Hello, friends! I’m still getting adjusted to being in one location for more than three days. It always happens when I’m winding down from tour, but given the absolute ridiculousness of the past six weeks or so, I think it’s understandable when I say that I keep waking up and believing I’m late for some event or panel. I’M ADJUSTING, I SWEAR.
Part of that adjustment has been trying to get back into the swing of things. I thankfully don’t have to start writing reviews until Monday, so I’ve been answering emails and working on my novel (IT’S ALMOST DONE, HOLY SHIT) and another short story. (I FINISHED ONE, IT’S DONE, HUZZAH.) My computer was up all night processing the files from my very first Discworld Convention. The lovely folks of that con (namely, theladylark!!!) invited me to pull off something I’ve never been able to do: perform Mark Reads live while still reviewing a series. I read a short story, “Troll Bridge,” that takes place after The Light Fantastic. I knew nothing about it, and oh my god, IT WAS SO MUCH FUN. Here are the two videos:
The Introduction: This is about ten minutes long, and it’s the ten minutes I spoke when I found out I DIDN’T ACTUALLY HAVE A COPY OF THE STORY. Because spoilers, duh! So we chatted, I told stories, and SHENANIGANS.
Mark Reads “Troll Bridge”: This file is just over 42 minutes, and contains my entire reading of “Troll Bridge,” plus the Q&A that took place afterwards. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU WATCH WHAT HAPPENS AFTERWARDS, as I am informed of a few puns I missed, and IT DESTROYS ME.
I am giving these files away, despite that they are massive. I felt it was too weird to charge for something like this, so please instead consider supporting me in some way if you’d like. Otherwise, download to your heart’s content. These are indeed HD files, too, so they look gorgeous!
Mark Reads… Books
So, by paring down my schedule so that it’s more manageable and due to having weeks off from writing, I HAVE READ A LOT OF BOOKS. Like… a lot. Not just more than usual – which is generally about two a month when I’m running Mark Does Stuff full time – but like THREE BOOKS A WEEK. And I’ve discovered that while it is entirely a different experience for me to be able to read a book in one sitting (HAHAHA WHAT IS THIS SENSATION), I realized something else.
I miss writing about books when I’m reading them.
I don’t think I can necessarily add more to my schedule right now, given that I am really determined to write as much fiction as humanly possible while I’m feeling confident and creative. As it stands, it takes me about 2.5 days to write 15 posts for both my sites, and I’d really like to spend the rest of the week working on my novel and the assortment of short stories that are all in my brain right now. (Well, then there’s a secret ebook thing I’m gonna do. Haha, allow me to tease you repeatedly.) That being said, I am going to start adding one-off reviews to Mark Reads whenever I finish a book in my free time. I do a lot of reading while commuting to my boyfriend’s place, so even with a full schedule, I’m still finishing a book a week.
So! I’ll be sticking them in the Mark Does Stuff / One-Off Reviews category on the site. There won’t be an official schedule for them, since I can’t control that sort of thing. I did this before with A Song of Ice and Fire, so the reviews will be similar, though they’ll be more fleshed out than that. I’ll always let folks know what I plan to read next at the end of the review as well, so you know what’s in the pipeline. There will be a link to my Goodreads rating/review, too. Aside from this? Basically, I’m going to pick the books I want to read. I’ve missed a lot of things over the years, and there’s no way I can cover everything for Mark Reads. But I think it would be fun to try out some singular reviews and provide folks in the community with a place to discuss books and find new things to read.
I’ll be starting with (and very soon) my review of Divergent, which I had to read in a single sitting while on a plane bound for LeakyCon. I was on a panel about representations of disability in the book, and I felt I couldn’t be informed without having read it. SO I DID. I’m also working my way through Octavia Butler’s everything, so you might get a Fledgling review or one for the Parable duology. WHO KNOWS. I HAVE A LOT OF THOUGHTS.
Anyway, that’s all for today. I’ll make sure to tweet about any reviews like this that go up. I think it’s going to be a lot fun and a chance for me to SHARE ALL MY FEELINGS WITH THE WORLD.
