My ADHD brain in blog form.
Posted in Book Blogger
by robst
Genre: Harry Potter
Word Count: 737,006
My Rating: ★★★+
What will happen when a goblin-raised Harry arrives at Hogwarts. A Harry who has received training, already knows the prophecy and has no scar. With the backing of the goblin nation and Hogwarts herself.
Posted in Random Reflections
I came across a fun writing prompt the other day. The question posed was: If you could travel back to any era, would you and which one?
My immediate thought was, “Yes, of course,” but as I thought about it, I realized there were some qualifiers.
Posted in Book Blogger
by Lin Mei Wei
Genres: Classical Rewrite, Historical Fiction, Romance
Release Date: November 3, 2018
Pages: 249
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★☆
What if Elizabeth Bennet had accepted Mr Darcy’s proposal in Kent? What if they married before he stopped being the proud, arrogant man she detested? What if, in order to avoid the ruin of her beloved sister, Elizabeth chose to swallow her pride and say yes to a pre-reform Darcy?
Mr Bingley has left Netherfield, and in his stead a rich and unscrupulous man takes possession of the manor. While Elizabeth is in Kent, visiting her recently married friend Charlotte, she receives letters which tell her how Jane is soon to be wed to a man Elizabeth can’t stand. And then, unbelievably, Mr Darcy, the last man in the world she would ever choose to marry, proposes to her. Elizabeth is torn. But thoughts of rescuing Jane make her do something that will change the course of her life forever…
The Unreformed Mr Darcy is a Pride and Prejudice variation romance by the author of Stranded with Mr Darcy.
Posted in News
*Fanfare* Hear ye, hear ye! It’s taken me WAY too long, but I’ve finally finished my new website design.
For those who are new, let me give you a comparison of the old and new. I did my best to make the site feel more modern.
Posted in Fountain Pens
Mid last year, I reached out to Yoshi Nakama of 18111 Pens about commissioning a custom pen. As the DC Pen Show was only a few weeks away, we agreed to discuss it at the show. At the time, I hoped to get a pen themed to my Exalted Bloodlines series.
I eagerly sought him out at the show. However, when I showed him the ideas I had in mind, he warned me it may not be doable.
The proposed roll stopper design, the blood drop I wanted scattered across the pen, and the moon and star I wanted on the top of the cap all have “sharp corners.” Apparently, 3D printing and laser engraving can’t produce sharp corners at that size.
However, I hoped we could reach a compromise with a modified design that I liked and could be executed. I agreed to modify the design before sending Mr. Nakama the files. He warned me that his waiting list was about 3 months long. Granted, considering the year+ waiting lists many pen makers have right now, 3 months is hardly an issue.
Posted in Random Reflections
On Saturday, I went to a comedy show. I don’t intend to mention any names in this post, as that’s not the point of this post.
I found it interesting that every performer, the openers and headliner alike, spoke some form of “comedy’s getting hard because people are more sensitive” near the beginning of their act.
Of the openers, two were received very well, and one received a lukewarm response. Thinking about the show later, I realized something crucial.
Let me pause for a moment to say I’m well aware I’m no comedian. I can’t refute comedians’ assessment that comedy is getting harder. What I can offer, however, is an outsider’s perspective of the situation.
by Caitlin Williams
Genres: Classical Rewrite, Historical Fiction, Romance
Release Date: May 30, 2018
Pages: 232
Purchase from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
My Rating: ★★★★★
“Whatever else happens, and we may expect dark days ahead, never doubt that in this moment, beneath this perfect blue sky, on this warm September day, you are loved as no other woman has ever been loved before. You are loved for all that you are, for all you once were, and for all that you will come to be.”
– Fitzwilliam Darcy
Lady Lambert, or Elizabeth Bennet as she was once known, appears to have made the perfect match. Having refused Mr. Darcy’s proposal of marriage at Hunsford, she is now married to a viscount. While everything seems well, beneath her fine clothes beats a heart filled with regrets. Dark secrets lurk in every corner of her elegant London townhouse, and while she might have at her disposal many excellent and numerous carriages, they all seem to take her places she does not truly want to go.
