Write Every Day: Day 10

[the_siobhan]

One of things that lockdown really impacted was the number of books I read this year - I used to read on the bus, but now I don't go anywhere unless I can walk or borrow my gf's car to drive there. Not so helpful for reading time.

Right now I am re-reading Lord of The Rings and I just finished The Simarillion. On my short-list to buy is Mexican Gothic, The Windup Girl and the most recent Murderbot. I also just ordered a copy of Wayward Kindred from TO Comix Press. (And if you like comics, check them out! They just keep getting better with every anthology they put out.)

What are you reading right now? Share your recommendations. (And if anybody knows a good place to buy ebooks that isn't Amazon, let me know.)


Day 10 Tally:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, shadaras, sanguinity, brainwane, nafs, firecat, yasaman, cornerofmadness, sakana17, saki101, lferion, phrenk, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, silveradept, thevetia, trobadora, ysilme

Day 9:
china_shop, shadaras, sylvanwitch, alexseanchai, sanguinity, saki101, nafs, yasaman, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, badly_knitted, ysilme, silveradept, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud, iberiandoctor, luzula, brainwane, trobadora

Day 8:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, badly_knitted, luzula, saki101, silveradept, sanguinity, shadaras, thevetia, brainwane, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, yasaman, phrenk, alexseanchai, firecat, auroracloud, ysilme, solo, carenejeans, iberiandoctor, trobadora

Day 7:
china_shop, shopfront, falkner, badly_knitted, luzula, trobadora, sylvanwitch, shadaras, nafs, brainwane, sanguinity, lferion, yasaman, sakana17, phrenk, carenejeans, cornerofmadness, firecat, saki101, silveradept, auroracloud, ysilme, iberiandoctor

Day 6:
china_shop, ysilme, trobadora, luzula, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, saki101, sanguinity, shadaras, brainwane, nafs, alexseanchai, cornerofmadness, yasaman, lferion, sakana17, phrenk, shopfront, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, solo, carenejeans, auroracloud

Day 5:
china_shop, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, sylvanwitch, nafs, sakana17, sanguinity, cornerofmadness, lferion, brainwane, saki101, phrenk, firecat, ysilme, shopfront, yasaman, carenejeans, houseof9cats, thevetia, robadora, silveradept, auroracloud, trobadora

Day 4:
china_shop, shopfront, luzula, alexseanchai, shadaras, badly_knitted, sylvanwitch, ysilme, sanguinity, saki101, silveradept, nafs, yasaman, thevetia, sakana17, cornerofmadness, lferion, phrenk, solo, iberiandoctor, firecat, brainwane, carenejeans, yasaman, auroracloud, trobadora

Day 3:
china_shop, alexseanchai, alexcat, sylvanwitch, sakana17, thevetia, nafs, lferion, cornerofmadness, phrenk, solo, badly_knitted, luzula, shadaras, yasaman, brainwane, trobadora, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans, auroracloud

Day 2:
china_shop, shadaras, falkner, luzula, badly_knitted, alexseanchai, trobadora, saki101, sylvanwitch, brainwane, thevetia, lferion, cornerofmadness, nafs, sakana17, yasaman, solo, phrenk, auroracloud, ysilme, sanguinity, silveradept, alexcat, iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Day 1:
china_shop, sylvanwitch, luzula, badly_knitted, trobadora, falkner, alexseanchai, silveradept, shadaras, sanguinity, thevetia, nafs, cornerofmadness, lferion, sakana17, alexcat, marvelouscity, saki101, yasaman, solo, auroracloud, phrenk, shopfront, brainwane, dreamwriteremmy, ysilme, , iberiandoctor, firecat, carenejeans

Let me know if I missed your name at any point. And participation is always open, so jump in with a comment any time.

Comments

[lil_m_moses]

I've actually been reading way more than usual this year, as escapism from *waves hands at everything*. I've gotten through a reread of most of the Discworld series, and have read a few others along the way (a Scalzi series: fun stories but lousy character development, the latest Dresden Files: annoying to get to the end of the summer release and realize it was only the buildup of the story to be finished in the fall release, random others). I think I'm up to ~50 books finished this year.

