Fourth Wing, & Status Untraced: Rec Roundup 3
2 book recs, 1 amazing podcast and an update on my own WIP
Hi friends!
Between work, traveling, and big life updates (I got engaged, yay!), I haven’t had much time for movies lately. In fact, I haven’t been watching anything but reality TV and my repeat comfort shows. So, I have no horror movie essay for you this week. But, I wanted to officially launch the series where I give recommendations based on what I’m currently reading and listening to and share an update on my writing as well! It’s called Rec Roundup! I hope to do these 1-2 times per month.
Reading
Fourth Wing
I’m thrilled to say that I’m finally getting into Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros. I started the Spring with a really ambitious, fantasy-filled TBR, but it did not get off to a strong start when I decided officially to DNF A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas.
I might pick it up again one day (I really hate to DNF), but I wasn’t able to turn my critical brain off and just enjoy the book. So, in that regard, the escapism failed for me because every couple of pages, I wanted to put the book down and rant. Who has time for that? So I put ACOTAR 3 down and picked up Fourth Wing, but for a while, I thought the book was going to suffer the same fate and end up on my DNF list.
I worried, am I just over fantasy? Are these books totally overhyped and written due to the demand young women seem to be having for an out-of-this-world romance? I even snobbishly thought my taste in fantasy was just too high-brow after reading The Song of Ice and Fire Series.
But then somewhere between pages 50 and 100, the book clicked into place for me, potentially because that’s when our protagonist and her main love interest really connect, and these books are Romantasy after all.
The author seemed to find her stride about halfway through the book, and once I was in the final third, I really couldn’t put the thing down. It’s not my fav fantasy I’ve ever read, but I really enjoyed it and will be picking up the sequel ASAP. What can I say? To quote Brittani Broski? I love reading about dragons.
Novelist as a Vocation
I like to have a non-fiction and fiction on my nightstand at all times so I can pick up whatever suits my mood. My NF pick of the moment is Novelist as a Vocation by Huraki Murakami, and it’s beautiful. If you’re a writer and aspiring author like me, do yourself a favor and get this book (or support your local library as I did with my copy).
He’s not going to tell you how to write or the steps to take in order to become a best-selling author like himself because he’s incredibly honest about just how miraculous it is to be an author at all.
Instead, he shares his experiences about topics near to his heart, like how to enjoy the act of writing, cut out the voices of both inner and outer critics, and stick with it for the long run (whether or not you reach another person’s metric of success).
Listening
Status: Untraced
Does anyone else have different podcasts for different activities? When I clean the house, I’ll listen to a spooky paranormal podcast, when I go on walks I like something light and funny like Celebrity Memoir Book Club, or something inspirational like To Be Magnetic’s Expanded Podcast.
Typically, the less stimulating the activity, the more I need something really engaging. That’s why on planes, I like to listen to a podcast with investigative storytelling. I downloaded Status: Untraced for my flight home from California a couple of weeks back, and let me tell you, this did not disappoint.
I had a feeling I was in for a treat because Status: Untraced is a Tenderfoot TV production, which is headed up by Payne Lindsey, who simply doesn’t know how to make a bad podcast (Radio Rental and Up and Vanished are some of the best of all time) but I was blown away by this story.
It investigates the disappearance of adventurous travel blogger Justin Alexander who went missing in the Himalayan mountains back in 2016. What’s so incredibly eerie about the case is that Justin was posting on Instagram up until his disappearance. His last recorded post includes the language, “I should be back my mid-September. If I’m not back by then, don’t look for me.”
WTF?!
I love any story that gives you a look behind the curtain. Justin Alexander was looked up to by his followers as a modern-day explorer, living an ideal and virtuous life. The podcast’s host, Liam Luxon, is among the many who admired him, thinking of him as larger than life.
Through his wilderness-survival Instagram, you can see hundreds of photos and videos of him riding his motorcycle into the sunset across the streets of New Delhi and diving off rocks in Costa Rica. But it wasn’t all about thrill-seeking for him either. He seemed to be on a spiritual quest, and passionate about helping others, chronicling his time building schools and saving animals.
He was clearly an incredible person, so lots of people have something to say about his disappearance. But you learn in the podcast that things weren’t exactly as they seemed. Toward the end of his life (if you believe he’s dead), there was always real danger lurking just beneath, involving shady Shamanic characters and the underground hashish trade.
I’m on episode 7 of 10, and my jaw has hit the floor so many times. I plan to binge the next 4 at my earliest convenience.
My Writing
I’m now on Draft 4 of my supernatural thriller, code-named Project Bach! I always thought writing a book would be so hard. In fact, I thought it was so hard that I doubted I would ever actually do it. But let me tell you, writing the first draft has been the easiest part.
It’s not that editing in and of itself is so challenging (at this point as I’m not planning to make any big or structural changes), but it’s just hard knowing what to do next. After each draft, I get this huge feeling of NOW WHAT? When is it “done”? I’m an impatient person, very go-go-go. So I’m quite eager to move on to the next thing. My list of short story ideas is ever-growing and always tempting me. I’ve started two other novels, another supernatural thriller, and a fantasy romance, over the course of editing. But I keep coming back to Project Bach and finding new things to edit.
I’ve now decided that I will keep editing Project Bach until editing no longer feels useful. That’s when I’ll know that I’m done. When I can read it through and not change a thing, I’ll know it’s ready for the next step, whatever that may be!
Thanks for reading! My new post schedule will be every 10 days, so pray that inspiration will strike me before the 20th. Also, do you have a horror movie-loving friend or a fellow fantasy reader who would enjoy this Substack? If so, please forward it along. :)