Into her now desolate existence comes Mr. Darcy again—a changed man, a better man, the very best of men, and still very much in love with her. Is it all impossible? She ought to resist him, yet she cannot stay away. Theirs is a dangerous, scandalous love that proves impossible to resist.
In an age when women are owned by their husbands, can a wife escape a husband she has come to loathe, and when there is blood on her hands, how will Elizabeth explain herself?
Posted in Ink
I’m comparing seemingly identical inks to see how similar they really are. This week: Bungubox Piano Mahogany and Robert Oster Australian Syrah.
Posted in Book Blogger
Genre: Harry Potter
Word Count: 61,134
My Rating: ★★★
It all starts with Hogwarts’ Class Reunion.
by Caitlin Williams
Genres: Classical Rewrite, Historical Fiction, Romance
Release Date: June 6, 2016
Pages: 502
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★★
The very worst has happened. Mr Bennet has died, leaving his wife and five young daughters bereft. The family estate, Longbourn, is now lost, entailed away and fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Bennet is to go two hundred miles away to live with strangers. George Darcy, repaying a debt of gratitude, has offered to take her to Pemberley, to live under the mantle of his care and be raised alongside his own daughter, Georgiana.
But on the day she is to leave Longbourn forever, young Elizabeth, grieving and confused, runs off into the Hertfordshire countryside. Fitzwilliam Darcy gives chase, telling his father he will have her back in an hour or two. Luck and fate, however, are not on his side and capturing Elizabeth Bennet turns out not only to be more difficult than he could ever have imagined, but events will conspire to turn her little adventure into his worst nightmare.
The prideful man and the girl prejudiced against him, meet much earlier in this rethinking of Jane Austen’s masterpiece. Elizabeth grows up under the ever-watchful eye of Mr Darcy, from fifteen to twenty one. She errs and falters, there are stumbles and trips, but could this ‘disobedient little hellion’ one day become mistress of Pemberley and the keeper of his heart?
While volunteering at the 2019 Baltimore Pen Show, I was gifted a lovely red, lever-fill, vintage Esterbrook pen. Admittedly, I know next-to-nothing about vintage Esterbrooks. I also have a penchant for finding out as much about my vintage pens as possible.
That said, it should be no surprise that I set out to identify and date (as accurately as possible) my new Esterbrook as soon as I was able.
Because I had fun doing so, and I found the information interesting, I figured I’d share it with you in the hopes that my research would prove useful to others.
Posted in Pen Shows
As I mentioned in my last post, this was my first time as pen show volunteer staff. It’s an experience I look forward to repeating many times in the future.
When Corinne, the show organizer, put out a call to the DC Pen Crew for volunteers, I eagerly signed up. My reasoning, beyond wanting to help out, was that if I was volunteering, I wouldn’t be spending money.
That theory worked out well. When I received the schedule, I was happy to see myself listed for Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. That shift schedule worked so well that I’m hoping for the same next year.
Posted in Pen Shows
Alright, my third pen show of the year. Allow me to start of by saying that the Baltimore Washington International Pen Show (BWIPS) is my favorite pen show. I’ll do my best to describe and rate it (since I haven’t done so previously) in an unbiased manner, but I don’t know if I’ll be wholly successful.
To start, this was a show with several firsts for me. It was the first time I’d attended a full pen show, the first time I’d stayed at the show hotel, the first time I’d attended a pen show workshop, and the first time I’d volunteered as part of the show staff.
I’ll cover my volunteering experience in another post. For now, suffice to say it was great. I’m eager to volunteer again next year.
Posted in Book Blogger
by Sophie Turner
Genres: Classical Rewrites, Historical Fiction, Romance
Release Date: March 5, 2017
Pages: 186
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★☆
One night, to decide his entire life’s happiness.
Chastened by Charles Bingley following Mr. Bennet’s untimely death, Fitzwilliam Darcy determines he will offer marriage to Elizabeth Bennet, but she marries another.
Years later, a widowed Elizabeth is mistress of Longbourn, and has vowed she will never marry again. A house party at Netherfield brings them back together, but Darcy will have to win more than her heart if he is to have any chance at making her mistress of Pemberley.
Posted in Ink
I’m comparing seemingly identical inks to see how similar they really are. This week: Sailor Jentle Waka Uguisu and Robert Oster Jade.
