Sarah Pennington's Blog, page 5

Spring 2024 Read

Hello, everyone! Spring is here . . . and so, naturally, the cold has returned after a week and a bit of sunshine, because that's how the world works apparently. Happily, this spring is also full of so many exciting releases, which provide a very handy distraction from the weather. In fact, there's enough releases that have me really hyped that I can't actually cut down my list to just five — so I'm posting the full version on both Light and Shadows and Dreams and Dragons! (I actually have an ul...

Thoughts on Water Horse

Hello, everyone! March and April are full of exciting book releases, and today, I'm helping to celebrate the first of these: Katie Hanna's Water Horse, a Western fantasy coming in just a few days, on March 19. Katie has published many short stories in anthologies and through Havok, but this is her first full-length nove release, so I'm absolutely thrilled for her. I was also thrilled to get my hands on an ARC of her novel so I could read this tale of magic, murder, and marriage as soon as possib...

The Best Books of Discworld

Hello hello hello! I originally intended to take this week off from blogging, as I had a lot on my plate and wanted to focus my time and energy elsewhere. Then one of the things that was on my plate came off it . . . and I remembered that I had a half-finished post that I'd been saving for March Magics, so here we are! For those who don't know, March Magics is an annual, month-long celebration of the writings of Diana Wynne Jones and Terry Pratchett. I typically don't participate aside from usin...

February Doings!

Hello, all. February is over, and March is over, which means it's time for another Doings! post. This has been a long and tiring month — exactly what I expect February to be most years, actually, but not what it usually actually is. The past several years, I've gone into February with dread and found it wasn't half as bad as I feared. This year, I went into the month with an impressive level of optimism, and now I am tired. Writing!

This was . . . well, it was a frustrating month, writing-wise...

Hello, all. February is over, and March is over, which me...

Hello, all. February is over, and March is over, which means it's time for another Doings! post. This has been a long and tiring month — exactly what I expect February to be most years, actually, but not what it usually actually is. The past several years, I've gone into February with dread and found it wasn't half as bad as I feared. This year, I went into the month with an impressive level of optimism, and now I am tired. Writing!

This was . . . well, it was a frustrating month, writing-wise...

On the Taleweaver's Desk Issue 11: February 2024

Hello, all! Welcome to the first Taleweaver's Desk update of 2024! To conclude the scheduling saga of the last few of these posts: I think I'm going to stick with doing these quarterly for now, as I do have some new developments to report, but a three-times-per-year schedule isn't entirely off the table yet. I also have a question for y'all: frequently, the "Shelved for Now" and "Stacked on the Side" sections don't actually have any changes from quarter to quarter. (This "Stacked on the Side" se...

February Is Fantasy Month: Favorite Romance Tropes

Hello all! With Valentine's Day just behind us, I think it's safe to say that many of us have romance on the brain. So, what better time than now to talk about some of my favorite romance tropes? And to link in with February is Fantasy Month again, for every trope, I'm going to include a few fantasy book recommendations that I think really showcase what I'm talking about.

Favorite Romance Tropes
Slow Burn. I think my love for this trope is well-established — the surest way to make me enjoy a roman...

February Is Fantasy Month: Favorite Fantasy Subgenres

Hey'a, friends! As you may have seen, this year, Jenelle Leanne Schmidt brought back February is Fantasy Month, a month-long celebration of all things fantasy! This includes daily posts over on her site, a blog post linkup, giveaways, and an Instagram challenge. And because I love both fantasy and prompts that help me figure out what to post about, I'm borrowing today's Instagram topic, fantasy subgenres, for today's post. Now, I've met very few fantasy subgenres I don't enjoy . . . but I defini...

January 2024 Doings!

Hey'a, friends! We're officially a month into 2024, and I feel like the year has had a pretty good start. While January had some rough spots, I've had a reasonably pleasant month involving a new hobby, some gaming, and a lot of writing. So, let's look back and see what was good!

Writing!

I'm happy to say I've had a very productive January, writing-wise! Daughters of Atirse #2 has about 30,000-some words of rough draft to its name, plus 10,000-odd words of outline (from which I have already dive...

Reasons Why Drake Hall Is an Absolute Delight

Hello friends! Some of y'all may remember that back in October, I absolutely raved over Christina Baehr's Wormwood Abbey, a cozy gothic fantasy about family and dragons and tradition and change. Well, the sequel to Wormwood Abbey, Drake Hall, just released this week (the week of Dragon Appreciation Day, very appropriately), and I am here to tell you that it is every bit as delightful as the original — and in some ways, it's even better.

 

Reasons Why Drake Hall Is an Absolute Delight
It's grounded ...