I know I read a ton of YA, but it feels like it’s been a while since I read one that really felt like it was young adult and not young adult as written for an adult audience. But I find I have a lot better luck in that regard when it comes to the random library book finds, and at last I found something!
This book follows Silva, a young woman whose age I never caught, as she returns to her grandfather’s house at a most unfortunate time. He’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and his days are numbered. At this time, Silva starts to spot a magpie and a door that leads to a library where the words come out of the books and pull you into the story. Slowly, Silva finds herself falling into these stories and realize that they are not all they appear, and she has been leaving more and more of herself behind at the library with every visit.
I really liked this one! I’m in a bit of a dour mood from the general life I’m having at the moment and that is probably what made this a good thing for me in this moment. Silva slowly coming to understand that her escape isn’t helping and realizing what the magpie is trying to do creates a really effective mood for the narrative, and nothing feels overly forced. There are some mysteries remaining at the end, but nothing that really bothered me.
I do think I’m starting to pinpoint the thing that is bothering me with modern YA and how they discuss issues, though. Silva at one point identifies her brother as having depression and there’s just something about how issues are discussed in YA that feels off.
Overall, though, it is a lot of fun! I mean, it’s a depressing story about acceptance and loss, but it’s done well and I really enjoyed watching as each of the characters learned to come to terms with the circumstances that they really shouldn’t try to control. Definitely check it out.
I’ve gotten back into D&D recently after playing a bit in Uni. And I’ve always been a fan of the fantasy and comic stuff, as those who have followed me for a while will know. And also I’ve worked in tech for the past decade. Which means every once in a while I find a book like this and it feels like someone was trying to write something specifically for someone like me.
Addie is a literature professor that is brought in by an eccentric tech CEO to help a team of mercenaries get his private island back — A private island that he his company had been using to develop a technological world that makes fantasy a reality. Like Disneyland for LARPers. But her ex is suspected of having led a revolt against the CEO and cut the island off from the rest of the world and Addie is being used as bait to lure him out, all while she is trying to not become too enamoured by the wonders of the magic that this technology has created.
I really liked Addie as a lead. She’s a woman with PTSD from a school shooting when she was younger, a thing that comes into play at the right character moments rather than the plot-relevant ones, and a penchant for escapism because of it. The way she’s written strikes a nice balance between exploring and overcoming that trauma in the moment and focusing on the story I came for, which meant I left the story satisfied. On top of that, I enjoyed the interactions between her and her ex, which felt like they reinforced why they were exes more than they were trying to create the illusion of a potential rekindling of their relationship.
Overall, it was a lot of fun! It will be fun for anyone who’s grown up into fantasy media and has a little extra sprinkled in for those who grew up to work in tech. If it sounds interesting, check it out!
There is a phenomenon where some people can actually read descriptions and actually picture it in their head. The smells, the sights, it plays for them like television or like a memory. It’s vivid and it can actually put them right in the scene. Crazy, right?
I was then informed that I have aphantasia and I am the weird one.
This does, however, explain why not only do I am so quickly bored with description, but also why I struggle with writing it. Which I know full well I need to get better at. So, in case you are like me and are looking for ways to improve as well, here’s a few strategies I’ve used to help.
Take note of your physical surroundings when they match
Going out into the world and experiencing surroundings is a great way to start trying to figure out descriptions. If I have a setting that is reasonably close to what I want, I have gone to that place and written down what I saw, heard, or generally experienced.
At one point, I was going so far as to try and recreate the scenes that I was trying to describe so that I could get a better description. I do not generally recommend this if you’re not writing contemporary settings.
I do, however, highly encourage taking phots and video along with notes so you can use them in your scenes!
Find art assets
If what I’m looking for doesn’t exist in reality, I will just look up images that get as close to that vague impression of a thing that is in my head. Once I have that, I can just talk about what it looks like.
If it’s a video, I can describe in more detail the way the winds blow or some general ambient movement in the setting. And sometimes I get really lucky and there’s a comments section about people who have experienced a setting in a video before and they will comment about it.
