I think Vita Nostra *is* part of a series, but fortunately it’s complete enough to stand alone. Who knows when or if the rest of the series will be translated. The Scar is actually a stand-alone in a completely different series. It’s almost like fairy tale. And yes, I would definitely give Senlin Ascends another chance! I put it down for a while in the beginning but after Senlin actually gets into the Tower I couldn’t stop reading. The Arm of the Sphinx (2) and The Hod King (3) I also did the beginnings slowly, but mostly so I could process emotions for the characters. Some of the things that have happened in that series really ripped my heart out. I think I will probably get the next Murderbot novellas, too. I’m amazed it took me this long to get around to reading one! I saw that Martha Wells is working on a Murderbot novel now, but I’m not sure when it’s coming out.

Yes, that was me! I loved Vita Nostra. It’s dark and philosophical, so maybe not everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to fantasy but it really hooked me. They have one other book translated into English called The Scar, which I also loved, but it’s very different than Vita Nostra. As for myself, life this year has been kind of tough. I haven’t been doing a lot of reading, although I’ve been doing more lately because of severe sciatica trouble which has resulted in a couple of ER visits and a lot of nights unable to sleep. I read the first Murderbot book last week as well as Josiah Bancroft’s The Hod King. That’s book 3 in the Books of Babel series, which I *highly* recommend. Now I’m reading a novella called Rough Passages by KM Herkes. It’s superhero fantasy, I guess - kind of a SF/fantasy mix. A virus gives people superpowers, usually when they reach middle age. They’re discriminated against but that doesn’t stop people from using their abilities. What makes this novella different is the ages of many of the characters. The first character introduced is a 42 year old single mom of 2 toddler boys who also takes care of her aging mother. I’m enjoying it. I’m also about 30% into Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter. Only the ebook is available right now, so I don’t know if it’s the self-published version or if it will change when Orbit brings it out later this year. It’s an African (Xhosa) inspired fantasy. Unique world, unique magic, but the first 30% is mostly one battle/fight scene after another. It’s a little exhausting. ☺️

I love The Snow Queen! I first read it when I was in high school and have read it a couple of times more since then. I don't think I own it, though, which is weird. Jumping in here before I read the whole thread... I didn't finish anything last week, and the only thing I finished the week before was a romance novella by Meredith Duran, Your Wicked Heart. It was lighter than her usual angsty full-length novels. I think romance novellas are hard to pull off, but this one was good, only a few bumps where it felt like the relationship should have gotten more development but there wasn't room. The blurb is completely wrong, though; I'm not sure which story they were writing about, but it wasn't the one I read. Last week I started reading Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. It is creepy, bizarre, and lush. Really good. An older, more sinister, Russian take on magic school. I also read some of Giambattista Basile's Tale of Tales. It's a collection of fairy tales written in the early 1600's. Lots of strong female protagonists in these tales -- definitely not Disney! ☺️ I'm also reading The Two Towers aloud to my kids, and I really hope to finish it by the end of the year. I just checked my Goodreads Challenge and realized I'll need to read 8 more books by the end of the year to reach my goal. I'm not sure that's going to happen... --Angela

Congratulations on your new granddaughter! ? It's so hard waiting on that surgery! We had a cold go through the house the week before Abby was supposed to have her surgery. I bought surgical masks and we quarantined people upstairs and fortunately Abby didn't get sick. We were also fortunate in that the heart surgeon said Abby's heart defects were "garden variety" -- although a 3.5 hour open heart surgery never sounded "garden variety" to me -- so the surgery was fairly straightforward. Even so, those 9 days in the hospital were tough. (If the parents are allowed to stay in ICU overnight as we were, bring flip-flops for the shower, as you will probably be sharing it with everyone else, and also those Burt's Bees facial wipes were lifesavers. A cup of herbal tea at night and a walk outside every day helped me de-stress.) But I never imagined how much *better* Abby would get so quickly after we got home! Before her surgery, she was so tired she hardly did anything. Her cry was only a squeak and she slept all night. We thought that was just her. But as soon as her heart was patched, she wanted to nurse constantly and she started actually crying. She also started rolling over the day after we brought her home. I thought rolling over would surely hurt that scar, but -- nope. I think she gained 3 lbs in a month. Abby has 7 big brothers and 1 big sister, and now she is right there in the middle of them all the time. The learning curve was pretty steep the first year, but it gets better. ?

