Fantasy

Flash Fiction – The Wind

Clouds rushed to rest over the fresh gravesite of the wizard Clavius. Duncan found it appropriate and thanked the wind as he cast the last handful of dirt onto the pile. Only a brief rustling of leaves near his feet answered, but he knew the wind appreciated his words.

When taking control of the elements he was always careful to show the proper respect. He liked to think he learned from others’ mistakes. Too many weather wizards died because of their indifferent arrogance. He refused to be like the ones who came before him, like the one lying in the grave at his feet.

In the dead wizard’s case, angry fire killed him. The man should have known better. One can only force an elemental for a short time before it would turn on you. If you asked politely and thanked it, there was a good chance you would survive.

Duncan rarely forced nature to do his bidding. In the few emergencies when he’d taken control of an elemental without asking permission, he apologized profusely and made the proper sacrifices to appease them. Most knew he wouldn’t abuse them and were understanding As long as he didn’t do it often, he would be safe.

Clavius hadn’t bothered. He forced the same fire elemental to kill thieves in the poor district several times. Fire cannot be contained for long and many had died. The wizard hadn’t cared but the fire did. The last time he tried to use it, along with help from the wind, the elemental broke his control and turned on the man. Duncan wasn’t present but heard the man’s cries from across the village.

Fool.

As Duncan stood over the grave of his biggest rival at the Conclave, he smiled in satisfaction. Unlike the dead man, he had asked permission before he sent the wind to help the fire. Clavius, like all wizards, had been an evil bastard, but Duncan was the worst. He would continue to be courteous to the elements so he could take out the rest of his rivals and rule the Conclave.

When he left the cemetery, he noted the wind elemental followed. He smiled grimly and headed back to his rooms to make his plans.

Rough draft 362 words

It’s not much of a story but I think it will be if I ever sit down and fix it. For now, I want to get ideas out of my head and on paper.

I’m trying to get back into writing most days. Not writing for an entire week, and losing my favorite aunt, took its toll on my habits. I’m still grieving but time is starting to do its job.

Flash fiction, and a lot of it is my goal right now. However, wizard Duncan (who needs a name change), fascinates me. He can control the elements/elementals but prefers wind. He’s not a nice guy, but he’s polite to the forces he controls. He needs a good protagonist and a goal. I feel a longer story brewing.

Oh, and this story is not the result of a writing prompt. I sat down to write and thought about the wind and ideas started flowing out of my fingers. Like I said, it’s not much of a story but writing it made me feel like me again.

Flash Fiction – Tauria

They said it was a legend, but Tauria knew it was real. She saw it once in the forbidden grove. She desperately wanted to tell everyone about it but then she’d have to admit she’d gone to the forbidden grove.

It was beautiful, with a long mane that shone white and it was much smaller than she’d imagined. The perfection of the creature almost made her enter the clearing where she found it but fear kept her in the tree line. For all she knew it was dangerous. In the animal world beauty sometimes indicated menace.

So she watched as it frolicked and seemed to play while it clearly enjoyed the sunlight. She stayed until the wind shifted. The mythical entity must have caught her scent because its head came up suddenly and there was fear in its eyes. Tauria was surprised to also see intelligence when it caught sight of her.

Not waiting to find out if it would hurt her she turned and fled.

That night as she lay down to sleep she felt an unexpected longing. She had to go back. Logic told her the madness had come upon her. Though it was only whispered about, many women in her village had been brought low by it. Now she understood why the grove was forbidden. Still, her heart told her she would return even if only for a glimpse.

It took a week for her to work up the courage. She knew she might not survive the attempt but she was determined.

She snuck off during the noon meal, running as fast as she could. As she reached the grove she slowed and walked as silently as she could through the trees until she reached the clearing. It was empty so she waited.

Within a few minutes she saw movement across the grassy area. Slowly the creature stepped out of the trees. Tauria’s breath caught as she realized it was looking directly at her. Of their own volition her feet carried her forward. Not even her terror stopped her until she reached the beast.

She crouched down, hardly knowing what she was doing, and spoke gently to it.

“Are you a child?”

It laughed. “Of course I am.”

“What is your name?”

“Serra.”

“Do you live here in the grove?”

“Not anymore.” It replied and reached out to her.

