Upcoming at The Lily Cafe #3

Looks like these Upcoming posts are planning on sticking around, but the format is not. I’m glad because the number thing was dreadful. Instead, I’ve decided to highlight some new things I’m really excited about.

Queen of the Garden of Girls and Sisters of String and Glass

When I first started writing Queen of the Garden of Girls in 2019, I imagined it was only going to be a simple and quick Beauty and the Beast inspired story. It kind of took a life of its own and became a doorway of sorts to a fairy tale world halfway through. Well, I have something of an obsession with fairy tales, so I decided to stick with the world I opened the door to and am continuing right on into that world.

Sisters of String and Glass takes place several years before Queen of the Garden of Girls, set before Elaina and Robert are even born, before Elaina’s parents even meet, but definitely after Robert’s parents have married. It pulls together elements from Cinderella and Rapunzel as well as a bit of The Little Mermaid, the story of which was already given in Queen of the Garden of Girls. A part of the story will be dedicated to the aftermath of the prince running away with the mermaid princess’s handmaiden. Based on my outline, I’m anticipating this one will be longer than Queen of the Garden of Girls, but I’m hoping to be done with it in about a year. Rose has a story, too, and I’m a little anxious to get it written as well. I have an image of her facing a dragon, but I don’t yet know which way it’s going to go.

Queen of the Garden of Girls is set to wrap up at the end of March and Sisters of String and Glass will start in April.

Books That Remind Me of Other Books

Like many readers, I have amassed an enormous pile of read books. As I read more and more new books, I’ve started noticing many of them remind me of other books. Sometimes it’s just one book, sometimes it’s more than that, so I decided to start a new blog series with the really long title Books That Remind Me of Other Books so I can share all the books I thought of while reading certain books. It’s been kind of fun to see what theme or little detail will set my brain off and have me thinking of other books. It’s also made it fun to see just how original some stories actually are. Or, at least to me. I haven’t read everything, after all!

I’ve decided to do these on Thursdays, and would like to invite you to join me! Let me know which books remind you of other books!

Indie Books Challenge

I’m going with the broad definition of indie to encompass anything published not by one of the Big 5 publishers. Doing otherwise would probably break my brain. This was sparked by seeing Self-Published Fantasy Month (September), but really nothing else to celebrate indie and self-published books. I also wished to find something for any genre, not just fantasy and science fiction. There are so many wonderful self-published and indie books that aren’t SFF and I’ve enjoyed so many of them.

Instead of focusing on a month of reading only indie books or focusing on one genre, I’ve decided to go with a challenge. My challenge is to try to make sure half of all the books I read in a month are indie books. At the end of every month, I’m planning on writing an update on how the month went and whether or not half of all the books I read were by an indie author.

This is a personal challenge, but I’d love to have you join me!

Weekly Book Memes/Tags

I mentioned at the start of the year that I intended on participating in more bookish memes/tags. That…has not gone well. I think I did 2 WWW posts and maybe 1 Let’s Talk Bookish post. That was probably it. I think there were just so many things I intended on doing and it all fell apart because things got busy.

So, I decided to pick a couple to start with and commit to them, and then we’ll see what happens after that. I’ve decided to keep with the WWW run by Sam@Taking on a World of Words since I already have the template and have done a couple. I don’t normally post on Saturdays, but I’m about to start. Mandy@Devouring Reads runs a Top 5 series that involves participants selecting 5 books based around a weekly theme. I really enjoy her blog and book reviews and she’s been kind enough to tag me a couple of times, so it just made complete sense to take part in hers as the second bookish meme/tag I’m committing to. I also like the Let’s Talk Bookish one run by Dani@Literary Lion and Rukky@Eternity Books, so will probably sporadically participate in that one.

One Last Bit

Before you go, I just wanted to say I’m so excited to post my very first anticipated books list! I’ve literally never had one in all of my 33 years of life, so I’m actually really excited about this. There aren’t that many books I’m highly anticipating this year because I don’t really keep up and I’m just not that kind of reader, but it was, surprisingly, a ton of fun to do. Just don’t get excited and expect to see more of these. It’s really only because there are two books I’m dying to get my hands on, but neither will be published until much later this year.

Sincerely, kat

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