Gemma

I loved that one. I have a coworker that I'll swap book reccs with once in a while, and he not only highly recommended this one but brought in his copy for me to borrow. I love my job. I just sent a request (I'm c. s. rambo over there) My favorite son bought me the first three Interview with a Vampire books for Christmas. He isn't always my favorite son, the job rotates, but in that moment he was. I'm well into the first book now. I read them in high school but don't remember much, and I couldn't force myself to watch Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt make hash of it so it's kind of all new to me again. For long-commute audiobooks I'm still working through the Crow Investigations series, and still mostly enjoying it despite (and sometimes because of) the weird similarities to Rivers of London. They aren't as good as RoL but still fun for light entertainment if you can binge read through 'em. Not recommended if you like to read just one of a series and then go off and do other things and get back to it. Sarah Painter likes cliffhangers. Not every book ends in one, but enough that it would annoy me if I didn't already have the next one cued up.

I've been binging Sarah Painter's Crow Investigations series - just finished book 3 and started 4. I really like it, but also it feels like Ms. Painter read the Rivers of London books and then said to herself "I want to write a series like that" ... and then really wrote a series like that. If she is not heavily influenced by Aaronovitch I'll eat my sideboard. Very much London-as-character, mentions of architectural details/stylings of various buildings, and a significant character with a mother from Sierra Leone ... seriously. Very different and interesting magic system, and I do like Lydia Crow fairly well. The dynamic of the families is complex and fascinating. I just keep getting distracted by the "wait, this is so familar ... oh, yeah, Peter Grant was here too" thing.

And I've just finished book 7 (thanks in part to a 12 hour drive today.) Wow. Seriously. Wow.

My library just rewarded my hold patience with an audiobook of Lies Sleeping. I weirdly cannot wait to start my commute this morning 😲

<casts Prayer of Healing> Feel better fast!

Ah, good questions. It was going well, and it will go well again, but just now it isn't going all as well as I would prefer. I did write the first two stories, but so far this week is ... I'm struggling. It's okay, I'm not real worried about it, just my usual freewriting process has so far not worked to generate any kind of idea that I actually like. If I get something written today, great - if not I'll pick up tomorrow with trying to get an idea for my D topic. I'm in a bit of a depression slump, for various reasons that are mostly job related. Hubs and I have been bickering (we often do when either of is in a low-affect state). My brain feels disengaged and I haven't quite yet figured out how to get my foot off the clutch. In happier news - the stage combat class was AWESOME and I can't wait for the next one. Today's workout: BW Squats 3x10 Push-ups 3x10 Inverted rows 3x10

Re: Rivers - I've just finished Broken Homes ... dude, wow! My library has Foxglove Summer on e-book, but the audiobook is waitlisted. I checked out the e-book, but I have a hard time with e-books, plus I have a physical library book that I will with me on my weekend trip (need to finish and return it soon), so I'm not sure I'll get to it. Jury's out on whether I'll wait for my library to get me the audiobook or just break down and buy it on Audible, that's what I did with Broken Homes. Lucky for me, Libro.fm had the audio of Tales from the Folly, and I had an unused Libro credit. So I'll at least have that for tomorrow's six-hour drive. Good thing, that. I really need audio fodder for this drive; I just DNFed the audiobook that I had planned on listening to most of the way up to VA. It was Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Earnshaw. I got through Chapter 3 on my way home from work today, and it was just awful with no evidence of 'getting better' potential. I love Sally, from Nightmare Before Christmas, and am seriously considering making her my Hallowe'en costume. I'll spoiler what I hated about this book; I don't want to ruin it for anyone who plans to read it - y'all might well like it, my opinions notwithstanding. Aforementioned physical library book is A Discovery of Witches, which I'm about half through and enjoying so far. It's not super tight or well-paced plotwise, but I'm liking the worldbuilding/magic system and the characters a great deal.

Hey! Hi! Today's workout: BW squats: 3x10 Incline Push-up: 3x10 Inverted rows: 3 x 10 Tomorrow I drive 6 hours up to Virginia to take a 2 hour class on Sunday morning. Am I insane? Yes. Almost certainly. In my defense, though, that is the nearest stage combat troupe to the middle-o-nothinginparticular that I call home, and I want to get as much stage combat training under my belt as possible before I get Merry Wives into rehearsals. Sunday's class is on pushes, hair pulls, chokes, and strangles. Funsies! In October I'm registered for a full weekend of stage combat craziness in Chatanooga, TN, called Scenic City Slam; looking forward to that! I plan to make this production as physical as I possibly can without putting the actors at any risk. Writing is still super strugglebus. I'll get as much done as I can tonight, and save the rest for tomorrow when I'm in a hotel room for several hours with no doggies or hubs to use as an excuse. (I'll find others, TBH, but I know myself well enough to know that if I procrastinate until I'm right up against the deadline, I'll be able to focus for more than 10 minutes, so I'm not too worried. Yet. 🫣