Tauria allowed the girl to climb on her back, careful not to let it near her single horn, and took her home. As she passed the other females of her village she saw the sympathy and concern in their eyes but didn’t care. She vowed to herself to make sure everyone learned where children came from so they could get their own if they wanted one.

 

Well, I was supposed to be working on world building but I wrote this story instead. I’m not mad at myself for this distraction!

The inspiration came from Chuck Wendig. His flash fiction challenge today was to use a quote from a list of the random things his kid says. I picked:

“They said it was a legend, but I know it’s real.”

I didn’t know when I started writing the story it was from the perspective of a unicorn. Honestly I didn’t do a lot of thinking, I just started typing and went with whatever my muse came up with. I was down to the last paragraph when it hit me and as I read back through I realized I’d subconsciously been writing it that way all along. Brains are cool! It’s amazing how you can surprise yourself as you make stuff up.

As with all the flash fiction I post this is a rough draft and any opinions are welcome.

Excerpt From My Fantasy WIP

The story a day prompt is late and once again I’m feeling impatient. I considered writing a horror story about what happens when people are late to what they think is a normal job but after jotting down some notes I realize it will be a longer story. Since I want to take my time with it and think some more I decided to work on my fantasy story.

The part I wrote today will be a prologue, probably. I might redo it from the man’s perspective and make it a flashback. For now I’ll call it an excerpt. It needs a lot of work, as it is first rough draft stuff, but I don’t want to get into editing mode at all this month since I’m doing the story a day thing.

She held in a scream the contraction tore into her. Her blue eyes were clouded with pain. It wasn’t supposed to be like this she thought again and again. The woman was lying on furs and saddle blankets against the wall of a cave several miles south of the tundra that was her destination. She had tried to go further but the baby’s coming stopped her flight earlier than she expected. She couldn’t be sure the people of the trading village so the cave would have to do. She moaned through another wave of pain as her husband appeared at the entrance.

“I’ve got as much firewood as I could find.” He laid the wood in the pit he’d made earlier. “I have no flint.” His face was panicked.

“Help me up,” the woman requested. He helped her to the wood piled in front of him. She placed a hand on the nearest log for several moments. The wood reddened and caught fire. With her husband’s assistance she went back to the furs. He put their cook pots, already filled with water, on the fire and started ripping her extra skirt into strips.

She wished they’d left earlier. For the first time since marrying she wished she hadn’t turned her back on the sight. She’d only had occasional glimpses of the future for several years. Those she usually ignored. Two weeks before she started getting hints that she couldn’t stay home to give birth. Her husband’s people held to the old ways. The visions told her that if she had her baby in her husband’s home, her child would be killed. It has frightened her but she convinced herself it was just pregnant delusions.

Then, two nights ago she had a vision so strong that she could no longer deny it. She had to leave. She packed some clothes for her and the baby and a few essentials. As she prepared to leave her husband caught her and demanded an explanation. She told him everything. He tried to convince her that he wouldn’t let anyone hurt their child but refused to change her mind. She told him she was going back home to the tundra to give birth. He finally gave in and packed his clothes, insisting on going with her. The baby was due in a few weeks, but they left that night and rode hard. They were forced to stay off the road, so they followed a game trail through the forest heading north. She didn’t know if it was the hard riding or fate, but when they stopped at a cave for the night, her water broke.

Her labor pains were closer together and she knew the baby would come before morning. She glanced at her husband. The firelight reflected in his gray eyes and she saw the fear he tried to hide. Let the baby have his eyes she prayed. In that moment she knew she would not survive the birth. She was consumed by fear for a moment, but she wasn’t afraid to die. She was worried for her child. If the baby had the wrong color eyes, anyone would know the child was a half-breed. If her husband took the child home, the baby wouldn’t be allowed to live.

“You must take the child to court,” she rasped at him.

“What are you talking about, you hate court.”

She saw it in his eyes, he knew it too. “It’s her only chance.”

He smiled his lazy charming smile. “So you know it’s a girl?” He brushed her pale hair out of her eyes.

“Do not pretend with me, husband. You know it goes badly. Listen to me closely, it’s almost time. You cannot take her home. I’ve seen it. She will be killed. Go to your cousin and ask that she be cared for with the princes. She will not betray you. Most people in the capital ignore the old laws. Our child will be safe there.” He nodded silently and she was glad he respected her enough not to argue. He trusted her sight.

“Is there nothing I can do?”

