Reading Recap

Aaaand, I'm back in business. Sorta. Last Wednesday I got the new charger for my netbook, so I again have a computer! A slow, super laggy, but only online, which totally isn't helpful, computer. Still! It's a computer, and it IS only laggy online.... for the most part.... which means I can get back to writing offline. Which is really the only truly important part of having a computer.

I mean, sure, I'm still addicted to Facebook, and not being as active as I normally am because my netbook can't handle it sucks. Still, WRITING! Huzzah!

Also, reading.

Because, that's what I've ACTUALLY been doing this week. Well... a bit of both, actually. Let me slow down here... I'm getting a bit overly excited.

Let's start with my reading, since that was the majority of my week.

I know, it's been a while since I talked about reading. I've really been neglecting that. My reading momentum was killed with "Atlas Shrugged" and it didn't get revived by "I Link Therefore I Am." On top of that, I was so focused on prepping for NaNo in October, and then participating in NaNo last month. I just haven't taken the time to read. Not really.

So, since it's been a while, let's get back to that Reading Challenge check list and see how I'm doing.

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

There are a couple of categories that are filled in but not checked off. That's because I haven't completed the books.

I've been kind of riding high on my own plot bunnies the second half of the year, so I haven't really needed to find my story via "Ready. Set. Novel!" therefore, I haven't completed my delve into a new Jolene story via that book. I've mentioned before that I had to abandon "Atlas Shrugged" because it was just taking too long to get through it. I'm going to give it a second go - complete with a notebook to help me keep track of things/characters - at the start of next year. Finally, "The Ship of the Dead" is what I'm reading right now.

It's a fun read, but I'll get back to that in a moment. Let's stick with the check list right now.

"Half Bad" has red font and what looks like blood dripping through water on the cover, so it could replace "RSN" if I can find a different "UK" book. I could also move "Half Bad" to "Suggested" if I wanted to replace "AS" and read a second book that took place in the UK. I still have two categories I haven't touched yet, though, so I might have to leave those incomplete books where they are.

I still can't recall what I read in 2015, so finding a book I would have given a "5-star review" to is pretty impossible for me. However, I did recently buy "Oblivion" by Ali Luke finally. Only kept me shy of two years to buy....

Anyway, my point is that I did read Lycopolis back in the fall of 2012, and so I'll want to re-read before going into Oblivion. Perhaps, if I can re-read Lycopolis this month I can use that as my "re-read" book and knock out another category. I'll just need to find a book set in the future to "complete" this challenge. Not sure if I can manage in the short time left in the year, but I can try.

Even if I don't "complete" this challenge, I have read a few things that don't fall into the categories. I started off the year by going through the "Writer's Book of Days" by Judy Reeves. I didn't do any prompts past January, but I have read the monthly chapters up to September....

I also read a 375-pg manga adaptation of Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time. Finally, ever since I got suckered into the Miraculous Ladybug fandom I have read three different fanfictions. One was short enough to read in one sitting, but the other two I had to slowly consume over the course of a week or so.

All three were found on Archive of Our Own:

"Under Lock and Key" by EdenDaphne and Maerynn
I believe the two authors co-write the story, with Maerynn taking on the majority of the physical writing, but the jewel is that EdenDaphne illustrated scenes in the story. It's a quick read with some really nice artwork throughout. It's also still going, with long pauses between updates because the two women are busy moms.
"Smoulder" by midnightstarlightwrites
This story really jumpstarted my desire to write "Peeping Tomcat" because seeing Adrien and Marinette wiggle as they realize they have a crush on each other was so much fun. I feel like the OCs and the characterization of Chat Noir were a bit off, but the overall story is still great, and my need to "fix" the characterization was the other drive for me to take my time to write PT properly instead of just dumping chapters after I'm done writing them, which is how I used to do it.
"Curiosity and Satisfaction" by imthepunchlord

I just finished this one yesterday. Such a fun story based on the "Enemy AU" genre. Meaning, a re-imagining of Miraculous Ladybug if Chat Noir were a villain working with Hawk Moth instead of a hero as Ladybug's partner. The author has dyslexia, so there's some tense/grammar/typo issues, but all-in-all it was really enjoyable and greatly paced.

