Not much writing or editing getting done right now, but I've finished the Book Shelf Buster challenge over on Storygraph that I signed up for a while ago, and I've read 72 of the 60 books I'd challenged myself to read over on Goodreads. The 2024 Book Bingo is also coming along nicely.

Went for my first run in a long time too, today. Only 1.5 km, but with how long it's been since I last ran and how that tends to make my asthma (exercise induced asthma no less) act up, I'm counting it as a win.

Trying to complete that fic tropes ranking list meme I've seen going around, buuuut I'm stuck on what exactly the "Ex-ex lovers" trope icon refers to. There are so many nuances on that trope and I feel very differently about a number of them.

Got a real rough workweek ahead - the "I need to get up an hour earlier than my usual 5 am and I'm not sure I'll get to eat lunch until Saturday" kind. Can't wait until after the 7th of September, since things should calm down a bit more then.

Time to hit the hay!

I've kept the exact details to my "access list", but I'm a little out of it right now due to illness in my family (I'm not ill, but a family member is, and I'm being a huge worrywart about it). Looking forward to catching up with all the fun conversations and interesting blog posts on here as soon as my head is less full of wool 💗

Doing my best to reduce my stress levels, but the darn delayed commuter trains and tech issues at work made today a Very Late Day at work. To counteract all this I have weekend plans to write, hopefully post a fic for snowflake_challenge and read - both here on DW, fanfic and a lot of books I've got waiting for me here at home.

While not at work, I'm distracting myself from my nerves by reading The Whispering Muse by Laura Purcell and The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson. I'm only about a third way through them, but enjoying them thus far!

I got not one, but TWO lovely gifts for Yuletide this year! They're both in the Much Ado About Nothing (2011) fandom and they're brilliant <3<3<3

Links to fics:
- Contempt, Farewell
- by this day (she's a fair lady)


And I just remembered that lovely bingo card made by kingstoken so I managed to get that filled out today too:

( Book Bingo below the cut )

Found via shipperslist that kingstoken has made a super fun Book Bingo sheet for 2023, so I had to get in on that :D

Here's the blank bingo card (will start filling it out soon~)

The end of the year is approaching and I'm hoping the next will be a kinder, happier one for all of us <3

I'm working on another "year goal list", since the 2022 one went pretty well, even its updated version. I didn't do everything, but with how many things I put before myself, I'm honestly pretty impressed with all I got done :)

According to GoodReads, I read 81 books this year! And while some of them were very short (one only 2 pages XD) I'm still very happy about that achievement :D The books I read this year that stuck with me the most are:
- A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
- Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao
- The Teixcalaan duology by Arkady Martine
- The first two books in the Rook & Rose trilogy by M. A. Carrick (can't wait for book 3!!!)
- All Manner of Hats by Elva Birch
- The first book in the Great Cities series by N. K. Jemisin
- The Return of Fitzroy Angursell by Victoria Goddard
- The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
- The first book in The Last Binding series by Freya Marske
- Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan
- His Sacred Incantations by Scarlett Gale
- Part 1-6 in The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells


My general goals for next year are:
- Eat healthier
- Work less (life is short and I am prone to overworking myself)
- Write more <3 So many projects~

A soon to be a Happy New Year to all <3

Soooo, the Swedish election went Awful, though that sadly didn't come as much of a surprise. The party with Nazi roots got 20% of the votes. Fuck.

BUT I can't do anything about that or the mess our government will be right now, so I'm trying to focus on positivity rather than tear my hair out. Thus, here's a little countdown (countup?) of fun things:

1) I've read two really great books of late! Several good ones, but one in particular that I'm adding the mental sticker "fandom" to and another that I suspect will reach that level of interest too once I've finished reading it. The one I'm definitely adding to my fandom list (really need to update that) is the Rook & Rose trilogy by M. A. Carrick (found family, con artists with hearts of gold, political intrigue, magic, queernorm second world fantasy~!) and the one I'm also very much am enjoying is the Teixcalaan duology by Arkady Martine (science fiction about colonialism and also memory storage and first contact with aliens).

2) I've decided on my NaNoWriMo project for this November! I'm going for writing as many short story parts of "Once a Bard and His Friends Took a Train" as I can manage. I have way too many almost finished novels to edit already, I don't need yet another, so short stories it is XD I'm also feeling super hyped for this project so I think this will be a lot of fun :D

3) Yuletide nominations are soon upon us! The fandom promo post is already warming up and I'm trying to decide on which of my many small fandoms I want to nominate myself~! At the moment, I'm thinking about nominating:
- Definitely Rook & Rose - M. A. Carrick because I adore it (AO3 link)
- The Mechanisms album High Noon over Camelot because I need more canon space cowboys OT3 <3 (AO3 link)
- Still unsure of my number 3, might be Teixcalaan, might be Books of the Raksura, might be Dimension 20's A Court of Fey and Flowers - so many options!

4) I'm doing well at not overworking myself! I've "only" worked full time since I got back from my summer vacation and I've scheduled a week's worth of vacation in November too, as well as a long rest over Yule, since I really need to use up all those extra vacation days I've saved up <3

So yeah, lots of emotions right now, trying to focus on the positive ones <3

I'm having a great vacation, all things considered 💖 Thought I'd write down the good things, to take my mind off the less fun things that happened pre-holidays.

1) I'm pleased with the fic I wrote for Yuletide and got a lovely Childermass/Segundus fic for the Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell fandom as gift, which can be read over here. And though I didn't get around to writing any treats or pinch hits due to Everything, I can always try my hands at a New Year's Resolution fic or two!

