Read Space/Time Travel - CHALLENGE ACCEPTED

Here I am, minding my own business, doing my first discussion board post for an online course I'm taking, reading through some of my favorite blogs, and out of nowhere I discover there are reading challenges for specific types of books!

Even better, I find that writers I know and love are participating. And an author I know and love is the creator! AND it involves space *and* time travel books!

And I was thinking the only luck that I would see in 2022 would be that 41st bagel bite that came in the box of 40 I just bought for my kids. (Thanks, mom, for teaching my kids what bagel bites are.)

This is fantastic news!!!

I'm IN! Challenge accepted. Let's do this. I'm only ten days late. I have been reading a book already this year, but I do not think it counts. It is an anthology, but technically the stories I've read so far are not space or time-related. (But very science fiction.) I shall have to find another.

If reading about space and time travel is also your cup of tea, go sign up! You don't need to have a blog, but you will need a place to post your reviews. Perhaps on Goodreads? (If you don't have Goodreads, make that another challenge for you this year. It is a great place for readers!)

Use the image below to find out about the challenge and sign up!

Updates on my progress:

Complete:

Planned:

March - Insecure Writers Support Group

March 3 question - Everyone has a favorite genre or genres to write. But what about your reading preferences? Do you read widely or only within the genre(s) you create stories for? What motivates your reading choice?

The awesome co-hosts for the March 3 posting of the IWSG are Sarah - The Faux Fountain Pen, Jacqui Murray, Chemist Ken, Victoria Marie Lees, Natalie Aguirre, and JQ Rose! Check out their blogs while you are here.

Easiest question ever, thanks guys! I absolutely prefer to read and write my favorite genre. This does not mean I never venture out, but I have very limited time for myself, so when I do get time, I choose to use it for something I can benefit from the most. This means visiting another world, reading excellent prose, getting lost in another being's struggles, anything to remove me from reality for just a short while. 

I do not want to read fiction about "real world" struggles because I'm already living with those! (I absolutely will read nonfiction about the real world. Reading about actual problems [vs. "first-world" problems] is something that should be mandatory for anyone who wants to participate in the human race.) Sorry, tripped over my soapbox for a moment. Just let me say one more thing about that, educate yourself about the troubles of the world. Not as a hobby, but as a human resident of planet Earth. Done.

So, which genre? Speculative fiction. I want Science Fiction and Fantasy. I do enjoy things outside of this but usually there is an element of fantasy involved. For some reason, The Count of Monte Cristo is popping into my head as not fitting in my genre of choice, but really it is fantastical. 

Currently I am reading Science Fiction with the express purpose of studying the craft. I am participating in the Goodreads reading challenge, so I post each book I finish reading and complete a review. The reviews are posted to my blog as well.

Feel free to recommend your favorite Speculative Fiction book/author or a worthy alternative in the comments so I can add it to my list!! 

I am currently reading The Last God by Jean Davis. I love her cover art (for all of her books) and I am enjoying the story just as much. (Also currently reading Words are my Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin because she is the goddess of knowledge of writing and life as a human.)

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Want to see what other writers had to say about this question? Visit the blog hop by clicking the badge below. They are all awesome, I promise!

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Before you go...

Head on over to the IWSG Anthology Blog today. It is my turn to be the featured author. I talk about the inspiration for my short story The Utten Mission, and share a blurb and excerpt.

Inspiration from Le Guin

One of my writing heroes is Ursula K Le Guin. If I had my way, my daughter would be named Ursula, but that is another tale. I was reading today and came across a few good examples of the things I love about her and I wanted to share them.

Both are from The Left Hand of Darkness.

1. She speaks through her characters and she has beautiful thoughts...

"How does one hate a country, or love one? ...I lack the trick of it. I know people, I know towns, farms, hills and rivers and rocks, I know how the sun at sunset in autumn falls on the side of a certain plowland in the hills; but what is the sense of giving a boundary to all that, of giving a name and ceasing to love where the name ceases to apply? What is love of one's country; is it hate of one's uncountry? Then it's not a good thing. Is it simply self-love? That's a good thing, but one mustn't make a virtue of it, or a profession..." 

"A man who doesn't detest a bad government is a fool. And if there were such a things as a good government on earth, it would be a great joy to serve it."

Somehow this character's words spoke to me. He is a person who committed treason against his mad king in order to save a stranger's life and try to help his entire planet. Could a real person be so selfless? What an absolutely fascinating character to read about. Le Guin does not make him a hero, though, nor does she make him an enemy. He just is.

2. Then there is her scenery...sigh...

"We are still in the ice-pass between two volcanoes. Drumner is in eruption. Worms of fire crawl down its black sides, seen when wind clears off the roil and seethe of ash-cloud and smoke-cloud and white steam. Continuously, with no pause, a hissing mutter fills the air, so huge and so long a sound that one cannot hear it when one stops to listen; yet it fills all the interstices of one's being. The glacier trembles perpetually, snaps and crashes, jitters under our feet. All the snow-bridges that the blizzard may have laid across crevasses are gone, shaken down, knocked in by the drumming and jumping of the ice and the earth beneath the ice."

"The sleet on one's lips tastes of smoke and sulphur. A darkness loured all day in the west even under the rain-clouds. From time to time all things, clouds, icy rain, ice, air, would turn a dull red, then fade slowly back to gray. The glacier shakes a little under our feet." 

So much sensory input! 

Le Guin was 40 years old when this book was published in the late 1960's. I can only imagine what writing was like in that time. I permanently keep a tab open for Google define, just so I can pull in new words and use the thesaurus. Did she keep one nearby in print form? How can I get a vocabulary like that? She always has the exact words to paint a perfect picture, and I admire it.

Interested in reading this book? Follow the link below to order your copy.