I read: A Grief Observed

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

I read this mostly because I'm exploring the concept of grief and how everyone deals with it differently. Mostly to reassure myself that I'm not doing it wrong. I'm finding that books written specifically for someone like me don't attract me much at all, or make me feel like I need to justify how I'm reacting to everything.

I read: A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Another classic that I don't think I'd ever read before. This is a super cute edition, which is why I picked it up. It's part of a very small series that I was introduced to by a friend of Puffin Chalk Classics.

I read: Wham! George Michael & Me

Wham! George Michael & Me: A Memoir by Andrew Ridgeley

I'm so pleased that Ridgeley wrote this book. Wham! existed during a time before we could get every bit of information about every moment of every celebrity's life.   It's nice now, thirty years later, to revisit the days of Wham! without the lens of social media or tabloids; to be able to read what it felt like from the inside.

I read: Wolf's Bane

Wolf's Bane by Kelley Armstrong

So excited to have this to read.  It's the first in a duology, focussed on the next generation of the Otherworld series.

The Otherworld series may be my absolute favourite books, so this was going to be a slam dunk for me. I love Kelley Armstrong's writing, but especially in that series.

I read: Life Is Short and Then You Die

Mystery Writers of America Presents Life Is Short and Then You Die: First Encounters with Murder -  edited by Kelley Armstrong with stories by Kelley Armstrong, R.L. Stine, Y.S. Lee, Melissa Marr, Amanda Witt, Rachel Vincent, Jeff Somers, Eileen Rendahl, David Bart, Jeff Soloway, Julie Tollefson, Joseph S. Walker, Anthony Franze and Barry Lancet, Emmy Laybourne, Jonathan Mayberry, Stephen Ross, Caleb Roehring, and Barry Lyga.


Obviously, I picked this one up because of the Kelley Armstrong connection. I will read anything that she writes because she has been so consistent. Because I trust her writing, I also trust that she wouldn't be involved in anything that doesn't live up to her standard, so I never shy away from reading anthologies that she's involved with. I do, in fact, read everything included in the anthology. And this one is no different.

I read: The Isis Trilogy

The Isis Trilogy by Monica Hughes 

(includes Keeper of the Isis Light, The Guardian of Isis and The
Isis Pedlar)

I read these books when I was in grade 7 or 8.  I recall finding them immensely interesting because I think they were the first things I read that were in the sci-fi genre.  Set in the future, but about humans as if they're now, these are an interesting study of people.

I write: Dialogue

In Week 5 we talked about dialogue and beats, with a quick review of narrative summary and theme. Our in-class exercise was to write some dialogue, based around the idea of True Confessions.  Initially we were to right just the dialogue, with simple tags, and we were instructed to write beats that fit in afterwards.   I don't follow direction well - when I write dialogue, the beats go right along with it.  So while everyone else was writing their beats, I just wrote some additional dialogue, and little internal monologue.

Here's what I wrote: