To those who refute that dragons are the most civilised and intelligent species in the world – come and tell me that to my face. And be prepared to back up your wet-witted denial with claw and flame…
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
Always bathe after you’ve suffered a crash-landing. Not only will it soothe any injuries, it will also clean away tell-tale signs like branches stuck between your scales and grass stains on the wings.
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
Appearances can be deceptive. Frost giants enjoy lolling around on floes creaking to one another, giving the impression they are slow and easy-going. In reality, they are quick to take offence, can move very fast and are vicious, deadly fighters. Avoid them.
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
Only call ice dragons names such as Icewiddle or Birdiefeet if you’re happy to have your nictating membranes frozen to your eyeballs, or your mouth iced shut.
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
If your aery Overlord is fond of giving speeches, pay particular attention when he starts bugling in a low drone with lots of long words. It’s during those bits that he’s likely to slip in any nasty surprises, like an extra levy or more guard duty.
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
Remember, alpha lords NEVER flee from anything. And if you have a pressing reason to fly as fast as you can from any group of elves you’ve the bad luck to encounter, that’s nobody’s business but yours…
Castellan the Black, mighty dragon warrior, features in my Picky Eaters series. All proceeds for the duration of the publishing life of Picky Eaters, first book in the series, are donated to mental health charities. The second book, Flame & Blame, and the third book, Trouble With Dwarves, are now available.
This is part of the weekly meme over at the Caffeinated Reviewer, where book bloggers can share the books they’ve read and share what they have got up to during the last week.
We are in the grip of a heatwave. And yes… those of you enduring crazy temperatures up in the 100s day after day will probably roll your eyes at the fact that we are struggling with high 80s and low 90s. But we’ve had a summer where most of the time, the temperature has been in the high 60s, low 70s, occasionally dipping down into the 50s with lots and lots of rain. And very few of us have aircon. So muggy nights and hot days at a time of year when the children are all returning to school has taken everyone by surprise.
Before Oscar returned to school, we visited the Wetland and Wildfowl Trust – which is where the photos come from. We had a lovely day together and thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride. On Wednesday, it was Himself’s birthday. And today it’s our 28th wedding anniversary. We’ll be celebrating this evening with a meal at our favourite Chinese restaurant, The Dragon. We’ll be joined by my sister and little Eliza, who is also spending the night as her mum is moving house.
Oscar is now back at school, which he doesn’t enjoy all that much. However, I’m glad he has also continued visiting the gym and is looking forward to resuming football practice – when it gets cool enough for running around to be enjoyable. We are in the throes of packing Ethan’s belongings for university. I’m a bit torn – most of me is so thrilled and proud of him for getting to this point when he’s had so much to cope with. But I shall also miss him terribly… At least he’s only an hour away, by both car and rail. So he can easily get home to see us if he needs to.
I’m dealing with a really annoying glitch on my blog – all the images I’ve posted going back at least a couple of years appear to have suddenly expanded to their largest possible size. It doesn’t show up on my dashboard and the only way I can fix it is to go back through and alter them to the correct size manually. The presets on the side menu to alter image sizing no longer appear to work. So I apologise for anyone browsing back further than May of this year – I will be working my way back to alter them, but I’ll be doing it in stages as it will entail hours and hours of work. In the meantime – if anyone knows of a quicker, easier way of fixing this problem, I’d be very grateful for any advice!
Books I’ve read this week:- AUDIOBOOK – Swordheart by T. Kingfisher Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle’s estate… and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws… and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all.
I previously read this enchanting tale on my Kindle – but when I also saw the audiobook version, I decided to treat myself. I’m a fan of Kingfisher’s writing since some lovely soul recommended A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking – see my review. 10/10
Trouble With Dwarves – Book 3 of the Picky Eaters series by S.J. Higbee Castellan the Black, former mighty dragon warrior and former mouldy old has-been, is now reconciled with his family – including his capricious and clever mate, Ekaterraina. So as the oldest living dragon, Castellan should be looking after his delightfully feisty grandchildren and going wind-spinning with his mate.
Instead, he and Ekaterraina discover a frost giant child translocated to the foot of a dormant volcano with a dwarven mage responsible for this piece of wicked spite. Unfortunately, even intelligent dragons tend to underestimate dwarves – only seeing hairy, easily flammable creatures, while overlooking the pests’ sneaky cleverness, tunnelling skills and greed. Finally, the horde at Wyvern Peak realise they’re facing far more danger than a few pesky dwarven warriors and turn to Castellan to save the day. When frankly, he’s not sure if he can get them through the night… This is the last lap of my editing process – I go through the ebook version on my trusty Kindle. Given I’ve been through the manuscript a number of times already, as well as having the computer narrate it to me while I follow the text on the screen, it’s always surprising how many niggling issues I find on this final readthrough. I shall be announcing the publication dates for both Flame & Blame and Trouble With Dwarves in the coming week.