While "Under Lock and Key" was less than 10,000 words long, "Curiosity and Satisfaction" was just over 54,000 words, which, according to NaNo, is a novel. On top of that, "Smoulder" was over 163,000 words long!!!! Can I count those for my reading challenge, even though none of them count towards any of those categories? "Under Lock and Key" was published online in 2017, between May and September, but it isn't completed yet so......

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Anyway, I HAVE been reading, even if I'm not going to complete the 12 categories on the Reading Books Like a Boss challenge. I still have a chance, though, since I'm over half-way done with "The Ship of the Dead" already, in less than a week of reading. I'm just devouring this book! So good! I get why Ronoxym has been so antsy to talk to ANYONE about this story. About half-way through, my heart was ripped out of my chest. So sad. So good. I need to slow down and really study Riordan's writing in order to improve my own skills. That's the main point of a writer being an avid reader as well, after all.

Speaking of, how is my writing going? I started this post all excited about my netbook revival because it meant I was writing again.

Well, as I mentioned, I have and I haven't been writing.

I haven't advanced Peeping Tomcat to make up for everything I've lost over the course of November. I've wanted to, but I also wanted to finish off "Curiosity and Satisfaction" first, and I still had to use time outside of work to catch up on cleaning.

I have been jotting down some more notes on potential akumas, and how to improve upon what I wrote thus far for PT. I've also done some more research to help with the last half of the story. On top of all that, I sat with my wheel of Camembert and Miraculous Ladybug's second season on YouTube in order to again study the characters and the episode structure.

That's been my biggest inspiration this week, because yet ANOTHER one of season two's episodes has been fan-subbed. Out of the initial 13 episodes of this season, I've now watched the first 8, and I'm loving it. I'm a bad, bad girl for watching them on YouTube instead of waiting for them to officially air in the US on Netflix. However, to be fair, should Nickelodeon have picked up the show again, it probably would have aired by now. Netflix is just waiting for the full season, as it does, and the Miraculous crew is working hard to provide the highest quality show they can, so the production is running behind. No Season 2 for Netflix until the spring....

I'm sliding off topic.

Anyway, episode 8 had a key moment that is a huge "squee" moment, much like the slow dance scene from episode 2 that I squee'd about a couple weeks ago.

In case you want to avoid spoilers, I contained what I wanted to say in the below spoiler box. If you don't care about spoilers, and/or want more detail about the plot bunny I've been working on this week, go ahead to click on the button to expand it.

So, in Season 2's eighth episode "Dark Owl" there is a moment where Ladybug and Chat Noir have to de-transform in front of each other. They keep their eyes closed, so Adrien and Marinette are still clueless. However, with the superheroes de-powered, their kwamis are now floating by their shoulders. Tikki and Plagg quickly eat to build up their strength before re-transforming Ladybug and Chat Noir. Again, Ladybug and Chat Noir STILL don't know who the other really is, but now Tikki and Plagg DO know. It's also the first time they actually saw each other, at least since Master Fu gifted the Miraculouses to Adrien and Marinette. It's a sweet moment cut far too short for action pacing. It was cute to see Tikki feeding Plagg to build up his strength.

However, as I mentioned, the key is that Plagg and Tikki now know who the other superhero is, and Plagg's look when he realized what was going on was AWESOME! Tikki had to shush him. I don't know if he was shocked that they were de-powered together, that he was nervous about the Miraculouses being given up, that he was shocked to see Tikki, or that he was surprised that Marinette was Ladybug.

So many possibilities! As I was falling asleep Friday night I just pictured this scene where Plagg, now knowing that Tikki is hiding in Marinette's purse, phases into the purse to join Tikki. She berates him, but he whines that he's bored and lonely. The two then debate the benefits and dangers of Adrien and Marinette knowing the other is their superhero partner.

For those who didn't expand the spoiler box, the long-and-short of what I've been working on is a small Tikki and Plagg centric story, and their potential to bring Adrien and Marinette closer together.

I'm definitely still feeling the writing bug pretty hard, which is surprising to me after the devastation I suffered in November. I also normally suffer writer's fatigue after the effort put into NaNo, but I'm not feeling that this go. Then again, my computer crash has forced me to "relax" for about two weeks, so I guess that's my fatigue recovery?

Maybe I'll have some advancement in my writing to talk about next week. Or maybe I'll be able to check off "Ship of the Dead" and be able to start yet another book... Guess we'll see next week!

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