Author Archives: lydias

About lydias

I'm a sci-fi writer who loves lifting weights and hates eating Brussels sprouts.
January 1, 2025 · 1:40 pm

The 2025 Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge Topics

This is a graphic that shares all 50 Wednesday Weekly Blogging challenge topics for 2025. I will transcribe them in the post as there isn’t space here. Above the list in this image you can see an opened laptop on a wooden table. Long and Short Reviews has released the list of topics for their seventh year of Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge posts. (Can you believe it has been around for long already? I feel like I just heard about it yesterday).

All of the details on how to participate can be found on their site.

If you’re having trouble reading the image, scroll down for a transcription of the weekly topics. Everyone is welcome to join in at any point of the year for as many or as few of the prompts as you wish!

The first one of the year is happening today, and there’s still time to join in! (Apologies for the last minute notice there. I only learned of this list myself late last night, and then I needed to write my post for the first prompt as well as type this one up).

 

January 1 – New Books I Want to Read This Month/Year

January 8 – What I Think of AI (Artificial Intelligence)

January 15 – Favourite Things to Do in the Winter

January 22 – Book Quotes That Make Me Laugh

January 29 – Book Quotes That Make Me Think

 

February 5 – A Story About a Memorable Acquaintance

February 12 – What to Read to Learn About X

February 19 – Fictional Worlds I’d Rather Not Visit

February 26 – Favourite Hobby and Why

 

March 5 – A Book I’m Nervous to Read (and Why)

March 12 – Characters I Want to Meet

March 19 – Favourite Websites/Podcasts/Blogs

March 26 – Favourite Comfort Foods and Why (+ Recipes)

 

April 2 – Characters I Never Want to Meet

April 9 – 10 Unusual Things About Me

April 16 – Books I Discovered on Social Media

April 23 – X Things I Wish More Books Talked About

April 30 – Books I Want Youth to Discover

 

May 7 – Favourite TV Shows and Why

May 14 – Books I Love That Became Films or TV Shows

May 21 – Lessons I Learned From a Book Character

May 28 – Books That Need a Sequel

 

June 4 – Favourite Book Covers and Why

June 11 – Favourite Things to Do in the Summer

June 18 – Humorous Book Titles

June 25 – Do You Follow Celebrity Gossip? Why or Why Not?

 

July 2 – Board and Card Games I Like

July 9 – Fictional Worlds I’d Love to Visit

July 16 – My Favourite Quotes From Books

July 23 – TV Shows I’ve Binge-Watched

July 30 – Books I Loved But Never Wrote Reviews For

 

August 6 – Books I Had to Read in School and Didn’t Like

August 13 – What I Read When I’m Not Feeling Well

August 20 – Books I Had to Read in School and Liked

August 27 – Books  That Deal Well With Tough Topics

 

September 3 – Books I Keep Meaning to Read (but Haven’t)

September 10 – What Is My Superpower?

September 17 – Authors I Wish More People Knew About

September 24 – How I Handle Bad Days

 

October 1 – Books I Would or Wouldn’t Reread and Why

October 8 – Popular/Famous Books I Don’t Plan to Read

October 15 – Books I Read on Someone’s Recommendation

October 22 – Things That Scare Me

October 29 – Books I’ve Recommended and Why

 

November 5 – A Strange or Useless Talent I Have

November 12 –  Things I’m Thankful For

November 19 – Books That Influenced My Life

November 26 – A Genre I Wish Were More Popular

 

December 3 – My Earliest Memory

December 10 – 10 Gifts for People Who Love X

December 17 – Something I Wish I Were Better At Doing

 

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· 8:07 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: New Books I Want to Read this Month/Year

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

Top Ten Tuesday had a similar topic last month and another one coming out later on this month, so there will be some repetition in my answers.

Book cover for Isaac's Song by Daniel Black. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man whose facial features are just barely included. You can see his eyebrows and the ridge of his nose. He’s standing in front a city filled with skyscrapers as an orange bird flies in the air behind him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My #1 answer is  Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black

Publication Date: January 14

I gushed about the first book in this series, Don’t Cry for Me, last year. It was written from the perspective of a (black) man who grew up in the south during the segregation era. He had a harsh childhood and passed on those impossible and sometimes abusive expectations to his son, Isaac, who cut contact with the protagonist as a young adult.