Or, if you’re looking for a smell to add to a scene, cooking videos and blogs will sometimes describe scents that sound interesting and can be incorporated in milder ways to help give the tone and ambiance of a scene.
Use the workbook
I use both the Storyteller’s and the Worldbuilder’s workbook a lot more now that I’ve made them because they have the structure that I need to remember some senses that I would otherwise forget to include. They help me to think of the senses that I can include when I’m doing my planning and, once they’re written down, I don’t have to think about what description to include. I just try to make sure I include all of the notes from there.
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
Focus on the feeling of the setting over the physical
Ultimately, I do still find description to be incredibly difficult and I don’t tend to remember to include anything about it in my initial drafts until a character interacts with something directly. My writing in general doesn’t rely on a lot of the five senses descriptions in general.
I tend to focus a lot more on mood and atmosphere. If the five senses description helps to enhance these elements, I have a much easier time remembering to include them in the first place, and this feels much more natural to me. Using this as a basis, I can take the notes I have from the workbooks and madlibs description into scenes and characters.
Do you have any other thoughts about writing with aphantasia? Did you even know about it?
I really liked the last Kingfisher book I read, so when I saw this one I added it to my list. It didn’t matter that it was book 3 of a series, and yet again I just barely skimmed the blurb. One of these days, I will learn to actually read the thing.
The book follows a paladin, Galen, and a gnole, Earstripe, as they try to figure out who is killing all the bodies that are washing up in town. They enlist the help of a lich-doctor named Piper, who can see the final moments of the corpses. Eventually, they find an eclectic man in a run down estate upstream who has been sending people into a death trap in order to uncover its secrets.
I liked about half of this book. The mystery wasn’t much of a mystery, but I enjoyed how gnoles were introduced as a species and how they interacted with the humans around them. The death trap maze was also in general a lot of fun, as was Piper for the first half of the book. Notably, despite this being book 3, I didn’t feel lost and it all felt pretty contained.
Unfortunately for me the book becomes very horny around the middle while they are trapped in the maze. There were mentions of attraction before this that I was skimming over, but at the half way point it is downright carnal and after that, everything is about this relationship. Everything. Somehow even the third character nearly dying and being unjustly imprisoned is still about this relationship.
That honestly killed the book for me. I finished it, mostly to just get that closure, but I did not enjoy the insistence on pining and making the relationship the central focus of the book. It might be more your style, though.
I have been wondering what exactly new adult is, so I figure I would pick up something that I think is supposed to be classified as new adult. And yes, I did forget that all new adult is romance. Sigh.
The book follow Emmy as she returns home after being away and having a whole new life in Chicago. Upon her return, her magic returns and she takes her place as the next in the Harlow line, one of the four lines of founding witch families for their town. But when she returns, we learn that her and two of the other families have had bad relationships and rough break ups with a guy from the fourth. And the three of the four families are about to compete to claim the mantle of whose family gets the power and prosperity in town, with Emmy being the impartial arbiter of it all.
The romance is, thankfully for me, not too intrusive and can be skimmed. Emmy has other traits and an arc outside of being in a relationship where she is trying to figure out if leaving the small town she loved to escape the trappings of her family name which she hated is really worth the city life she has built for herself. While they really try to make the romance a pivotal deciding factor in it, it really did feel more like it was a choice that was made for herself and the relationship was a bonus. I appreciate that.
I don’t think this is actually new adult, though. At one point they broke down everything Emmy had done since leaving and she’s close to 30. ((Early on they also mention that it’s been 9 years since high school, but I seem to have glazed over that part.)) The writing, the voice, and the choices the characters made make me think they are all in their early twenties at most. And no one has weddings or kids? You’re all conspiring to get revenge on the guy who wronged you—and one of them was wronged nearly a decade ago! These characters feel way too young.
There was a sex scene, though, so I guess it might have been new adult.
Anyway, it was overall an enjoyable read. It reads better if you imagine they are all in their early twenties and still have the energy to spend on the premise, though. Or maybe that’s just what romance is like.
The book follows Zinnia, a young woman turning 21, which will be the year she dies due to a rare condition. She is obsessed with Sleeping Beauty to the point that her best friend finds her a spindle to prick her finger on right on her birthday, which sends her into a fairy tale world where she meets another Sleeping Beauty and has the opportunity to help her escape her fate.
