Robynettely

“The Modern World” by Steph Swainston. I was nervous to start because I was afraid a sober Jant might be insufferable. I got a little thrill in a bookstore seeing the subsequent volumes. It’s like having a crush. So I put off starting this by reading everyone’s Christmas gifts first. This book reminded me of “Forever War” by Joe Haldeman, where the soldiers grow increasingly out of touch with the people they’re protecting. Thinking about it after I started reading, I wanted more from a sober Jant. He’s still so flawed, but… I don’t know, maybe he should take up meditation or something? I think I wanted him to be insufferable. Then the ending, that was satisfying. The emperor is a piece of work, but I guess he’s giving Jant what Jant needs. Though I figure if Jant is expelled from the circle like ever, he’d just OD himself permanently into the shift. Would that be so bad? One of the weird things about this world to me is, it seems like there are only two drugs: alcohol and cat...

Drafting Persephone: Researched real estate frauds and pandemics. Another month spent protecting my paracosm. I actually found myself making a list of ways Aaron is a response to him. I found a structure and divided my notes into four piles.   Editing “Wind/Water/Salt”. made lots of edits to Chapter 13, but never managed to finish it. So close!  I took chapters 14 - 16 on vacation with me and this was a good thing because I realized chapter 15 needed to be in the middle of 13, and that made room for a chapter to solve a continuity error for Fairfax. All in all, a productive month. Took up some of Chapter 3. It was good because I had come up with something for Preston to be doing (as I told the boy, Abigail wants to control her daughter, and she wants her familiar back. Fairfax wants to find a witch so he can get paid and go home to Virginia. Preston has a mill…?) Connecting Critted  5 Got back 6   Subs 1 Knitting Celtic Gang Girls o...

“No Present Like Time” by Steph Swainston. Even the act of typing it before starting to read it caused anxiety. At the same time, it’s really forced me to apply some stringent plot to my Persephone story. But I got past chapter 5 and it was really hard to put down. I’m having a hard time adulting here! I think it’s Jant’s pure presence in his body that works for me so much. Sometimes I’m reading something that’s a wee bit of a romance and the whole plot I’m yelling at the MC, “Tell him god damn it!” Well, here I’m yelling at Jant to not do the cat, and I know he can’t stop because he’s an addict and… well, it’s just so much for me. But I got to the end, and I don’t know. I wasn’t satisfied? In order to calm down I watched four episodes of Avatar: the last airbender.  LHC #24: “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy. I was just setting this to active on my library account when my sister mentioned she was reading it! Weird synchronicity. Then I was carrying it aroun...