Sunday Post – 10/30/2022

October 30, 2022 Sunday Post 13

The Sunday Post is hosted by the wonderful Kimberly, the Caffeinated Book Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news, recap the past week, take a look ahead, and showcase our new treasures—I mean books!

Last Week

It’s almost Halloween! We have been home a week. I’ve been busy unpacking, doing laundry, getting ready for Halloween, getting my flu shot, and trying to prep for NaNoWriMo. It starts on Tuesday! A writer friend came over on Thursday and helped me think through some issues I was having with the plot. And this afternoon, I’m taking an online class with author Mary Robinette Kowal on “No Prep NaNoWriMo” (in other words, writing without an outline), because a) my outline is mostly in my head and not very detailed, and b) I’ve never been great at sticking to an outline when I write nonfiction, so I don’t know if I can stick to it when writing fiction.

I need to start working on creating the 40th anniversary program for the local Spinners & Weavers Guild, which is coming up in less than 2 weeks. The next two weeks are going to be very busy!

In other news this week, I’m looking for an alternative to Twitter. I’m not willing to support Mr. Musk’s plans for the site; I think it will become both more toxic and more influential (in a negative way) in the polarization of our politics. Since I can’t support that, I need to leave. Any ideas on where else writers and readers can hang out and interact in a similar way to bookish Twitter (that isn’t TikTok)? I’m on Instagram and Facebook (though I have qualms about both of those, too), but it’s not the same level of interaction. I will miss bookish Twitter, and especially Romancelandia.

Recent Posts

  • Sunday Post – 10/23/2022
  • reviews TBD
  • Sunday Post – 10/30/2022– this post

Looking Ahead

  • reviews TBD
  • Sunday Post – 11/06/2022

What I’ve Been Reading/Watching

Reading: I finished rereading The Hare and the Oak (Celia Lake.) I’m currently reading Into the West by Mercedes Lackey (ARC), the second in the Founding of Valdemar series, and No Plot? No Problem!, a book about writing a novel in a month by Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo.

Listening to: I finished relistening to Daja’s Book, the third book in the Circle of Magic quartet by Tamora Pierce. I started listening to book 4, Briar’s Book, but I may decide to DNF it because a lot of it takes place during a plague, and this doesn’t seem the time. (I’ve listened to it before, and it’s good; it’s just not the right mood for me right now.)

Currently, I’m plowing through the first (archived) season of the Writing Excuses podcast.

Watching: Not much. A little Colbert, and a recent Nature episode on Canadian wildlife. The latter had gorgeous cinematography.

Added to the Hoard this week

For Review or Consideration

Book Cover: Flowerheart, by Catherine Bakewell

Many thanks to HarperTeen for Flowerheart!

Purchased (Kindle, print, or audio)

Print: Most of these arrived while I was away, so this is close to a month’s worth of books… and I went a little nuts at Book Outlet and Book Depository. Titles: What Katy Did; Good Wives; Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller; The Spare Man; Vulcan’s Forge; Cry of Metal & Bone; Requiem of Silence; The Moment of Tenderness; Honeycomb; Christmas with Charles Dickens; Christmas with L. M. Montgomery; Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary; How to Write a Novel Using the Snowflake Method (new)

Kindle: The Great Christmas Knit-Off; City of Darkness and Light; Chapter and Curse; And They Lived Happily Ever After; (Click title for Goodreads page or my review.)

Stay safe, stay healthy, stay kind… and may you find books a haven in the coming weeks.

