The Struggle Is Real (March Book Wrap-Up)

The struggle is real, guys. It's been getting harder and harder to keep myself on track with my TBR Takedown, and to discipline myself to sit down and write 1,000 words at least once a week. But I'm proud to announce that I'm doing decently well with the former, and I'm off to a great start with the latter!

Writing
My work on Follow the Raven went a lot better this month! I wrote 3,374 words out of my 5,000 word goal. It may not seem like a lot, but it's more than I had, and the story is picking up nicely. I'm excited to continue working on it during Camp NaNoWriMo in April, where I'll double my goal and try to write 10,000 more words of the story.

My new fanfic over on Wattpad has also really taken off. I've seen a major increase in the total amount of reads, votes, and comments over the past 31 days. Old fans I haven't heard from in a while are back, as well as some newer ones I've gained recently. It's crazy, but I'm really glad everyone's liking it and going along with my personal theories and creative liberties thus far. My current stats are 781 reads, 86 votes, and 16 comments. (Seriously. Do the math on this month's stats versus last month's divided by four weeks. Your mind will be blown. Mine is!)

Reading
This has been a month of ups and downs for me in terms of book reading. I'm also now three books behind my original TBR Takedown 2.0 schedule, but I'll get to that later on. Here are the books I read in March:

• The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• Some Danger Involved by Will Thomas
• Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham
• The Last Thing I Remember by Andrew Klavan
• The Story of Owen by E.K. Johnston

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting into when I began The Search for WondLa. All I knew going in was that it was a children's book (albeit a very large one) about a girl named Eva Nine who wanted to learn whether she really was the last human. The thing that really blows me away about this book is that it grabbed my attention from the very first page and simply would not let go until I'd finished the entire thing. It was always just one adventure after another in rapid succession while keeping the primary plot at the forefront at all times and it was just...amazingly well done. I grew so attached to Rovender; he is easily my favorite character. Upon finishing the book I looked to see if there were any more and came to learn that it is book one in a trilogy, which I will definitely be finishing when I get the chance. The Search for WondLa earned five stars from me.

Some Danger Involved was a book I'd had my eye on for a while and finally got around to reading in early March. It was a really unique case and really well done, and I really enjoyed it. However, in the reading of it, I came to learn a thing about myself. I love everything Sherlock Holmes. This is no secret. The original novels, the current BBC show, Lock and Mori - you name it. I love the dynamic between Holmes and Watson, the friendship they build over time, the brilliance of Sherlock himself. Everything. I never thought there could be a downside to this, until I read Some Danger Involved. Apparently I hold all detective duos to the standard of Holmes and Watson, which I know is totally unfair, but I just couldn't stop thinking about them as I read this first book in the Barker and Llewelyn series. I kept imagining Barker as a knockoff Sherlock Holmes (which he totally isn't!) and Llewelyn as an older character than he actually was. Long story short, I learned that it is possible to read a book incorrectly. That's what I did with Some Danger Involved, and I feel awful about it. Rest assured, I intend to reread it one day and remedy the situation. But for now...it is what it is, and I'm very sorry. I really did like it, though.

The Story of Owen is the book I got from my bookworm friend for Christmas. The story behind why I found it so amusing that she chose to give me this particular book is too long to explain, but suffice it to say I laughed out loud when I opened the package and was super excited to have it added to my TBR. To be honest, the synopsis of the book really doesn't tell you much about what the story is actually about, and that is the perfect way to go into The Story of Owen. I won't give anything away here because it is an experience I think all fantasy lovers should have for themselves, but I was pleasantly surprised and intrigued and I think it is possibly one of the most original dragon slayer stories of all time, ever.

TBR Takedown 2.0 Quarter Update

We are three months into 2017! That means it's time to check in on how I'm doing in my quest to take down my TBR. If you reference my first post of the year, you'll see that I had hoped to be down to 9 books by now, from the 24 I started at on January 1. I am currently at 12, which makes sense because A) when I was planning this takedown I didn't account for the library books I'd be reading and B) I did get one new book this month, despite my rule not to get any until our first trip to Montana this year, which hasn't happened yet.