Posted in Pen Shows
The Los Angeles Pen Show was the fourth show location I’ve attended (DC, Baltimore, Philly, and now LA). There were a decent number of tables, but the layout was appalling.
We arrived around 10:30, assuming that would allow us to avoid the opening crush of people we’d heard a lot about.
Unfortunately, we arrived to find a line that wound down the corridor, out the door, and about half way down the building. Surprisingly, the line moved fairly quickly, but getting into the show was less than half the battle.
An unconsidered side-effect of arriving after the show had started was a lack of street parking. There wasn’t much to start with, but it was all taken by the time we arrived. Parking at the hotel ended up costing us around $20 for the little time we were there. I don’t want to know what people who stayed the whole day paid.
Posted in Pen Shows
As I sat down to write my post about the LA Pen Show, I realized I’d never written a post about the Philly show. Therefore, even though it’s over a month late, allow me to share with you my experiences at the Philly show.
We drove up from the DC area with a friend of ours, and, thankfully, there was no real traffic. Upon arriving, I realized how fortunate I am to have the DC and Baltimore shows.
My immediate thought was that the show is overpriced for its size. We paid $13 online (it’s $15 at the door), a single-day price higher than DC, Baltimore, and LA. It’s also smaller than those other three shows.
I will say that the aisles were roomy, on par with Baltimore and far surpassing DC and LA. The selection was fairly evenly dispersed between vintage, new, expensive, and affordable. There was a decent selection of inks. And, for the overall size of the show, a decent number of nibmeisters.
Posted in Book Blogger
by Caitlin Williams
Genres: Classical Rewrite, Historical Fiction, Romance
Release Date: June 7, 2015
Pages: 312
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★★
So much in life depends on chance and sheer luck. How much do we often owe to being in the right place at the right time?
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth Bennet plans to visit the Lake District with her uncle and aunt, yet ends up at Pemberley instead, just as, by coincidence, Mr Darcy also arrives home. They meet, understand one another better and all eventually ends well.
But what if they did not have such luck? What if Elizabeth actually went to the Lake District and was nowhere near Pemberley, and she and Mr Darcy never met again until another four years had gone by?
Now they are very different people, altered by marriage, time and situation, although, Mr Darcy’s failed proposal in the Parsonage at Hunsford still haunts both of them in different ways.
Elizabeth is a companion to her Aunt, Mrs Mountford, a widow of great standing in society who married exceptionally well and ‘Miss Bennet’ finds herself accepted in the very best of circles and able to marry whomever she might chose.
Mr Darcy did his duty by his sickly cousin, Anne de Bourgh, and married her to protect her from the tyrannical force of her mother Lady Catherine. He has come to Bath, however, a widower, with his family, the Fitzwilliams, and his sister, Georgiana. Darcy sees Elizabeth, the woman who rejected him, in the opposite box at the theatre and cannot help falling in love with her all over again. Now though, it seems there are even more hurdles to overcome for them to be together, including Elizabeth’s new suitor, the handsome and charming Mr Yorke.
Mr Darcy is still a little proud, still not able to ‘perform to strangers’. Can Elizabeth see past his reserve and awkwardness to the decent man underneath?
This book is a re-telling of Pride and Prejudice from Chapter 36 onwards (Darcy’s failed proposal and the delivering of his letter). It is a light-hearted mix-up of Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, with a nod and a wink towards Northanger Abbey.
by Darcie Rochester
Genres: Classical Rewrites, Historical Fiction
Release Date: September 27, 2018
Pages: 340
Purchase from: Amazon
My Rating: ★★★★★
After the deaths of their parents and the public disgrace of their youngest sister, the Bennet ladies are alone in the world. It falls upon Elizabeth to navigate their way, a nearly impossible task given their meager funds. When she becomes reacquainted with Mr. Darcy, she hopes she has found her salvation. But it is ruin he offers her.
This book contains dark themes and scenes of a sensual nature. Reader discretion is advised.
Posted in Ink
I’m comparing seemingly identical inks to see how similar they really are. This week: Bungubox Kabayaki of the Hamanako Eel and Bungubox Nostalgia.