Here are the things that stand out to me this month:
I re-purpleized my hair! (Check out the pic in my sidebar.)
Trip to Atlanta. This was technically a college visit for Danielle (we visited UGA), but we turned it into a long-weekend trip to Atlanta. We went on a food tour (yum!) and went to the Botanic Gardens, along with visiting UGA’s campus in Athens.
My 2022 Reading Progress:
I read 17books in April, bringing my total for the year to 52. This puts me 19 books ahead of schedule so far for the year.
I’ve also read 15 picture books and 4 manuscripts for fellow authors! (I don’t include either in my main Goodreads count.)
Today I’m featuring two books by Deva Fagan: THE MIRRORWOOD, a unique middle grade fantasy about a girl without a face and NIGHTINGALE, another fantasy, this time with a superhero spin. The first book just came out on 4/12, and the second was released in paperback on that same date!
Check out my reviews, along with Deva’s list of top ten addictions and a giveaway of both books!
The Mirrorwood by Deva Fagan Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers on April 12, 2022 Genres: Fantasy, Middle Grade Pages: 304 Source: NetGalley Cover Artist: Design by Karyn Lee. Art by Sylvia Bi
Perfect for fans of the Twisted Tales series and Doll Bones, this thrilling middle grade fantasy follows a girl without a face as she battles a deadly enchanted forest and learns the truth behind her world’s fairy tales. Appearances are always deceiving…
Fable has been cursed by what the people in her village call the Blight, a twisted enchantment that leaves her without a face of her own. To stay alive, Fable has to steal the faces of others, making her an outcast that no one trusts. When the fierce Blighthunter Vycorax comes to kill Fable to stop her curse from spreading, Fable narrowly escapes by fleeing into the thorny woods surrounding her small village.
The treacherous forest has been ruled by a demon-prince for centuries, a deadly place trapped in time. Fable—and her opinionated feline companion, Moth—is the first to dare enter in a very long time. There, she encounters a tediously chatty skull, dangerously meddlesome deities, and a beast so powerful it tears at the fabric of reality, leaving nothingness in its horrible wake.
Fable will soon discover that, in the Mirrorwood, nothing is quite like the stories say, and the perilous realm may be the only chance she has to break her curse and find her true self.
Here are the things that stand out to me this month:
Writing. I’ve started writing a new book! Not very far at this point, but it’s good to be working on something new.
My 2022 Reading Progress:
I read 8books in March, bringing my total for the year to 35. This puts me 11 books ahead of schedule so far for the year.
I’ve also read 14 picture books and 4 manuscripts for fellow authors! (I don’t include either in my main Goodreads count.)
Here are the things that stand out to me this month:
Visit to Iowa State University. We visited Iowa State University and actually made a pretty huge realization while we were there. They have a Landscape Design program that’s heavier on horticulture and lighter on design than the actual Landscape Architecture. It’s an intriguing option that we didn’t really realize existed before, and I think Danielle likes the idea. But there are a lot of factors to consider. At the very least, this helped us realize that she definitely wants a program that’s heavy on horticulture, which helps us narrow her choices down a lot.
Reading Manuscripts. I critiqued two verse novels from fellow authors this month (and got one more that I’m about to dive into). I really love the process of giving and receiving feedback!
Randomness: We continued with dog agility with Digit and I’m still volunteering at Bernie’s Book Bank. My daughter’s had some indoor track meets, so that’s been fun. Other than that … time just … went? I don’t really know what happened.
A couple of weeks ago, I was away from home for a few days while at my son’s State meet for Special Olympics snowshoeing. On the second morning, I found myself missing snuggles from my pup, Digit. He tends to be very needy in the mornings, which means that he gives me very forceful snuggles, hoping I’ll play with him in return. He’s a very smart dog—it usually works. At any rate, I found myself thinking about his cute little face and I realized—I couldn’t actually picture it. I mean, I had a sort of blurry idea of his face. I know his coloring and that he has perk ears and an area on his nose where the white juts in on one side and out on the other. I could describe it, but I couldn’t picture it.
Here are the things that stand out to me this month:
My son’s Special Olympics snowshoeing competitions. Technically, the state competition took place during the first three days of February, but since I’m late writing this post (partially because of that 3-day competition), I’m including it here. Noah competed in January and qualified for state for both the 50m and 100m races. Then, at state, he got the gold medal overall for both races! He was incredibly excited and we were so impressed that he could run in snowshoes! He also had several basketball games in January.
Visit to Ball State University. My daughter Danielle has been accepted to several colleges, and now she has the task of deciding where she’s going to attend. We had already visited Purdue, and in January we visited Ball State. We really liked the college a lot, but she decided she’d be happier at Purdue. So, one decision made. (Woo hoo!)
Other continued activities: We continued with dog agility with Digit and I went back to volunteering at Bernie’s Book Bank regularly. Oh, and we actually went to see two movies at the theater!
Feed Your Fiction Addiction turns nine today, so it’s time to celebrate! It’s hard to believe it’s been nine years since I started this little blog. I had no idea at the time how important it would become to me. Thanks so much for talking books with me for all these years!
As usual, I’ve adapted this from The Perpetual Page Turner’s End of Year Survey!
2021 READING STATS
Number Of Books You Read: 115
(Plus 16 picture books and 10 manuscript readings, neither of which are included in Goodreads, but I track them in my spreadsheet. If I included the number of times I’ve read my own manuscript, that number would be way higher. 🙂 )
Number of Re-Reads: 4 Genre You Read The Most From: Fantasy/Paranormal
I found this fun tag the other day over at a GREAT read and decided to join in. The tag was created by the blogger over at 24hryabookblog and the image above was borrowed from them as well!
HOW DO YOU ORGANIZE THE BOOKS ON YOUR SHELVES?
My “system” is somewhat haphazard. I have one YA bookcase in my room that’s organized by color—I love the rainbow effect! The other two bookcases in my room are also mostly YA books, but one shelf has some display books from series I love, and then the rest of the bookcase is random unread books that don’t fit the colors of my rainbow shelves. My final bookcase in my room is also random, mostly YA books with very little organization at all to it. Finally, I have a large bookcase downstairs that holds most of my middle grade books and some other random display books and old middle grade collections. A few of these shelves are color-coded, and then I have a section for verse novels. The rest of that bookshelf is sort of random.
The Mirrorwood by Deva Fagan
