a pointless blog
gathering moss
Wow, have I had a busy couple of months!
My father died in late April. My father-in-law died in early June. My mother fell down an escalator and broke her sacrum, which necessitated surgery. My dog ate a hank of yarn, which also necessitated surgery. (Both are recovering splendidly.) I could say a lot more about any of those things, but at the moment I don't want to.
In that time I also turned the latest draft of my book in to my agent; had a lovely vacation in London and Wales with my mom, husband, my cousin and her delightful family; welcomed my son back into our domicile for his summer break; and FINALLY joined a D&D game.
I'd love to say something smart and insightful about what I've learned from all this, but friends, I am tired.
What I'm Writing
I've mostly been on a writing hiatus, what with all the deaths and stuff. But now that I'm back at my keyboard, I'm splitting my time between journaling/brainstorming changes to Christmas Town (the YA) and working on a revision of Exile (the light adventure fantasy). In the background, I'm doing world-building for Geometry (the heavy epic fantasy). That makes me sound really productive, but I'm barely working on any of these.
What I'm Reading
Fiction-wise, I've reread the most recent of Elizabeth George's Lynley books, because there's a new one coming out in the fall. I love George's first ten or so Lynley books, and then I'm sorry to say the quality of the writing took a real nosedive, to the point that I thought they must be ghostwritten. Either she's gotten a better ghost writer or she's just returned to form, because the last two were pretty good. Not stellar, like A Traitor to Memory or In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner, but solidly enjoyable. I'm cautiously optimistic about the next one. (In George's defense, she's been writing these books for almost forty years and no one is the same writer they were after that long, for better or worse.)
In non-fiction, I'm reading Pagan Britain, the beginning of a deep dive into British history. This is part of my world-building "research" for Geometry, but really it's mostly for fun. I love reading history and picking out the bits that I find most interesting, to use later in a world of my own. Pagan Britain is less a history of pagan Britain than it is a history of theories about pagan Britain, which is fascinating in itself--every era sees a reflection of itself in British pre-history, telling itself stories about invasion, capitalism, immigration, war, spiritual wisdom, and savagery, depending on the preoccupations of the day. I am looking forward to reaching a part of history for which we have actual records, though.
What I'm Watching
Dimension 20 Cloudward Ho--of course I'm watching the latest D20 show. Too soon to tell where it will fall in my rankings (which eventually I'm going to have to blog about).
Murderbot--of COURSE I'm watching Murderbot, only one of my favorite sci fi book series of all time. So far I'm happy with the adaptation, though they've made some changes I'm not wild about. Alex Skaarsgard is a fantastic Murderbot. I really hope they do a season 2 so we get to meet ART.
RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars 10 Tournament of All Stars--I'm enjoying the new format more than any other All Stars format, and I'm excited about a lot of the queens. Completely obsessed with Bosco, of course. Super happy for Irene to have gotten the chance to prove herself. Delighted to see Lydia doing so well and showing so much growth when she had only about ten days between seasons. Already tired of Mistress and Georgeous. This season may end up rivaling All Stars 2 for best all stars season. It will at least be up there with All Stars All Winners.
What I'm Playing
The remaster of Oblivion came as a total surprise to me because I wasn't on the part of the internet that had rumors of this swirling around, but it was an immediate purchase when I did learn about it. It is spectacular. Oblivion has always been one of my favorite games of all time, if not my most favorite, and playing it again has been a joy.
And, as mentioned previously, I'm finally playing D&D! TPK Brewing is a local bar where you can hire dungeon masters to run games for you, and they have a campaign in their own homebrew setting that's been going for years now. My husband, my best friend, and I all joined a group for chapter 7 of the campaign, and it's been just as fun as I thought it would be. I've wanted to play D&D for decades, but I was too young for it the first time it was popular and too old to easily find a group in its recent resurgence. (Every city should have a place where you can hire dungeon masters. Dungeon masters should be paid for their labor!) Anyway, I'm playing Borji Blump, a frogfolk war cleric, currently at level 4.
What I'm Making
I've gotten really into painting D&D minis. I started with minis of Borji and my husband's character for our game, and became instantly addicted.
I'm working on a Trinigan cardigan, and nearly finished with the body.
What's On Deck
God willing, I will get to have a slow July. No travel, and hopefully no one near death. We still have things to unpack around here, not to mention we need to get started on shelving for the media room so all books have somewhere to go. There will be hot days, and I'm planning to spend them inside in the air conditioning, working on my various projects. I have some ideas for yet one more round of Christmas Town revisions, and I'm sort of looking forward to them?
I'm planning to do a monthly update like this to the blog, which will also function as my newsletter eventually, and in the meantime will at least force me to post sometimes. In between I'll do my frivolous Veronica Mars and sci-fi movie content, when I get around to it.
Tally ho!