That was not an easy read by any means due to the themes of racism, homophobia, and generational abuse, but it was beautifully written. I can’t wait to view this world through Isaac’s eyes and hopefully see some sort of reconciliation or other form of healing by the end of it.

 

 

My #2 answer is speculative in nature and I don’t know if it will happen this year. I want a new book from Becky Chambers who is one of my favourite modern science fiction and fantasy writers. She has written some wonderfully gentle, cozy stories, and I need another one of them from her if possible.  (Especially after I read #1 on this list, I think!)

 

 

Book cover for Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Image on cover is a drawing of a flame that has a blue centre, a white middle, and then various shades of red and orange as one moves closer to the edges of it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My #3 answer is Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Publication Date: March 4

Why I’m Interested: A little literary fiction in the spring sounds nice. I’ve really enjoyed the previous work from her that I’ve read, too.

 

 

My #4 answer is another wish for a book that may or may not exist yet. Sarah Waters hasn’t released anything new in years, and I’d love for that to change this year.

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December 31, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Best Books I Read in 2024


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

As promised yesterday, here are the best books I read in 2024. I think these posts are more interesting when Top Ten Tuesday bloggers include reasons why they loved certain titles, so I will be adding that into my responses as well.

Seven of my ten answers are books I wrote reviews for, and links to my reviews are included for those ones.

A photo of a gold-coloured championship cup with two handles. It’s the sort of award that would typically be given to someone who won first place. There are two gold-coloured medallions with red, white, and blue ribbons on them hanging from the cup. There is also gold-coloured glitter on the red surface where this cup is sitting. It looks like someone just had a celebration here!  1. What Does It Feel Like? By Sophie Kinsella

Why I Loved It: This book was such an interesting and educational peek at what it’s like to live with a nearly 100% fatal type of brain cancer.  I’m hoping that Ms. Kinsella will be around for many years to come.

 

2.Bodega Botanica Tales by Maria Rodriguez Bross

Why I Loved It: Urban fantasy is such an under-appreciated genre in my opinion. I love reading about how fantasy worlds works in large, bustling cities.

 

3. Strange New World by A.R. Grosjean

Why I Loved It: It retells one of my favourite childhood stories in the zaniest way.

 

4. What Love Survives & Other Stories by DB MacInnes

Why I Loved It: The blend of genres and the willingness to try new things. I don’t think speculative fiction is something this author writes much of – or at least that’s the impression I got – so it’s awesome to see them branch out.

 

5. Cloudspotting for Beginners by William Grill

Why I Loved It: Clouds are endlessly fascinating. Who wants to go cloud watching with me and point out what shapes they make?

 

6. The Killer Catfish of Cape Cod by Bill Russo

Why I Loved It: The slight absurdity of it all, beginning with the title. It sounds like the sort of tall tale a local person would swear is true if you visited a small town bar.

 

7. Neuro Noir by Al Hess

Why I Loved It: Computers as protagonists. The way these ones saw the world was so wildly different from how the average person would interpret the same data.

 

8. Ghosted – A Short Story by H.L. Burke

Why I Loved It: What a cozy little fantasy. It felt like the literary equivalent of drinking a nice cup of tea and warming up after a damp, chilly walk outdoors.

 

9. Veterans of Love and War: A First World War Ghost Story by Steven Glick

Why I Loved It: While I normally shy away from war stories, I loved how this one showed how a young closeted gay man experienced World War I.

 

10. Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson

Why I Loved It: This book shed light on the shady, and in my opinion sometimes downright immoral, tactics many adoption agencies in the United States use in order to convince people – and mostly mothers – to place their babies for adoption. Adoption can be a great option for kids who can’t safely remain with their birth families, but there are many families that could stay together and thrive if offered support through hard times.

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December 30, 2024 · 1:00 am

What I Read in 2024

A photo of a white bunny with a grey ear who is wearing a gold-coloured pair of human glasses on its face. The glasses are comically large on such a small animal.The rabbit is lying next to an opened book. One can imagine that it is using reading glasses to read that book.