BUT. All things considered, I'm at a much better place than I was at the beginning of the year, and cutting my TBR in half in the first three months is nothing to scoff at!

So now that it's been a couple of months and I have better handle on how the takedown actually works in practice, I can modify my schedule slightly. Here's how I'm planning to continue this takedown:

12 Books on TBR
April - 3 Books (9 left)
May - 5 Books (4 left)
June - Finish TBR

The reason I'm only planning to read three TBR books next month is because one of them is a GIANT of a book. 650 pages, tiny text, almost no spacing, etc. It's going to take me two weeks to get through it at a pace that I already think will be pushing it. Plus, April is planned to be a writing-heavy month because of Camp NaNo. My intention is to make May a reading-heavy month as compensation so I still finish my TBR in June like I originally hoped. (Note: The above outline is assuming I don't add any more books to my TBR in the next three months, but with a Montana trip coming up in the near future, at least one will be added, if not two. I'll keep you updated and make any necessary changes come June when I reach the halfway point.)

My rules are still in place: ONE library book per FIVE that I read from my TBR, and no buying new books outside of our trip to Montana (Skulduggery Pleasant series excluded, ref. first post).

And speaking of Skulduggery Pleasant, you may remember last month I told you I'd begun to collect the series. Well, the books began arriving at my doorstep this month, and they are gorgeous! I didn't realize how big some of the later books are - everything from book five on is at least 600 pages! Yikes! But I'm still super excited to do a mass readthrough later this year (although it's looking more like it will be a late summer / early fall activity rather than a mid-summer one like I originally planned). At this point I now own all of the books except for #6 and #10, which I'll be respectively ordering and pre-ordering next month.

There you have it! I feel great about the amount of reading I've been doing so far this year, as well as the amount of writing I've done this month. I'm off to a great start! Check back here next time to see how I fared in Camp NaNo and if I'm keeping on track with my updated TBR Takedown 2.0! See you in April!

TMNT Tidbits #2: Season Four and Tales of the TMNT

Welcome back to TMNT Tidbits - a thing I haven't done since September 2015! In this post I'll be discussing some things that I've wanted to mention about the current TMNT series but have never had enough material for to create a full post. Note: Most of this post will talk about things relating to Season 4 and the beginnings of Tales of the TMNT, so if you're not caught up, this is your official spoiler alert!

Seth Green as Leonardo
First and foremost, I want to give a shout-out to Seth Green, who has done a wonderful job of playing Leonardo for the past two seasons of this show. If you've been following my blog for a while you'll remember that I wasn't entirely on board with the voice change at the end of Season 2, but was warming up to it after seeing the Season 3 premiere. Now that we've had full two seasons of Seth Green as Leo, I can state with authority that he did a wonderful job as the official replacement for Jason Biggs. (I still love that his voice change is a permanent reminder of the experiences he had leading up to it. That is so great.)

Fugitoid
David Tennant as the Fugitoid was one of the best things about the first half of Season 4. Much like the Doctor, future versions of this character will be hard-pressed to live up to his performance. Well done.

Mona Lisa
I was super excited for the introduction of Mona Lisa in early Season 4, as she was a character I'd been hoping would appear since I started watching the show. I even signed a petition to get the producers to consider adding her to the series - and it paid off! Mona Lisa showed up a few times in this season, and I was ecstatic every time. I loved her character and the tests she and Raph went through as a couple. (I know the "love at first sight" thing was a bit of a push and definitely trying to appease the fangirls, but I don't even care. It was awesome!) Zelda Williams did a great job as Mona Lisa and I can't wait to see more of her in Tales of the TMNT.