Abby is doing well! She's 2.5 now and we are on the "only visit every 2 years" plan at the cardiologist because her heart is perfectly normal. Other than her heart, which has been fixed, she's been very healthy. She's still not walking but the range for walking in kids with DS is very large -- from 13 months to 4 years. So we're still at PT every week. She likes to play Itsy-Bitsy Spider and she loves mirrors. It's hilarious to watch her check her hairbows in the mirror. She's really a girly-girl. Maybe it's because she has so many brothers. ☺️

Hello, everyone! It's been a long time. So long that Tapatalk doesn't work anymore? I feel obsolete... ☺️ Anyway, since I started writing again I've basically been hunkered down homeschooling, taking various kids to therapy (4 days a week), and writing. After I proved to myself that I wasn't going to quit writing again, I decided that maybe I ought to look into indie publishing, considering that my manuscripts don't quite fit what agents are looking for (I write SFF, but my books are long), and... long story short... I'm working on bringing out a book in the spring. There is A LOT of stuff to learn. It's kind of overwhelming, but also exciting. ? For several years it was really hard for me to finish reading a novel and I read mostly non-fiction, but for some reason this year has been the complete reverse. All I've felt like reading is fiction. I've been making it a goal to read more indie SFF (at first this was just because I wanted to see what it was like, and if it was as bad as its reputation. It isn't, so now I'm reading indie works just because they're interesting) and romance, because I hadn't really read romance since the 90's. I've read some real gems in both genres this year. My favorite romance author at this point is Meredith Duran. Duke of Shadows is an amazing book, totally blew away everything I thought I knew about what a "romance" was supposed to be like. I finished her Fool Me Twice this week and I liked it a lot, too, but the covers and blurbs always get me because they in no way make it clear how emotionally intense her books are. Lots of angst, but usually done well. (Adult content.) As far as indie SFF authors go, one of the best I've read is KS Villoso -- a Phillipino-Canadian author who bases her worlds on Phillipino culture and history. Her Wolf of Oren-Yaro series (the second book is The Ikessar Falcon) is excellent. This week I read the 2nd book (well, I guess technically it's 1.5) in another indie series I'm enjoying, The Wildfire Cycle by D.P. Wooliscroft. Kingshold is the first book, which I liked a lot. It was a little rough in the beginning -- and the romantic subplot needed more set-up, IMO -- but the story and characters were great. Basically, it's a fantasy novel about organizing for an election -- which sounds odd, but becomes really interesting as it goes along. Book 1.5 is Tales From Kingshold, which is a collection of short stories that fills out some of the characters and helps set up the next book. There are some rough bits, but I enjoyed the stories; they're fun but they also have heart. He writes with a fair amount of humor but it's not comic fantasy. It's probably better to read the series in order, though, the collection of short stories after Kingshold. Book 2 isn't out yet. Now I have to figure out what to read next. I've been finding a lot of my indie reads through the SPFBO (Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off) which... I think this is the fourth one. Mark Lawrence started it a few years ago to bring attention to indie works. So it starts out with 300 titles and the participating blogs narrow it down to 1 winner. The reviews are really helpful in sorting through the enormous amount of indie titles out there. (One of the finalists from past years was Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft, which was picked up by Orbit, and which I loved SO much.) Of course, I think I pre-ordered Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko and that comes out... tomorrow... I think. So if that comes tomorrow, I think that's probably what I'll read. Their book The Scar is one of my favorite books, ever. I'm hoping to participate more going forward. I've missed the discussions! --Angela

I just borrowed a bunch of books by different Russian poets that were free for Prime subscribers. Last year I finally read Pushkin. I had a really hard time finding him in English translation. Pushkin is widely known as the greatest Russian writer, but I think his work must be somewhat untranslatable. I liked it, but greatest? I don't know. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

According to Goodreads I read 61 books last year and met my goal, but some of those were short e-books and cookbooks. I always have those, though, so I usually set my goal number higher to account for them. Then I'm pretty sure that I've made 52. My real goal last year was to read fewer books but more pages and I accomplished that; I ended up with a little over 19000 pages, which was 500-1000 more pages than I read in 2016 even though I read fewer books. I set my 2018 goal at 65, but I have this crazy idea that I 'd like to read 52 novels this year. For years I read mostly nonfiction because i didn't think I had time to get sucked into novels. Partly thanks to participating in this thread I have been getting back into fiction. Last year I read quite a few novels, especially toward the end of the year, and I'm hoping to continue that trend. I'm writing again and that takes a