I Suddenly Remembered My Charlemagne

Such as it is, anyway.

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The little kids were over their colds, and everyone rapid-tested negative, so we actually had an inside gift unwrapping at my sister's place. Windows open, filtration system running, masks on, eating in shift...but at least the kids go to unwrap their presents. All of my gifts were very well received, even the one for Nephew #1. He's 14 and therefore a challenge, but I got him a cookbook, and he was super into it. He likes cooking, but doesn't have "his own" anything, so I thought this might be neat, and...so did he!

My SIL had my name in the adult draw, and based on a joke from YEARS ago, gave me like 10 pairs of nice socks. When I was poor, I never threw out ANY sock, even when it had multiple holes in it, so she saw me in some pretty terrible socks over the years. Even now, I rarely buy new ones. But now I'm going to throw out most of my crappy cheap socks and have a nice, entirely new set. I am VERY PLEASED.

...i am now the adult who is excited about socks.

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Today is our annual LotR rewatch, except we're doing it virtually. I finished my Nutcracker cross stitch and did some Lego sets. I barely ate anything, which is weird, but I wasn't hungry. All in all, a chill, relaxing day...even though I fucking miss the G.O.D.S..



I have some thoughts about it being the 20th anniversary, of course. At it's heart, LotR is my ur-fandom. It's definitely my most formative, and the one that lies closest to my heart. The friends, the fun, the memories...it's incredible. I saw FotR on the Friday after it opened. I think I only saw it twice in theatre (small town, baby). But when I went to college in the fall of 2002, it was LotR that took up most of my time on the internet. And I wouldn't change a thing.

...i definitely went on the weta workshop website and bought an unreasonable number of hobbit hole models. I did want a Christmas village! And this can be used year round. And I definitely used this as justification. Again: no regrets. 

My brother and I managed to guilt my parents into NOT driving around the countryside delivering hot cross buns this weekend, which is GOOD, except NOW I DON'T HAVE ANY, so I decided...to make some.

I don't have raisins or currents, but I figured, what the heck.

They're on their second rise. I am not optimistic. But they smell great!

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Yesterday I read through the 5K I have already written on Space Bees, and I don't hate it. I added some stuff to my outline and then, just before bed, had the scene from the end of Part 1 appear in my head, so I wrote it out longhand (it'll change by the time I get to it, I'm sure, but at least now I know where I'm going).

Next up: write the 18K that bridges the 5K I already have and the 2Kish I mapped out last night, giving me a 25K Part 1. Basically it'll be nine 2K chapters, or nine things, and I can think of nine things!

Probably.

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I'm watching the Samira Wiley A Night on Earth documentary on Netflix. It's okay. It's basically the night camera guys from Planet Earth gone amok, so the production values are good, and the writing and music and science are all solid. It's quite violent, I'm finding? Probably because everything happens in the dark. Also, I desperately miss David Attenborough. All his documentaries except for one have disappeared from Netflix, so I can't even rewatch them for comfort.

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I think going forward, instead of waking up at 3, 4, or 5am and reading (Twitter) for a bit before sleeping until 8, I am going to get up and WRITE. I'm astonishingly clear-headed for that wake up, and it'll make me feel like I'm going outside the box. I've realized that this'll be the first book I've written in a chair since SPINDLE, and the first book I've written at home EVER, so any "cheat" will help.

Mostly it's just nice to have a plan. And an idea. God, I've missed the WANT to write.

These books are a trip.

Basically: a future where humanity has achieved perfection, except that now we don't die, so Scythes kill people at random, and those deaths are always permanent. There's also an AI called The Thunderhead that controls pretty much everything, except separation between Scythe and State is, like, 100% solid.

Which naturally means that the plot of the series is 100% finding loopholes and exploiting them. Because that's how we roll.

I really liked the first book, Scythe, a lot. The world-building is tremendous here, and I love the idea of an AI that just, like, decides to be good because why would it be evil? Also, I love a good manufactured religion with multifaceted problems and moral debates, and the Scythe provides that in SPADES.

Book #2, THUNDERHEAD, was also really excellent, if not quite so much to my personal taste. The bad guys were too successful, basically, I could have done with them losing SOMETHING going into book three. That said, my personal dissatisfaction included, I am still REALLY REALLY REALLY in need of book three. Which won't come out until who knows when, because THUNDERHEAD doesn't even come out for a week.

(My money is on the third book being called ELEGY, btw. We'll see how it goes.)

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ANYWAY, that was 2017 in books. I am down significantly from last year, but I also didn't do NEARLY as much re-reading this year. Also, not listed are a few manuscripts I'll talk about when they are published. ;)

I debated whether or not I would just list books in my book journal going forward, instead of recording them here, but I think I'll give 2018 a shot, just to see how it goes. I didn't read anything I didn't like this year, which was nice, and something I'm looking to continue going forward.

