Reading
I finished The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee. This long novel (the audiobook is 30 hours long) took me all month to finish, but that’s not because I didn’t like it. Durfee is able to build a huge world with a long history, a multi-faceted religion, and characters that all have their own motivations and challenges. We follow four main POVs: Nail, a bastard whose life takes a terrible turn when The White Prince invades his hometown; Tala, a princess who must aid a devious assassin to save her cousin; Jondralyn; Tala’s older sister who is grappling not only with her religion, but also trying to balance her unstable brother, the king; and Gault, a soldier in the White Prince’s army who is getting tired of fighting.
The world is dark, with a lot of death, dismemberment, and profound unfairness. The uncompromising world is one reason why I read this book in drips. Another reason was the repetition. The author repeats so many details that could have been cut out without losing any of the story. This made the book drag, so when I listened to three hours, I had only read a couple of chapters. The next two books’ audiobooks are even longer, so I’ll be waiting a little while before I go on to the second volume.
I also read volume one of Pluto by Naoki Urasawa. My library has paper copies of the entire manga series, so I requested the first one to try out. The story takes place in a future where robots and humans coexist. Robots look like humans and are sometimes indistinguishable from people. We follow Gesicht, a Europol agent who is investigating mysterious robot serial murders. This is meant to be a retelling/reimagining of Osamu Tezuka’s Astroboy. Urasawa is great at introducing characters and worldbuilding details quickly, and I’m excited to continue. I’ve put the next 3 volumes on hold.
I started Children of Ash and Elm as an ebook. This book by Neil Price is a history of the Vikings, with a heavy emphasis on debunking the modern historical myths we hold about these people. It’s really interesting to read about just how much of Western society and culture is modeled after the Vikings (and our perception of what the Vikings might have been like). I’m reading this slowly whenever I can, which is how I usually consume dense non-fiction, especially histories like this one.
I also started The Will of the Many by James Islington, which surprised me by showing up at the library sooner than I anticipated. My library app originally said there were 20 or so people ahead of me, but I got a notification saying it was ready for pick up. This fantasy novel follows Vis, a man on the run from the Hierarchy, the conquering government in an ancient Roman-inspired world. Vis gets adopted by a senator who wants to use him for a mysterious and dubious reason. Vis goes along, not having any other choice. I’m about a third of the way through and I’m having a great time.
Writing
Another slow writing week. One of my biggest challenges is distraction. I know that must the same for a lot of writers, but I think every writer’s distractions are unique themselves. We all have different habits and triggers, and finding out what those are and keeping them at a distance when it’s time to write is important.
I grab my phone whenever I’m feeling distracted, so not having that near me is a good start. I type all my manuscripts on a computer, which has a web browser. Since I don’t have my phone, I can always distract myself using Google Chrome.
The solution to this is to write on my tablet, which is an old, refurbished Samsung Galaxy A tablet. I use a bluetooth keyboard to type. It works fine, and it supports Microsoft Word, but it has a small screen and it runs a little slow sometimes. This is actually an advantage, as it’s easier to make notes on what to look up instead of trying to open a browser. I’ve written on my tablet before, but I always move back to the computer because of the larger screen. I’m hoping sticking with the tablet will help me stay focused, or at least provide enough friction to lessen my distractions.
MYTHOS – First Draft progress report: 12,314/120,000 – 10.3%
+2,540 up from last week
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What have you been reading and/or writing this week? Let me know in the comments below.
The Night Bulletin 