Thoughts on Witchy Winter

Sans spoilers, because I’m nice that way.

Normally when I receive an Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) of a book, it’s a few months before the publication date. Witchy Winter by D.J. Butler actually released in 2018, and joined my collection within the last year. One of the prizes for a reading challenge at our local library (they now have multiple challenges each year, including winter and summer) was the option to select a book.

You may be familiar with this problem… you’re presented with a decent selection of books across multiple genres, and you’re only allowed to pick one. How do you pick???

Our library simplified the process with some highlights about the book, helping narrow down the selection before flipping to the back covers to read the marketing blurbs. With highlights sticking out of every book, it reduced the immediate list to two or three books. One thing that jumped out for me, as an Illinois resident, was the mention of Cahokia; we visited the site in 2013 near the end of our big roadtrip.

This book hit so many high points for me: well-developed characters, multi-threaded plotlines tying together, various types of magic, and a neat alternate history that still has Europeans in the Americas while retaining Native American civilizations.

But… it’s the second book in the series. There are enough references to the first book that I could probably get away without reading it, yet enough hits at the past action that I definitely want to backtrack. Having just read Witchy Winter, I can then skip to books three and four.

Given the choice, I’d suggest you start with book one, Witchy Eye.

Find time for creativity

While I’m specifically taking about drawing and painting in this post, I’m really referring to any creative process you want to count, be that crafting, writing, making music… whatever! I’ve found myself needing a creative outlet a couple times recently, the first as I was preparing a bid to co-chair next year’s Capricon with a theme of Let Your Geek Flag Fly. The image below was me thinking through what could fall under that theme and which of those I could represent as meeple. It is certainly not all-inclusive, given how much different material falls under fandom. That said, if you’re not sure which fandom is meant to be represented by a particular meeple, take a moment to read through the ALT text.

Starting at the top left of the image, a Tree of Gondor with a unicorn meeple below it, a Stargate with a meeple bearing a question mark in front as something resembling a Godzilla meeple approaches, a TARDIS with a meeple outside. Arrayed at the front of the image are the following meeples, starting at the 5th(ish) row: Wonder Woman, Transformer, Death, Spider-Man, a furry creature of some sort; the 4th row features an Eevee, a figure wearing a Star Fleet emblem, Aang (the last Airbender), someone in a red & white striped (could be Waldo if Waldo were a meeple), and a little green alien with 3 eyes; the 3rd row has a cylon, an Among Us figure (with a flag that says "sus" pointing to the cylon), and a vampire; the 2nd row has Yoda and a figure wearing a "CHB" shirt; the first row has a goat holding a flag that reads "Geek".
A mini canvas being held by a green figure. The canvas depicts a sketch (black & white) of a unicorn in a clearing facing an open box.

More recently, our local library kicked off a Tiny Art Show, distributing mini canvas (3 by 3 inches) with a matching easel, along with a small paint set and pair of brushes. My initial plan had been to draw a person, a phoenix, and a dragon, based on a book I recently reviewed, but I didn’t really like the practice sketch I made. I didn’t even make it to the phoenix, as people – faces in particular, though hands are a difficult spot too – are not my strong suit when drawing. Then it occurred to me that I could draw something based on one of my stories. My most recently published story, “The Box”, in The Spaces In Between, provided the inspiration for this piece. The little green guy holding the sketch (second draft, I drew one on paper first) is a cell phone holder I picked up at the work conference I attended recently.

A mini canvas on an equally mini easel. The canvas depicts a painting of a pink & purple unicorn in a clearing facing an open box.

Happy with the sketch, I proceeded to attack the canvas with an eraser, reducing the lines to mere outlines to reduce how much pencil might show through in the final image. I then painstakingly painted it over three different sessions one dot at a time. It has been many years since I tried my hand at pointillism, and I’m fairly sure this is the first time I’ve tried it with paints rather than markers.

I deviated by making the unicorn pink with a purple mane and tail; she’s specifically mentioned as white in my story. I thought white would look too much like unfinished canvas.

Overall, I’m happy with both results, acknowledging that they’re very different stylistically. What’s your current creative outlet?

What a whirlwind week!

Last Friday, we attended C2E2 for the first time as volunteers for the Science Fiction Outreach Project, which gives away free books (mostly science fiction and fantasy) to promote literacy. Given limited time and the size of the exhibit hall, we took a focused approach of visiting just the Writers’ Block and Artist Alley (13 rows!), looking for people who may be interested in space in next year’s dealers hall at Capricon. We hit Chicago traffic coming & going, which is always not fun, though ultimately worth it for attending the event.