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13 Responses to “Sunday Post – 10/30/2022”

  2. Greg

    I’m not too keen on the new Twitter either. The problem is I’m having a hard time finding an alternative. I gave up Facebook recently and haven’t missed that a bit! Although there are a few people (family mostly) where I don’t see as many updates. what can you do?
    Greg recently posted…Sunday Post 476My Profile

  4. Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys

    I kind of gave up on Twitter a while ago – I just didn’t have time to devote to all the social media options and that was my least favorite, and now even more so. I have been contemplating returning to IG, but it’s so much work with the photos etc, I’m not sure. I saw The Spare Man on your acquired list and I’ve read and enjoyed Kowal’s novels, so I went to add it to my TBR – and it’s already there! and I show it was recommended by you! Twice I thought it is the book for me, guess I should read it! 🙂
    Hope you have a terrific week and find time to read a good book.
    Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys
    https://www.bookshelfjourneys.com/post/sunday-post-22
    Terrie @ Bookshelf Journeys recently posted…My October TBR List Additions – Too Many???My Profile

  6. Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits

    Sounds like you’re in for a busy month! I hope it’s a fun one!

    I’ve been watching the feeds of the authors I follow most on Twitter to see if they are moving off the platform, but I haven’t seen anything yet. I’m not fond of the idea of staying if Musk-Day-One is the way it’s going to move forward. I recently gave Facebook another try (for unrelated reasons) though and that is NOT the place to go. It’s gotten worse in the couple years I’ve been away.
    Nicole @ BookWyrm Knits recently posted…Sunday Sundry — How I Track My Stitch CountMy Profile

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      I agree with you. I have basically suspended my use of Twitter, and I’m considering deleting my account. As for alternatives, I’m still on Facebook, both because it’s how I keep in touch with some of my high school and college friends and even some of my extended family, and because of both my local Spinners and Weavers group and the COYER community of bloggers, where I like to hang out now and then. Some of the authors I like still maintain a presence on FB as well. I’m on Instagram, which I joined for the pretty photos; I don’t much like their current emphasis on Reels (their attempt to be TikTok), but I stay for the fiber arts community (knitting, spinning, etc.), particularly the inclusive branch of it, and of course also for the bookstagram. I follow several authors on Instagram, too. And I still have a Tumblr blog, though I haven’t used it much in a while. I may go back to Tumblr and see who shows up as part of the Twitter exodus.

      I’ve heard rumblings about a SFF community on Mastodon, but unless I hear more, and unless the romance authors go to that platform as well, I’m holding off, because I can’t handle adding one more thing right now. (Especially during NaNoWriMo.) I’m also surprised that I’m not hearing more about Discord as an option — not for authors, necessarily, but for fan communities.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Watching events this past week, I think it’s possible that Twitter will implode, but we’ll have to see how things play out.

  8. Katherine

    Anytime we get back from out of town I swear the laundry just continually multiplies on me. Hopefully you’re having an easy time of getting settled back in and had no issues with your flu shot. I didn’t even really have a sore arm this year thankfully! I hope you are having a wonderful week!

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      There are always piles of it, aren’t there? But as much as I enjoyed the trip, I was glad to get home in time to enjoy the fall colors.

    • Lark_Bookwyrm

      Security concerns, mainly. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese corporation. China has been exerting increasing pressure on the company. My husband’s employer has warned its employees against putting it on their phones. The DoD has banned military personel from putting TikTok on military devices (though many still use it on their personal phones.) The quote below sums up some of the concerns. I’ll link the entire article, which lays out the background as well as where things stand now.

      “Although the U.S. offices [of TikTok] have some independence, China remains the company’s central hub for pretty much everything, according to the current and former employees, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of endangering their careers. Beijing managers sign off on major decisions involving U.S. operations, including from the teams responsible for protecting Americans’ data and deciding which videos should be removed. They lead TikTok’s design and engineering teams and oversee the software that U.S. employees use to chat with colleagues and manage their work. They’re even the final decision-makers on human resources matters, such as whether an American employee can work remotely.” – Washington Post

      So there are concerns about data privacy, and also about the Chinese government’s potential influence over what we see — if not now, then in the future. I’m not saying anyone else should get off TikTok; everyone should make their own decision at this point. I know lots of people love it. But at this point, I’m not going to use the service.