Hello friends, and happy spring. Warm weather seems to have finally arrived in the D.C. area after a winter which was long and cold, and then not cold, and then cold again. The last couple months in particular, where we’ve swung from almost summery conditions back to the depths of winter weather have been a bit rough. But the warm weather has arrived, and the Covid numbers are a bit better, at least for now, so I’ve been tentatively stepping out of my apartment again to see friends and go to in-person barre classes (the barre requires vaccinations, and I’m testing before seeing friends).
January and February were pretty hectic months, which is why I haven’t posted recently. I moved to a bigger apartment at the end of January. I was just moving to a new apartment in the same building, so it wasn’t the hardest move I’ve ever done, but most of the month was still taken up with packing and getting through the administrative work of moving. And then I’ve been unpacking and organizing my new space throughout February. It’s been a lot of work, but I have a den now that I’ve set up as my cozy writing space, and the rest of my apartment is bigger too, so it’s overall a lot more comfortable. I also have more windows, so it’s even sunnier than my old apartment, which was an unexpected bonus.
I had so much going on in January and February that I hit a bit of a reading slump, which for me means I read about six books each month, for a total of twelve books by the end of February (I’m not exactly sure how much I read each month). Eight of the books I read were new, and four were rereads. I know this still sounds like a lot of books for two months, but I also didn’t really enjoy many of them until the end of February. A lot of them were fine, but not as special as I wanted them to be.
Of course, there were a few standouts. First was The Bone Shard Emperor by Andrea Stewart, sequel to The Bone Shard Daughter. This series, The Drowning Empire, is so rich and creative, and I adore the characters. It follows a number of very different people, the emperor’s daughter, a wanted smuggler, a woman with amnesia (best description I have), the daughter of an island governor, and a resistance leader. There’s also strange and wonderful and terrifying magic. I’m being vague because first, it’s hard to describe, but second, it’s such a joy to discover and I don’t want to spoil it. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend, and if you have, I would love to talk about it.
The second book that really stood out to me was Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. This book is about Sal and Gabi, two seventh graders at a school for the arts in Miami who, well, break the universe. Literally, Sal can create wormholes, and he keeps accidentally reaching into alternate universes to, say, put raw chickens in bullies’ lockers, and to bring alternate versions of his dead mother back into his universe. Everything about this book was just so vibrant and fun and loving, and it gave me so many feelings. This is another one you simply must read!
While I didn’t feel like I got a lot of reading done in the last couple months, I did get a lot of writing done. At the beginning of December, I gave my middle grade fantasy book to a set of totally new beta readers, and I got their feedback at the end of January. It was all super useful and really helped me crystallize what the problems were with the project. I have since taken all their comments, broken it down into categories, come up with solutions to the problems identified, created a revision outline, and started revising. These haven’t been easy revisions: I’ve rewritten my opening, cut a number of characters, reordered a number of plot events to streamline the events and fix pacing issues, added some new stuff to fill in some missing pieces, and I still have to rework my climax and ending. But I’m so far really happy with what I’ve done, and hopefully I’ll wind up with an even stronger book.
Otherwise, work has been busier than ever. I’m being given a lot more responsibilities, and I’m really enjoying it. It’s hard to believe I’ve been at this job for two and a half years, and two of them have been during the pandemic. I’m definitely looking forward to getting back into the office and getting to know my coworkers again, but at least with the bigger apartment, I’m enjoying teleworking more. Who’d have thought extra space would help that.
I hope everyone’s keeping well. I’m planning to post again soon with some thoughts on researching historical fiction, assuming, of course, that I can wrangle those thoughts into something coherent. In the meantime, enjoy the start of spring.