[the_siobhan]

I'll be lucky if I get to a dozen this year.

Are you checking in, or just commenting?

[badly_knitted]

I don't read anywhere near as much as I used to because I spend so much of my time writing, but I've finished more this year than the last couple of years. Right now I'm nearing the end of John Connolly's A Book of Bones, one of the most recent Charlie Parker novels, and probably the longest one to date at over 700 pages. It is, as usual, a very absorbing read. Also reading Michael G. Coney's Cat Karina, written back in 1982. It's far future earth set SF with some interesting ideas even if some of the attitudes are a bit dated.

Nov 10th - 1000 words, a 500 word challenge ficlet and two 250 word drabbles. Also wrote my introduction post at get_knitted. I've been trying to get around to doing that for almost a week.

Also also, 32 rows on the front of my lacy summer top.

[the_siobhan]

Reading past visions of the future can be pretty fascinating stuff.

Sounds like you had a very productive day. Well done!

[luzula]

Ha ha, most of I read at the moment is non-fiction about the 18th century, or non-fiction written in the 18th century, for fic research.

Wordcount for 10th of November: no words on Yuletide fic + 500 on poly fic
Total wordcount on poly fic: 35,900
Total wordcount on Yuletide fic: 1,000

Tomorrow I really have to work on the Yuletide fic first.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[sylvanwitch]

I finished Katherine Addison's The Angel of the Crows and cannot say enough good things about it. A Sherlock wingfic become brilliant, immersive gender-bending Sherlockiana? Yes, please! I'm reading Sherry Thomas' Murder on Cold Street now, the latest Charlotte Holmes book. (You may be sensing a theme.) Now and again I get into a mystery mood and that's all I read for a stretch. I seem to have entered one of those phases.

That said, I'm definitely due for an LotR re-read--a project for winter, I think!

Today, I added 545 to the novel.

[the_siobhan]

The Angel of the Crows sounds really interesting. I might have to check that out.

Well done on wording!

[sabotabby]

My reading is up. And Mexican Gothic is amazing.

I'm currently reading Her Magical Pet, which is a collection of f/f sci-fi and fantasy romances involving some kind of magical animal, which can't die in the story. It's pure fluff and I'm here for it.

[the_siobhan]

Are you checking in or just commenting?

[alexseanchai]

I'm making progress on "j'ai reve". Slow progress, but progress.

[the_siobhan]

All progress is good. Well done for sticking to it.

[shadaras]

I have been reading so many translated chinese webnovels, it's a bit of a problem. xD; I just sit around reading them on my phone instead of doing more useful things.

Today I did some editing work. :)

[the_siobhan]

I read a small number of translated Chinese authors last year through a Tor giveaway, and I found it really fascinating how different the structure and pacing was from what I'm used to.

Go you on your progress!

[sanguinity]

Mostly fic research stuff: Georgian Royal Navy, diseases and surgical procedures of the Napoleonic era, 18th century mathematics... Engrossing stuff, if it aligns with your nerdly interests; not so much otherwise. ;-)


Some editing, a longhand page, and an hour spent brainstorming story ideas with a friend.

[the_siobhan]

The medical stuff definitely runs into my interests.

Well done on progress!

checkin and book rec

[brainwane]

Reading: Naomi Kritzer's Fires of the Faithful.

Ebook retailer you might consider: Kobo.

Today: 880 words, much of which was mined from previously sent email but I'm saying it still counts because raw words put in the right chapter are words I don't have to research or write from scratch in the future!

Re: checkin and book rec

[the_siobhan]

Ooo, that Kritzer book looks interesting.

I bought a bunch of books from Kobo a couple of years ago and had so much trouble breaking the copy protection so I could read it on my Kindle that I ended up having to just pirate the damn books as well. I mean, I got my books and the authors got my money so I guess everybody walked away happy? It just felt like their should be a better way.

Maybe they've fixed that problem since and I should try it again.

Well done on words! Sounds like you are making fantastic progress.

[nafs]

I haven't read anything but fanfic in a long while, I can't handle things that aren't properly tagged and that don't guarantee a happy ending.

Day 10: two pages and a bit longhand.

