The Night Bulletin

Reading

This past week, I finished listening to Sinister Spring by Agatha Christie. I enjoyed the Poirot stories more than any others. I thought the rest were okay. I wasn’t even that big of a fan of the Miss Marple stories, which surprised me. I’ve enjoyed Miss Marple novels in the past.

I also finished listening to Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. This novella was short (4 hours, 45 minutes) and I got through it in two days. I read this book years ago and never continued this series, but I’m back to it. There’s 10 books now, so I have a lot to sink my teeth into. I also finished the second book, Down Among the Sticks and Bones. This one wasn’t as good as the first, but the story itself was fun and I liked the world building.

I read the Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells last year and enjoyed having novellas to read in between bigger books. Wayward Children will be this year’s novella series. I’m sure there are others out there as well.

I’m still in the middle of Knife of Dreams. I picked up Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune from the library and ended up DNFing it. It lacked the magic of the first book, The House in the Cerulean Sea, and also slapped you in the face with its message, which always annoys me, even though I agree with the message in the book.

I returned SBTS and got Moonheart by Charles de Lint. I’ve read de Lint short stories before, but this will be my first novel by him.

I also squeezed in 2 more volumes of Inuyasha (14 & 15). These are quick reads (only a few hours to finish each).

Writing

I ended up giving up on the “dark carnival” anthology story. I didn’t like where it was going. Instead I’ve started a new story for The Other Stories podcast. The theme for this submission window is workplace horrors. It’s got a small word count limit (2,000 words), and it isn’t due until the end of the month, so I have some time to play with some ideas.

I made some changes to my story “A Walk Out of Doors” and submitted it. Fingers crossed.

I got some outlining done for my scifi novel. I haven’t been paying that much attention to it lately, but 2 hours in a coffeeshop really helped. I outlined some plot points and made some notes for things to research. I’m having trouble with names, so I’ve been putting that on the back burner. I’m still in the “big ideas” phase.

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What have you been reading and/or writing this month? Let me know in the comments below.