She shook her head and he held her until she told him the baby was coming. The birth was difficult but the child was well. Her husband wrapped the crying infant in furs and blankets, then placed her in his wife’s arms. The child stopped crying and stared at her mother. She had one last vision of her daughter as a young woman. With one last relieved sigh, she stopped breathing.

The man took his daughter from his wife’s arms and looked closely at her as tears fell down his face. Grief and determination replaced fear. She needed his protection. He would do as his beloved asked and go to court to hide his child in plain sight until she was older. Looking at her small face he knew his wife had been correct. The child was in terrible danger. One of her eyes was gray and the other was blue.

As you’ve probably figured, eye color is a big deal in my story. The various races of man are forbidden from marrying outside their own race. Skin color means nothing to them but eye color indicates which god they worship and the gods themselves issued the law. A child born of two races is somehow dangerous, but I can’t tell you why yet!

This is a glimpse into my writing process. First drafts are extremely bare-boned. I generally leave out all description, except generic stuff like: forest, cave, tundra, etc. I might throw in a hair color here and there. Also, super emotional stuff, like this man losing his wife, I save for revisions because this kind of thing needs a lot of attention and care to be done right. If I spent all that time now, I’d never get the story written!

You’ll notice most of my sentences start with he, she or the. This happens because at this stage it’s all about getting the words out as quickly as possible. My mind forges ahead but my fingers can only type so fast. MS Word tells me I’ve used 9% passive sentences. UGH! I shouldn’t have looked.

Most importantly here, my two characters don’t have names! I always struggle naming fantasy characters. In later parts of the story I call the man Joran but I don’t know how I feel about it yet. The baby is named Aevith and I can’t for the life of me figure out what to call the mother. I have one restriction. Her name needs to be one syllable. It’s a tradition of her people. None of the one syllable names I’ve thought of seem to fit her. If anyone has any suggestions (for the man or woman) they would be more than appreciated!

Flash Fiction – On Becoming A Monster

Everyone knew the stone creature was alive, though it never moved, because of its living eyes. Once, perhaps, it was a dragon. For ages it stood in the middle of town, as a reminder it was said, though no one knew what they were supposed to remember.

No one looked it in its eye, at least not the left eye. That eye was the most beautiful eye in creation. Multifaceted and gleaming, it was an artist’s dream. But it could only see the bad. The tales told of people turned to stone themselves or they became hideous monsters. The tales grew as the years went on. No one appreciated the magnificence of that orb.

The other eye was not so lovely. Surrounded by scarred skin, broken scales and bulging sores, nothing about it was attractive. But it could only see the good. Everyone was willing to look into that eye for they could see their inner beauty reflected back at them. One went away feeling confident, worthy, and perfect.

This continued for years until a small child with a misshapen body dared to look into both eyes. Limping up to the statue she stared for several moments then fell to the ground in tears. Other townsfolk watched in horror, waiting to see her punishment, not daring to help her. The girl only stopped crying when she heard gasps and screams from the people as they fled.

“Why do you weep?” asked a raspy voice.

The child sat up and found the statue towering over her. “You’re like me. Everyone pretends only part of you exists. They are only interested in what you can do for them.”

“And you are not?”

The girl wiped her nose on her sleeve and shook her head. “I think you’re beautiful. May I just sit here and look at you for a while before you kill me?”

“Yes.”

So she peered deep into the creature’s eyes. It stared back. As they watched each other a transformation began. Pieces of stone flaked, shriveled and fell from the statue’s body. The scales underneath were the color of the vanishing stone, only brighter, full of life. The eyes didn’t change. When the shedding was complete the dragon shook out his wings and stood tall and proud.

He gazed down at the girl. “Only you truly saw me, allowing me to evolve. For that, I will grant you one wish. Would you like me to fix your body?”

The child shook her head. “No, I like me, just the way I am. Would you let me ride you instead? Just once.”

“Yes.” He stayed, working as the girl’s trusty steed until she was too old to ride.

Just before death she made one final request. The shocked dragon granted the wish. He stared deep into her eyes as the metamorphosis occurred. When it finished, he lovingly carried her to the town square. To this day when people see the dragon statue there, they only look into its right eye.

