The Fae Corps Blog Does a Saturday TBR and they are not always books that we have read, but ones that look good amongst the recommendations we get. These are all going to be ones I have read, and This will be my clear thoughts on them. Now as I sometimes sign up to be an ARC reader, I will not always have the link for you to buy the book…but I will try to post when any I do miss the link on are live.
I have always been a voracious reader. I go through a trade paperback in about 4 hours. Since I have started publishing, finding time to read seems like a bit of a luxury. Not because I don’t read now…on the contrary. I am always reading things that people send me to publish, to edit, just to get opinions on. So reading for fun just seems like something I really don’t get to do as often as I would like. I have thousands of books on my kindle. And enough paperback and hardback books that it often causes fights. (My boyfriend’s of the opinion that if I am not reading them I should donate them). I keep the ones that I am willing to re-read. That means that eventually I will pick them back up. But the last few books I have indulged in…Ones I sought out for personal pleasure that had nothing to do with publishing…I found myself taking a couple of days to read. Simply because I was enjoying them, so I would put them down and stop for a couple of hours to do other things before coming back to them. So I realized that maybe beyond the Goodreads/amazon/and the like reviews…maybe I should take the time to tell you guys about these books.
I love random book recommendations. I will always go look up the book for to make up my mind whether I want to read it or not. Death Whispers by Tamara Rose Blodgett was one of those. I am now 7 books into the series.
It’s a young adult series set in a futuristic world. The human genome has been mapped and they figured out how to give us paranormal abilities… Like the ability to raise the dead. The problem is that the abilities appear to pubescent children. The main character is a teen boy – Caleb. And he is the strongest corpse raising type. The government has a habit of making those disappear. He is also the son of the scientist who mapped the genome. Him, his family, and his amazing friends, all try to survive the adventure of life and still keep Caleb out of the government’s clutches.
I like the series so far, but it has some minor problems. I feel like some things are not explained. By book 7 the author seems to decide to tired of the characters and skips to the next generation. The first books are all in Caleb’s pov so the unexplained stuff can be written off as his not seeing it… But when you get up where I am… The author starts perspective hopping. And I am so confused. The characters are really good. You want to know what happens. And the story is good enough to keep you reading. But I don’t know if I recommend going past the 6th book. I will have to get back to you later about it.
Though a couple of the volumes had a vote each this one received the most over all of the platforms. So I am as of Tuesday afternoon at 430pm only five poems away from finishing Human Shaped Verse. I have no doubt that I will have it done within the next few days and starting on Lost Notes. The others will get written eventually. They will go back into the rotation for the next volume as I get finished. I usually pick five that feel right and present them to everyone as choices when I get within ten poems of completion of a volume. It is slightly random in that respect.
All I really want is something beautiful to say Keep me locked up in your broken mind I keep searchin’, never been able to find a Light behind your dead eyes Not anything at all You keep living in your own lie, ever-deceitful and ever-unfaithful Keep me guessin’, keep me terrified Take everything from my world Say can you help me right before the fall Take what you can and leave me to the wolves Keep me dumb, keep me paralyzed Why try swimming? I’m drowning in fables You’re not that saint that you externalize You’re not anything at all It’s oh-so playful when you demonize To spit out the hateful, you’re willing and able Words are weapons I’d be terrified You’re nothing in my world Say can you help me right before the fall Take what you can and leave me to the wolves All I really want is something beautiful to say Keep me guessin’, keep me terrified All I really want is something beautiful to say You keep livin’ in your own lie All I really want is something beautiful to say To never fade away, I wanna live forever All I really want is something beautiful to say To never fade away, I wanna live forever You keep living in your own lie Keep me guessin’, keep me terrified All I really want is something beautiful to say Say can you help me right before the fall Take what you can and leave me to the wolves All I really want is something beautiful to say Words are weapons I’d be terrified All I really want is something beautiful to say Keep me guessin’, keep me terrified All I really want is something beautiful to say To never fade away, I wanna live forever All I really want is something beautiful to say To never fade away, I wanna live forever
My 2 cents –
As a poet, I feel like this is my theme song. I am aware of the power of words… Are you?
Could I be like Alice
Walking through the looking glass?
And if I did would it make my troubles
Bigger or would it make them small?
What is there that we cannot see
On the other side of the mirror
from me?
Though the idea calls to the
Adventurous part of my soul,
I remember the faery tales of old.
If you go uninvited to the places
Where they play,
A heavy price they may take.
The Fae Corps Blog Does a Saturday TBR and they are not always books that we have read, but ones that look good amongst the recommendations we get. These are all going to be ones I have read, and This will be my clear thoughts on them. Now as I sometimes sign up to be an ARC reader, I will not always have the link for you to buy the book…but I will try to post when any I do miss the link on are live.