Chocolate cake with red roses and the phrase "The Cake Is A Lie" in icing.

On Saturday, we drove a different direction, hosting MarindaCon at a forest preserve to celebrate our dearly departed friend. We gathered with assorted friends – including people who drove from Michigan and Wisconsin as day trips, and some who joined via Zoom – for geeky conversations and a delicious cake (as well as other food). It turned out to be a beautiful day, except for the occasional gust of wind that moved some food and drinks around.

And then, before the crack of dawn on Sunday, I drove through a rainstorm to the airport’s remote parking garage and flew to Washington, DC, for a work-related conference. I took the opportunity to meet up with my cousin and his partner for lunch and some wandering along the National Mall in what was at that point the hottest day of the year. (The next day may have been warmer, but I didn’t make it outside until a late dinner time.) The sheer quantity of food trucks selling ice cream was amazing.

Had I realized that my conference days were 10-11 hour days, I might have taken the time for a nap after our wanderings. As it happens, I’ll be spending the next couple of days trying to catch up on sleep.

Another exciting spring moment

It’s been a busy week and my brain is working through a plethora of stuff, so this is a short post. I was super excited to notice flowers on the strawberry plants this week!

Two white and yellow strawberry flowers poking out among the strawberry plants and dried leaves.

Or as I prefer to refer to them… future strawberries.

Great, now I’m hungry. And we don’t have any strawberries in the house. I suppose that’s OK, I know storebought won’t taste as good as homegrown ones.

Gardening season begins again!

Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona Aurora, where we lay our scene….

More alike than different, these plants are currently segregated: whites on one side, purple on the other. I know, nothing looks white or purple right now… that doesn’t happen until much later in the season, when the fruit ripens. They won’t even go into the ground for another month, at which point we’ll have to decide whether we really need sixteen plants worth of eggplants, or if I should hand some off to friends.

Oddly, I hadn’t intended to start plants indoors this year. I was taking a cavalier attitude of only using last year’s leftover seeds and free seeds from the library. (Yes, our public library has a seed library!) That worked until I found out about a free seed event near me – the selection was lovely – and I was halfway home before I remembered that eggplants require starting indoors for our climate.

If you’re wondering why there’s loose dirt in the box, that’s because a cat sat in it and knocked some of the starter pots over.

Let’s talk about perimenopause.

Growing up, most girls will learn about menstruation either from their parents (usually their mother) or their school system. That presentation can be at varying levels of enthusiasm based on cultural significance, among other things, such as the outdated “you’re a woman now!” concept. Bleh.

But nobody in my age group seems to have gotten the perimenopause talk. Part of that may be because of social norms that discouraged talking about menstruation, even more so for older women, and some because our mothers may not have reached that stage at the point when they were sharing the menstruation talk. All of this came to mind when I saw this BBC article about menopause today… older women are quitting their jobs because the system isn’t set up to support the changes we’re going through. The lady featured in this article said “She suffered with night sweats, heart palpitations and migraines that left her feeling weak and lethargic.” She quit because her management didn’t provide the necessary support to deal with those changes.

Like other people I know, perimenopause brought irregular periods – sometimes more frequent, sometimes less, usually heavier that before – which makes preparing for them difficult. When I still worked in an office, I gave up on planning and always carried supplies with me. Hot flashes led to clearing out any turtlenecks in my closet; I was too warm wearing them and the higher neckline made my throat feel constrained. There was a period when my breathe would catch at random intervals; while I received a prescription to deal with it, the doctor didn’t actually mention that it was common during perimenopause.

As to night sweats, well, it’s hard to tell whether that’s hormonal when multiple cats are sleeping on the bed. It’s probably a mix.

Celebrate the journey

“Life before death, strength before weakness, journey before destination.”

These are lessons learned in Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. Today, I want to focus on the journey part. I recently had the opportunity to rediscover everything stored in my closet, as the sagging support for the clothes bar gave out, dumping my clothes onto the floor early on April Fool’s morning. As I pulled everything out, I found my collection of karate belts, representing my first ten years studying martial arts.

Martial arts belts, ranging from white on the right to black on the left.

I realize it’s hard to tell in this photo that about half the belts are split colors – there aren’t two orange belts side-by-side; there’s a yellow & orange belt between the yellow and the orange belts. That’s easier to notice on the red and blue belt, since the shade of blue is different from the solid blue next to it.

In a rare case of social media being helpful, I am frequently reminded of my martial arts journey on my Facebook account. Just opening the application, I’m likely to see a post by one of many friends I’ve made at various karate events, and Facebook’s reminders of photos shared on any particular day in the past frequently showcase a past test, tournament, or other time on the mat. Even the photo above reminders me of karate friendships; the snow leopard blanket (essential for protecting my sleeping feet from a ferocious toe-biting cat) was a gift from one of those friends.