Do not think too hard about this book. Do not think too hard about anything in this book or it will fall apart. The moving between worlds, the cell phones never losing power or connection, everything about the climax, why Zinnia’s illness has no impact on her whatsoever until it is dramatically relevant, do not think about anything to do with the mechanics because it does not make sense. And for me and reading it in this moment, that is okay.
It is a very light, very quick read. Zinnia may be the lead, but Primrose is the only character with a real arc and it was interesting to see her change from damsel to desperate to downtrodden as she kept going after glimmers of hope. Ultimately you always knew that all the characters were going to have a happy ending, the narrative is just a little too peppy to imply anything else, so it ended up being a very relaxing read.
If you’re looking for something that’s low stress and low stakes, but still have that implication that maybe something bad might happen because it is ultimately a story about women who are terminal, but know that absolutely nothing bad will happen to anyone you care about and everyone will get a happy ending, this might be for you.
As some of you may already be aware, my life is very chaotic and I’ve been doing some hard thinking about whether or not I really intend on reopening the shop when I get back home and get access to my stock again. I think the answer is no. If I’m being honest, the shop was a lot more effort than the sales made it worth.
So if you want any of the art things, I’m now on Redbubble! I am still very much planning on designing more things for the Writing Advice line, and I have a few more cat-related designs coming very shortly.
I’m also still on Art of Where for those who are interested in the old designs, and I do fully intend on doing the more intentionally designed for the product types of things there, but Redbubble is a new fun thing where I can just put art that doesn’t necessarily have that very intentional purpose and I’m kind of excited for it.
It’s not often that I actually go ahead and read the second book in a series, but I did really like Vicious so I figured I might as well check out the sequel! Also, it was available from the library and I needed a read.
We pick up with Victor who, spoiler, is not actually dead. He is occasionally still dying, though, for a moment or two at random intervals and he needs to find a way to stop that. There’s also the story of Marcella, who is looking to take over the mob, and a secret organization that is looking to police and detain EOs to keep them from being a problem to society.
There is just a lot of stuff that happens in this book and I found that I didn’t ultimately care that much about any of the plotlines. There was just too much happening all over the place and I really only cared about Victor. He ultimately ends up feeling like a background character for most of the book, though, and that’s a little disappointing.
There was also a large focus on Eli at one point that I found not necessary. I already know he’s a psychopath. I didn’t need an explanation or more emphasis on that fact. I was good.
Ultimately, the book just had too many storylines happening all at once and I did not get into most of them. As a result, it was a fine way to pass the time, but I never really fell into it like I did the first one. Pass for me, but it might be okay for you.
You know, I DNF fiction books all the time when I start to dislike them, but somehow I keep finishing these non-fiction books even when I’m not enjoying the experience. I don’t even like most non-fiction, why do I do this to myself?
In my ongoing quest for self improvement, I thought this might be an interesting take and look at building better habits. I had heard positive things. But this was honestly about half a chapter of information and a series of anecdotes taken at face value, debunked studies taken at just the right angle, and other stories that were twisted to be about habits rather than looking at alternate explanations, causes, or that to do with habits at all. Also a lot of how companies use habits to exploit people as if it’s a good thing, which is not something that will sit well with me.
So I can’t really recommend it. But I’ll give you the link to it anyway.
There’s a lot of plot structures and story beats out there that are pretty common. Romancing the Beat, Heroe’s Journey, these ones are all over and you can see them in many of your favourite books and shows. They never quite worked for me, though, because of the particular kinds of leads I like to write.
I write what I’ve been calling Chosen One Self Actualization (COSA) stories. There is a person who is uniquely qualified to deal with a problem and they are aware of that, but they are actively avoiding doing that with the expectation that someone else will handle it. Eventually, it gets to a point where they have to deal with the problem and they accept their destiny.
This means that the story beats haven’t quite felt right to me. So I made my own. I present to you, my story beats: COSA Story Beats.
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
Join 900+ subscribers
Stay in the loop with everything you need to know.