Happy New Year, readers!

In January of 2013, I began blogging about everything I’d read that previous year.  This tradition began when my dad asked me how many books I’ve read in my entire lifetime.

I couldn’t begin to give him an answer to that question, but it did make me decide to start keeping track from that moment forward. The previous posts in this series are as follows: 2023, 2022,  2021, 2020, 2019, 2018,  2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013.

2024 was a year of not finishing novels as often as usual and I do not include DNF titles or short stories in these roundup posts. Those things can help to explain why this list is shorter than it typically would be.

There has been some hard stuff over the past year and a half in my personal life that have affected my reading habits. Sometimes these things can make it hard to concentrate, read books about certain sad topics,  or have as much time for reading in general as one would prefer.

My hope is that 2025 is full of nothing but cheerful, healing surprises for all of us.

(Yes, I know I’ve shared this photo of a rabbit who appears to be reading a book here before. The repetition is intentional because I need more excuses for laughter in my life).

I only read one young adult book in the past year. I think I’m leaving that genre to the age group it was intended for.

The theology section is a new addition and probably not one I’ll repeat in 2025.

Other than that, this is mostly the same mixture of genres I always read.

Biographies, Autobiographies, and Memoirs

 

A photo of a grey squirrel sitting in a patch of ferns eating something as daylight streams down around him or her.

“The Lady in the Van” by Alan Bennett

“Always Pack a Candle: A Nurse in the Cariboo-Chilcotin” by Marion McKinnon Crook

“Last to Eat, Last to Learn: My Life in Afghanistan Fighting to Educate Women” by Pashtana Durrani

“Shepherd’s Sight: A Farming Life” by Barbara McLean

“Medgar and Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story That Awakened America” by Joy-Anne Reid

(The internet gave me this squirrel photo as one of the top results when I searched for biography-themed photos that can be used by anyone. Perhaps squirrels write adorable little autobiographies now, and who I am to question that possibility? 😉 )

Fiction

 

A brown-skinned woman with gorgeous, curly, black hair is cuddling her yellow Labrador retriever as she reads a book. The dog looks interested in the book. “Clan of the Cave Bear” (Earth’s Children #1) by Jean M. Auel

“The Mammoth Hunters” (Earth’s Children #3)  by Jean M. Auel

“The Valley of Horses” (Earth’s Children #2)  by Jean M. Auel

“The Sacred Mountain” by Andy Black (this is a fan fiction book that was written to finally tie up the most important loose ends Jean M. Auel left in the Earth’s Children series).

“What Does It Feel Like?” By Sophie Kinsella

“The Field” by Robert Seethaler

 

History

“Madness: Race and Insanity in a Jim Crow Asylum” by Antonia Hylton

 

Horror

 

A photo of two little white figurines wearing jeans and two different shades of green shirts who look comically scared. Their facial features and body language are seriously over-exaggerated. “Why Didn’t You Just Leave” edited by Julia Rios and Nadia Bulkin 

“I Found A Circus Tent In the Woods Behind My House” by Ben Farthing 

“I Found Puppets Living In My Apartment Walls” by Ben Farthing 

“The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion” by Margaret Killjoy 

 

Poetry

“The Home Child” By Liz Berry

“Let the Light Pour In” by Lemn Sissay

 

Mystery

“The Small Museum” by Jody Cooksley

 

Psychology and Sociology

“Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood” by Gretchen Sisson

 

Science Fiction and Fantasy

A photo of a tree that has lost all of its leaves. It’s growing either next to a field or to a grassy area that’s recently been mowed. Superimposed onto the tree are a pair of purple human eyes. This looks like photoshop to me.