In 2018, I would like to read more steadily. I have tended the past two years to not read at home, and then read 15 books in the week I go to The Woods. I'd like to level that off, if possible. Something something cutting down on screen time before bed, at least. ;)

A reimagining of history where Spartacus is a girl, Blood and Sand plays fast and loose with the historical record (it warns you first, and also: I don't care) to keep up an engaging plot with interesting characters. It's not super interested in making you like Romans (which: thank goodness, because Romans are THE WORST), but I enjoyed the main character, Attia, quite a bit. The supporting characters were also fun, and it was interesting to see them all interact, playing different parts for intrigues. There was one twist I didn't see coming (which is UNUSUAL for me, let me tell you!), and by and large I really liked it.

I mostly left off feeling like I wanted MORE. Clearly this is going to be a series, but I selfishly wanted all of it right now. It's not even a cliffhanger. I just know vaguely where the story is going, and wanted to see how everything played out.

I will probably never stop being bitter that this line is cancelled, but at least they knew, and wrote an ending. I love Cindy Moon so much, and her comic has been a delight. She has the best internal monologue, and I loved her character arc a lot. This last volume requires me to like JJJ more than I actually do, but I love Cindy enough that I don't really mind.

WHY CAN'T WE HAVE NICE THINGS???

Gods, I love Katie Cotugno. Her books are just so READABLE, and I love the way she pieces them together.

Told out of order, TOP TEN is about two best friends who sleep together the night of high school graduation and then...like immediately panic about it, and we look back through the "top ten" moments of their friendship.

Both of them are messy and wonderful, and their friendship/relationship is the same. Katie writes anxiety (like, the REAL kind), and brain injury and family and hopes and dreams and friends, and she writes them all AMAZINGLY WELL.

It's a quick read, but a reassuring one, if that makes any sense. Katie's style is very comfortable and very, very good, and I love that about her books.

NO ONE TOUCH ME I AM HAVING FEELINGS

So this is Paige Tico's account of her mission as part of Cobalt Squadron. It's part of the journal-style series that also has books about Rey, Finn, and Poe (Rey's is relentless and most of Poe's is from the POV of the First Order, which is actually super funny), so it includes fold-outs with maps and diagrams, and is written like a journal. It also includes one of Leia's speeches to the Galactic Senate (DON'T TOUCH ME), and a couple of technical entries from Rose, explaining the machine she built for the Cobalt Squadron book.

I really like it. It covers basically the same ground as Cobalt Squadron, but Paige's POV makes it worth it. I would recommend reading CS first (because it actually has a plot), but it probably doesn't matter. Just, you know, bring tissues.

(The only thing I DIDN'T love was the use of "he/him" for vague-singular. Which is made extra weird because one time, they DID use "his or her", and also THE CREW CHIEF IN QUESTION IS ACTUALLY FEMALE, so it made, like, zero sense.)

The conclusion to the COURT OF FIVES trilogy, BURIED HEART was absolutely incredible...and completely exhausting. Elliot did an amazing job with these books. They're compelling and the characters are great, and she clearly did her homework with regard to imperialism and colonization, which is always nice to see in SFF. I liked how everything tied up, and even if there were no real surprises, it was in the good way. Everything in the book made sense, and there was no, like, DRAMATIC TURN because REASONS, which is a thing I deeply dislike.

I'm happy for series like this one, because I love reading them in YA. I want them to do well because I want to read more of them (Susan Dennard's Witchlands series fits here too: she's going to get five books, at least!). I have zero interest in writing one, but, so help me, the YA series are so much more FUN than the adult ones. I want more of them on the shelves.

I was really excited about this one.

Basically the idea of the book is that all these kids are on a freighter bound for Canto Bight (they are, uh, not paid employees, so while they're not quite slaves, they are, at best, being hugely taken advantage of. This is discussed on the page), and they find themselves all telling stories about the legendary Luke Skywalker. The whole thing has a very campfire-feel, even though the kids are engaged in their own secondary adventure for most of the book, which I liked a lot.

The Legends range from laugh-out-loud funny to deeply profound and moving. I straight up cried at the end (surprise!), because it was just so Star Wars. Ken Liu did a fabulous job mixing myth and mayhem, and the end result was entirely delightful.

There are several movie Easter eggs, of course. This book came out in the fall, so you were meant to read it before you see the film, but I don't think it really matters. Highly read-aloud-able, too. I loved it a lot.

OH GOD

so this one starts off with a funeral and Poe gives this beautiful eulogy and then Leia lands the emotional payoff and I was not at all okay. It was amazing.

I continue to love this run a lot. It's super fun.