Mid-Spring Check-In

I’d meant to get back to sharing updates here on a regular basis and I suppose once per season can be considered regular. I’ve been busy, using every extra minute that’s not parenting or dayjobbing or generally trying to stay sane on finishing and then editing catastrophe!WIP.

Oh hey, how’s that going? Let’s check in on the progress of this Half-Life meets D&D horror fantasy (sci-fi? [def queer]), now with 50% fewer plot holes, 80% more consistency, and 100% snappy chapter titles:

Working Title: catastrophe!WIP

111,233 / 110,000 words

What’s that? It’s done? And off to beta readers already? And I still don’t hate it? Hahah, success!

In other versions of success, I’ve also been keeping up with my reading. Here are some of the books I’ve read and loved since last time (January):

Between Dragons and Their Wrath by Devin Madson
I flew through Madson’s REBORN EMPIRE series so I knew going in I was going to love this, yet somehow I was still not prepared! Three POVs balanced perfectly with a wonderfully original setting would have been enough of a sell for me and yet somehow Madson also weaves in several intriguing political plots and wild plant magic. Plus worldbuilding that’s so exquisitely layered without being overwhelming that still hints to long history, several deep and varied cultures, and a simmering tension between them all? Basically, everything I love about fantasy somehow in one book. I am waiting (im)patiently for the sequel, which I will likely devour just as fast.

House of Dusk by Deva Fagan
This one was an ARC – it comes out in August. A high fantasy that initially gave me Redwall vibes, since the protagonist is a former soldier who now spends her days in an Abbey’s garden. And like in Redwall, her horrible past isn’t really past and the monsters she’d rather avoid eventually come to mess things up. I loved that this book had an older female protagonist who actually acted and felt like she was older, as we don’t get as much of those in fantasy these days. Wise and scarred by her wisdom, all she wants to do is erase that past; but of course its that past that will end up saving her.
There are also gods, undead, creepy corpse brides, and fire magic, which all come together in a satisfying way. Check this one out in August!

Everybody Wants to Rule the World Except Me by Django Wexler
Also an ARC, but out in May. Sequel to How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying which last year was the most fun I’d had reading a book in way too long, and the follow-up/conclusion did not disappoint. A typical portal fantasy with a twist: the protagonist isn’t just genre-savvy, she’s stuck in a time-loop and learns from her mistakes. Whereas the first book leans heavily on its RPG/gaming roots, the sequel explodes more typical genre tropes. I don’t know what else to say without spoiling both, but they’re a fun, refreshing, occasionally raunchy, definitely irreverent read.

What have you been reading lately? Any faves?