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Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Joys of Reading and Writing #IWSG

Last month was a whirlwind of writing and reading and everything I love. I was struggling with book 2 of a series I'd like to complete this year, so when an idea struck me for another story, I thought, why not? So I wrote a YA sci-fi thriller novella, currently sitting at 32k words. With the first draft complete, I set it aside and now I'm back to working on Book 2 of my YA fantasy series. And it's flowing so much better now! Phew!

Reading: So far I've read ten books this year. I'm a slow reader, so I'm rather thrilled to have gone through so many books already. With the Goodreads Reading Challenge, I had pledged to read 25 books this year. I'm way ahead of schedule and this pleases me greatly.

Of the books I've read, two are by Australian writers; four are fantasies, two of which are young adult; three are sci-fi, and again, two of those are young adult; one is a post-apocolypse because apparently I can't get enough of those at the moment; one is a thriller; and one is general fiction.

The stand-outs? All were great reads but the stand-outs were easily Illuminae and Navigating the Stars. Both are YA sci-fi full of awesome characters and high stakes. I HIGHLY recommend.

Awesome happy news: one of my short stories was accepted into AntipodeanSF's May-June special 250th issue. AntipodeanSF is an Aussie online magazine that's devoted to the monthly publication of fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, and horror mini-stories of about 500–1000 words each, with occasional longer feature stories.The 250th edition will also be available as a paperback. Woo!

The IWSG question of the month is: Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? I enjoy both, but the villain is harder to get right without turning them into a cartoon character. Getting that third dimension on the bad guy is a challenge.

What's been your favourite book/s so far this year? Who do you prefer to read or write--the hero or the villain? What have you been up to recently? 


This post was written for the IWSG. Every first Wednesday of the month the members of our group post on their blogs about their writing insecurities or offer some encouragement to others. If you are new to the IWSG or want to learn more, then please go HERE