This piece was inspired by a writing prompt I came across from talyabeyers. I was going to use my prompt about rain, and I still will, but this one really caught my attention so I went with it first. I haven’t written much flash fiction lately so it’s a bit rough. I planned on it being only 100 words but it kept growing and I had to spend a ridiculous amount of time paring it down to 500. Does that sound like complaining? I had a wonderful time writing and tweaking it! I’ve missed this, which I’ll remind myself of when I revise at a later date.

I was going to wait until Friday to post it but this one is a bonus for me and I plan to write more flash this week.

Flash Fiction – Someday

Cael found the key lying in the middle of the path as he trekked through the forest. His eyes were drawn to it even when he tried to dismiss it. Leaving it was impossible but reluctance stayed his hand as he stopped and stared at it.

There was something familiar about the key. Had he seen it before? It was large and ornate, not something one normally discarded or lost. When he realized he was going to pick it up, he tore his gaze away. Why was he hesitant?

His life would change if he touched it. Cael didn’t know why, but he was convinced. It called to him, which was never a good sign in this forest. He debated with himself, finally deciding he was being silly and reached for the key.

As he wrapped his hand around it…nothing. He laughed. It was just a key. Cael put it in his pocket and went on his way.

Before long he reached a small hut just off the side of the trail. Funny, he didn’t remember it being there any of the other times he’d taken this path. His hand moved to his pocket. Confused, he took the key and walked to the door of the house. Trembling he put the key in the lock.

Cael’s mind screamed at him to stop and he listened. He turned on his heel and ran as fast as he could, back home, never taking that forest path again.

Inside the hut, a beautiful maiden, Cael’s perfect mate, cried. He’d almost saved her, but the evil key had stopped him, again. The key swore someday the man would rescue her, but it was a liar, always driving him away. Besides, they were going to run out of paths for him to find her on soon.

This is a flash fiction piece I wrote for a small contest. The prize is an advanced reader’s copy of The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence. The rules were that it couldn’t be longer than three hundred word and it had to contain the words: liar and key. I have no idea who won as they have not announced that yet. It’s not my best work but I think with some polishing and perhaps upping the word count by a few hundred it could be good. I am proud of it for one reason though. Most of the people who entered used the word key in two ways. Either there was a liar who needed/had/stole/etc a key or they used ‘key to’ phrases, such as – the key to happiness. I did neither of these things. Also, I went for silly rather than serious. The important thing for me is I set out to do something, which was enter a contest and I did it. At some point I’ll revise and post whatever I come up with.

Another Writing Update

I am working on worldbuilding, cultures, religions, etc for five kingdoms for a fantasy series. Today my allergies have been winning so I decided it would be a good idea to sit back and watch some documentaries on religion as research. I’ve been meaning to do this for months anyway, so I figured I might as well do it on a day like this.

In my search I came across Going Clear on HBO. I don’t know why I watched it since it’s about a more modern thing and I’m writing epic fantasy but something drew my attention to it. I’m not going to say a lot because I’m still processing, but I will say that I’m freaked out. Enough that I think I’ll pass on any other documentaries for now and stick to reading about ancient and medieval religions instead!

I think I’ll go visit Cracked to clear my head.

Sidenote: I do have a character that is blindly worshiped by the people in her land and they would do anything and everything she asks, so maybe today’s adventure isn’t a complete loss.

Books I Should Have Already Read – The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham

This month’s book is The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham. I’ll start with the good. The prologue was amazing. It pulled me in quickly and didn’t let me go. The last line got me super excited about the book. The world in this novel is fascinating. It is set after the fall of the dragons, which I certainly want to know more about! There are many races of humans and a lot of political intrigue. The settings are vivid and clear. The book is bursting with potential.

Unfortunately I don’t feel like that potential was realized. Five hundred fifty-five pages is too long for a prologue, which is what the entire book came across as. It seemed more to hint at the plot than reveal it. I understand that this is merely book one of four, but I wanted more. Instead of making me desperately want to read book two, it made me disappointed that I wasn’t as drawn in as I should have been.

There were several things that caused this. First and foremost, I didn’t like most of the characters and I should have. I couldn’t really relate. I apologize for the vagueness that will follow but I want this review to be spoiler free.

