Upcoming at The Lily Cafe #7 + Introduction

Hello and welcome! After a much needed break, I’m back at The Lily Cafe. Since I hit 2000 followers a couple of weeks ago (thank you so much!), WordPress has now taken it upon itself to congratulate my blog on receiving notice every time someone follows it. (Is this something new? Has anyone else experienced it?) So I thought I ought to actually, formally introduce myself for the first time in almost 4 years. I’m not one for talking about myself, so, well, here goes…

Introduction (in list form)

• My name is Kat
• Wife to a scientist
• Mother of a 7 year old boy and a 4 year old girl (both doing school at home for now)
• As my sister calls us, super vertically challenged
• Chinese American and speaks to my cat in English and Meow (I don’t actually speak Chinese)
• Bookworm since before I could read (according to my mom)
• Stay at home mom
• Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology, but I don’t use it, except to try to explain people to my family
• Home baker who bakes way too much bread and not enough cakes and cookies
• Will forever mourn the death of my keyboard Kindle
• Loves fantasy, cozy mysteries, thrillers, women’s fiction, and the occasional science fiction and romance
• Currently writing fairy tale inspired stories (definitely not retellings) and a secret I refer to once in a while called This Story
• Avid plant killer (I really don’t mean to)
• Terrified of spiders and fires (funny story: when I was a kid, I saw a spider in my room, so of course I went running and screaming about it. My mom thought I was screaming, “Fire!” She wasn’t as panicked when she discovered it was just a spider)
• LA County born and raised and current resident of the wider LA City after 3 years on the East Coast (don’t miss the snow)

Let’s Catch Up a Bit

• I mentioned I very much dislike my Kindle. It’s gotten worse. There was an update last week that now gives me the option of switching between a Home screen and my Library. Um, I’ll just take my library, thanks. Previously, I had folders for the books sent to me by authors and publicists and another for books from NetGalley that were both on the same page. Now they’re on 2 different pages and I’m just so annoyed.
• The time change was a lot rougher than I expected. It’s not usually so tough, but I think my body has just been refusing to adapt. It didn’t help I spent most of Saturday napping due to my allergy shots making me insanely sleepy and then I felt like throwing up most of Sunday, probably because of the time shift. It seems to be happening twice a year now, once in the Spring and once in the Fall. Hmm…
• One more week and then both kids are off for Thanksgiving week! As much as I do enjoy teaching them, they both want to do school at the same time and see who can finish first, so I’m exhausted trying to work with them at the same time. On the bright side, my younger one is now old enough to actually, really be playmates with her older brother. They enjoy playing house now, or, at least, they like making the living room in my bedroom. Mostly, I’m glad my older one is showing less and less of an interest in video games. It probably helps that I told him he can’t get a new game until he finishes one of the ones he has and he’s made it to the more challenging parts that he doesn’t quite have the skill and patience for yet.
• My daughter has recently rediscovered a stuffed Pikachu my best friend gave her a couple years ago. She’s also recently realized there’s a TV show that goes with it. We’ve spent the past week or so watching the 22nd season, and I’m a little disturbed by how much of the early seasons I remember since it came out during my early double digit years and my siblings were OBSESSED.
• We’re almost done with our holiday shopping! And probably just in time. The shelves are looking like we’re back at the beginning of the pandemic here.

Taking a Moment for Thankfulness

It’s November and, while everyone here in the States is determined to get started with Christmas, I grew up with a mom who refuses to acknowledge Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Even though we’ve started our holiday shopping early due to shipping issues (we live in LA. We know how clogged the ports are. We also know a truck trailer fell over and practically smashed a car because the overflow is going into the neighborhoods around the docks), I’m going to spend Thanksgiving being thankful.

Right now, I want to take some space to express my gratitude for the publicists who have made my day in unexpected ways over the past week and a half.

It started with getting a surprise approval for one of my most anticipated reads, Honey Roasted, the 19th book in The Coffeehouse Mystery series by Cleo Coyle. I’ve been reading these books since I was 18. I’m 34, so they’ve been with me my entire adult life. I wasn’t approved for #18, so I didn’t think I’d get #19, but I figure I’ll always request it, and then get the published copy around the publication date anyways. I really can’t say just how grateful I am to get this book. I’ve been looking forward to it for about a year now.

Then I received The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan from Orbit. In the past year I’ve started requesting physical copies for the books that really appeal to me. I’m grateful every time I get one. They tend to be a mix of finished copies and ARCs, so I didn’t peruse this book as I usual do when I received it. The day after, though, I thought I’d flip through it, at least, and was shocked to see not just a bookmark, but that the author signed it! I’m still feeling a little speechless about that. I also believe this is the first copy I’ve received without a final cover.

Finally, since I’m on the reviewer list for Orbit, I receive monthly newsletters with all the books available to reviewers. The last one for the year arrived last week, and I was shocked to see a quote from one of my reviews. I’m still dumbfounded that someone went through my review and extracted a line from it. But I do feel some pressure now to put out quality reviews. As if I didn’t feel enough when indie authors would highlight a quote from one of my reviews!

What’s Up Next

Finally, what this post is actually supposed to be about: what to expect over the next few weeks before I break for the rest of the year.

Well, I’ll be taking a few days off Thanksgiving week. I do have a review for that Tuesday and that will probably be it. Both kids will be off from school, so I’ll mostly be trying to stay sane.

Otherwise, Mondays are kept open for guest posts (I don’t currently have any planned, but there will probably be a book spotlight at some point), Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for reviews (I’m so excited for one at the end of November and one at the beginning of December), Wednesdays alternate between my Impressions posts and discussions and lists, and Fridays are for a bit of fun or more personal posts. I’m keeping things relatively light and highly changeable as teaching both kids at the same time has been exhausting and my husband’s schedule has been stressful lately, so I prefer to take any free time and just open up a book instead of blog. I’ll also have Sisters of String and Glass Monday-Friday.

Anyone have anything exciting coming up the next couple of months? Any upcoming posts you’re excited to share?

Sincerely, kat

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