Breinthewild

After an adventurous summer, the Oregon air is finally cooling and with it a bunch of indoor activities (like writing!) have again become viable. Which means the blog gets updated! (Thanks, rain).

Some highlights (and lowlights) of the year so far:

Trying to read 50 books this year:

I can’t help myself. Whenever I see the Goodreads yearly reading challenge, I always want to put in a big impressive number like 50 or 75 or 100. I tried to do 50 books last year and fell woefully short. Right now I’m at 27, which feels a little behind but still doable. My favorites so far include Nettle & Bone, Legends & Lattes, and Project Hail Mary. I’m also rereading the Stormlight Archive (in preparation for book five arriving soon). I did have the thought that my book count might be higher if I wasn’t reading 1200-page fantasy tomes on the regular. Oh well.

Ingesting Spiced Coke:

It is terrible. A burning concoction of chemicals tearing down your throat (and not in a fun way). This reminds me of the time Oreos tried a bunch of new flavors and the pop rocks & coke one tasted like burning rubber. 0/10

Trying my hand at a cozy mystery novella:

This started as a post-work stress relief project that I’ve grown to enjoy immensely. There’s murder. There’s mystery. There’s gnomes. (What more could you ask for?) The title is Gnome Country for Old Ladies. The first two episodes are available for free on Kindle Vella for those interested.

Querying/editing/revising:

I’m onto my sixth completed novel at this point (woo) and this last one is (imho) the best yet. I tentatively queried it at the beginning of the year to a handful of agents but the lack of interest tells me the query and initial pages aren’t strong enough yet. I’ve gathered another crop of beta readers to hopefully begin the revision process anew. I get the sense that I’m close, but not quite there yet. The polishing process tends to take the longest though and I have some great readers helping me out.