  • Cithrin – Orphan, ward of the bank. I had trouble seeing any depth in this character, although I hope that changes in the next book. It sounds horrible to say but I find that I want something terrible to happen to her so that she’s forced to evolve.
  • Marcus – Ex-military type with a sad past. I don’t dislike this guy but I didn’t love him either. He’s a little too broody and always seems to be right, even if he doesn’t always act on it. In short he’s the most predictable character of them all and I could be wrong but I think I’m supposed to like him best at this point
  • Geder – I felt sorry for this guy, until I didn’t. This is the guy that gets used by everyone, all the time, even when he thinks he’s in control. There was no real growth. However, there were hints of it for the rest of the books.
  • Dawson – The only things I can really tell you about him is that I like one of his sons and his wife, and he’s kind of an elitist jerk, but means well.
  • The Apostate – Seems good, at least wants to be good. He’s pretty interesting.

This is about all I have to say about the characters because I don’t know them better, and I wish I did. I suspect they will each become utterly fascinating, as I’ve heard the story picks up in the next two books but I want to be intrigued now.

I want to go back to some back-story here. There are a lot of different races in this world, although they all started from firstbloods, aka human. They were changed by the long dead dragons. I would describe them for you here, but I can’t. There was little description and nothing really stood out to me. I feel like this is a missed opportunity. I would love to know more about each race. Why were they changed? How? When? Was each race considered a success?

Another thing I want to know is what happened to the dragons. This is also something only hinted at, which is good in this case. I do hope to learn more though.

Earlier I mentioned political intrigue. The Dragon’s Path has plenty of that. The only problem is I didn’t care who came out on top. From all the scenes dealing with that, the only thing that stood out to me was a creepy banker guy. Now that is one character that is well written. He’s meant to be mysterious and scary and he is!

Overall I thought the book dragged on a bit. It wasn’t uninteresting, but it wasn’t compelling.

Does this review seem a little all over the place? That’s how the book was for me, so it seems appropriate. I guess this boils down to a question. Will I buy the next book and see if the story picks up? Probably. I am curious to see what happens. Book two will help me decide if I’m curious enough to see how it ends. I would give it 3 out of 5 stars.

In all fairness we need a little disclosure here. I am more into books with a lot of action, epic battles, magic, and emotional intensity. Since this is a series, it could end up with all of those things. I’ll let you know.

Next month’s book will be: Joe Abercrombie – The Blade Itself: The First Law: Book One

For the full list of books I intend to read and review for this series, and my reasons for wanting to, click here.

Don’t forget to like my new Facebook page. Thanks!

Sidenote: I’m sorry for this review being so late. I hope to have the next one ready for the middle of next month. However my priority needs to be on my own writing so I’ll also apologize in advance if the next one is late too!

One more sidenote: I bought The Dragon’s Path used from Amazon early last year but didn’t get to read it until this month. To my surprise and disgust, when I started reading it, in the first 25 pages, every time the word blood appeared (about 10 times), the previous owner literally covered the word with what looked like blood. GROSS!

Writing Update – Worldbuilding

As you probably figured out from the title, I’ve been working on worldbuilding. I have done this many times but there is something special about this time. I don’t know how to explain that statement, I can only tell you it feels different. I started working on it this morning and have been going mostly non-stop ever since. Even breaks for silly things like eating, picking up kids and a search for the perfect pocket notebook didn’t truly distract me from my world. After each interruption, I was able to pick up where I left off.

My biggest problem is I have too many ideas. I’m trying to write down as much as I can but some of these ideas are for other projects, or should be. I’ve taken to quickly jotting down excess stuff in a separate notebook, just in case. Normally extraneous ideas distract me but not so much this time. Writing them down doesn’t take much time and I’ve been able to get back on track right away.

I did have one moment when I took the time to do a mini-development of a random idea. I was a little early picking up my daughter so I wrote down everything I could think of while I waited for the school bell to ring. It was only about eight minutes but I got it all out and very soon I will have a new flash fiction piece to post.

Back to the worldbuilding, I was so into what I was doing that even a food court full of loud people didn’t distract me from my work. There is a grocery store where I live that has a largish eating area and a coffee shop in it. It’s normally not very busy in the mornings so I go there sometimes when I want to get out of the house. I was sick all weekend so I definitely needed to escape captivity for a few hours. When I walked in I was concerned because there were four very large, very loud groups there, but I figured I might as well try. By the time I got hungry these groups were gone and I was shocked. I never noticed anyone leaving.

I’m home now and after dinner I’m going to get back to writing. My plan is to keep developing the ideas that I had today but if I end up working on something else, like a silly zombie story I’ve got mapped out or the new flash fiction piece that showed up today, then I’ll be content.

By the way, if it sounds like I’ve done too much worldbuilding, because I did it all day, I’m only scratching the surface. I am writing a series that has many different realms and landscapes, with two different time periods, as many races as there are realms (including two different dragon species), and some cool magic. I have a lot to do and I’m loving every second of it!

Sidenote: I wish I could draw maps!

Flash Fiction – Celyn’s Tower

Because sometimes, one just needs a silly story…

Celyn was the most beautiful maiden in the six realms. How anyone knew this was beyond her. She lived in a tall secluded tower her entire life and no one had ever seen her face. Yet they came. Princes, kings, knights, and common men alike appeared at the foot of her tower often, begging for her hand.

She watched from above at their attempts to reach her and wondered why they did so. She knew they would never reach her. Still the men tried.

The first had scaled the tower, even made it to her window, causing her to scream in fear at the shock of a stranger invading her home. The man was so startled he lost his grip and fell. Celyn assumed his death would keep others from trying to rescue her.

How wrong she was. Evil Marence, he who had built the tower for Celyn did everything he could to keep the suitors away. First there was the oil. It worked on the next two men to try climbing the tower. No matter how hard each tried, neither could find a way up. Both gave up.

The next man, a clever prince, brought metal spikes and made it halfway up before Marence lit the oil. It was weeks before anyone made another attempt. He dug a moat, but a rich king had a bridge built.

He set an ogre to guard Celyn but a passing knight heard her singing and unable to resist, he killed the creature. Next came a trio of orc guards, which almost caused a race war, so they were fired. A Minotaur kept many away for a few months but he was called back home.

A dragon was brought in, but that only brought scores of men to the tower, each determined to slay the beast and claim the fair maiden. The dragon wisely flew away to save himself. The men stayed.

Finally came the day Marence went out to confront the men gathered in the meadow near her tower. Sensing his defeat, she hurried after him. He reached the men before her. As she came up behind him she heard one of them demanding he let Celyn go. She saw several swords drawn and could feel a spell being cast. Quickly she cast her own spell, turning all the men, except Marence, into toads.

“Why did you do that?” he asked her.

“Because I never wanted a man, but I’ve always wanted a toad,” Celyn replied. “Plus I don’t want you to have to spend any more money keeping them away. This solves all our problems.”

“Good thinking.”

The evil wizard and his witch daughter walked back to the tower. “Father, do you think that Minotaur will come back? He was kind of cute.”

The names, if not the personalities, were inspired by Mark Lawrence.

Books I Should Have Already Read – Update

I promised an update when I figured out which book I would read and review for next month, so here it is, hopefully. It all started out well enough. I picked up American Gods by Neil Gaiman and started reading. I actually started this book months ago and had to put it down after a day or so. At the time I told myself it was because I was so busy, but I read through a very long series afterwards.

Not really remembering all that I went to my bookmark then turned back a full chapter so I could refresh my memory of the book. I tried, I really did, but I could not seem to really get into it. I’m sure the book is super amazing and makes you think and analyze life and you become a better person when you’re finished reading it, but, no.

It broke my cardinal rule when it comes to books. I was bored! Even when reading interesting passages, the tedium was killing me. I wanted so badly to like and appreciate it but quite frankly I hated it. My bookmark sits in almost the exact middle of the book. Never in my life have I not finished a book once I got that far. If I get a quarter of the way through I still keep reading. Not with this one.

It’s strange, I almost feel guilty. Except that I really don’t. The point of all this is I can’t review a book I didn’t finish reading.

So I grabbed another book from my list and started it. The Dragon’s Path by Daniel Abraham. It hooked me in the first paragraph and firmly had my attention by the end of the prologue. I’m only on page 58 but I suspect I will not have any trouble finishing this one. A review will be forthcoming sometime in March, probably the first week.

Maybe someday I’ll pick up American Gods again. I do know I’m willing to read other books by the author.

If you’re reading this wondering what on earth I’m talking about or want to see the full list of books I should have already read, go here.

P.S. My wrists are still giving me problems (see previous post from today) and it’s super hard to type so this is what I wrote for my six minutes today. I’m so happy to have done any writing so I’m not going to beat myself up about this time.