Today's workout: Single leg RDL: 3x8 Incline Push-up: 3x10 Plank: 3x 35 sec Inverted rows: 3.8 I had to take my car in for repairs, annoying but not serious*, so I walked a mile to the local department store (Target, popular in the U.S.) rather than sitting on my tuchus in the dealership wait room. I bought a book (Assistant to the Villain, by Hannah Nicole Maehrer - fluffy YA fantasy shameless riffing on Howl's Moving Castle, so far) and a diet root beer. I'm well into my A story - The Acorn - and I'm stalled. Like, I know where it's going, but I dont' want to work on it. Because it's perfect in my head, and once I write it it will be not quite so perfect. Uggggghhhh! Shut Up, Brain™! No one even asked you!!! I know I'll finish it, though - I'm not one to cop out on the very first week of a challenge! (Week 2 and beyond, sure, that happens.) *a common issue in my particular make/model, where the seat upholstery was interfering with an electrical circuit, leading to an annoying intermittent false airbag/safety restraint system error message. Not fixed: they have to order parts. But at least identified as under warranty, happy bonus points!!!

I'm just over half through Broken Homes. I am binge-reading/listening as fast as I can, and that's pretty fast considering my commute is an hour each way .

Happy vacationizing!

Gemma (who has never considered the possibility of solo DnD and has not made time for a group campaign in decades) perks up her ears and googles DM Yourself. Color me intrigued. Following.

I love your challenge format, and that journal is fabulous!

This morning's workout: Bodyweight squats: 3x8 Incline push-ups, waist height: 3x10 Inverted rows: 3x8 Also took Cassie on a nice walk, as it is finally cooled down enough here to do that without dying or burning her widdle paws.

Hello, lovely nerds! I'm back in the "real" world (I use that term in the loosest possible sense) after a whirlwind of a summer. My adventures, briefly: Started singing lessons Auditioned for Making God Laugh Played Baptista Minola in The Taming of the Shrew Auditioned for The Wedding Singer (which meant actually singing in front of people, thus directly addressing a lifelong phobia) and played Angie Sullivan (which involved not much, but a little, actual singing in front of people.) Began learning to play the tin whistle Auditioned for The Little Mermaid. Had a mild panic attack because the audition panel comprised some of the most well-trained professional singers I know, but I did it and did not die so ... yay! Was not cast, but I don't mind that because the actually doing it despite the fear was the thing. Was confirmed as the director of next spring's presentation of The Merry Wives of Windsor - the second Shakespeare production ever in our community. Signed up to sing in my music school's Christmas Show, which means much more singing in front of people. Solo. Whole songs, not just a line or two. <taking deep breaths. Lots of deep breaths.> Shot my first NRL-22 competition. Absolutely sucked at it, didn't care, had fun. All of this came after a several-year period of doing remarkably little. Wake, work out (sometimes), go to work, come home, eat dinner, watch YouTube or scroll 'til bedtime, repeat. My comfort zone had become a rut and it started to itch, so I went into this year determined to do three very specific things. 1) Audition for community theater things ✅ 2) Submit a story to a publisher 🔲 3) Shoot in competition ✅ Ah, the writing. Well, I still have four months left of the year. And I have the Struthless Alphabet Superset challenge (spoilered for size). TL:DW - a 30 week challenge to make something, of a reasonable, doable size, every week - 26 weeks, with four planned breaks. The something of each week will be on a topic starting with a different letter of the alphabet. The something must be shared on the internet (part of the driving force behind this is the near-universal fear of sharing creative work on the internet.) My something is short stories, 100 - 1000 words. In other news, the Summer of Theatrical Craziness got me out of my workout habit, though I was still very active. But now that I am not in intensive dance rehearsals three nights a week for a musical, I am starting back up with bodyweight workouts. Just the basics right now. BW squats, push-ups, inverted rows, planks. That's all. I'm keeping it simple, because life is complicated enough right now. The venue where we had planned to present Merry Wives will be under construction in March, so I have to find a place to play. I'm lobbying for an outdoor venue, Shakespeare in the Park style, but the logistics are complicated. And I am trying to squeeze singing exercises and tin whistle practice in as well. So, challenge specifics: 1) Post a short story online every week 2) Do a bodyweight workout at least 3 days per week.