lot of my "free" time, but I hope to post again regularly this year! I actually finished my first book today, but it's a cheat. I'd read 3/4 of it by last night but I decided I wanted to work on a scene in my novel instead of finishing it before midnight. It's the first Sydney Chambers book, Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death. My husband is watching the PBS series on his iPad while I write at night and I had snagged the book on a kindle deal at some point, so I decided I would start reading along with his viewing. The differences between TV and book can be great, though! I think I like book Sidney better. I enjoy the philosophical musings and how Sidney is portrayed with gentle fun and sympathy as such an introvert. I have the second book and will be working on it, but I have a lot of other books in progress, too, so we'll see. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I've finished four books since I posted last: 1 fantasy, 2 romance, and 1 poetry. Oddly, I think that 2 of the 4 books will make my favorites list for the year. Age of Assassins, RJ Barker (fantasy) - excellent story of a young assassin's apprentice who is hired along with his master to protect a very unsympathetic prince instead of killing him. Highly recommended. One of my favorite reads this year. Wondrous Moment: The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin - It seems to be really hard to find a decent English translation of Pushkin's poetry. I was really hoping for his fairy tales, but they're not all in here. Passionate, sometimes silly, and sometimes rather dark; I did enjoy the poems. A Lady's Code of Misconduct, Meredith Duran (romance) - This was all kinds of fun for me because Duran took the old amnesia plot trope and absolutely made it work. There is nothing I like better than a good amnesia plot. Lol The book was very well-written and is also one of my favorites this year. Some adult content, but it felt like it served the plot and I could skim for important dialogue. The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie, Jennifer Ashley (romance) - Ian Mackenzie's "madness" is autism, which makes him an unusual hero. This part was done well, but I thought the adult content got a bit "extra" sometimes. Wish she had spent more time having them relate out of the bedroom. And now a question, because I think y'all are the ones who would know... Is all paranormal/fantasy romance about werewolves, vampires, shape shifters, or other magical creatures? I am not a big magical creatures fan, but it seems like that's all that's out there if it's labeled romance. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We have all survived Thanksgiving and have almost survived the pre-Thanksgiving cold that got passed around, just in time for the holiday. I'm enjoying having my elder two home for a few days and trying to catch up a little on my NaNo word count. I'm just a little off pace, which I'm happy about. Not so much reading to report, but I did finish one of the best books I've read all year, and one that I am putting on my list of all-time favorites. The Scar by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko is Russian fantasy, meaning it was originally written in Russian and translated into English. I thought the translator did an excellent job; there were only a few instances where I got confused, and I don't know if it was the original or the translation. It really reminded me in many ways of what I have read of War and Peace. The world isn't medieval, although there are no guns; so many details of the setting gave me a sort of Peter the Great or Napoleonic Wars feeling. The hero of the book begins the story as an immense jerk, who suffers some rather hideous consequences because of his actions. But the story is all about redemption, love, and courage. I loved it. Thankfully, it's a standalone, although there are many other novels set in the same world. Unfortunately, none of them have been translated! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I'm not a huge fan of Lord John Grey, so I'm not sure I'll read any of the others after I finish The Scottish Prisoner. It's more about Jamie anyway. I put it down to pick up a couple of other books, though, which is a bad sign. Although! One of the books I picked up is a fantasy written by her son, Sam Sykes. The City Stained Red. Robin Hobb gave it a good review, which impressed me enough to try it. I just picked up The Scar, by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, though, and that has sucked me right in. Russian fantasy in English translation. The beginning scenes remind me of those first scenes in War and Peace with the vodka-drinking dare on the window ledge. I've watched the very first Outlander episode, but... in the books I kind of skim through most of the steamy scenes looking for important dialogue. That's a lot harder to do on the screen! [emoji5][emoji5][emoji5] Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Yep! I'm doing it as a rebel, too. I write long fantasy anyway, so 50K really isn't even half a book. I think the one I'm working on will end up around 140K and then I'll whittle it down. I think you have to be in the right frame of mind to read Don Maass' s books. They've really made the most difference to my writing, but he includes so many prompts, etc. that it all gets a little overwhelming. And then I wonder how I'm ever going to keep all that in my head as I write. But if you can take them in small doses and distill them down to their most important points (e.g., write characters who actually do things, don't skimp on the emotions) - then they're very helpful and inspiring. