December Is for Reading

I'll save you from clichéd exclamations about how the year just flew by, but... It really did. 2017 was a good one. I'm resolving to smell the roses a bit more in 2018, with tempus fugit so much and all.

But the year isn't over yet! December is usually about wrapping up projects for the year for me, but this time, I finished edits (on TIMEFIX, my new YA project) just in time for the month to end. I guess you could say instead of NaNoWriMo, I did NaNoEditMo, or something.

In the Reading Department

I've been doing a TON of reading, partly because of work-related stuff, partly for fun. I try to read outside the box every once in a while, but I usually find my way back to mysteries. Mysteries rule, y'all.

In the for-adults department, I recently read I Let You Go by Clare Mckintosh, and was thoroughly swept away. It starts of a bit winding-y (that's code for slow-ish with digressions), but stick around for the big plot twist. I felt it coming, though I didn't predict the whole thing.

If you like mysteries with a big gotcha at the end, this is your book.

In YA, I read Lamar Giles's Overturned. I love his writing, and this book did not disappoint.

If you have a teen reader who thinks (s)he knows it all and loves crime fiction/TV, this is the book. You know, in case you still have some holiday shopping left to do.

I've been reading lots of picture books lately, what with the negative news stories out there and stuff. Picture books remind me there's still some levity in the world, and that we have to stay positive for the next generation *steps off soap box*.

Most recently, I read Sam & Eva by Debbie Ridpath Ohi, which is such an uplifting book about creating art, collaboration, and seeing the world from someone else's perspective. I highly recommend it for all ages.

She's also on Instagram, creating art out of broken crayons. Inspiring, to say the least.

Mystery TV

It was the last season of Longmire on Netflix! I'll miss this out-west series, mostly because there is so little (er... make that almost nothing) reflecting the west as I know it on TV. I will say, this show regularly ruffled my feminist feathers, but I stuck around anyway. Recommend it, if you like a cowboy story every once in a while. I think we need a female Longmire next...

For Writers

For those of you who survived NaNoWriMo: congrats! I'm always impressed by the gutsy folk who dare attempt it. I think I would need some sort of month-long retreat to pull it off...

On that note: author Rachel Delaney Craft wrote a post for the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers blog on how to pull off a one day writer's retreat. Pretty brilliant idea; I think I might steal it in the new year.

For a Laugh

Check out the story of Max the Cat who loves the library, but the library banned him. As illustrator Erin McGuire already noted on Twitter, this is so waiting to be a story...

Have a great little bitty rest of 2017, and I'll see you in January!