Tanya Lisle

  • I collect hobbies. I write, garden, make jewelry and bottle charms, fold paper stars, design artwork, bake, all sorts of things. I’ve dabbled in resin making, used to dance, sometimes pick up making games, and am currently deep into determining how far I’m going to go into Notion.

    If you also collect hobbies to the point where you are getting overwhelmed, here’s a quick checklist to go through before you app another one to the list!

    New hobby checklist

    1. Have you slept on it? A new hobby can seem really exciting in the moment, but give yourself a little time to think about it and see if the motivation continues.
    2. Do you have the time for it? There is usually some kind of time commitment involved, whether that is taking classes or learning or even actually doing this hobby! Make sure it fits in with the rest of your life. As a tangent to this, if you are doing this with other people, do your schedules match up? Arranging things gets trickier the more people are involved, and you will want to make sure your schedules are compatible.
    3. Do you have the capacity for it? Make sure adding this isn’t going to completely overwhelm you. Even if you have the time to take that extra class, make sure you have the mental space to do it as well!
    4. Can you do a cheap trial run of it? New hobbies can be expensive. If you don’t know if you’ll like it, see if you can try it out without a huge cost investment first. Get a trial subscription, get a dollar store version of the art supplies, something to make sure this is something you want to do.
    5. If you create things as a result of the hobby, do you know what you are going to do with those things? Trust me, if a hobby ends with something physical, you are going to wan a plan for what to do with everything you make. There are only so many drawers, shelves, and wall space for everything you are going to make if you like doing it.
    6. Do you have storage for anything that you need for it? Does your hobby have a lot of materials or items attached to it? Skiing, snowboarding, fishing, these hobbies can have a lot of materials. Jewelry has a lot of small items that you don’t necessarily want to lose track of. Make sure that you have a place to put everything when you aren’t enjoying yourself.

    If you’re good on all of these, go ahead and see how you like that new hobby! Give it a try, and I hope you have fun with the new skills you will learn or the time you’ll get to spend with others!

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • I added this to my To Read list in my library a long time ago, but I’ve only just gotten around to it! I’ve been looking for a few quick reads to get me through the wait as several of my holds are so very close to coming in and, well, I am trying to make sure I have the time to actually read all those books I’m waiting for. And this one looked really quick!

    The story follows a young boy in the south named Hoodoo, wo was born with a heart shaped birthmark under his eye. One day he starts to see a strange man both in and out of his dreams, but it’s not until a talking crow visits that what’s going on starts to become clear: He is here to collect a debt from his dead father, and Hoodoo has to pay up. Hoodoo knows he must kill this stranger, but he does not know how—Yet.

    I had a lot of difficulty with this book, honestly. I’ve got trouble with books that are very voice-y, and Hoodoo has a very distinctive voice in this story in the way he speaks and tells the narrative. It lingers on explanations that I can tell the character would want to explain more, such as what Moonshine is, but not on elements that I found myself not fully comprehending. Granted, some of this is because I am an Asian from Vancouver who is not familiar with how the southern hoodoo magic intersects with the bible, and how the folklore associated with hoodoo works.

    I should also mention that one of the pivotal moments of this book involves lynching, so content warning. It’s middle grade, so I really wasn’t expecting that.

    Overall, I think this was just a book that wasn’t for me. I’m not the intended audience. The story moved along pretty quickly and seemed to be pretty solid for a young audience that is more familiar with the cultural elements that lost me.

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  • One of the best ways to ensure that you are able to have someone who reads your book is to, well, write for someone who is looking for your book! Your ideal reader, or your target audience, should be the person you are focusing your content, your writing, and your marketing on. But have you considered some basic elements of a great target audience?

    Does your audience exist?

    This is a mistake I have absolutely made in the past. You can craft this ideal person that would read your books, but when you take a step back you realize that this is not an audience that actually exists. It’s always good to look and see if there is actually demand for your stories outside of your social circle and in the wider market. Do the themes and genre and topics in your stories resonate with a lot of people? Are you telling a story that can be enjoyed by a lot of people, and specifically enough people that it could sustain your career?

    Can your audience purchase your stories?

    Simply put, your audience should be able to pay for your stories on their own. It is much easier to find a new reader if they do not have to get approval for the purchase from someone else. If you’re writing young adult, for instance, those kids may not have the ability to actually support you, no matter how much your story might resonate with them.

    This isn’t to say you can’t write books for those younger audiences! It just means that you are going to have to be mindful that your marketing will be more about getting the parents and people in their lives with money to purchase your stories for them.

    What does that audience actually expect?

    This is a tricky question, but an important one to look at. When you have an audience that is seeking out your stories, it’s important to leave them satisfied and wanting more content when they are done. That means you need to fulfill their expectations, so it’s worth spending some time getting a good understanding of what they are actually looking for and, more importantly, why. That will give you the context to know if you want to try and subvert their expectations without making it a dissatisfying read.

    How does that audience find out about new stories to check out?