“A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens

“Midwinter Magic and Mayhem” edited by Frances Evelyn

“Cryptid Bits” by Jess Simms

“Tucker Vs. The Apocalypse” by Jay Allan Storey

“Christmas Inc.” by Tim Vee 

 

 

Science, Health, and Medicine

An out-of-focus photo of a young Hispanic doctor or researcher swirling a blue liquid around in one beaker while his other hand holds another beaker filled with blue liquid still. “Insulin: A Hundred-Year History” by Stuart Bradwel

“Raising Hare” by Chloe Dalton

“Cloudspotting for Beginners” by William Grill

“James Herriot’s Treasury for Children:  Warm and Joyful Tales by the Author of All Creatures Great and Small” by James Herriot

“Dreams” by Melanie Gillespie Rosen

 

Theology

“The Lambing Season: Stories of Life on an Irish Family Farm” by John Connell

“Bible Truths You Won’t Hear in Church” by Drew Costen

 

Young Adult

“Gay the Pray Away” by Natalie Naudus

 

 

Tomorrow’s Top Ten Tuesday topic asks us to share our favourite reads of 2024, so come back then to see which books I loved the most!

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December 26, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of From Shadows to Strength

Book cover for From Shadows to Strength by Jamilette Cintron. Image on cover is a drawing of thick fog winding its way through a pine forest on a dark, overcast day. This scene is framed by a window frame, so the viewer is tucked away safely indoors after all! My first impression was that the viewer would be walking through this damp and cold scene alone. Title: From Shadows to Strength

Author: Jamilette Cintron

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 20, 2024

Genres: Fantasy, Contemporary

Length: 5 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

After a life-changing surgery, she thought the hardest part was over. But as her body begins to heal, a new battle emerges—one that can’t be seen on the surface. Depression quietly creeps in, threatening to pull her deeper into the shadows. With every step forward, she struggles to find the strength to rise from the emotional wreckage, discovering that the journey of healing is more than physical. It’s a fight for self-love, hope, and the courage to face her darkest fears. This is her story of resilience, a testament to the power of the human spirit to overcome even the deepest scar.

Content Warning: Depression. Anxiety. References to a painful surgery.

Review:

Hope is the thing with feathers, or, in this case, bandages instead.

Recovering from surgery is a process. Even minor procedures take a toll on the body and can make recovery feel endless if someone doesn’t fully know what to expect going in or if they were quietly expecting to heal faster than the average person. Some of the most interesting passages in this piece focus on the mental health aspects of this experience for a patient who desperately wanted to be feeling better by now.

I would have loved to see the metaphor in this short story expanded upon. There were a few different ways to interpret it from what I could tell, but I was never quite sure which interpretation or interpretations the author intended her audience to gravitate towards. Yes, I know I’m being vague here, but this is one of those things that a reviewer must talk circles around in order to avoid giving away spoilers. What I can say is that there were some thought provoking ideas embedded in this piece that could have made this a five-star read with more development.

The ending made me smile. As much as I wanted more details about what was going on, I also appreciated how hopeful it was and how much optimism I had for what the main character might do next. She’d been through so much already that I wanted her to thrive from that point forward. Many of the stories I read have more ambigious endings, so it was refreshing to flip past the final page and feel so good about what I just read.

From Shadows to Strength piqued my curiosity. 

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December 24, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Winter Solstice Bookish Wishes


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

Some of these will be repeats from last year because I am apparently a creature of habit.

Little red berries still clinging to a bush after a frost. Every piece of the plant has a light layer of frost on it which gives this image a cold, brisk, wintery feeling. 1. Quiet Reading and Writing Time

A small apartment and a spouse who watches a lot of YouTube videos equals not as much quiet reading and writing time for me as I’d prefer to have!

 

2.  Restore the Ebook Holds Limit at the Toronto Public Library

In October of this year, the Toronto Public Library reduced the number of ebook holds you could have from 30 t0 15. The problem with this is that many of their new ebooks – and books in general –  have long waiting lists.

It can be frustrating to be excited for a book only to see a 20 week average wait for it, and my book buying budget is limited. I will not complain to the poor librarians who I’m sure had no input into this decision, but I will file a complaint with the Top Ten Tuesday community.

Surely one of you has magical powers and can reverse this, right? 😉

 

3.  A Proper Ending for Every Series

I’ve become reluctant to start new series these days due to how many of them have never been finished or have had terribly unsatisfactory endings that leave all sorts of important plot threads dangling.

 

4.  Snowy, Cozy Reading Days

There’s something special about reading in your safe, warm house as snow falls silently outside.

 

5. A third Monk and Robot Book

Becky Chambers, your fans would love to find out what happens in this world next!

