Daily Diary, Day 1298:
Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Brief check-in: Injury to hand continues to improve daily, with each day a new task I cando without pain. Today it was turning the key to lock and unlock the front door!! The eyelid, not so much in terms of visible improvement. But I am still doing a good job remaining patient. Busy morning with yoga, cleaning, laundry, walk, and in afternoon, a possible phone call.
TV watching:
We continued to watch the new episodes of Death in Paradise, Will Trent, and were sad to watch the last of this season’s Vera. When it first came out, we had watched the first episode of Mare of Eastown, but didn’t go beyond that episode, probably it seemed too dark for wherever we were at that time, but I suggested we try it again. I been glad we did. So well-acted. We watched the last two episodes last night, and I found the ending sad but satisfying. We have also started a couple of mysteries and science fiction series, but we aren’t sure if we will continue and of them, so I won’t bother recommending at this point. We did watch and enjoy Barbie.
We have continued to rewatch Big Bang Theory over dinner, and Frazier and new episodes of Abbot Elementary before bed.
Bottom line, is that most of what we are watching are either new seasons of old favorites, or simply rewatching shows that have enough depth to be rewatched, like Foyles War. Our favorite new discovery was Astrid, and we have finished the 3 seasons we have access to and hope the 4th season becomes available in US.
Interestingly, in my zoom call with two cousins this week, I asked if either of them had some new favorite show to recommend, and my cousin Ed excitedly said, “Oh, just one, I really recommend Astrid!” We commenced to talk about why we liked it so much, both of us confessing that we always found ourself crying at the end of every episode, then trying to assure our other cousin that this wasn’t because it was sad, but just so sweet and that she had to give it a try!!!
Listening
Podcasts have continued to entertain me in the first part of my walks, but I haven’t discovered anything particularly new to recommend. Most of the last two weeks I spent listening to Friday’s Child, by Georgette Heyer. Heyer wrote a couple of romances that don’t follow the traditional trope of: handsome hero and beautiful heroine who at first dislike each other, overcome obstacles, and then discover they really love each other to live happily ever after. And these have become my favorites. There is Cotillion, where the hero, Freddy, is anything but handsome and dashing (and the typical hero in the story turns out to be a bit of a villain), and in A Civil Contract, the heroine is the plump and plain daughter of a merchant who the dashing hero has married only for the money. In Friday’s Child, the hero is dashing but very immature, and the the girl he marries a bit simple, but sweet, but over time the hero, in being forced to get this wife out of numerous scrapes, has to grow up, and of course discovers how much he loves her. The best part of this particular tale, to me, are the hero’s 3 friends, George, a very handsome man with a temper who keeps trying to get people to fight a duel with him, Ferdy, a very stupid but kind-hearted man, and Gil, the only one with any maturity and good sense, who I would have loved to see get a romance of his own. When these friends have scenes together, I found myself laughing out loud.
Reading:
These past two weeks, I read the newest Kris Rusch book, Ivory Trees, from her science fiction Diving series, and as I mentioned yesterday, I have started reading through the first 4 books in the Caelestis series and taking notes on details I want to include (or continuity issues to correct) in this fifth book when I finally get to edit the first draft. I hope that when I compete this task my injury to my right hand will be completely healed and I will be able to get back to finishing that draft.
Anything new any of you wish to recommend for the rest of us? If so, do put in the comments.
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On series that you are watching, have you watched Annika? Also, I like the Professor T. (I think the original series was subtitled from Belgium or France.
I just discovered a sci-fi book The Downloaded by Robert J Sawyer. Two groups of people are cryo stored and their consciouses are uploaded. A world wide event has them waking up and the two groups must learn to work together to survive.
A favorite author of mine is Charlie N Holmberg who writes whimsical Witch stories. They are very unique and I find the characters incredibly insightful. Always a pleasure. I started off with The Paper Magician.