to the writing bright and early tomorrow… If you want the scoop on what I’m working on, sign up for my monthly newsletter. That’s where I talk about that sort of thing.

Until next time, happy reading!