    This is so that you can let them know about your stories! If you know about your audience, and you know what they expect, then you should also know where they hang out and how they find new stories. Once you know where they are, then you can make sure you are also there, ready to help and possibly even give them a recommendation at just the right time!

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • I don’t know why, but I thought this book was supposed to be related to that Red Riding Hood movie that came out a decade ago. I remember hearing that there was a book that would make that movie make sense, and for whatever reason I thought this was that book. It is not.

    This book follows Red, the Second Daughter ((Proper noun!)) who has to be given to the Wolf when she comes of age, leaving behind her sister to take over rule on her own when their mother dies. In this fantasy world, the wolf lives in the very dangerous Wilderwood, a forest that appears to be alive and with a motive of its own. Deep inside the forest, Red meets the Wolf and finds that much of what she’s been told about him and the history of their world has been a lie, but also that the Wilderwood is slowly dying and he is the only one keeping it alive so that it can continue to hold back the return of great evil.

    So, first thing to mention here. Despite the title and cover, this is a Beauty and the Beast story. The Wolf ((Who does have a name, but I cannot spell it from memory)) is a cursed man living alone in a castle and Red is a young bookworm who realizes that he’s not as terrifying as the stories she’s heard all of her life. Instead, he’s cursed, lonely, and only means well.

    I will note that I didn’t pick up on the romance aspect of the story until quite late in the narrative, which I like. Red has a whole lot happening, between figuring out her own ties to the Wilderwood, to understanding the truth behind the version of history she was told, to trying to see her sister again, that I just never picked up on it until the relationship was consummated. They got married and I didn’t pick up on the romance. I’m so good at this.

    It is also full of very intricate world building. There were times when I wondered if this was a third or fourth book in a series. There’s a lot of elements in it that I really enjoy, such as the contrast between the history told and the actual history that gets uncovered, but there is just a lot of context revealed throughout the story as if it were common knowledge. I’m generally okay with this, but it does make it a lot harder for me to talk about the story because there’s parts of the lore that I’m more interested in than others.

    Overall, I did enjoy it! It was an interesting read, and I haven’t done high fantasy in a while. It does some interesting things with the worldbuilding and the romance doesn’t overwhelm the narrative. If it sounds interesting, I’d say check it out.

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    1. Revising my life
    2. My life as a research project: Discovery
    3. My life as a research project: Hypothesis and metrics
    4. My life as a research project: The first project

    Well. All those self help books are getting to me.

    After all these years of reading and having a lot of trouble liking self help books, I have finally gotten to the point where some of the high level ideas are sinking in. I have issues with these books largely because they are very prescriptive and give you that one thing that will make your life amazing. It’s one central idea that you have to adapt and a bunch of tools that will make everything come together.

    But my life is larger than one or two areas. There’s a lot of different parts of it, and a lot of different things that I want to do. Different things I want to be eventually. One idea isn’t really enough to encapsulate all of that.

    So naturally, I’m starting to put together a system of my own to work out something that actually works for me.

    Given that this has been a rough year for me, I’ve been doing a lot of self reflection and I’m starting to put together what I actually want out of life. I’m doing a discovery phase with myself, trying to decide what I think a great life would be like and where I’m at now. It’s a lot of discovery for the moment, but I’ll be documenting some of my process as I go and see if I can find something that works. I’ve read enough of these self help books! I’m sure I’ve absorbed enough to make this work.

    So stay tuned and I’ll talk more about the process, what’s working and what isn’t. It should be fun!

  • I am just leaning into this self improvement book habit at this point. And somehow I keep finding these ones that feel kinda dated with talk of pagers and rolodexes and talk of paper clutter, but here we are.

    This book covers the basics of organization. It’s structured to give you sections and areas of your life to focus on, from work to home, and encourages you to make changes piece by piece. The advice is pretty similar to other books of this sort, but there is a nice set of caveats that are added now and then accounting for people who may struggle due to things like health issues.

    I feel like this is good for if you are just getting started on getting your life together and needed a starting point. Some of the advice is solid, but I’ve been putting together my systems for a few years now. There’s nothing new in here that I could really incorporate, and the book is a little dated in the references. I don’t think it actually introduced any new concepts to me, at least.

    However, if you’re just starting out in trying to get your life in order, maybe this would work for you.

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  • If you have read any of my books, you know I love a reluctant hero. There’s something about someone who did not want to save the day slowly coming to terms with the idea that they have to and accepting that for the greater good just hits me right.

    But how do you construct a character and a story like that? Well, here’s some things I like to do:

    They are uniquely qualified to deal with the problem

    One of the major questions that comes up in these kinds of stories is the question of “Why me?” If someone else can take over, then the question of why someone else doesn’t do it who is just as capable comes into play and it lessens that internal conflict. So make a character who has a specific skillset that makes them invaluable ((White Noise, Looking Glass Saga, City Without Heroes)) and removes that option for them to not be involved.