Karate has never been about the destination for me; that suggests that at some point it will finish. Instead, it’s an ongoing journey filled with friendships that last a lifetime.

Let’s talk about dice jail

Not surprisingly, I have a Quest Calendar again as my day-by-day calendar for the fourth consecutive year. Because each year is published separately, the rules are continuously improving, adding new mechanics to enhance the experience… that’s a fancy way of saying it’s more fun each time. The characters this year are anthropomorphic, and the first six weeks were spent playing one character a week to get a feel for their abilities. I settled on Quill Mudsong, a porcupine Spell Keeper.

Yesterday, while protecting some travelers, Quill engaged in five rounds of combat. Each round of combat required the following rolls: Wisdom (a failed roll results in the Attack roll being rolled twice, take the lower one), Attack (a successful hit allows a Damage roll), Damage (do enough Damage and stun your opponent, allowing you to skip the Defense roll), and Defense (a successful roll reduces the amount of damage you take).

Dice jail with 20-sided die trapped inside

As you might surmise from the title of this post, some of my rolls did not go well. I passed all of my Wisdom checks, but only succeeded at two of my Attack rolls, and only did enough Damage to stun the beast once. I’m not concerned about the hit points I lost; those can be restored through health potions and rest.

But the travelers I’m protecting… that’s another story. This particular combat came with a special mechanic of losing one traveler for each combat round where I failed to hit. Interestingly, I don’t know how many travelers I’m protecting, or for how long… the instruction provided a couple days ago was to track how many I’ve lost. Between the day they joined me (with a mediocre rolls) and yesterday’s combat, I’ve lost six; that’s half the possible losses across three days. But today’s rolls were made with a different d20; yesterday’s sits in dice jail presumably reflecting on those poor attack rolls.

Laughing at the spam

Spam has become pervasive for those of us with an online presence. Unlike my friend John, I’ve never tried making haikus from it, though I do have to laugh at how wildly untargeted some of the spam is. In this particular case, I’m focusing on comments posted to my blog – none of which you see because I have always had the comments set to moderated. I thought I’d break down some of them for educational and entertainment value.

Allegedly from a Gmail account, consistent enough to sign with the same name as the account (while not someone I know): “It’s been a while, but I just read an article online about momsguidetothegalaxy.com and thought it was important to message you guys to disprove this article. It seems like there’s some unfavorable news that could be detrimental.” This includes a shortened link, so the goal is for me to click through to their site. Interestingly, this and most of the recent spam are in response to an August post about Wordle and related games.

Is that Russian? “Ещё можно узнать:” Google Translate says yes. Most of that comment was links, the preview hover on them shows multiple websites that I also can’t read.

Dental hygiene relates to Wordle… how? “If you’re dealing with bleeding gums, tooth decay and sewage breath… And if the thought of eventually losing your teeth does not let you sleep at night… You need to know this.” Link is to a video I’m fairly certain I do not want to watch. There are a couple like this, with different openings.

OK, I kind of like this one: “mukRgDKpG” This reminds me of losing a credit card in college, which someone tested by buying a dollar of gasoline, cluing the bank into the loss. Presumably if this comment was allowed, more spammy comments would appear from the same source soon.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), podcasts to boost my audience, foot/nail fungus (ewww) miracle cures… it’s like there’s no limit to the subjects spammers will try.

Oh, excuse me, I must go reply to “You got 55 646 USD. Gо tо withdrаwаl => [plus URL]”… yes, that’s what they entered as their name. I’m so sure it’s legitimate that my eyes are rolling like dice.

Anyways, the lesson here is that spam is prolific and if you don’t know the person, don’t click on the link they sent you.

Some off-hand remarks

As I mentioned last week, I had surgery on my dominant hand. As you can imagine, that has made for an interesting few days, especially the first couple when my hand and forearm were bandaged.

I have for years been misusing the term “ambidextrous“. I’m not actually ambidextrous; I’m mixed-handed. This became an important distinction when one of my hands was temporarily out of commission. Ambidexterity is the ability to use both hands equally, which I definitely cannot do. I write and hold a fork left-handed, but crochet and hold a sword right-handed. Holding a fork right-handed, just for those first couple days of healing, felt unnatural, while crocheting left-handed seems awkward. Finger foods are fine on either side though. (Washing dishes one-handed was interesting too!)

Give it a try if you’re curious… stop and think about the item you’re about to use and see how it feels in your other hand.