Sarah Pennington's Blog, page 25

Thoughts on Let the Ghosts Speak

Hey'a, all! We're halfway through April, and I'm popping back in on the blogosphere to share my thoughts on Bryan Davis's latest book, Let the Ghosts Speak . I originally intended for this to go up last week, but that . . . didn't happen. Anyway. Bryan Davis's new book released on Amazon at the beginning of the month and on his website just this past week, and it is very good. It has the vibe of a book that's going to become a classic that English students at scholars discuss at length but...

March 2020 Doings!

Hey'a, all! So, I think we can all agree that this last month has been utter madness, yeah? It feels like overnight, we went from "This is normal" to "State of national panic," and we're all realizing why "May you live in interesting times" is considered a curse. But for now, most of us are (I'm pretty sure) alive, so the Doings! go on as usual.
Writing!Social distancing can't stop a good adventure, y'know? My goal for March was 300 words or 30 minutes per day, five days a week. I'm happy to...

Reasons to Love the Wingfeather Saga (Part the First)

Hey'a, everyone! So, as I mentioned in last week's post, Andrew Peterson and Waterbrook Press recently re-released the first two Wingfeather Saga books, and I made the release street team. As you may also remember, the release took place the week that everything descended into chaos and madness, which meant I neither reread the books in as timely a fashion as I intended nor blogged about them when I planned. But, better late than never, and I'll take any excuse to ramble about the books I...

Spring 2020 Reads!

Hello, everyone! It is officially spring; the flowers are blooming outside my window, and yesterday it actually felt kinda sorta warm! So that's a bit of hope for y'all in this crazy, stressful period of life. And I've got several more bits of hope as well in the form of new books releasing this season. Some of the ones I'm most excited about already released, but that's fine; I'll talk about them anyway. Let's get started!

Spring 2020 Reads!1. Havenfall by Sara Holland (March 3). We all know...

February 2020 Doings!

Behold! I live! I apologize for dropping off the face of the earth, blog-wise, the last two weeks. With classes, writing, social events, and the need for decent sleep all coming in front of the need to write blog posts, blogging just didn't happen. And, fair warning, I might be a bit spotty for the next couple months as well. But for now, I'm here (and on spring break!), so let's get on with the Doings of the last month!
Writing![image error]My goal for February was to write 500 words or 30 minutes a day,...

Valentine's Day Special: Beauty and the Bard {Tiria}

Ok, so this is not actually a Beauty and the Beast retelling, but I was stuck for a title, so there you go. Anyway. For Valentine's Day, my D&D players requested that I write a short story about how two of the romantically-involved NPCs, Lady Tiria Serys (aka the chief quest-giver) and Ardent the bard (aka Bardent), met. (They all ship this couple to some degree or another. It's great and makes me SO PROUD.) Since I was already planning to write a Valentine's Day short story, I happily...

Elements That Make (or Break) a World

Hey'a, everyone! It is February, and that means it's Fantasy Month in the bit of the blogosphere that Jenelle Schmidt influences, including this blog! This year's themes are Worldbuilding and Fantasy Creatures, so most of my Friday 5s posts this month will align with one of those two things, or at least with the general Fantasy Month theme in general. And today, we're talking about worldbuilding elements that really make (or sometimes break) a world for me. These range from the big and...

January 2020: First DOINGS of the DECADE!

Hey'a, everyone! It is the last day of January and a Friday, and that means it's time for the first Doings post of the decade! WOOT WOOT. I have no idea why I'm making such a big deal about this, but it's something different, so we're going with it. Anyway. January's been one of those months where it feels like it's actually two or three months stuck into one, so that's been interesting. We'll see how much I remember to recap.
Writing!So, as far as writing quantity goes, I'm doing great. My...

If Baili Met Breen (And Related Potentialities)

So, the other day, I was contemplating the fact that I write an awful lot of multilingual characters for someone who's solidly monolingual. (I really do, if you haven't noticed. I have more multilingual characters than monolingual ones.) And that started my thoughts down another trail: what would happen if the main characters of Blood in the Snow and Mechanical Heart met? Who would get along well? Who would fight? Granted, it's not something that's likely to happen (given the current lack of...

Dragon Types That We Don't See Enough

Hey'a, everyone! This week's post topic comes courtesy of my lovely roommate, who suggested it when I said I was going to write a dragon-themed post this week. (Why dragons? Yesterday, if you missed it, was Dragon Appreciation Day! I celebrated by posting pictures of my cute dragon stuffies on social media and writing a D&D episode featuring a dragon that most of my players appreciate quite a bit.) Today we're talking about dragon types and interpretations that we'd like to see more...