Tag: Reading

Oh, have it

In The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street by Helene Hanff (essentially the sequel to 84, Charing Cross Road), Helene confides to Joyce Grenfell:

“I’ve been fighting a cold all weekend.”

She thought about this a moment and then leaned over and whispered back:

“Oh, have it.”

This is where I’m at. I’ve been fighting a cold all weekend, without the part about being in London and attending the theater with a celebrity. Honestly, I feel like I end up fighting a cold or virus every other week. I suspect this is a part of a post-pandemic world.

But for today, I’m having it. I’m in the softest of my soft pants. (The great thing about working from home: soft pants every day!) Snow is already falling, and we’re supposed to have blizzard conditions later, so clearly, I’m not leaving the house. Plus, I’m in the middle of (re)watching the Lord of the Rings trilogy (extended version, of course).

This is one of our holiday traditions. My son mentioned that a lot of his friends’ families watch Harry Potter. For us, though, it’s always been Lord of the Rings. We’ll watch it at Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas.

And since I’m partway through The Two Towers, I have plenty of watching left. I have the fireplace going and hot chocolate I can brew (and leftovers, so I don’t have to cook).

I’m all set to have my cold.

Wishing you all a restful (and cold-free) last Sunday of the year.

If you build it, will they come?

This week’s admin focus was on author websites, which I already have. But it made for an excellent reason to do some maintenance. Most importantly, I needed to update my WordPress template.

As I mentioned in my housekeeping note, the old template had been retired. While it still received security updates, the old template didn’t support new features.

But I’m also considering what else I might do with my blog. One of the things I loved about blogging in the early aughts was the blogging and book community. One of my favorite blog memes was Booking Through Thursday (which started on Blogspot and migrated to WordPress).

Real life being what it is, BTT has been inactive for several years. So, I asked myself: what if I restarted it?

With permission, of course. Deb graciously gave her blessing. So here I am, wondering: if I relaunch BTT, will anyone show up?

The book blogging community is still very active, with plenty of weekly book memes. Do we need another? Maybe not. But I have the online real estate—no ads, nothing distracting.

According to WordPress, I can add a selected category to my blog subscription so people can sign up to receive the Booking Through Thursday posts via email, and not any of the others if they don’t want them. (This may take a few tries to iron out, but it’s possible.)

All this to say, I’m going to give the book meme thing a try. If people enjoy it? Hooray! If it falls flat, then it falls flat.

So, look for the relaunch of Booking Through Thursday on January 1, 2026.

Seasonal sales!

It’s that time of year again!

First up is the Smashwords End-of-Year Sale.

All my titles are 50% off. Except for the free ones. Because 50% off of free is still … free. (I make this joke every year; every year, no one laughs.)

Over at Kobo, The Pansy Paradox is part of the Best Indie Books of 2025 sale. It’s buy one, get one, and available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK.

Quiet Sunday

I’m happy to report that, a week later, kitty is so much better. I’m relieved. I’m also relieved that it’s the last day of antibiotics as well. Because, yes, there’s nothing like giving a cat some medicine.

So, I’m hoping for a much quieter Sunday. Knock on wood.

Some fun things from the past week (or so)

This last bloom of the year:

This view on this morning’s walk:

This hockey game (my son, playing for the Frost Giants):

I also started, in earnest, work on The Marigold Miracle. Mainly notes and thinking on paper, but that’s all part of the process.

Today’s goal, I hope, is to finish Possession. I’m not behind in the reading, but I’d like to finally finish the book.

Getting ready to switch gears

The moon keeping an eye on me during my morning walk

Did a few marketing things this week for The Pansy Paradox (out on Tuesday!), but I’m also looking ahead to what’s next. Namely, The Marigold Miracle. Because the best marketing is the next book.

Also, I’m excited to head back into the writing cave.

In other news, my daughter and I have committed to clearing out the basement. We are determined to turn it back into the cozy oasis it is meant to be. Still, we have a carpet tear-out this week. Wish us luck. But today I’m putting my feet up and catching up on the slow read of Possession.

Two Giveaways for The Pansy Paradox

Quick news! The Pansy Paradox has not one, but two giveaways happening right now:

And if you haven’t grabbed it yet, don’t miss the extended novella-length preview. You can download it here.

Suddenly, it’s sweater weather

Autumn decided to make a grand appearance this week. It’s been chilly enough to pull on sweaters and grab a jacket. That being said, this coming week looks like we’ll have a last hurrah of summer. And if I’m clever, I’ll get myself into the yard. The alternative, of course, is to wait until November, when I don’t have a choice and it’s nothing but a wintery mix.