2) Been watching a lot of interesting movies with the family, The Green Knight, Encanto and the latest James Bond being the most memorable. We're going to try that League of Legends TV show on Netflix that all of Tumblr and Twitter are posting about, and likely also the live action Cowboy Bebop too. Much to look forward to!

3) Though I haven't had time to write much, I'm still inspired and happy with what I've worked on thus far 😄

4) Got a lot of wonderful books as Yule gifts! I'm currently reading Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan, the continuation of her Memoirs of Lady Trent series that I had no idea existed until a few weeks ago. Sister and I are thoroughly enjoying it!

5) D&D games I DM are scheduled Thursday and Saturday~!

6) Got myself the game Hades as a Yule gift. Sister and I are having way too much fun with it 🤣 ( Go here for happy shouting about Hades )

Doing my best to not stress out during my vacation and I'm actually succeeding <3 I'm trying to get things done that I really want to do without overwhelming myself, and thus far that's working out :D

I've been writing a little more than 500 words/day on chapter 11 & 12 of A Werewolf in October while slowly editing my way through to the 7th (and likely final) draft of chapters 1-9. I'm almost done with chapter 11's first draft and I'm soon going to start on the 7th draft of chapter 5 :D

I'm hoping for the time to sort through my WIPs this summer, both fics and not-fics, but I'm not going to push myself. If I get time, I get time. Focus will be on getting A Werewolf in October done first!

When it comes to reading, I'm currently making my way through The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison & The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri - having a blast with all of them! I also recently finished The Velocity of Revolution by Marshall Ryan Maresca, which I highly recommend (motorbikes, revolution against colonization, polyam relationships and magical shrooms that give you Sense8-powers, yay!)

The heat is slowing me down a bit, but I'm happy for my parents, whose aching joints really are helped by warm weather - which tends to be rare here in Sweden. But phew, I am not made for heat!

I've had the energy to read again and have managed to read good books since the very start of 2021!

I still have many, maaaaany books I want to read (this year and onward), but since I'm chasing that illusive Positivity Thing I'm going to write about some books now~ :)


The Hollow Places & The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
Do you like horror? Do you like weird fiction? Are there older stories you think you'd enjoy more if they weren't so, well, Old? Then these are the stories for you! These books are modern interpretations of The Willows by Algernon Blackwood and The White People by Arthur Machen respectively, and they're such a fun ride! Well, fun in the chills-down-your-spine way :D

Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims
A collection of thrilling horror stories that all lead to a joint end-point. Written by the main author behind The Magnus Archives, this book follows the lives of thirteen people from very different backgrounds. What ties them together is that they all live in the same apartment complex and that they're all about to be given an invitation that put them on a converging path.

The Broken Earth Trilogy by N. K. Jemisin
Oh boy, this series is so wonderfully heart-wrenching! In a world under constant threat of apocalyptic natural disasters due to constant earthquakes, some humans have evolved the ability to control seismic activity. Naturally, these people have been treated awfully, because humans are humans. I recommend this, buuut read at your own risk, so to speak.

The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
Not a parody or satire of Lovecraft's The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, but set in the same world. This story takes a look at the women of that world, and what it actually would be like to live in a place where cruel, inhuman gods could change the fabric of reality at any given moment. Very meta, in a good way. Also, there's a cute cat <3 Highly recommended!

Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
This book pulled a few trope subversions on me, which was great! I went into it thinking it'd be one of those "heir to the throne raised by wild animals"-fantasy books, but nope. We also avoid the "people not communicating leads to disaster"-trope and the "tomboys are better than girly-girls"-trope. All in all, very 'classic' fantasy, but with world building that could fit in the Thief or Dishonored game universes and likable characters, with all the political in-fighting for a throne without the heaps of rape you get in Game of Thrones. Hope the rest of the series is as interesting!

The Girl-Thing Who Went Out for Sushi by Pat Cadigan
A short story I've mentioned before . It's one of those "first lines make little sense but then you get the context and understanding dawns"-scifi stories, very show-don't-tell.

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
If you've read Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, you'll be prepared for the mood of this book. It's veeeery dark but also downright whimsical at times. We follow Carolyn, one of twelve 'adopted' children of the ominous Father, both as a child and an adult. The children have all been locked out of Father's library. Father might be dead. Carolyn is helping to find a way back inside. Or she's not. Or she is. Figuring out her plans and motives is basically the point of the book and I found it a compelling mystery.

Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
In a fantasy world inspired by Indian culture, history and mythology, we get to follow Mehr on a very character-focused (yet epic) quest to stay free and safe in an Empire that hates her and people like her. The story explores consent, loyalty and has plenty of mind control. It's also got a main character you really root for, a lovely romance that grows under the harshest of conditions and a villain you'll love to hate! Really looking forward to reading part two!

Happy New Year, good people of the Internet!

I've had a great Yuletide and a great New Year's Eve, and I'm sooooo happy that I'm doing so much better than last year :D

It's now officially years since my burnout and my recovery is finally starting to become obvious even to me: no more long periods of illness, no more sudden extreme mood swings (I do get the occasional small ones, but only when I'm alone and not as paralyzing as they used to be) aaaand so much more energy to do things! I've got two D&D campaigns still up and running, I managed to write plenty this year and I've read a lot more than I thought I'd have time to!

All in all, a good year, health-wise :)

I hope to have time to ramble on about my many upcoming (and continued) writing projects I have planned for this year sometime later this week. But first, I will write a bit about what I read this year~!

( Go under cut for book & comic tips )