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Writing my report real quick before I read the thread... I've been (happily) spending lots of time writing lately! We've also had kids at home for fall break and we just took a trip to see my mom and dad. I thought that the amount of reading I was doing would go down but somehow I got sucked into Diana Gabaldon's books instead. Since my last post I think I have read: By Diana Gabaldon: A Breath of Snow and Ashes (finished this one) An Echo in the Bone (one of the best in the series, I think. Loved the job she did with William.) Written in My Own Heart's Blood ( not as good as Echo in the Bone but still kept me reading) And I'm currently reading The Scottish Prisoner, one of her Lord John Grey books which is mostly about Jamie. Other books: Spyridon -- self-published SF romance. The romance isn't too heavy, though, and it's quite clean. Bit clunky, though. Too many accent marks in the names and the world building is confusing. But I got hooked trying to see if the two main characters would ever get together. Writing 21st Century Fiction - Don Maass. His books both inspire and terrify me. At the end of the day, I think they are hugely helpful. Another book I can't remember the name of...basically writing inspiration for pantsers. Lots of weird new agey terms like "dreamstorming" but if you can put up with those, very good stuff, especially if you (like me) seem to be congenitally unable to follow an outline. I'll have to look up the name when I'm off my phone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jumping in here... I'm doing NaNo this year as a rebel, working on a redraft of a book I wrote years ago. It's cross-genre fantasy. Kind of John LeCarre meets Guy Kay meets Robin Hobb meets Diana Gabaldon, except not that steamy. [emoji5] A couple of years ago I pulled the old draft out of my closet and ripped it up, changed up the characters, and wrote about 20K on a new draft. Then I had a special needs baby and put it aside until this past July. I've mostly spent this month looping back through part 2 and adding/revising stuff as I finally figured out what the plot needed. I try to do 1K every day and have been getting a bit more than that. But I have 7 kids at home and my youngest has Down Syndrome so it takes me quite a few short sessions to get to that total. And I write after the kids are in bed. I've been happily using Scrivener but I agree that its weak point is looking at the overall flow. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just thought I'd check the thread before bed, Rose, to make sure you were ok. Not happy that you felt you had to evacuate, but very happy you're heading somewhere safe! Keeping you in my prayers!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Rose, I hope you made it through the night okay!!! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I don't know if I skipped one week or two! Time has been running together lately, but I'm reading Diana Gabaldon's giant books, so I guess it doesn't matter. I finished The Fiery Cross, which was an absolute mess of a book. It should have been edited down or revised or structured as a series of related novellas or... something. It struck me very much as a draft that she should have taken and mined for themes, then revised and developed those. Instead she would bring things up and then leave them hanging like she forgot about them. On the other hand, I read all 980 pages and went on to A Breath of Snow and Ashes, which is even bigger but has much more of an actual plot. The characters were what pulled me through The Fiery Cross, specifically Roger Mac. I liked him a lot in that book, but oh my, is Diana Gabaldon mean to him!!! That's the thing that gets me most about her as an author; her books can just ramble and feel unconnected and make me frustrated, and then all of a sudden she'll stumble on a plot thread that makes me sit back, stunned, and say, "I can't believe she did that!" Anyway, I'm on page 690 of A Breath of Snow and Ashes and not halfway through the book. The level of violence in the first half of this book has been somewhat astonishing. I'm also not sure of the direction in which she's going with Roger. But I'll keep reading, with some trepidation. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

. Abby continues to be adorable. [emoji2] I am not sure if I can attach a picture to a post using Tapatalk or not? I meant to mention that the 1 year anniversary of her heart surgery was in late July. We had a pink heart shaped cake and I took pictures. They were cute. I keep thinking I would like to show y'all some pictures but I'm always on Tapatalk. Of course now that I say that I see the little camera icon down there. [emoji5] Everyone else is ok. I keep expecting someone to get sick because usually we are this time of year. But not yet. My 7 yo and I do not have rabies from our dog bites, which is a relief. There was almost zero chance, but I may be a wee bit neurotic about medical issues. Anyway, the dog made it through the 10 day quarantine and is apparently still waiting to be adopted, but the people at the shelter like him. I am plowing through The Fiery Cross. She could have cut so much of the first 200 pages! Or at least condensed it. I don't remember feeling this way about the first 3 books. But I'm going to keep going because I like Jamie and increasingly, Roger.