 

6. Dairy-Free Chocolate

I love nibbling on it while reading particularly exciting or dramatic scenes

 

7.  More Well-Done TV Shows and Films Based on Books

It’s splendid to see a fictional world come to life on the small or big screen. Some changes to the plot are fine so long as the screenwriters and director remain true to the spirit of the text.

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December 19, 2024 · 1:00 am

A Review of The Christmas Mourner

Book cover for The Christmas Mourner by Marian McCarthy. Image on cover shows a closeup painting of a few branches of a white Christmas tree decorated with red bulbs. You can see snow gently falling in the blue background.Title: The Christmas Mourner

Author: Marian McCarthy

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: December 10, 2021

Genres: Holiday, Paranormal, Contemporary

Length: 11 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author

Rating: 3 Stars

Blurb:

A lonely Christmas Eve turns lively for mortician Perrie Spock when a late-night mourner shows up at the Rose Funeral Home.

Content Warning: Funeral home setting. Death.

Review:

Christmas ghost stories are one tradition that should never die.

I adored all of the little moments in this tale that showed Perrie’s dedication to her work. She really seemed to be passionate about preserving the dignity of the dead and giving their loved ones a chance to say goodbye in a peaceful, healing place. Grief is never easy, but it can be less difficult if the people surrounding the mourners are kind and compassionate like Perrie was. Look for the small things this protagonist does when she thinks nobody is watching that demonstrate just how much this matters to her. One of the best ones happened shortly after she turned off the light in the viewing room and prepared for a quiet Christmas Eve.

While I understand that this is part of a series and I did not go into it expecting to understand every reference to past events, it would have been helpful for me as a new reader to have a little more backstory on Perrie. For example, why was she so nonchalant the first time a ghost spoke to her? Even a line or two about how maybe she’d had this happen to her before or she expected it for some other reason would have been enough for me to choose a much higher rating as this was a heartwarming read in general.

The world building was sweet and lovely. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of what it feels, looks, sounds, and smells like to interact with a friendly ghost. Anyone who is familiar with ghost stories, especially of the Christmas variety, will know just what to expect here, but that is not a criticism of this work by any means. Sometimes readers – or at least this reader – find comfort in tropes they’ve read many times before. It’s like eating a favourite meal or putting on a soft sweatshirt after a long day in the outside world and relaxing into the moment. That is to say, it’s blissful.

The Christmas Mourner made me smile.

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December 17, 2024 · 1:00 am

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on My Winter 2024-2025 to-Read List


Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

I didn’t come up with a full ten answers, but I don’t know that I’ve ever been able to do that for these seasonal TBR posts and this list is much longer than usual.

I was able to find some great books that I can’t wait to read this winter or whenever the Toronto Public Library makes them available to borrow, though.

 

Book cover for Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr. Image on the cover is a black and white photograph of a young Malcolm X staring thoughtfully ahead at the viewer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. Malcolm Before X by Patrick Parr

Why I’m Interested: I read Malcolm X’s autobiography years ago and found it thought provoking. It will be intriguing to revisit his life from another perspective.

 

Book cover for The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women's Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder. Image on cover shows an 1800s-style painting of a white female doctor using a stethoscope to listen to the lungs of another white woman who has partially undressed and whose back is bare while she is being examined.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. The Cure for Women: Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi and the Challenge to Victorian Medicine That Changed Women’s Lives Forever by Lydia Reeder 

Why I’m Interested: History is a fascinating topic to me in general, especially when viewed through the perspectives of people who were discriminated against or mistreated. I believe humanity can learn from our mistakes and do better.

 

Book cover for After Life  by Gayle Forman. Image on cover is a drawing of a young blonde white woman whose back is turned to the viewer. An avalanche of pink flowers are falling all around her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.After Life  by Gayle Forman

Publication Date: January 7

Why I’m Interested: Imagine how shocking it would be if a dead loved one reappeared in your life several years later in perfect health and with no memory of what caused their death!

Book cover for Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor. Image on cover shows a stylized drawing of a black woman whose face is mostly in silhouette. Only her cheeks, nose, and a tiny bit of her forehead have been drawn in more detail. She is standing or sitting in front of a background that includes orange splotches against a teal surface. I don’t know if this is something related to the plot or not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor

Publication Date: January 14

Why I’m Interested: Ms. Okorafor is one of those authors I always keep an eye out for when they release new stories!

