October 2025

happenings…

favorite first lines

One of the reasons I’ve kept so quiet about anything book 2 related is that I’m just not sure which of the many, many words I’ve written will make it into the final draft. I’m a discovery writer, and a lot of the time what I’m discovering is that the paragraph I spent all day tinkering with? It is wrong. That idea I thought was flawless? It doesn’t actually work the way I thought it would. I write things and then I change them and then I change them again. But the one thing that has remained more or less the same throughout drafting this book has been the first line. It came to me early on and even when I feel shaky about everything else, I really like this opening. That doesn’t mean it won’t change, but it’s nice to have for now. A lighthouse in the rough waters of a first draft, if you will. 

I can’t tell you my first line (yet), but I thought it would be fun to share some from other books. There are plenty of reads I adore whose first lines I don’t remember at all, but it is really nice when you find one that’s a total banger. Here are a few of my favorites. 

“Lymond is back.” —The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett

I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm. —Kindred by Octavia Butler

In the myriadic year of Our Lord—the ten thousandth year of the King Undying, the kindly Prince of Death!—Gideon Nav packed her sword, her shoes and her dirty magazines, and she escaped from the House of the Ninth. —Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

It is the first day of November and so, today, someone will die. —The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

The circus arrives without warning. —The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Our Dragon doesn’t eat the girls he takes, no matter what stories they tell outside our valley. —Uprooted by Naomi Novik

filling the well…

Reading: If anyone out there is in need of a soothing, insightful craft book, I quite enjoyed 1000 Words by Jami Attenburg. It’s a nice ode to process. Less comforting, was my second nonfic audiobook of the month, The Lost City of Z by David Grann. I really wanted to get caught up in the narrative, but mostly I just kept thinking to myself I WOULD NEVER WANT TO DO ANY OF THIS! It was great inspiration for deadly forest creatures though.

On the fictional side, I read Katabasis by R.F. Kuang, which satisfied my dark academia needs for autumn, and The Dungeon Anarchists’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman which was such a ridiculous and bloody romp that I was sad I didn’t have the next book on hand immediately. I read Falling Free and while I’m glad I picked it up, it was definitely my least favorite installment in the Vorkosigan saga thus far. I mention this only because I’ve seen some people say it should be read first since it takes place first chronologically, but I think that would be a mistake. I read The Summer War by Naomi Novik and am as in awe of her prose as always. I also loved To Clutch a Razor by Veronica Roth. The characters are wonderful, the angst is perfection, and the atmosphere is impeccable.

Watching: This isn’t going to be much of a list this month because I’ve decided to rewatch all of Stranger Things in preparation for the last season coming out. I’m on S3 now and having a lot of fun! Since I’m a giant wimp I can’t watch super scary stuff, but every year around Halloween I like to watch something sort of spooky and atmospheric and this fits the bill.

I also started watching campaign 4 of Critical Role! I am so excited to get to know all the characters and see what this new setting is like. It’s very early yet, but I’m having a great time. Unsurprisingly, I am a big fan of the disaster bisexual character with long hair and a bad attitude.

I’m taking next month off from the newsletter to throw all my energy into drafting, but I’ll be back in December to talk about my top five books of the year and share my favorite song on the book 2 playlist.

Thanks for reading!