This week in writing was pre-order and cover reveal week. On next week’s agenda are the print covers (each distributor wants something slightly different for each cover because, of course, they do). Then I’ll move on to getting The Capstone Conundrum on pre-order as well.

This week, I also attended a Little Free Library Steward meetup, which was a lot of fun. I left with an armful of new books for my Little Free Library courtesy of Magers and Quinn.

And speaking of books, I made good progress with the Possession slow read. I’m even ahead (page 85). I’m really enjoying the easy pace of this, and I think that I might use it to tackle books I’ve been meaning to read or reread. (Yeah, Tolstoy, I’m looking at you.)

Diving into Possession

So I read on Anno’s blog that author Caroline Donahue is running a slow-read of A.S. Byatt’s Possession on her Book (& Craft) Alchemy site. Considering that I had just been musing in morning pages that I wanted to do a deep dive into something more challenging, this felt like the universe offering that up—especially since I found my copy of Possession almost immediately.

I’m trying very hard to ignore the fact that my little Post-it flags are completely uneven.

I’ve already listened to the behind-the-scenes podcast, and I love the fact that Caroline and Simon dubbed Possession the original Dark Academia book. (So the OG of Dark Academia, if you will.)

Also, if you’re a writer, it might be worth subscribing for three months—her site is cozy, informative, and very well organized.

I also love that now that it’s September, it means I can pull out my Dark Academia playlists, which I think will nicely complement Possession.

The ones I currently listen to:

Dark Academia Classical (a Spotify-generated list)

Witch Faerie Academia (instrumental) by BrittanyWarman

Witch Faerie Academia (with lyrics) by BrittanyWarman

To be clear, that’s Dr. BrittanyWarman of the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic. They did a Dark Academia course last year (I think). I didn’t take it since, at the time, I didn’t have the bandwidth. (At the time, I barely had the bandwidth for showering.) So, I’m excited about this new challenge, and with any luck, I can report back in on Sunday that I’ve read my first fifty pages.

Final page proofs and fine-feathered friends

This week, I reviewed the final page proofs for The Pansy Paradox. So, there you go. I have a benchmark of 142,000 words listened to/proofed in a work week.

I’m not going to lie. It was a lot. Mind you, I didn’t listen straight through. I took breaks every thirty minutes or so—made a cup of tea, wandered outside, touched some grass. I’m pleased that I made it through the entire novel. I’m not too worried about proofing the novella since it’s only 25,000 words. (Ha, ha. Only.)

Additionally, this week, I visited the newly reopened Barnes & Noble in our area. They recently relocated to a new space, not far from their old one. I’m not sure if there are more books now, or if it simply seems that way.

I had to wander around a bit to find my touchstones (the fantasy/sci-fi section, WWII history). The staff appeared happy and were very helpful, and everyone was having a wonderful time.

The Barnes & Noble is also right next to a Michaels. This could be very convenient or very expensive. How easy would it be to load up on supplies and then grab some how-to books (or vice versa)? We will have to resist the temptation.

When I arrived home from the bookstore adventure, I found this fine-feathered friend in my driveway:

It was supremely unconcerned, as if it knew I was going to give it the right of way. (Which, of course, I did.) It remained there for so long that I started to worry it was injured. But no, it was simply waiting on something (to eat?) across the street and flew off.

And now I’m going to fly off and take advantage of the lovely weather we’re having for this long weekend.

One week in (and an accidental book haul)

So, one week into this experiment, and so far, so good. It’s been both wonderful and surreal. Last week, I had a short bout of the Sunday Scaries. It was as if my body didn’t believe I wasn’t logging on Monday morning and opening up email, Microsoft Teams, and Jira. (Oh, Jira. Do I miss you and my many filters? No. No, I do not.)

I was a little worried Monday morning that I’d open the manuscript and be completely blank—both the page and my mind. But I wasn’t, and I haven’t had a writing week like this in a very long time.

Accidental library and bookstore book haul

I also finished the Trapped in a Gothic Novel course with some help from that accidental book haul. I found The Haunting of Hill House creepy but interesting and not as scary as I expected. A Haunting on the Hill was very creepy, not to mention scarier. I like gothic fiction, but I’m not really into horror (at all). A Haunting on the Hill is about as scary as I can tolerate. I already had the last book, Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan, on Kindle (and it appears to still be at $2.99 as I write this if you want to go grab it).

Now it’s on to the other two books in my accidental book haul. Because reading (for pleasure) is absolutely part of my job these days.