AUDIOBOOK – On a Red Station, Drifting – Universe of Xuya series by Aliette de Bodard For generations Prosper Station has thrived under the guidance of its Honoured Ancestress: born of a human womb, the station’s artificial intelligence has offered guidance and protection to its human relatives.
But war has come to the Dai Viet Empire. Prosper’s brightest minds have been called away to defend the Emperor; and a flood of disorientated refugees strain the station’s resources. As deprivations cause the station’s ordinary life to unravel, uncovering old grudges and tearing apart the decimated family, Station Mistress Quyen and the Honoured Ancestress struggle to keep their relatives united and safe.
What Quyen does not know is that the Honoured Ancestress herself is faltering, her mind eaten away by a disease that seems to have no cure; and that the future of the station itself might hang in the balance… This novella is a gem. It didn’t hurt that Emily Woo Zeller’s narration is brilliant in and beautifully evoked a particular culture that has clearly enshrined some customs from Earth, having tweaked them to cope in space. I particularly loved the ending, which was both uplifting and extremely moving.9/10
January has slipped by quietly without very much going on, given that we are now back in full lockdown, again, while the Government grapples with this new, highly infectious variant. Meanwhile the vaccination programme is proceeding apace. Both sets of parents have had their first vaccination and my sister, who works in a pharmacy has had both her jabs. I’m hoping Himself will be getting his sooner, rather than later as he is a key worker who has to go out every day and regularly travels to London.
We have had the grandchildren staying over several times – including little Eliza, again. It was another successful visit where she seemed very happy to be with us. Right now, we are still coping with some hefty family issues, not improved by COVID and the lockdown. Thank goodness we are part of my daughter’s support bubble, so we can be there to help out when needed.
Reading I read fifteen books in January, and again, I can’t fault the quality of the books. I did DNF The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell, but that was because it was too dark for me to cope with – the writing was excellent. My Outstanding Book of the Month was The Night Parade of 100 Demons – A Legend of the Five Rings World novel by Marie Brennan, and my Outstanding Audiobook of the Month was Tombland – Book 7 of the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom.
My reads during January were:
Spirited by Julie Cohen – review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK I Shall Wear Midnight – Book 4 of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett – review to follow.
The Lord of Stariel – Book 1 of the Stariel series by A.J. Lancaster – review to follow.
Writing and Editing
I’ve made steady progress with Trouble with Dwarves, which is the second book in my Picky Eaters series, featuring grumpy old dragon, Castellan. I’ve now written the opening adventure featuring the ice giants and am now working on the closing chapters of the book, which I hope to have completed by the middle of February. I’ve also completed several editing projects and am continuing to work with my father-in-law on his memoirs.
Overall, I wrote just under 44,000 words in January, with just under 26,000 on the blog, just over 1,200 on lesson reports for Tim, and just over 16,000 on my writing projects.
Blogging January was a better month for the blog, as I wasn’t going anywhere and managed to get back into the rhythm. I’m still not doing very well at visiting other bloggers – and I will try to do better! In the meantime, I very much hope you are all able to continue to stay safe, while waiting for your vaccination. Take care.x
December was something of a blur – the first half of the month I was re-starting my Pilates and Fitstep classes and getting used to being out and about, again. I was also still in close touch with my daughter and her family, as we are part of her support bubble.
As usual, I was slightly behind and disorganised with my Christmas preparations – but that wasn’t a particular problem, I reasoned, as we were going to have a very quiet day with just Himself, me and my sister… Until the new measures that came in a handful of days before Christmas wiped out my daughter and the children’s Christmas plans – they were no longer able to go and stay with their other grandparents for a short mini-break. So I suggested that they come to us for the day. And was then rushing around to ensure we made it as enjoyable a day as possible, given particularly awful year they’ve had, with COVID just making a horrible situation a whole lot worse.
Christmas Day went off well – and then we were lucky enough to have all three children stay over for a couple of nights, which was full-on, given it was the first time two-year-old Eliza had ever stayed with us. But that was a success, with her remaining happy throughout.
Reading I read sixteen books in December, with more wonderful reads qualitywise. My Outstanding Book of the Month was Lamentation – Book 6 of the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom and my Outstanding Audiobook of the Month was A Quiet Life in the Country – Book 1 of the Lady Hardcastle series by T.E. Kinsey.
My reads during December were: AUDIOBOOK Machine – Book 2 of the White Space series by Elizabeth Bear. Review to follow.
Forged – Book 11 of the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka. See my review.
Swordheart by T. Kingfisher. Review to follow.
Lamentation – Book 6 of the Matthew Shardlake series by C.J. Sansom – Outstanding book of the month. Review to follow.
Mistaken Identity Crisis – Book 4 of the Braxton Campus Mysteries by James. J. Cudney. Review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK Mark of Athena – Book 3 of the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. Review to follow.
Of Dragons, Feasts and Murders: A Dominion of the Fallen Novella by Aliette de Bodard. Review to follow.