 

 

Book cover for Isaac's Song by Daniel Black. Image on cover shows a drawing of a young black man whose facial features are just barely included. You can see his eyebrows and the ridge of his nose. He’s standing in front a city filled with skyscrapers as an orange bird flies in the air behind him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Isaac’s Song by Daniel Black

Publication Date: January 28

Why I’m Interested: I loved the first book in this series, Don’t Cry for Me, and can’t wait to see how the tense relationship between the (unintentionally) abusive father and his gay, estranged son evolves from here.

 

Book cover for The Lamb  by Lucy Rose. Image on cover shows a painting of a white woman sitting on a bed with her back facing the audience. She’s topless and has wrapped her lower half in a blue comforter as she waits for who knows what. There is a slight slump in her shoulders that makes me afraid for what might happen next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.  The Lamb  by Lucy Rose

Publication Date: February 4

Why I’m Interested: This sounds deliciously scary. We will see if it’s too frightening for me!

Book cover for Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey. Image on cover shows two figures walking in the forest just after sunset when there is precious little light left. The one on the right and closer to the audience is wearing a black cape that obscures all of their features. The one on the left and further into the forest is bathed in light and wearing a peach dress or garment. I wonder where the light is coming from since everything else in this scene is so dark?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7.  Black Woods, Blue Sky by Eowyn Ivey

Publication Date: February 11

Why I’m Interested: Beauty and the Beast is one of those fairy tales I have mixed feelings about due to the messages it gives about what love should feel like. I think I will either adore this story or grow exasperated and stop reading it within a few chapters. Only time will tell which one of those outcomes happens!

 

Book cover for Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill. Image on the cover is a drawing of bright green monster crossing and bending her legs so they cover her private parts and lower stomach area. Her long, green hair looks like thick plant tendrils that curl out of her head and smother the rest of the image. She could almost weave a bed of her hair because of how long and thick it is. Interspersed in the hair are about eight pink flowers. I think they’re meant to part of her body, too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Greenteeth by Molly O’Neill

(Thank you to Veronica at Dark Shelf of Wonders for blogging about this book a few weeks ago in a previous Top Ten Tuesday post!)

Publication Date: February 25

Why I’m Interested: I need more cozy fantasy in my life, especially if it’s written from a monster’s perspective!

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December 12, 2024 · 1:00 am

Winter Solstice Delights: A Review of Midwinter Magic and Mayhem

Book cover for Midwinter Magic and Mayhem edited by Frances Evelyn. Image on cover is a drawing of a pale-skinned woman who is standing outside in a snowstorm with no clothes on. (You can only see her face, neck, and a little bit of her shoulders). Her straight, dark blonde hair is swirling around her head and she is staring at the audience with a serious expression on her face as the snow blows around her. Title: Midwinter Magic and Mayhem

Author: edited by Frances Evelyn

Publisher: Self-Published

Publication Date: October 15, 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Holiday, Romance, Contemporary, Historical

Length: 199 pages

Source: I received a free copy from the author.

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb:

Short stories for the darkest of nights
Midwinter fantasy from award-winning fantasy authors

Witches, demons, spirits and ghosts haunt these pages, tricking, trapping and seducing unwary mortals. Humans, meanwhile, are wielding magic and the spirits for their own ends, with no guarantee of good intentions or great success. Along the way, God and Lucifer wash their hands of us all.

Real-world and epic fantasy rub shoulders with fantasy romance and horror in this new collection of short stories by much-loved authors. Ration yourself to one a night to colour your dreams or binge through them all in search of your next favourite series.

Why so cheap? What’s the catch?
Don’t you worry about that. Just put out your hand and let us take you into the chill of a winter night. What could possibly go wrong?

Content Warning: Migraines. Ancient curses and ancient blessings. Characters drinking alcohol. Hypothermia. Death. I will not discuss any of these topics in my review.

Review:

Prepare for something delightful.

