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Spent most of Thursday reading Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, and loving it although by the end it definitely needed some editing. XD (For those not in the know, it's a 1000-page book, fitting into the "cozy fantasy" niche.) Did some editing, driving myself up the wall with the beginning, which I have rewritten so many damn times I hate every single word in it, so put out the call for betas to put it back into perspective for me. (I am saving all the responses to read at once, if you're one of the betas wondering abut that...)

Spent yesterday decluttering and re-organizing the main bathroom, which really hadn't had a great purge since we moved in, then we went out for dinner and intended to hit the grocery store afterwards, but it took so long to find a restaurant that didn't have a packed parking lot that we just went home after eating. (But we discovered a new-to-us Tex-Mex place that was very good!)

Today, took a carload of household junk to the ~~dump~~ city drop-off station, then went to the grocery store, then came home and I spackled up the holes in the main bedroom wall preparatory to touching them up with paint, which will happen...one day.

Also here are two funny cat photos...

This is how

myrialux found D.Va this morning. We have no idea how she managed to tip the chair like that, or when she did it, but luckily it was the perfect size to get caught by the table and the rug kept it from sliding.

This is Sora's opinion of me wanting to get up to go spackle the walls right after he settled on my lap.

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My sympathies on editing. My WIP is on its fourth opening scene. And it hasn't gone to the betas yet.

I am impressed by D Va's balance. Not just that she could stay on the tilting chair, but that she chose to do so instead of bailing out.

I think I'm past 4 by now. XD My biggest problem is that I had an agent, who led a workshop on openings that I took, look at my original opening that I liked very much and say "You're starting the story too soon. Start it at the point of them setting out." Aaaand given that they're one of the agents on my list to query, it would probably be a Very Good Thing to take their advice.

(Also, in my previous opening, I sent one of the characters through the city to introduce it for 2000 words, then immediately booted them out of the city for the next 23K. That should probably be moved to the point where they're back in the city!)

Sora's unimpressed face is spectacularly eloquent.

He's got a really expressive face, moreso than most of the cats I've known. D.Va speaks more with her body, and her default expression is a slightly worried one.

Great cats pics. Thanks.

I absolutely love Hands of the Emperor and know only one other person, besides yourself, that read it. I also really like the sequels to it and the way the whole universe of 22 books (counting short novelettes) hangs together. It's like Bujold and Ayn Rand accidentally had a baby and Arthur Hailey and Théophile Gautier adopted it and decided to Raise It Right and Give It Every Advantage. Have you read any of Goddard's other books?

I started with the Greenwing and Dart books, as Amazon kept recommending them. The Regencyish-with-magic setting worked for me. I bought Hands some time ago (was it on sale, maybe? Don't remember) but hadn't started it, and even forgot I bought it as it was lost on my Kindle, until someone in the Celia Lake Discord recommended it to someone else, and I decided to make the plunge.

That's pretty much where I stand right now, and I decided not to jump into the sequel or any of the longer books right away because I have a tendency to binge-read and then burn out on a series and I'd rather not do that with this. :)

Greenwing and Dart is such a perfect series to give to teens, isn't it? I love the whole "it gets better" theme.

I love the intertwining of the mythic and the prosaic.

reading Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard, and loving it although by the end it definitely needed some editing

I beg your pardon, but I resemble that remark.

:)

I admit that it was somewhat satisfying to my inner teenager to see the main character's friends explain for the fourth or fifth time to someone else exactly how special and awesome he was, but it did get a bit repetitive there...