[the_siobhan]

You know, I hadn't really thought about fanfic, but I've probably read at least 50 books worth this year. And yeah, happy ending is definitely what I'm looking for.

Well done on words!

[firecat]

Day 9: 175 words

I was reading lots before Covid lockdown but since the end of March I haven't been able to read anything but fanfic. (But I'll take the 275K words I've written this year as compensation).

I liked The Windup Girl.
I just finished the audiobook of J.G. Ballard's High Rise. Narrated by Tom Hiddleston. Creep-tastic.

I buy books from Kobo and use de-DRM tools on them so I can read them in my favorite eReader (Marvin on iPad).

[the_siobhan]

Last time I got a book on Kobo I couldn't get the DRM off it, but that was a few years ago. Might be worth trying again.

Well done on words!

[ouranophobe]

I just finished The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern last night, and am trying to decide what to read next. Probably going to grab one of the V.E. Schwab novels in my queue. I've started doing a combination phototherapy and audio therapy, which mean sitting in one place for 60-90 minutes, so I'm using that time to get back into pleasure reading. (Grad school being what it is, my pleasure reading has dropped off considerably over the last couple of years.)

[the_siobhan]

Ooo, I read the The Night Circus and loved it. I'm going to have to look into this one as well.

Are you checking in or just commenting?

[yasaman]

Day 10: 1,923 words on the Yuletide fic today, and I'm almost done! Maybe another 1k or so left, if I don't let the characters run away with the dialogue.

[the_siobhan]

Well done!

[cornerofmadness]

Between two projects I got 3146 words and yay most were on the novel.

[the_siobhan]

Excellent word count. Well done!

[china_shop]

I'm listening my way through Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch 'verse, and reading A Memory Called Empire in ebook. :-)

11th: Made beta edits to and posted a flashfic. Also started a scene discussion post.

[the_siobhan]

They both sound really interesting. I'm taking notes here.

Well done on your progress!

[sakana17]

Day 10: Alibi sentence and some edits.

[the_siobhan]

All part of the progress. :-)

[saki101]

A light, whimsical book I finished recently is the latest in the Rivers of London series of novels, called False Value. Generally, I've been reading less, including less fanfic, which is annoying because I have more time to read. I did write more this year than I have in several years, so that was a plus.

10 November check-in: 306 words. Yet another beginning to this sequel that I have been thinking about writing for a couple years. Which one will I continue or will I write even more intro scenes? Time will tell, I guess.

[the_siobhan]

I first encountered Rivers of London as a cross-over fic with the Good Omens universe and the concept intrigued me. I might have to check it out.

Well done on your words!

[lferion]

Day 10 - A post and a drabble prompted by the Mini-Wrimo daily post.

[the_siobhan]

Well done on words!

[satoyan]

Day 10: 2,235 nano words. Still waffling, still pretty meh.

[the_siobhan]

That's a pretty impressive wordcount for a project your meh about. I usually freeze up at that point so you're dong much better than I would be.

Would working on something else help you get back into it?

[auroracloud]

I passed 10K word count yesterday (the 10th)! Woo hoo! Not on track for winning NaNoWriMo, but still on track for my More Reasonable Goal. Also, things have gotten easier to write as I finally started to be able to introduce more of the interesting characters, who knew?

Also wrote on the 9th, more of the novel.

I've actually been reading less than normal this year because for some reason everything that's going on is making it harder for me to focus on reading for a long time, which sucks. But at least I am able to read again, although this autumn I've had a lot of books I've started and then not been able to finish. Because I didn't like it or it was too dark and making me anxious, or just... something.

Anyway, currently on the fiction front I've been reading Martha Wells's Stories of the Raksura #1 which has some novellas and short stories from her Raksura book series. I don't know if you've read them but I love them, it's the previous series from her before Murderbot. If you don't know it, it's epic fantasy with these awesome shapeshifting people who have complicated social structures and are all bi and poly and like arguing a lot, and would probably be cast as villains in more traditional epic fantasy but they're heroes here and they're awesome. The main character comes to the community of the Raksura as an outsider who didn't know where he belonged, and he's about as sarcastic and suspicious as Murderbot, but more likely to admit to emotions and friendship and stuff. And all the characters are delightful and the worldbuilding is amazing. Anyway, I finished the fifth and final novel in the series a couple of months ago and loved it, but knew these short fiction collections existed. Now I've realized they actually take place between books 3 and 4 (and in some cases before the series starts) so I could have read them earlier as well, and then the time skip between 3 and 4 wouldn't have been as surprising, but it's okay. Anyway, I love these stories very much and now I'm wondering why I tried to make myself read books I wasn't enjoying.

Thinking of rereading some things soon, it might be easier than reading completely new books.

[the_siobhan]

The Martha Wells does sound very interesting. This was the best idea for a subject yet, I'm getting some great recommendations.

Well done on your words!

Days 7-10

[iberiandoctor]

Thanks for the comics rec - I might check it out! I'm told that The Sandman Universe Presents: Hellblazer was really fun, and a nod back to the classic days of Delano & Ennis while representing a cool reboot, but Covid seems to have messed with the comic shops in Asia and the only way to get hold of these is Amazon, go figure. +sighs+

My new book is, actually, Michael Greger's How to Survive A Pandemic. I'm a city girl who has zero idea how to forage, but thanks to this book I now know how to sanitise water with bleach and other fun things. Thanks to the Tor eBook of the Month club, I inhaled Seth Dickinson's Traitor Baru Comorant, and re-read Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in order to write this year's SmutSwap.

Over these last four days I've been doing canon review for my Yuletide fic and the treat I'm committed to writing, and I have 4,000 words of fic outlines (it's more impressive than it sounds; that wordcount includes extracts from canon, passages from online research, and my ramblings to myself). Still, I feel reasonably good about progress, and I might even have a couple of potential titles.

Hope you've been wrangling Nano as well as can be, and that the muses are being kind to you!

Re: Days 7-10

[the_siobhan]

The bookstores and comic shops in Toronto don't seem to have pivoted well to online and I'm not going into stores until there's a vaccine.

How to Survive a Pandemic sounds like an interesting read. I get the Tor ebooks as well, but I'm way behind on reading them.

I think your progress sounds excellent, well done!

[silveradept]

I haven't been reading a lot at all, actually. Extra irony because I'm surrounded by books on a regular basis. But mostly in writing and playing rather than reading. I've been working thrive since Kickstarter anthologies when they arrive, though, and I really should take a poke at Modest Medusa, since I've got four volumes of that to go through.

Progress for Day 10 means I think I've found the story I want to tell for this exchange, and it's going to be a lot angstier than I had initially intended, but I think it's going to work very well.

[the_siobhan]

Sounds like excellent progress! Well done.

[nimrodiel]

I have been in a little bit of a reading slump. I'm 10 books behind where I should be to meet the reading goal I set back in December 2019 for 2020... That said, the start of the pandemic had quite a bit of escapism reading. The last three months or so have had a lot of *pick up a book, read 50 pages, put book down and wander off*

I just picked up The Devil's Highway by Luis Alberto Urrea Which was one of the books I set down and never picked back up over the summer. So far, it is very engrossing non-fiction looking at the 26 men who attempted to cross from Mexico into the USA in 2001 across the region known as The Devil's Highway with very deadly consequences. So far I'm about 3/4 in and I can see why it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction catagory.

Not checking in, just commenting.

[the_siobhan]

Sounds like an interesting book, but I have had to restrict myself to non-depressing media for the time being. The mental health thing, you know?

[greylock]

I'm in a real reading slump this year, and I know a lack of commuting is a big part of it, because even though my commute is pretty short, it gives be about an hour a day looked in, and that helps keep up my interest, and helps me power through even bad books.

Right now I am reading something called "The Big Book of Horror Stories" (I think, it's in the other room), which I thought would be a good taster for October and I don't even think I am half way through. I should have completed this in a week or so.

It's full of people you'd expect, and people I wouldn't (Winston Churchill, Truman Capote), so I guess I have now read a Capote story, which some people would count as a plus.

Hell, I'm even behind reading DW.

[the_siobhan]

Concentration is definitely one of the things that gets harder under stress and day job is sucking up pretty much all of it.