Thought I would pop in and give an update, though I haven't been reading too much. I've only finished one book since I last posted, I think -- The Spymaster's Lady by Joanna Bourne. I really don't know what to think about this one. The hero treated the heroine kind of despicably in a few instances, so I wasn't sure why she would fall for him in the first place. And I didn't really buy that the heroine was a super spy because her behavior seemed to guarantee that she would get caught. But I love the way Joanna Bourne writes French characters. If the French aren't really like that, they ought to be. [emoji5] I think I would still have rather she wrote a series about Hawker, the not-so-very-reformed young thief from Forbidden Rose. There's a big gap between the two books and he seems quite respectable in this one, other than the fact that he still loves his knives. I have the feeling that he was a bit of a mushroom for the author, though, and she probably didn't want him to run away with her books. I'm still debating on whether to read the book in which he's the main character, because I don't really want to read the intervening book but I'm afraid I will miss important history. Otherwise, I have just been dabbling. I've spent more time than I want to admit to reading the TV Tropes site (The Speculative Fiction tropes index is particularly impressive,http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SpeculativeFictionTropes not just for TV or film), a little more War and Peace, a few sample epic fantasy kindle chapters, and then I decided to pick up Diana Gabaldon's books where I left off several years ago, with The Fiery Cross. I should mention that I liked the first 4 Outlander books. This one, though, I think I can see the way she writes a little too much. She doesn't write sequentially, but instead writes scenes sort of as they occur to her, then fits them together afterwards. Generally I have no problem with that, but in this book it seems like the front end is stuffed a little too full of "fun" scenes that might have been streamlined a bit. On the other hand, maybe she's going to tie them together later on. And Claire is rubbing me the wrong way a little, not sure why. Rose and Heather, hope your daughters feel better soon!! And Kathy, I am glad to see that you are safe and accounted for! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Oh, what a day it has been. This morning two of our chickens got out and when the boys tried to drag one of our 11 month old former puppies away -- after it had killed one of the chickens -- the dog turned on them, knocked my 7 year old down, and bit him (not badly, but still) in the stomach. It got me in the hand. So... we spent the afternoon at the animal shelter, giving the dog away and filing bite reports. [emoji45] This puppy was born in our garage so it was quite a blow to us, but we can't have a dog that will attack the kids and kill chickens. While we were at the shelter, my dd at college texted to tell us she was getting sick and later my oldest texted to say his depression was returning. When I got up this morning, I did not expect the day to go like this. So... a couple of bright spots... Nan! I finally received your post card! It had apparently come while we were out of town and the girl who was getting our mail forgot it in her mother's car. It was actually excellent timing to receive it today, as it made me smile. [emoji846] Kareni -- thank you for the historical romance rec and that post you linked about the book covers. The cover with the babies on it brought tears to my eyes. [emoji23]! I'm about halfway done with The Spymaster's Lady. I must say that there was a bit of a surprise there I didn't see coming! I had to flip back through the previous chapters to see if she had slipped anywhere. But no, she hadn't. Impressive. I still keep thinking, though, that this series would be better if she didn't have to throw in all the romance genre conventions. (I know, why are you reading a romance, Angela, if you don't really want to be reading a romance? It is what it is, I guess. ). Anyway, I like the characters for the most part, except that I find many of the power issues in this book a little disturbing. I can't figure out why Annique likes this guy so much. But Hawker is a great character, and I'm glad I read The Forbidden Rose first. Maybe she should have written the series about him! Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have only finished one book in the past two weeks. At least it's because I'm writing a lot and homeschooling and doing family things, and not because I'm scrolling on Facebook or being otherwise useless. Also, I'm in that place where I have enormous TBR stacks sitting around me on my reading couch and have read the beginnings of most of them. Hopefully I will have a week soon where I finish four or five and it looks like all I am doing is sitting around reading! But - sigh - probably not. As M says, I tend to be a rather "promiscuous " reader. I can't begin to tell you how many books on my shelves have bookmarks in them because they aren't abandoned, they're just waiting for me to get around to them again... months or years later. Finished: The Forbidden Rose, by Joanna Bourne (Spymaster series #3) Kareni recommended this series last week, I think? I had been in the mood for an historical romance that was well-written and that didn't have too much adult content, so after reading the reviews on Amazon (which also said to read the series chronologically, not by pub date), I