Galyna received warnings in her dreams from one of her ancestors about various forms of danger that were threatening her and those she loved “The Horse Woman.” This was something established pretty early on on in the storyline, so I don’t consider it a spoiler. What I found interesting about this tale is that Galyna’s ancestor had lived so many generations ago that nobody in the family knew anything about her other than these few sparse facts. Imagine getting warnings from someone so far back in one’s family tree. Where the storyline went from there surprised me and made it difficult to stop reading. What creativity! I’d read an entire book about these characters if such a thing existed.

“Daisy” showed what happened when Janie decided to adopt an odd little stray cat that showed up in her garden one autumn. There are so many details of this story that I can’t share without giving away the plot twists, but what I can say is that I loved Janie’s compassion for her new pet no matter how strange life became for the two of them. One of my all-time favorite tropes involves ordinary people performing acts of kindness for those who can’t possibly repay them. There is something so wholesome about someone who simply wants to make the world a better place in whatever small ways they can without any expectations of being noticed or thanked, and I don’t think I’ll ever grow tired of reading about these quiet, sweet moments that happen regularly both in fiction and and in real life.

One of the things that frightens me the most about winter is the possibility of getting stuck outdoors in the cold for too long. After Jessica’s car died, she became so hypothermic she fell asleep and then woke up in a bizarre bar in ‘The Spirit of Winter.” Due to the dangerous beginning of this story, I was pleasantly surprised by where it meandered off to after Jessica’s exposure to the cold weather began to affect her so seriously. It was not at all what I was expecting, but it worked well for the characters and plot and gave me multiple hints about how it could be interpreted depending upon how a reader reacts to certain clues.

Midwinter Magic and Mayhem was the perfect read for the holiday season.

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December 11, 2024 · 1:00 am

Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Myths or Legends From Where I Live

Hosted by Long and Short Reviews.

Click here to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and to read everyone else’s replies to this week’s question and here to see the full list of topics for the year.

A photo of a plastic toy shaped like Bigfoot. It is about six inches tall and is sitting in a forest that’s strewn with last year’s autumn leaves and that has just begun to grow this year’s crop of leaves. The toy is positioned so that it looks like it’s walking through the leaves.

One of the negative stereotypes about people from Toronto is that we think we’re the centre of the universe and that the way life is here is the way it is everywhere else in Canada, too.

I certainly do not agree with that, so I am purposefully not mentioning my city at all in the rest of this post.

A few years ago I blogged about famous urban legends in Toronto, so today I’ll be sharing some legends from other parts of Ontario. It’s a big province, and I only wish I had space here to talk about all of our amazing myths and stories.

Old Yellow Top

Many different parts of North America have legends about Bigfoot or Sasquatch, but Ontario is the only one I know of who has stories about one of these creatures that has blonde hair. All of the other stories I’ve heard about this cryptid describes it being covered in brown hair. Maybe there was a rare genetic mutation in this one?

 

The Little People of Doghead Mountain

The Anishinaabe in Northern Ontario have a very cool story about the little people of Doghead Mountain which is close to the town of Nipigon. 

The mountain is called Doghead Mountain because it is shaped like the head of a dog, and the Anishinaabe word for it is Memegwesiwijiw. It is said that the little people who live there like to trick anyone who crosses their path, so watch out for things like your water being spilled or your trap lines being set off without catching any prey if you decide to visit.

 

Black Donnellys

The Black Donnellys were an Irish Catholic immigrant family who settled in Biddulph township, Upper Canada (which is now known as Ontario) in the 1850s.  There was a dispute between them and their neighbours about who really owned the farm that the Donnellys believed they had legally purchased but who others had been squatting on for a long time. After multiple altercations, a local group ironically named the Peace Society visited the farm with the intention of merely harming the Donnelly men and scaring them into giving up their land.

Tensions rose, though, and many members of this family ended up being murdered that night. Some of the details are kind of violent, so I’ll leave it up to my readers to click on the link above if they want more information.

 

Gaasyendietha

The Seneca tribe in Ontario tells of the legend of the Gaasyendietha, a fire-breathing dragon that is said to live in all of the Great Lakes but prefers Lake Ontario. It is said to have been created when a large meteor fell from the sky into the lake. All of their tales warn people to avoid this creature, so I will definitely not be seeking it out!

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