Hey guys, how are you holding up? The sensation of being in a time loop is getting to me. I can’t reliably judge how much time has passed anymore. At home in a bubble with Mabel the Merciless, time fluctuates between feeling like it can’t possibly be August (and late August at that!), and feeling like this has been going on for years. That maybe I actually imagined the before-times where I could just do whatever and stand next to people. I don’t miss having other peoples breath on me, but I do miss just leaving my house and going on normal errands with reckless, thoughtless abandon.

Mostly it’s just left me tired. This is a real thing, Psychologists have named it “Quarantine Fatigue”. MD Anderson has a nice article on it. Though, I will say, step seven of their coping technique is kinda dark, even for me.

Step 7: If none of the 6 steps above helped you, just remember we’re all mortal anyhow, so really, isn’t everything temporary?

Seriously though, my mockery of step seven aside, I think it’s a good article and worth reading if you’re with me in the Quarantine Fatigue cycle. My pandemic mental health challenges are mostly manifesting as an inability to take a break. Even when I’m taking a break, I still feel a push to produce, and that’s not healthy. Even my yarn wrapped phalanges need a break on occasion. So my challenge for myself this week is to sit, drink some coffee, read a book, and not make anything while I do it. I encourage you to challenge yourself to do something this week, just something small that you know would be good for you, but you haven’t been doing it during the pandemic.

This week I’ve been reading…

Peace Talks by Jim Butcher

I’m going to keep this post reasonably spoiler free since the book has been out for less than a month. That said, I can’t write about it with NO spoilers. You have been warned.

Beware of Spoilers Below!

I loved Peace Talks. It brought to the table a lot of the things in the Dresden Files that make me feel happy, and with relatively little mention of women’s nipples “straining against their blouses” every time they have a feeling. If you haven’t read Peace Talks yet, and you also haven’t read Side Jobs, I strongly recommend reading Side Jobs and Brief Cases first. I’ve mentioned before how much I like the Dresden Files short stories, and I think there are a few things in Brief Cases that are really important as you go into Peace Talks. Chief among those for me is Molly. Brief Cases brings us a few stories about her time as the Rag Lady, and also her first job as the Winter Lady. She doesn’t appear *much* in Peace Talks, but when she is there it’s important. Having read those short stories first, you get a lot more insight into the changes we see in her in Peace Talks. 

Harry is disconcerted at how much Molly has changed as the Winter Lady, both in form and demeanor. On the other hand, she still hasn’t mustered up the courage to admit to her parents that she IS the Winter Lady, and I see that as an undeniable sign of her retaining her humanity. 

The action in Peace Talks escalates VERY QUICKLY, and I would have been here writing about how pissed I am that it left off where it did, but I’m not even mad because the next book is out in September. I was very surprised that after not releasing a new Dresden novel in five years, Butcher suddenly announced that there would be two in 2020. But I’m no longer surprised. I think here we have a case of a story that just couldn’t be contained in one book while keeping it to the same relative length as the other books. 

I don’t have any actual data to back this up, but my guess would be that when Butcher wrote it, Peace Talks and Battle Ground (the book coming out in September) were actually one manuscript that he was instructed by editors to break it into two books. I will never fully understand why editors feel it’s important for books in a series to have generally uniform length, but I’ve seen it happen before. I remember reading an interview with Brandon Sanderson about writing the final novels of the Wheel of Time after Robert Jordan passed away. Sanderson wanted the last two or three books to be a single massive tome, but he couldn’t get the editors on board for it. 

I’m happy Butcher didn’t try to condense this story into one regular length book, and instead he decided to let it play out over two (or more?…I’ll find out in September!). While the book was basically one non-stop action sequence by the middle of it, he also had time to develop the relationship between each of the characters. Within the books, it has been less than a year since the end of Skin Game, but many of the characters left Skin Game in very different places in their lives. 

Butters is a Jedi-Knight of the Cross! I freaking love Sir Butters. Butcher gives us some insight into how Butters has changed as a Knight, but also into how the sword has changed in response to him. It’s pretty awesome. We also FINALLY find out what it is that makes Harry “The Special”. 

Hands down though, the best part for me how Harry has changed now that he is a father to Maggie, and how that has impacted his relationship with others. I’m going to hold off on talking much about Harry and Karrin, other than to say I loved that at the end of the book he showed a lot of growth by accepting that he can’t force her to stay out of the fight and still also be worthy of her love. That he had to let her make that call and support her, even if it hurts him to do so. The most significant change was in how he interacted with Ebenezer McCoy. Their relationship evolved some once Harry found out that Ebenezer is his grandfather, but in this book we get to see him confront his feelings about Ebenezer having made the choice to not be there for Harry when he was growing up. 

All in all, it was a strong book and I’m on the edge of my seat for Battle Ground!

Currently on my needles…

Mistborn Scarf

As pumped as I am for Battle Ground, it isn’t coming out until the end of September. Two Dresden books in one year is a generous bounty of magical mysteries, but I need something to read in the meanwhile. So starting next week I’ll be diving into the assorted works of Brandon Sanderson. I’ll start out with the Mistborn Trilogy: The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages. Those are a lot longer than Dresden books, so I’ll probably break each book up over a couple of weeks. By then I should have Battle Ground waiting in my Audible Library, and I think after Battle Ground I’ll head back to Sanderson for the Stormlight Archives.

That whole preamble was to justify why it is I’m casting on a random project. I don’t have a cast on problem. I just like things to coordinate. And while I realize that certain people *cough*Jac*cough* might be inclined to point out that I have two sweaters on my needles, the 8-Bit MKAL in full swing (though at least the knitting on that one is long since done for me), and next year’s Geek-A-Long to plan so it’s possible I shouldn’t cast on random projects. Well, that hypothetical person would be hypothetically wrong. Because none of my current projects really match Sanderson’s writing style. So I am casting on a Mistborn scarf this week! The pattern won’t be available for a while. Because I haven’t started it yet. But hang out here with me each Friday for the next month or so and you can watch it grow and talk about Mistborn with me.

~Megan-Anne

“Harry,” Thomas said, “be real. Everyone wants someone to make us pancakes; we’re all just too grown-up to say it.”― Jim Butcher, Peace Talks

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