Archive for June, 2013

Daughter of the Lioness Book 1: Trickster’s Choice

notebook paper

We’re back in Tortall again!!! This series of two books is about the daughter of badass Lady Knight, Alanna the Lioness, and badass spy master, George Cooper. Her name is Aly and she’s less badass and more annoying than either of her parents. Still, reading this book was exciting because I didn’t read it alone! I was joined by artist and noted pipe-enthusiast James Fox, with the understanding that I would provide humorous chapter commentary and he would provide humorous chapter illustrations! Did I mention this was all like a year and a half ago? Anyway, here are the parts of the project that survived to the present day!

Pretty sure James could also design a better cover, but whatever

Pretty sure James could also design a better cover, but whatever

Prologue
The Copper Isles raka clans were too busy fighting among themselves and those damn white people took over. Plus, their god Kyprioth may or may not have had his ass handed to him by the other gods. Some say the ancient raka royal line is still out there…

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Chapter One: Parents
Aly is super rebellious and dyes her hair blue to piss off her mom. Aly’s dream in life is to be a spy in the field, but her mom and dad will not let her! She decides to run away and is promptly kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery. That’ll sure show them!

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Chapter Two: Trickster
Aly works for the Balitang family! They are way nice to their slaves, even if they are raka because the first Mrs. Balitang was totally a raka herself! She’s dead now, but her two half-raka daughters are feisty teenagers. Bronau, some kind of prince, warns the Balitangs that the Crazy King thinks they are traitors and they should head off to the country. Kyprioth makes a bet with Aly that if she keeps the Balitang children safe through the summer he will take her home ASAP. He fools the Balitangs into thinking Aly is the new Joan of Arc.

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Chapter Three: The Raka
The Balitang children are super curious about Tortall and all the awesome ladies that live there, including Alanna, Aly’s mom. On the entire journey to their country island castle, raka just come out of the jungle to STARE at them, specifically the two teenage girls, Sarai and Dove.

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2013 Goal Update: halfway point

So six months in to 2013, and here’s how my list of goals is going:

1. Make at least one recipe from each of our cookbooks: 50% complete!

Steven tried to help me with some of the Roman ones by making some kind of cheese dip that just tasted like salt. It somehow tasted saltier than just eating straight salt. Still have the ice cream AND ice pops books to do, just in time for summer!! Also, this weekend we finally tackled the sushi book, and it turned out deliciously:

Not gonna lie: Steven did all the work for this one

Not gonna lie: Steven did all the work for this one

2. Read 200 books: 40% complete

2013readingchallengejune

So I’ve read 80. Whatever. How many have you read?

3. Knock off at least 1 state from my map: 100% COMPLETE!

West Virginia!!!

West Virginia!!!

4. Lift Weights At Least Once a Week: 50% complete, I guess?

Since this has to happen every week, I can’t finish it early.

5. Knit a cardigan: 70% complete

So I’ve done nothing on this since the last time we talked. It’s fine. I still got this.

6. Send out my entire stash of postcards: 5% complete

Whatever, I do what I want.

7. SUPER SECRET SEVENTH PROJECT: 50% complete???

Am I halfway done? Will I make it? EVEN I DON’T KNOW–that’s how secret it is.

Total

On average, I am 52% of the way to meeting my goals. That’s good enough for me!

Let’s talk again in September.

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