Shimmering warm and bright

From Friday’s fortune cookie: “Through greater effort and hard work a precious dream comes true.”

That could not have come at a better time! 

I’m feeling a bit at loose ends right now, since along with eating Chinese food on Friday, I also finished the final pass of my novel Sipping the Moon and sent out my first batch of queries to literary agents. (Eek!) Wow, I can’t believe it’s finally at that stage. I’d worked on the novel since 2007, tossing out drafts and starting over until it finally felt book shaped and the best I could make it. So now it’s time to trust, to go read other people’s words, and to write more of my own.

First, though, I want to take stock. So far 2013’s been intense, with some ups and downs, but one of the highlights was a visit a couple weekends ago from friends, amazing author and performer C.S.E. Cooney–GO READ HER STUFF!–and equally wonderful artist Katie Redding. We chatted and ate yummy Indian food and laughed and baked cupcakes in my cupcake-themed kitchen and drank tea and generally filled my house with light. It was so lovely. I forget sometimes how inspiring it is to be surrounded by other creative people. I’m still glowing. 

And let me sign off with a plug for a couple awesome fantasy novels not steeped in Western mythology:

First, The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda. Basically, Chadda picks up from where the Hindu epic, the Ramayana, left off, adapting it for modern-day India. His hero, a thirteen-year-old boy from the UK, Ash (Ashoka), quickly learns just how relevant the old myths can be, especially once he discovers who he was in them. Rich and action packed. Tagline: “Heroes aren’t made. They’re reborn.” SO GOOD. I cannot wait for books two and three! In fact, I loved the first one so much, I’m going to leave a review for it on Amazon, which I usually don’t do.

Secondly, I’m reading Ellen Oh’s Prophecy, a young adult high fantasy based on Korean culture. I’m really enjoying it so far! Kira, the heroine, is the only female warrior in the king’s army, and she’s also a secret demon slayer and an outcast. Can’t wait to see where Oh goes with this.

Obviously I want to see books like these be the norm, not the exception, so please consider giving them a read, whether you buy them or get them from your library. And then talk about them!

And now for some vacuuming and putting away of laundry. Oh, the glamorous life of a writer . . .