Three books and some plants; what's keeping you going?

 Everybody's tired, and on edge, worn thin and in some cases worn down until they're sick (more often than not, *again*).  It's winter. Here in the PNW, the wet side anyway, we're getting glimpses of spring that help ease that a sense of overwhelm despite freezing cold nights and heavy frosts. Buds bursting open early on the camellias. Snowdrops blooming in the yard. Daphne fragrance wafting by the porch. Seed catalogs arriving in the mail. The latter tempt me, now matter how limited the summer sunshine I have available to me. We have many neighboring trees -- great for summer shade, not so great for vegetable gardening. 

I should be writing (that's the title of a cool podcast by Mur Lafferty, btw). I'm still having trouble -- made it through the worst of my writers' block (what if I get it my representation wrong? What if I screw up? What if people hate the far-future culture I create?) and have hit block two, which more simply: where do I start? 

That has an easier answer: butt in chair, fingers on keyboard. That's not the where I meant, but it is the where that will get progress done.

So of course I'm starting with a blog post -- accountability!  Sigh. But it's better than doom-scrolling Facebook and Twitter, which I've been doing excessively of late. 

Lots of daydreams lately as well, which is interesting. Daydreams and conversations with others is how I process things emotionally. So there's a lot of that going on, that maybe has to happen before I can address the writing with a clear head. NOT putting the writing off. I'm just... the two short pieces I have managed in the last month have been flat and missing a lot.  Yeah, they're first drafts and they're supposed to be shitty? But when I write something thinking, "yeah, I want to address x and y," and I leave X and Y on the table and they're nowhere in the text it's clear I'm either avoiding something, need a TON more practice, or am working on Z instead. Or maybe all three. 

So there's that rats' nest. 

And then there's *waves hand vaguely at the morass that is ludicrously politicized community care, i.e., "my freedom from a piece of fabric over my nose is more important than babies, vulnerable elders or cancer patients," the potential hostilities with Russia, and friends coping with various health ailments including Covid* and just life.

At least there's Wordle. And Le Mot. And Lewdle. 

And June's Journeys, and Duolingo, and Sudoku. 

I might be indulging in escapism a bit too much.

That said, I did manage to finish three disparate books this month!! OMG, I can read again! So I'm writing about them: Law's Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling, Joe Malik's Dragon's Trail, and Karen Lord's Redemption in Indigo. (Hey, I did say disparate). 

Karen Lord's award-winning Redemption in Indigo reads like a complicated, braided fairy tale with a moral message, yet it is so much, much more. It addresses duty in ways that make me comfortable and ways that make me squirm, it brushes the unknowable time travel question of "if I fix this, how will it change the future," and it shows us time and again a woman being her best self--and that being enough even when she doesn't always think so. That final message is one that left me with deep satisfaction. The storyteller framing was both unique and deeply enjoyable; the slow reveal of the unknown character kept me hooked. So many people have written so much more eloquent reviews of this great book that I feel odd raving about it; go read some of the great discussions at the link above. I'd recommend it to just about anyone who likes fantasy and definitely to anyone who loves fairy tales and oral storytelling. You'll be unlikely to have read anything like this before. I hope to read more of her work soon. 

I'd recommend Joe Malik's Dragon's Trail to any fencer, sword-and-armor-nut, service person, equestrian or fantasy fan who loves medieval-style portal fantasy. I'll (mildly) spoiler it by saying that I was ready to kick his shins hard, twice, but there is no "fridging" and the motivational trauma is largely the protagonist's, not a woman's. I know some women won't read books that do either, and avoiding those tropes is important to me as well, so I mention it because there are moments that raised my eyebrows, but he swerves. That said, this is pretty much a guy's book. There are (literal) strong woman characters who the protag admires (and sometimes lusts after), but we are never in a woman's viewpoint, just the viewpoint of a man with a strong libido who respects women as well as physical and emotional stamina.  I set it down several times, finally laying it down for a month about halfway through because I was having trouble connecting (and reading, but that's not Malik's fault; see state of the universe, above.). When I picked it back up this month I finished it in two evenings. Once things fall into place it does just flow. Dragon's Trail is billed as Book One in the Outworlders series and came out in 2016. Book two apparently .... well, it's a long story but it had to be approved by the Pentagon (no shit) and they redacted a lot. So he's re-writing. Yeah, I don't understand either, but those of you in the military might.

I read Law's Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling cover to cover over our New Year's vacation, and it's a resource I'll be dipping back into over and over because there's too much there to absorb at once. There are at least two concise pages on just about anything you can think of involving rapid drafting and painting; specific how-tos for various critters, leaves and landscapes, and use and selection of art materials. The focus is on outdoor sketching and watercolor, but there's information on gouache and ink as well, and finishing tips for longer-duration studio work or working from memory or photographs. For a beginning artist, it's a useful, example-laden compilation of techniques and tips for the swift-capture-of-what's-in-front-of-you as well as just basic drawing help. 

There. That's pretty much the state of my brain: escapism and art. Your turn; what's keeping you doing in the Winter of 2022?