Scardown – Book 2 of the Jenny Casey series by Elizabeth Bear. Mini-review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK A Quiet Life in the Country – Book 1 of the Lady Hardcastle series by T.E. Kinsey – Outstanding audiobook of the month. Review to follow.
Inherit the Shoes – Book 1 of A Jersey Girl Legal Mystery series by E.J. Copperman. See my review.
The Woman in Blue – Book 8 of the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths. Min-review to follow.
Bear Head – Book 2 of the Dogs of War series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. See my review.
Outstanding read of the month
Outstanding audiobook of the month
Guilt at the Garage – Book 20 of The Fethering Mysteries by Simon Brett. Review to follow.
AUDIOBOOK In the Market for Murder – Book 2 of the Lady Hardcastle mysteries by T.E. Kinsey. Mini-review to follow.
Doors of Sleep by Tim Pratt. Review to follow.
Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley. Review to follow.
Writing and Editing Given everything else that was going on – you won’t be surprised to learn that my work on Trouble with Dwarves, which is the second book in my Picky Eaters trilogy, featuring grumpy old dragon, Castellan, slowed down somewhat, though I’m happy with what I managed to achieve. I also completed a couple of editing projects for other folks, as well as continuing to work on my father-in-law’s project of writing his memoirs.
Overall, I wrote just under 30,000 words in December, with just under 14,500 on the blog, and just under 13,5,000 on my writing projects. This brings my final yearly wordcount to date to just over 506,000 words. I’m very happy with that – it’s been quite a long time since I was able to break the half-a-million word barrier for the year, and just goes to show how much my teaching duties had impacted my creativity.
Blogging It was a frustrating month. I’d begun to really get back into the swing of my blogging rhythm – and then the last-minute flurry around Christmas, as well as some really miserable family stuff, and I went AWOL again. Apologies for the delay in replying and not visiting as much as I should! With everything going on right now, my blogging is going to be a bit hit and miss for a while. In the meantime, I very much hope you are all able to continue to stay safe, while waiting for your vaccination. Take care.x
November was defined chiefly by the second lockdown in the UK, and although it wasn’t as strict as the first one, it did bring my social life to an abrupt halt again. So other than seeing the grandchildren when necessary (we are part of our daughter’s support cluster as she is a single-parent family) and shopping when Himself wasn’t able to fulfil the brief, I hunkered down at home, busy writing and reading. Other than teaching Tim, which I did resume after a long, serious discussion weighing the pros and cons with his mother…
Reading I read twelve books in November, which isn’t a particularly large number – but that’s okay. More importantly, once again it’s been a great reading month qualitywise – particularly for space opera and space adventures in general. Because this was #Sci Fi Month 2020, which was once again organised by Imyril at There’s Always Room for One More and Lisa at Dear Geek Place and was a huge success.
My Outstanding Book of the Month was Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen and my Outstanding Audiobook of the Month was Wintersmith – Book 3 of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett.
My reads during November were:
Dead Lies Dreaming – a Laundry Files novel by Charles Stross. See my review.
AUDIOBOOK Wintersmith – Book 35 of the Discworld novels & Book 3 of the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett – Outstanding Audiobook of the month. Review to follow.
Architects of Memory – Book 1 of The Memory War series by Karen Osborne. Review to follow.
The Thief on the Winged Horse by Kate Mascarenhas. See my review.
Aftermath – Book 5 of the Sirantha Jax series by Ann Aguirre. Review to follow.
Fallen – Book 10 of the Alex Verus series by Benedict Jacka. See my review.
Lifelode by Jo Walton. Review to follow.
The Dark Archive – Book 7 of The Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman. See my review.
Writing and Editing Halfway through the month, I finally completed the manuscript for Picky Eaters 2 – which initially was going to be a novella – only to discover that it was a monster of over 117,000 words! I will be writing about all this in more detail in a separate post later in the month – but basically that was just nonsense. I’m not in the mood right now to read anything of that length – so why would I expect my readers to do so, either? Particularly as the whole point of this series is to provide some escapist fun. So I rolled up my sleeves and dived in. It took nearly a week of hard work and rewriting – but I now have a version of Picky Eaters 2, renamed Flame and Blame, that I’m happy with at just under 73,000 words. The great news is that I also have just under 50,000 words of the next novel in the trilogy, which will be called Trouble With Dwarves.
Overall, I wrote just over 61,300 words in November, with just under 20,000 on the blog, and just under 40,000 on my writing projects. This brings my yearly wordcount to date to just under 477,000 words. I’m very happy with that – the increased in the speed of my writing since I returned from Bexhill has been a gamechanger and should mean that next year will be far more productive.
Blogging Blogging revolved around Sci Fi Month, which was a joy. I added far too many books to my towering TBR and was able to swing by and chat to some other blogs I don’t regularly visit. Though as I battled with teasing apart my manuscript during the second half of the month, I’m afraid my visiting once more suffered. Sorry about that! In the meantime, I hope everyone is able to stay safe. Take care.x
Brainfluff 