Tag: Steve D

November Write Day: A Week Late

On By Steven D'AdamoIn Fantasy, On LifeLeave a comment

October was a frenetic month, capped off by Halloween festivities and a brief trip I took to L.A. with one friend to visit another friend. I neglected to post this last week, so here we are almost halfway through November.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books.
  2. Stretching & exercise.
  3. Continue organizing around the house.
  4. Community resilience.
  5. Take writing notes.

Finish three books?

I finished one book in October – The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz, for which I’ll post my review next week. I’ve made progress on other reads, and I’m more than halfway through an Arthurian fantasy book: The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman, so I should be able to hit two or three books in November.

Stretching and exercise?

I did four shorter stretching/yoga sessions in October, short of my goal. I’m hitting another motivation wall with exercise. Luckily, I went on a lovely hike in California last weekend that has given me at least one day of above-average exercise.

Continue organizing around the house?

We got our front hill landscaped, Halloween decorations put out and now cleaned up, and cleaned up the backyard a bit. I still want to build storage shelves in our shed. Some of our neighbors are already putting out holiday lights. We’re not mentally prepared to do so yet, but it will certainly be a topic of conversation and planning in our house until Thanksgiving or so.

Community resilience?

No news on this front. Still pondering.

Take writing notes?

I managed to spend a couple of brief sessions taking notes on stories floating through my head. I also played Dungeons and Dragons over the weekend. During our trip to L.A., our friend organized a one-shot session with his local friend, who DM’d for the three of us.

I used a character I had only used one time before, so I already had a bit of a backstory outline in my head. Playing (and beating!) this one-shot quest has me thinking about this even more. I don’t know if or where I will provide any information for my character, but I will definitely count this towards writing this month.

Goals for November

  1. Finish three books.
    • Current reads: The Bright Sword, by Lev Grossman; A Promised Land by Barack Obama; The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Alan Poe, by Edgar Alan Poe and Benjamin Franklin Fisher (editor)
    • Likely next reads: Haven’t looked that far ahead yet.
  2. Stretching & exercise. Aiming for 5-10 shorter exercise sessions, and 2-5 longer yoga or weightlifting sessions (or a hike in the mountains).
  3. Community resilience. Similar to last month, I need to find ways to contribute more directly and proactively in my community.
  4. Take writing notes. I’m taking notes and thinking more regularly about writing, but my attention at the moment is split between two stories in my own fantasy universe and my D&D character. Not a bad thing, I’m just letting my writing curiosity take me where it will for now.

Steve D

October Write Day: The Turn

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On LifeLeave a comment

October came upon me so quickly that I forgot to do this post last week. Luckily, I had a book review to post instead.

Halloween preparation is in full swing on our street–now that we know a fair number of our neighbors, we’re all enjoying the friendly decoration competition and watching the neighborhood kids get excited. And Halloween is on a Friday, so it’s likely to be crazy.

I feel pretty good about September. Everything is a work in progress, as always.

Last Month’s Goals

  1. Finish three books.
  2. Stretching & exercise.
  3. Organize around the house.
  4. Community resilience.

Finish three books?

I finished two books in September: I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole, on which I was lukewarm, and The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar, on which I was much warmer.

I’ve made marginal progress on a couple other reads, and I’ve started a sci-fi novel: The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz. I’m enjoying its rich world-building and high-concept post-Earth civilization so far.

Stretching and exercise?

I stretched nearly every day in September, out of necessity. I also did a short resistance training routine five times, and a proper yoga session (20 minutes or more) once. Not great, but it was consistent across most of September, and it helped me feel good overall.

Organize around the house?

This is a never-ending process, so it’s more about getting things done consistently than actually “finishing”, unless there’s a larger project. I have yet to build the shelves in my shed, but we definitely cleaned out some old things. Now the focus is on Halloween decorations, which is a different sort of organization.

Community resilience?

Still mostly pondering. I’m getting more involved in the local chapter of an environmental organization, by going on hikes and such. And I’m trying to be more conscientious about reading the news from the sources I trust on a regular basis, including local ones. Still trying to find how I can meaningfully contribute, though.

Goals for October

  1. Finish three books.
    • Current reads: The Terraformers, by Annalee Newitz; A Promised Land by Barack Obama; The Essential Tales and Poems of Edgar Alan Poe, by Edgar Alan Poe and Benjamin Franklin Fisher (editor)
    • Likely next reads: I recently purchased The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, first in a historical fantasy series by Shauna Lawless about Vikings in Ireland — so it’s directly in my wheelhouse. The audiobook is also narrated by Aoife McMahon, who is a top-tier narrator.
  2. Stretching & exercise. The goal is to do better than last month, so 5-10 shorter exercise sessions, and 2-5 longer yoga or weightlifting sessions.
  3. Continue organizing around the house. Halloween is the priority, but yardwork needs to be done to prepare for next spring, too.
  4. Community resilience. Similar to last month, I need to find ways to contribute more directly and proactively in my community.
  5. Take writing notes. I’ve started doing this, just to get my stories back into my weekly/daily brain space. I’m also considering options for publishing stories online, just to get my stories out there again. No decisions have been made yet, but I want to keep pacing down this path.

Steve D

Book Review: THE MAP OF SALT AND STARS

On By Steven D'AdamoIn On Storytelling, ReviewsLeave a comment

I’ve had The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar in my Audible library for several months, and I finally got around to listening to it. This is one of those books that, despite the blurb, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

The Map of Salt and Stars is a powerful story of struggle, sorrow, hope, and love. The story follows Nour, a young girl whose family is forced out of their home in Homs, Syria by the outbreak of the civil war, and Rawiya, a tenacious girl centuries earlier who embarks on a journey across the Mediterranean.

The mirrored stories of Rawiya and Nour created a beautiful symmetry in the plot while deriving meaning from both. Nour, in trying to understand what is happening to her family, and through the grief of lost loved ones, discovers the true meaning of her family’s history, and what it means to find home after everything she knows is destroyed. Meanwhile, Rawiya, in becoming a mapmaker’s apprentice, finds the adventure she’d been seeking, and reveals her own power as a brave warrior and cunning tactician.

The characters’ journeys follow each other from one end of the Mediterranean to the other. This structure makes the overall narrative familiar, but the twists and turns that take each character from one location to the next propel the plot forward from chapter to chapter.

The very real circumstances around Nour’s family — war, hunger, a refugee crisis in the making — are contrasted well by the more fantastical dangers of Rawiya’s journey fraught with dashing princes, mythical creatures, and magical stones.

Zeyn Joukhadar is an emotive writer, whose prose was thoughtful and intricate without being overly embellished.

The audio version was fantastic, but I think this is a story worth reading on the page. This is definitely a candidate to buy in hard cover for the home bookshelf.

Steve D