What's Up Wednesday: The Love List

What’s Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jaime Morrow and Erin Funk for like-minded writers to meet and encourage one another. Everything you ever wanted to know about it (now, with 50 percent more!) is right here.

What I’m Reading: Against my better judgment,* I picked up Falling Kingdoms, which had been in my TBR pile for ages and for some reason pushed down. I knew this was a bad idea because the third book doesn’t come out until December and Goodreads tells me there will be a fourth book, which may as well release another million years from now. After reading the second book, Rebel Spring, I am impatient for the follow-up and will probably fall into old patterns some time around its release. Still, it’s a good series, one I recommend for YA fantasy fans.

What I’m Writing: I’m still brainstorming this fantasy idea, which is equal parts exciting and daunting. A long time ago I read a post by author Susan Dennard, who suggested keeping a list of the reasons you love the story—essentially a record of why you want to write this story specifically. (It will supposedly come in handy during that 20K mark when I will undoubtedly begin to wonder why I thought writing this was a good idea and whether I should just give up and take up a less demoralizing hobby, like collecting stamps.) Here’s mine so far:

A strong-willed princess

A knight who hates himself

A boy priest

Secret identities

People painted in shades of gray

Thievery

Icy lands and hot springs

Strong mother-daughter relationship

Broken hearts

Fierce warriors

Love

Bromance

Myth and magic

What’s Inspiring Me: Possibly the most helpful guide to world-building I’ve ever seen, this checklist by Patricia C. Wrede has been invaluable as I create my kingdoms. Seriously—it asks the questions I didn’t even think of. If you’re a planner and writing sci-fi or fantasy, it’s definitely worth a glance.

TATIANA MASLANY IN ORPHAN BLACK

What Else I’ve Been Up To: I’m preparing for a massive TV-watching session this weekend with my sister. We’ve both missed the past few episodes of Orphan Black, which we binge watched a few weeks ago. If you haven’t seen it, it’s about a women who discovers she’s a clone. Each clone is played by the same actress, Tatiana Maslany, who seriously amazes me with her ability to turn each of these characters into women who feel so different from one another. She’s absolutely brilliant.

And that’s about it for me.

What’s new with you?

* The lack of a second e in the word judgment is one of the greatest mysteries in my world. In all my many years, I have never successfully typed that word correctly the first time I’ve used it. I stand firm in my conviction that it should be spelled judgement.