April
I had a really hard time rooting for April this past season, mostly because of her attitude that consistently grew worse over time. I didn't mind that she became a full-on kunoichi so much as I did the fact that when she reached that status her arrogance shot through the roof. (Granted, the crystal wasn't helping that, but still.) Although "The Power Within Her" resolved the issue of her obsession with the alien crystal she obtained in space, I don't feel that it helped her grow as a character any. Perhaps we'll see more positive development from her in Tales of the TMNT. One good thing I can say about her is that she looks great with her hair down!

New Female Characters
Season 4 introduced a new primary female character in Shinigami, whom I wasn't entirely fond of initially but am kind of starting to like now that she's had a few episodes. We were also introduced to Alopex - Tiger Claw's sister, HELLO! Her introduction, while brief, added a whole new layer to her brother's character and I really appreciated that. The showdown between the two was as epic as it was dark and gruesome. I also really, really loved that Raph was given a very intentional line, saying that Alopex is cool, but she's "no Mona Lisa." I know there are Raph x Alopex shippers out there, but I always have been and always will be a die-hard Raph x Mona Lisa shipper. I was beyond happy about that line. With all of that said, I kind of have a feeling Alopex was a one-time appearance; a nod to those Turtle fans who remember her from the comics.

Casey Jones
Casey Jones has really been pushed to the sidelines recently, and I'm not digging that. He's always been a great, beat-'em-up ally for the Turtles, so the fact that April is getting more on-screen butt kicking time than he is bugs me to no end. I also am really upset that he is not paired with April. The show has been very intentional about growing her and Donnie's relationship, but not hers and Casey's. It has ALWAYS been Casey and April. Always. They got married at the end of the 2003 series. I'm just saying...Casey needs to see more battle action, and at least a little more romance. Seeing some more character development would be nice, too.

Season 4 Finale
It took a year and a half full of constant hiatuses, but we finally got the Season 4 Finale we'd all been waiting for...and it was heart-wrenching, to say the least. I have to admit I had a feeling that Splinter would go for real this time, so when it finally happened I wasn't surprised, but that doesn't mean I didn't still bawl my eyes out. The funeral scene gave me the worst kind of feels. But even though I did want the guys to get Shredder for good as well, I honestly didn't expect him to go down as easily as he did, especially with how much they've struggled even to put a scratch on him up until this point. Leo holding Shredder's head at the end was a nice nod to the 2003 series, though.

I feel like I would have enjoyed the end of the season more if it wasn't also the end of the series. You can argue that Tales of the TMNT is "Season 5" all you want, but if it has a different name, it's not part of the same series. It's a spinoff. That's how I see it. The end of TMNT left a lot of questions unanswered and loose ends to wrap up, but I'm hoping/expecting that Tales of the TMNT will be touching on a few of those issues.

New TMNT Series
Tales of the TMNT is set to premiere on March 19. It will be a 20-episode spinoff show that focuses on life and adventures after Splinter and the Shredder are gone. We'll be introduced to a new villain voiced by Mark Hamill (so excited!) as well as revisiting some old conflicts and meeting new but familiar faces. I am most looking forward to Mona Lisa visiting Earth and the introduction of USAGI YOJIMBO!! YES!! Oh my gosh when I saw that trailer I flipped out so hard you don't even know, guys! I've been hoping for him since DAY ONE and now he's finally on his way! YES!!

I'm also really hoping that Tales of the TMNT will wrap up some loose ends concerning Karai (will she de-mutate? does she ever get around to calling herself Miwa?), Casey and April (as mentioned earlier), whether Rahzar and Fishface died in that last battle (I'm guessing yes), and etc.

Another new series was announced following the end of Season 4 - Rise of the TMNT. I don't know much about this one as it is not set to premiere until 2018, but I do know that it will be 2D-animated, targeted for a younger audience, and follow the Turtles on more mystical and magical adventures beneath the streets of NYC.

That's all I've got for you this time, folks! Thanks for following my nerdy TMNT posts from the very beginning of the show back in 2012. You'll be seeing plenty more as we move into Tales of the TMNT starting this Sunday, as well as Rise of the TMNT next year. BOOYAKASHA!