Hello from gorgeous cow country in upstate NY!
And it is gorgeous, let me tell you. A beautiful summer, perfect for growing things:
And a perfect time for hunkering down and taking care of those aspects of life that we normally don't have time for. Family. Rest and recuperation. Intellectual development. Although I have had the temptation to overwork (the world outside isn't as appealing as my own demesne), I find that simply sitting on the porch to read the Lord of the Rings for the twelfth time is much preferable to sitting staring at a screen for hours.
I have to ask your patience with me. I often share useful and inspiring stories here on my newsletter, but because of the mad rush to get book 5 done, I haven't had as much time to search and read on the internet.
I promise that soon I will start doing that again. To tide you over, here is a most perfect article about gardening and stories. I almost (no, definitely) wish I had written it myself :)
Before wishing you a good, healthy, and joyful weekend, I wanted to share a recent review of the just-released The Throne of the Gods. It was humbling and joyful to read:
"When I read book 1 of this series, I seriously considered stopping there. Despite some interesting ideas and world building, there were a lot of issues with execution and clunky prose so that I wasn't sure I wanted to continue. However, there were some parts, scenes or character choices, that spoke of potential yet unrealized, and I decided to give the next book a chance.
Boy am I glad I did!
Kotar has truly grown as an author over the course of this series. The story was never boring, even if I didn't like a couple of the tropes he decided to use, and I came to really care about the characters. But what impresses me the most is how his prose and how he describes and writes certain parts of this book are just amazing. There was one line in particular, which comes within the last few pages of the book, that made my throat tighten and emotions well with joy that is so hard to capture.
That's not to say the book is perfect. I did say this is an 8 or a 9, after all. There were a couple questions at the end of the book that were unanswered, and I hope for future side stories to address them. He's dealing with some pretty difficult concepts, especially regarding symbolism, that we've largely forgotten how to interact with and understand in the modern world, and while I can wish he had done a better job, I appreciate what he is doing and what he did with those things.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I loved the characters, the story was interesting and had some good twists and turns, the prose was good and at times phenomenal! I'm happy this series is completed, but I'm even more happy that I decided to stick with it to the end. Great finale, and I'm excited to see what Kotar releases next."
The paperback is coming next week, so stay tuned for that.
Thank you again for coming along with me on this writerly series of adventures I'm on!
~Nicky