In the world of the gods of Takamagahara, October is the month of Kannazuki.
During the “Month Without No Gods” eight million Shinto deities leave their mountains, rivers and shrines to join a congregation in the land of Izumo to discuss next year’s matchmaking. All except Ebisu, or as he was initially called, Hiruko, the leech child, first born of Izanami and Izanagi, because he’s deaf and doesn’t hear the summon.
When there are no gods to protect the land, the demons roam free, and for years, there was only Hiruko remaining to protect the humans from evil.
On the other side of the globe, there’s Halloween.
Here is my wrap-up for October for TBRs, writing goals and bookish shopping.
Reading
I’m not much of a horror reader, so I picked a random TBR.
I finished “The Scottish Boy” by Alex de Campi and I have 5 things to say:
- I liked it and the audio book narrator did a great job to bring the characters alive.
- It was an “enemies-to-lovers” medieval MM romance done right.
- If you enjoyed “Greenwode” & “Shirewode” by J. Tullos Hennig you’ll like this one too.
- I found it a bit too long and (and I can’t believe I’m saying this) had too many sex scenes.
- I LOVED the ending!
I also started Susanna Clarke’s “Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell“. I tried to finish it, but the brick has 1000 pages, and I barely got to page 320, so I hope to tell you more about it in November’s wrap-up.
Writing
It’s been all about Kuramu’s birth this month, researching the gods surrounding him and exploring the relationships with the four gods from the Prologue posted on 26th of October (link here if you missed it).
It’s also been about the world-building, the golden fields and purple skies of Takamagahara, the Tachibana river and exploring primitive humans in Japan 3000 years ago, how they lived, how they built, what they wore.
I’m trying to build a routine, not one where I give myself the goal of X number of words, but one where I just sit down and write a little every day.
The secret is I’ve been rewriting chapter 1 for 3 years. There are twenty versions written so far, all starting in other time periods, from different POVs. Do I start immediately after the end of Shinigami in Yomi? We have a “Chapter 1” for that. Or should I start when Izanami kills Kuramu? We have a Chapter 1 for that too. Or should I start when Kuramu is born? Guess what, we have it. The good thing is, whichever Chapter 1 will be, you’ll see all these other chapters in the book, just not as “Chapter 1”.
Bookish Shopping
Manga. My next month’s TBR will focus on manga. That’s where all my book budget went this month anyway, so I guess now that I have them, I should also read them.
The situation may get a little out of hand soon. I just made an order of “Moriarty the Patriot”, which should be arriving this week. I’ll need to start saving for some new shelves to keep all my manga.
I’m most proud of my new kitsune stamp seal. I’m going to use it for every “Thank you” author letter I’ll send to the people purchasing the “Takamagahara Monogatari” book box. I’m very excited.
And last but not least, notebooks. Many, many notebooks to store ideas, research information.
P.S. Yay! I managed to post 5 consecutive times in a row. I’ll get myself a cookie on my way out.
Xia Xia Lake 