I have always been a voracious reader. I go through a trade paperback in about 4 hours. Since I have started publishing, finding time to read seems like a bit of a luxury. Not because I don’t read now…on the contrary. I am always reading things that people send me to publish, to edit, just to get opinions on. So reading for fun just seems like something I really don’t get to do as often as I would like. I have thousands of books on my kindle. And enough paperback and hardback books that it often causes fights. (My boyfriend’s of the opinion that if I am not reading them I should donate them). I keep the ones that I am willing to re-read. That means that eventually I will pick them back up. But the last few books I have indulged in…Ones I sought out for personal pleasure that had nothing to do with publishing…I found myself taking a couple of days to read. Simply because I was enjoying them, so I would put them down and stop for a couple of hours to do other things before coming back to them. So I realized that maybe beyond the Goodreads/amazon/and the like reviews…maybe I should take the time to tell you guys about these books.
This one is about a book that I have gone back to multiple times. This book is a coming of age story that I found when I was nearly the same age as the main character. Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt is a story of a young woman coming to womanhood… It’s set in an earlier era. I got the impression that it was the fifties or something similar. The book has several different poems woven in the story and it blends into the narrative really well.
The story deals with grief and growing up realizing that your actions affect others. I have reread this one so many times that it feels like going home.
So I have been doing an attempt at illustration of a children’s book. I think I overestimated my own art.
I did some images in canva to see if I can do better and I think I did better there.
I managed to hire the same person to do Dylan and the Hotel Zombie as I had for Dylan and the zombie pet. I don’t see the person being willing to do another job (She dragged her feet on this job) so I don’t know if I will be writing more in that series. However, I will be releasing Dylan and the Hotel Zombie for kids week December 2025.
This year I will be releasing Pip, That is not yours! And Where is my Sugar. I don’t know what the second one is going to be next year… If I am even going to be releasing a second. I have a year to decide.
It was suggested that I should make a third one in Dylan’s series but make it a middle grade. Then I could use the same images from the previous books and allow older children to follow Dylan’s adventures. I have to think about it. I can see where it would allow me to broaden Dylan’s world a little bit.
I have a middle grade in the bedtime tales series. It might be a fun thing to do it for most of the series. I don’t see Pip ever getting a middle grade. That one is always the early readers.
I posted a week ago that I was dealing with the death of the family pet. My kid is still in grief mode… And I don’t blame them. I miss my favorite siren. But I don’t handle death well.
I have been upsetting my kid because I have accidentally started to use the cat to refer to Luna. I find myself trying to separate myself from the pain that she is gone.
We had her for five years. I am still struggling to process that she is gone.
Everyone has been offering condolences and I appreciate the thoughts….
But it feels so hollow because it doesn’t bring the pain to an end. That is why I struggle with what I should say when someone else is grieving. I hate that hollow feeling so I don’t want to give it to anyone.
So, Thank you for the well wishes… But I just don’t know what to do with them.
“So, what would you little maniacs like to do first?”
Watching through my fingers Watching through my fingers
Shuts my eyes and count to ten It goes in one ear out the other, oh One ear out the other, oh Burning bright right ’til the end Now you’ll be missing from the photographs Missing from the photographs
Watching through my fingers Watching through my fingers
In my thoughts you’re far away And you are whistling a melody Whistling a melody Crystallizing clear as day Oh, I can picture you so easily Picture you so easily
What’s gonna be left of the world if you’re not in it? What’s gonna be left of the world? Oh
Every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more Every stumble and each misfire I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more
Watching through my fingers Watching through my fingers
Caught off guard by your favorite song I’ll be dancing at a funeral Dancing at a funeral Sleeping in the clothes you love It’s such a shame we have to see them burn Shame we have to see them burn
What’s gonna be left of the world if you’re not in it? What’s gonna be left of the world? Oh
Every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more Every stumble and each misfire I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more
“If you want to be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle Now stop worrying and go get dressed”
You might have to excuse me I’ve lost control of all of my senses And you might have to excuse me I’ve lost control of all of my words So get drunk, call me a fool Put me in my place, put me in my place Pick me up, up off the floor Put me in my place, put me in my place
Every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more Every stumble and each misfire I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more
Watching through my fingers Watching through my fingers
‘Cause every minute and every hour I miss you, I miss you, I miss you more
My 2 cents –
First… Thank you to Andrew McDowell for introducing me to this band. I have been doing a deep dive on their discography since.
So I had to ask my kid if they knew about it. And of course they did. It created a conversation about the meaning of the band name and the fact that so many of the songs have sad lyrics. All have a great beat. But an incredibly sad lyrics.
The response I got was something along the lines of the happier the day the music starts to be less so. Because the beat is so much better on the sad ones.
Regardless I love the band and it had somehow escaped my life before now.