    They have some insight into what they are really being asked to do

    The character can see what the problem is, but ideally they also understand what it really being asked of them. Because problems initially introduced in stories ((Or my stories, anyway)) are rarely the truth of the matter, the character should have some insight into ((Cloned Evil)) or otherwise discover ((City Without Heroes)) the truth of what they are being asked to do and be, for one reason or another, opposed to it.

    They actively avoid the problem

    If the character can spot the problem and understand why they do not want to resolve it themselves, they should do something to try and avoid interacting with it. ((City Without Heroes, Cloned Evil)) Though these characters may want to do best by the people around them, they view the problem as attempting to pull them into something that is not or should not be their responsibility. ((White Noise))

    Their involvement happens as a result of something they think is unrelated

    For me, I do love watching a character try so hard to avoid getting involved, but accidentally falling into the role of saving the day. Either curiosity ((Looking Glass Saga)) or getting mad at the wrong time ((Cloned Evil)) or just getting close to people who are about to suffer if they do nothing, ((White Noise, City Without Heroes)) something that isn’t necessarily directly related to that thing they are avoiding dragging them back into the plot they were trying to avoid is a lot of fun to both read and write.

    Ultimately, the story is about self actualization and them accepting that they are the hero

    If you’re making one of the central conflicts of the story a hero that does not want to be a hero, I feel like self actualization in the form of accepting the role of hero, either on their terms or someone else’s, is the point of that character arc. Letting them understand that this is a role that they must play, even one they might want to play, and what the terms of filling it are, is just a natural ending of that story.

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • It’s been so long since I’ve gotten something from a local author to read, but over the holidays last year I got to go to an event with Pulp Literature with a whole bunch of local authors and fill up my TBR! And, of course, I am only just now getting to reading this one.

    We follow Graciela, a young woman in a world where the metaverse is a reality. She spends her time in a virtual world, escaping from a complicated life of tragedy and complicated parental relationships. Her father has developed an AI that exists in the virtual world known as the Waves, and this creation of her father’s, who she has named Thomas, has been following her. While her father wants the AI back, but Gracie is torn between doing as she’s told and treating him like a fully formed person.

    The concept overall is interesting and, while it does have elements of “The digital world is a drug that’s harming our children” that sentiment is largely contained to the older characters. In the context of Graciela, it’s viewed more as a coping mechanism to give her the space to discover herself and give her space to deal with loss and isolation while building confidence.

    I did have a little trouble with the pacing. It’s a bit slow in the middle where she is spending more time in reality, and then everything feels like it happens in the last couple chapters. There were some things I felt could have used more setup and the tell about the truth about Thomas felt like she definitely should have recognized that a lot earlier.

    Overall, though, I really did like the story. It’s a look at what could be through the lens of someone who has not only grown up around the technology, but is using it in a way that makes sense for their own lives. If it sounds interesting, definitely check it out!

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  • I created the Storyteller’s Workbook and the Worldbuilding Workbook because these are resources I’d made for myself and wanted to share them. They are structured in a way that makes sense for me, at least, to use them to keep track of notes as I’m writing.

    But that might not be how other people use them! I worry that there might be too many worksheets in one section and not enough in another and, well, that it’s just not flexible enough for individual writers and their projects.

    So I wanted pro propose a question to you. Would you want the worksheets in a downloadable PDF so that you could make as many as you needed for each of your projects? Printable in the standard letter and A5? Editable in something like GoodNotes?

    Do you want this? And what would work best for you?

    Write Your Story: Unlock Your Creative Potential

    Are you ready to embark on a journey into the world of storytelling? Look no further! Introducing Write Your Story, a comprehensive resource designed to fuel your imagination, enhance your storytelling skills, and bring your characters to life. Whether you’re an aspiring writer, a seasoned author, or simply someone who loves crafting stories, this workbook is your ultimate companion.

    This Workbook Contains:

    • Story planning spreads
    • Setting and location spreads
    • Character spreads
    • Writing session tracker

  • My company has been talking about this book lately. About how the leadership teams and leads are all being required to read it, about how it’s so insightful and has so many great takeaways, and so I figured why not. It looked like a quick read.

    For some context, the five questions for the modern entrepreneur or startup or what have you are:

    1. Why is this a thing to do?
    2. Who will want this?
    3. What is the expected outcome need to change?
    4. What needs to happen in order to make this?
    5. How does it happen?

    This book focuses on the the second and fourth question, contextualized appropriately: Who is this for and who will make it happen? It pitches these as the only two question you will need and everything else will fall into place. Mostly because you have now outsourced the other three questions to those two groups, which makes sense in context.

    But I work as a product designer. So this is not remotely unique of a take to me.

    It also insists that none of this is exploitation at one point which… I have no idea what that was about. Did I miss the part where you said not to pay anyone? It felt so strange, like it was bringing up an issue that didn’t exist unless the author was implementing some very shady business practices.

    If you have not read many other business or entrepreneur books from the last decade or so, it’s going to give you some new information. But if you’ve read a bunch, then this is really just a different contextualization and focuses on a different part of the standard process that is preached by these books. So… if that sounds good.

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