decided this might fit the bill. It had a little more adult content than I would have preferred, being a blushing kind of reader, and some of the situations the hero and heroine got into in order for the novel to be classified as a romance stretched my suspension of disbelief a bit, but mostly I really enjoyed the book. It is set in the French Revolution. The hero is an English spy, and the heroine runs a rescue operation, smuggling people out of France before they can be arrested. Marguerite, the heroine, was lovely. Smart and strong with witty dialogue and a good sense of humor. I went ahead and bought the next book in the series, which is really the first - The Spymaster's Lady. There is a really funny review of that book on GR, mostly focused on the ridiculousness of the cover. So, yeah, glad I'm reading it on my kindle. [emoji5] Anyone have any historical romance suggestions that run more to the PG-13 end of the spectrum? Kareni? I've read the first four Outlander books (not exactly PG-13, but I guess I used to blush less) and I like Susanna Kearsley, but it seems like all her books have the same plot. Other books I have been reading: Too Like the Lightning (put me in the "liking" category for this one, but I'm not far in yet) Mistborn, by Brandon Sanderson - epic fantasy, finally getting around to reading it Left of Boom -- a CIA memoir which is infuriating due to the poor quality of the writing and the fact that the CIA redacted (blacked out) large chunks of the book, making it almost impossible to follow the thread of his story in some places. But I'll probably finish this one, because I'm interested in how he handled his double life as a super-secret operative. (Not well, according to the description of the book.) Clockwork Dynasty -- Russian steampunk. I was really excited to read this and then there were a bunch of "As you know, Steve" infodump moments in the first couple of chapters. I'm planning on persevering, but it was kind of a bummer. And I made progress on War and Peace! I am way behind, but I have to say... I guess I like soap operas. [emoji5] It actually reminds me of epic fantasy, without magic or dragons. Hoping to make more progress this week. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[emoji5] No, you're definitely not alone in your hobby! Although I have to say that I usually end up reading writing books for one of two reasons: either I'm procrastinating or I haven't been writing and I'm gearing myself up to get going again. Or sometimes both at the same time. [emoji6] You know I really like memoirs, which are basically 100% the author's personality/voice, but I think I treat those more like 1st person novels, with the author as a character. What I really dislike are how-to and self-help books where the author basically says, "Look at this great thing that I did! Isn't it great? You're not as great as me but if you follow my directions exactly, you might come close." That was sort of the vibe I got from that book. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

One college student sent off safely, one to go. My dh will be driving him to school on Thursday. I'm not sure why my kids insisted on going to schools 600 miles away in opposite directions, but at least they didn't have to be at school on the same weekend. It's going to seem odd and quiet with both of them gone, though. Funny how that can happen even when there are 7 kids left at home. I've finished 4 books since I posted last about my reading, although one was too short to really be called a "book". 3 were writing related and one was epic fantasy, a big chunkster that I read while we were driving for hours and hours and hours. Romancing the Beat - very short e-book about plotting romance. Not that useful for writers who have romance in their books but aren't writing romance. I had higher hopes. Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing by Libbie Hawker -- Somewhat helpful distillation of another screenwriting book for fiction writers. I liked that she tied plotting to character arc, but -gah- why are outliners so smug? It still seemed very formulaic, which I guess is the point. Geared to writers who want to write several books a year and enjoy commercial success. The Emotional Craft of Fiction by Donald Mass -- This was a real paper book. I gave it 5 stars on Goodreads. Everything he said really resonated with me, and after reading several books focused so tightly on formula, it was a breath of fresh air to dig more into character. Maass is a successful literary agent, so he's coming at his advice from more of a reader's point of view, I think, and his chapter on "the emotional lives of writers" is worth the price of the book, IMO. I found the book both encouraging and inspiring, and it will certainly affect my writing moving forward. Highly recommended. Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb -- The third and final book in the Fitz and the Fool trilogy, and ohhhh, the ending. This book has characters from every single one of her other Elderling books, including Paragon the Liveship from the Liveship Traders trilogy (which I enjoyed). I haven't read her Rain Wilds books, but I don't think that mattered too much. I do think you need to have read all the earlier Fitz books, though; this one would be the 9th. I love Fitz dearly. I guess I am the sort of reader who has very fangirl tendencies (probably an embarrassing thing to admit since I'm 45, but I was only 23 or 24 when I read the first one so maybe I can be excused. Of course I notice the tendency remains now that my dh has begun watching Sherlock on his iPad at night and gotten me hooked.) But I think it's more that certain characters are just so big that I can't help but get sucked up into their stories. The thing I like most about Robin Hobb's characters are that they all have flaws, and it's those flaws that drive the plot. They're real people who have real relationships and sometimes as a reader you want to throttle them for being totally blind but on the other hand it makes perfect sense why they are acting that way. In light of my other reading, it was also a relief to know that, while she does start her books with an outline, her characters often move the plot in their own, unexpected ways. Apparently, the Fool himself only had one line on the outline for Assassin's Apprentice. And now he's an integral part of 9 books! I do think you can tell that she feels this way about character. Her plotting is pretty good, but it's all at the service of the characters and their emotional lives. Anyway, she probably should have cut more from the first half of the book, but at around halfway through, I stopped being able to put it down. Now I'm wandering around, trying to decide what to read next. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Matryoshka-- Tailchaser's Song by Tad Williams. I haven't read it, but I like Tad Williams in general. This one is about a cat. A middle grade book that my older kids liked after they read Warriors was Kenneth Opel's Silverwing series, which is in a bat's POV. The CJ Cherryh series is the Chanur series, I think. ErinE -- The Girl With the Silver Eyes was one of my favorites, too! I used to lie in bed after the lights were off, trying to move things with my mind. [emoji5] Has your dd tried the Three Investigators series? I liked those too. Mildly spooky, probably not great literature, but I remembered them fondly enough that I bought the whole series for my kids when I ran across a box in a used book store. Tress and Kareni -- sending good thoughts to shore you up in these difficult times. â˜¹ï¸ Happy birthday, Ethel! I am sitting in a hotel room right now, preparing to send my second born off to her freshman year in college tomorrow. So my full report is probably going to have to wait till next week. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have not caught up on last week's thread, but I notice that I missed the week everyone listed their favorite SFF titles! For a long while that's mostly what I read, and it's the genre I actually write in, too (fantasy, not SF). But something happened about 2005 and I switched to reading mainly nonfiction. Probably not coincidentally, I also stopped writing fiction for the most part. Having 4 kids in 4 years around then probably also had something to do with it. I don't know if anyone has mentioned CJ Cherryh, but I have always been a big fan. I guess she's kind of "80's" although she wasn't on the 80's list, but my favorites by her are her Foreigner series, Downbelow Station (both SF), her Fortress in the Eye of Time series and her Rusalka series (fantasy). One of my favorite books ever is Joan D. Vinge's Snow Queen (a SF retelling of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale), but I also like her Cat books, Psion and Catspaw. (It's been a long time since I read those books, though!). As far as fantasy goes, Robin Hobb is probably my favorite author, but you have to start at the beginning with her, Assassin's Apprentice. Actually, both books I read last week were writing books related to fantasy fiction. I reread Rachel Aaron's How to Go From 2K to 10K, which I think Amy recommended, and since I was reading it this time with my big mess of a novel spread out in front of me (figuratively anyway) I think I appreciated it more. That is an excellent book. I also finished Deborah Chester's Fantasy Fiction Formula, which I think was recommended by ErinE? I liked it, too, particularly the plotting and revision bits, but I thought it was a bit weak in characterization. I have never read any of her books, so I went to Goodreads and read some reviews of her novels, and that's pretty much what many of her readers said, too. I'm coming at this from a point at which I've probably written "a million words of junk", but I haven't written consistently for a long time and all those skills are pretty rusty. It is definitely helping me make sense of my plot, though, and I think her advice on how to cut tens of thousands of words if you have to was great. The week before, I think I read two Book of the Month selections: Goodbye, Vitamin and American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land. I don't think I reported that I finished them. Goodbye, Vitamin was ok, at least not a tearjerker considering that it dealt with a father's Alzheimer's and his daughter's decision to move home to help care for him. American Fire (nonfiction) was better, but the author seemed to keep forgetting that she was trying to tie the crime into trends in rural America and then remembering and sticking something in about economic hardship. This week I have another writing book coming from Amazon, The Emotional Craft of Fiction: How to Write the Story Beneath the Surface by Donald Maass. I have Tim Powers' Declare on my kindle and a bunch of books I should be reading for homeschooling. But since it is Dorothy Dunnett Month, I may have to take The Disorderly Knights off the shelf again and have another go at it. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk