2016 May Reading List

The She-Wolf by Maurice Druon – It describes Isabelle’s ascent to power, but since she was unlikable from the start, I can’t say my opinion on her has changed. 4/5 stars

The Lily and the Lion by Maurice Druon – Moving from mother to son who is interesting, plus major character’s death. Rather bleak. 4/5 stars

The King without a Country by Maurice Druon – The sudden switch from 3^rd person POV to 1^st person is jarring, and there’s a lot of rambling. An unfortunate way to end the series. 3/5 stars

The Wit & Wisdom of Tyrion Lannister by George R. R. Martin – Not a book, just a few Tyrion quotes. I repeat, this is not a book. 3/5 stars

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire – I loved the title and the cover. The writing starts off lyrical, which was a nice change, but the gore took me by surprise. And then there was more gore. The other worlds didn’t make much sense. It was like reading in a language I didn’t understand well. The ending didn’t seem to fit, and then it sort of did when I discovered it’s supposed to be part of a trilogy, duh! 3/5 stars

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan – Brennan’s hilarious humor is missing, and while there’s sarcastic dialogue, that’s actually the annoying part. The worldbuilding shows potential, but the main character uses only a small part of her brain, the good guy is a doormat, and while the not-so-bad guy is the most fleshed out character, he gets … well, you’ll see. 3/5 stars

Writing Update - May 2016

Quite a few things happened since the last writing update back in February. My second Romanian short story collection, Secventa de zbor, was launched at Final Fantasy book fair. I had three short stories published, one in Argos, one in Revista de Suspans, and one in Stiinta si Tehnica. The Galaxis space opera anthology will be launched at Bookfest book fair in June. The second book in The Stolen Wings series and the second story in The Devil You Know series have been released as well. So it's been pretty busy on the publishing front.

The real work was done, however, on the writing front. I've finished translating The Impaler Legacy series and got it to the second draft. The final draft will have to wait until I finish writing The Chasm. I'm up to date with the daily writing quota, but the novel turned out to be longer than initially planned. I was aiming for 50k, I passed that mark, and I'm no way near the end. I suppose that's good news as it will be a bigger story, but it also means the release date gets delayed. I'm not sure when it will be ready. I'll have a better idea once the first draft is done. I still enjoy writing it so I'm not rushing it.

Yes, I know you're more invested in Broken People and The Stolen Wings series and can't wait for book 3, but there will come a time for those, too. My fingers are itching for another Law and Crucible adventure actually. And should I tell you meanwhile I'm having a lot of fun plotting a ghost story? No idea when I'll write that one. :)