It’s somewhat delayed, what with a seaside holiday, birthdays and a wedding (not mine, one that I attended!) keeping me busy, but better late than never – here’s my Monthly Roundup post for June 2022. As always I’ll quickly run through everything that I posted (and updated) last month, before giving a fairly short and sweet general update on how things have been of late. I have a similar number of new posts to talk about as May (perhaps eight is going to be the new norm that I’ll settle into), so do take a look at any of those which you haven’t already read!
June’s posts
It was a slightly strange month in terms of productivity, as I started off keeping quite active with writing before finding my writing time curtailed towards the end of the month. I mean, I did take my laptop with me on holiday but it’s hard to find the motivation for writing when there’s a beach to be walked, countryside to be explored and cute little bookshops to be visited!
Monthly Roundup – May 2022 – my previous roundup featured another eight new posts along with no fewer than five updated articles, so check that out if you haven’t been keeping up with Track of Words for a while!
Sci-fi in a Fantasy World – Kate Dylan Guest Post – I was delighted to be able to publish this brilliant post from author Kate Dylan, discussing the challenges of writing YA science fiction, why some stories just work better as either fantasy or sci-fi, and why her upcoming novel Mindwalker simply needed to be a sci-fi story. It’s a super post, really thought-provoking, and I can’t wait to read Mindwalker.
Black Cat: Discord by Cath Lauria – as with many of Aconyte’s Marvel novels, this tale of thief extraordinaire Felicia Hardy (aka the Black Cat) was a great introduction for me to a character I knew nothing about. Not only that, but it was a lot of fun too!
A Big Milestone – I still can’t quite believe it, but in June Track of Words passed the milestone of one million page views. That just blows my mind! I couldn’t resist writing this post to commemorate that fact, and reflect a little on the journey up to this point.
AERA: The Return of the Ancient Gods by Markus Heitz – this was my first Heitz novel (or in this case ‘omnibus edition of ten linked novellas’), and I had a lot of fun with it. The central concept is just so good – the old gods return to the Earth, but atheist Interpol inspector Malleus Bourreau is determined to prove that they’re not what they claim to be. The specific mystery he investigates over the course of the book is great, but it’s the broader context that makes this really work.
QUICK REVIEW: As Yet Unsent by Tamsyn Muir – I spent a large part of June immersed in Muir’s The Locked Tomb series (as I’d been sent an advance copy of book three, Nona the Ninth), including reading this fascinating little short story for the first time. Best read either between Harrow and Nona or, as in my case, directly after Nona, it’s a clever story in its own right and it adds some really interesting detail to the series as a whole.
QUICK REVIEW: Daemonologie: A Question Asked of Darkness by John French – this is the short story included in the ‘Mega Edition’ boxed set of French’s new novel Ahriman: Eternal (which is now out in regular hardback), featuring Ctesias of the Thousand Sons as he searches for information on the doom pursuing his Legion. It’s such a shame that this isn’t more widely available, as it’s brilliantly written and absolutely fascinating!
Against All Gods by Miles Cameron – this Bronze Age-inspired fantasy novel was my introduction to Miles Cameron’s writing, and I enjoyed it very much. A powerful but fractured pantheon of gods, a small group of mortals brought together by the gods but determined to forge their own destiny, and a beautifully constructed setting that perfectly shows off Cameron’s deep love of historical accuracy, all combine to make this a compelling and very readable start to a great new series.
Updated pages
I didn’t update anything like as many pages as I did in May, but it’s still worth quickly pointing out what changes I did make.
A Guide to Guy Haley’s Prince Maesa Stories – following on from a couple of minor tweaks I made to this guide in May, I added in a little additional information from the author himself to provide some useful context around the newly-released Prince Maesa novel, which collects together and expands upon the existing short stories and audio dramas.
Black Library: The Horus Heresy Reviews – it had been a while since I had properly gone through this page and made sure it was up to date, so I added in some new and upcoming titles to make sure it includes absolutely everything. I also added in release dates (years) for every release – novels, novellas, audios, short stories, the lot – and tweaked the order to make sure everything is listed in as close to release order as I can make it.
General update
June, for me, was one of those months where time seemed to fly by and I felt constantly busy, but now I look back it’s hard to put my finger on exactly what I was doing, and what kept me busy – I just know I was busy, but also somewhat reflective in the quieter moments. The very end of the month is easy enough, as not only did I get away to Dorset for a much-needed holiday but I also turned 39, celebrated a friend’s wedding, and celebrated my other half turning 38. All really good fun, and a welcome break from work and general life, but that all took place in the last few days of the month (and the first bit of July, to be fair).
As for the rest of the month? Well, in hindsight I think my impending 39th – and therefore the looming presence of the big 40 – was on my mind a lot. I’ve spent a fair amount of time recently thinking about what I’m doing work-wise, how I’m spending my free time and what I’d like to be doing in the long term, and while I don’t have any answers I do feel like I’m increasingly keen to make sure I’m using my time as wisely as possible. Exactly what that will look like – in terms of my day job, Track of Words, my overall online presence, and so on – remains to be seen, but I’ve been doing the same sort of things for quite a long time now, and perhaps it’s time to shake my life up a bit.
Inevitably my million-page-views milestone has had an impact on those sorts of questions – how could it not? I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been motivated by a desire to ‘achieve’ anything specific with Track of Words, but having written well over 1.6 million words across 1.7k posts, which have been viewed more than a million times, it’s starting to sink in that I really don’t have anything left to prove (if I ever did in the first place) with the site. If you’ve been following ToW for any amount of time I’m sure you’ll have recognised that I’ve been reducing my output for the last few years, and I think that will definitely continue. I’m not planning on stopping completely, but…well, we’ll see what happens.
Anyway, let’s finish off with a quick reading update because I definitely did spend a fair amount of time reading and listening in June. I finished 14 books, which took me up to 76 for the year, with six of those 14 being audiobooks and the remaining eight being a mix of paperbacks and hardbacks. A large chunk of my reading was taken up with revisiting Tamsyn Muir’s The Locked Tomb series, specifically listening to Gideon the Ninth and Harrow the Ninth in audio before reading an advance copy (which I’m very grateful for) of Nona the Ninth not once but twice! I love this series so much, but my word it hurts my head sometimes. Keep an eye out for a review of Nona sometime soon over on the Grimdark Magazine site.
If you want to know more about what I’ve been reading lately, and/or keep up with what I read in future, chat about specific books and so on, then head over to Goodreads – here’s my reading challenge page.
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I think I’ll leave things at that, with a slightly shorter Monthly Roundup than usual. I hope June treated you well, with lots of good books of your own! Do let me know if you read or listened to anything particularly great that you think I should know about. Fingers crossed we can all have an excellent July, too!
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