Diving into DNF's and Spring Fantasy Finds

Best Reads So Far (Fantasy + Non-Fantasy), DNFs, Book Bingo Check-In & Writing Updates | Book Dragon Banter

Book Dragon Banter hosts discuss our best reads of the year so far (not limited to fantasy), current reads, DNFs, and palate cleansers. Sage is reading Victoria Aveyard’s Realm Breaker series and shares updates on her reading challenges, StoryGraph tracking, and postponing unfinished series like Blood Over Bright Haven. Katherine discusses cozy rereads, nonfiction reading goals, tracking stats, and favorites including Voyage of the Damned and Bloody Jack. Zinzi shares being on a reading ban to focus on writing, DNFs like Master of Salt and Bones and Feather So Vicious and a palate cleanser with The Other Bennet Sister. We compare progress on our book bingo challenges, share top fantasy picks (including This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me by Ilona Andrews), and give writing journey updates, including a secret project and draft/revision progress. We close with book club news on Fable reading The Spear Cuts Through Water and upcoming season wrap and summer deep dive.

BDB Fable Fantasy Focused Book Club: https://fable.co/club/diverse-fantasy-with-zinzi-bree-271215645134?referralID=f9KdWh3wtd

Find the Downloadable Book Bingo Reading Challenges here:

Book Dragon Banter Substack - https://bookdragonbanter.substack.com/

Podcast links:

Linktr.ee: https://linktr.ee/bookdragonbanter 

TT: https://www.tiktok.com/@bookdragonbanterpod

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/bookdragonbanter/

Other links:

Book Dragon Ink Online Writing Retreats: https://www.bookdragoneditorial.com/ink-retreats

Write With Me, Zinzi Bree - Substack: https://writewithmezinzibree.substack.com/

Sage: https://readorbleed.substack.com/

Katherine: https://www.bookdragoneditorial.com/

Current Read: The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

Link: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/647357/the-spear-cuts-through-water-by-simon-jimenez/

00:00 Welcome to Book Dragon Banter

00:34 Episode Agenda and Rules

01:24 What We Are Reading Now

03:46 Reading Ban and Secret Project

04:46 Reader Chair Challenges Check In

05:20 Sage Updates and Series Waiting

08:38 Katherine Nonfiction and Tracking

11:03 Magical Element Bingo Progress

13:41 Strategy for Blackout Bingo

18:18 DNFs and Reading Regrets

21:54 Sage DNF Wuthering Heights

22:34 Why We Still Want Endings

23:54 DNF Or Not Right Now

24:46 Cozy Fantasy Trust Broken

26:57 Boredom And Backstory

27:54 Audiobooks And AI Voices

29:08 Palate Cleanser Picks

33:16 Fantasy Favorites So Far

37:24 Non Fantasy Best Reads

42:01 Writers Desk Check In

45:42 Goals Versus Habits

49:34 Wrap Up And Next Reads

Transcript

Zinzi Brookbree 0:00

welcome to Book Dragon Banter, a podcast where three aspiring authors talk all things books. We're fantasy focused, but are not exclusive. join Sage, Katherine, and me, Zinzi Bree, as we share our perspective from the reader's chair and get analytical from the writer's desk, all for the love of story. Uh, we are so glad you're here. Now's a great time to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss out on what books we talk about next. today we're talking about our best reads of the year so far, and it's not limited to fantasy only. And we're gonna check in with where we are at in our writing journeys, as well as take a look at and hold ourselves accountable to our, book bingo reading challenges that that we created at the beginning of this year.

Katherine Suzette 0:52

Okay. we have no spoilers. This is a reminder to all three of us that, we're not supposed to spill the beans on. Too much content in the books, unfortunately, slash fortunately depends on your perspective,

Sage Moreaux 1:05

this is an explicit podcast because we wanna be able to share our unfiltered opinion with you, and that might get a little spicy at times, so be forewarned.

Zinzi Brookbree 1:14

so, because we just decided no spoilers. So that's gonna get interesting talking about why I DNF without spoiling the book for someone else who might enjoy.

Katherine Suzette 1:23

how it impacted you.

Zinzi Brookbree 1:24

What are you currently reading and can you tell me in one sentence?

Sage Moreaux 1:27

I'm actually reading like so many books at once, which is not surprising. I kind of bounce around depending on interest and time of day. But the thing that I am most reading, like consistently every day is Victoria Aveyard's the Realm Breaker series and each book is, there's three of them and they all have very similar titles. And I'm on the third book and it's one of those books where I'm like reading it, but I don't want it to end. So I do continue to read it, but I do filter in a couple of other books on the side. But that's my fantasy read currently and I'm loving it.

Zinzi Brookbree 2:01

That's very high on my TBR. I want to read those. although I am debating if I wanna read, what is it, Red Queen, her other series first and, because I've, I've heard that those two series are very different and I wanna know, okay, this is her early writing and then Realm Breaker, which she talks about on her podcast that she's more proud of that series, right? So that should show her evolution and her growth as a writer. And I wanna be able to look at the two and see if can see her growth as a writer.

Sage Moreaux 2:29

I read Red Queen, and books were still coming out and I was having to wait, which I hate because I can't remember. And then I'm like, do I reread? It felt a little more young adult, technically they're both young adult, had a more of a heavy romance subplot. And while Realm Breaker has like some romance in it in terms of like the people definitely have crushes or romantic relationships, it's definitely not like at all a main thread, which I'm really appreciating. It's fantasy, adventure and the romance is such like, it's like really you're trying to save the world? Do you have time to date? You know? So that's as much as a spoiler as I will give.

Zinzi Brookbree 3:07

Katherine, what are you currently reading in one sentence, if you can?

Katherine Suzette 3:10

Like today I was listening to, Catnip mysteries and also the financial feminist. But in essence, over the last month, it's been a lot of repeats of cozies mixed in with a little bit of non-fiction here and there. So I, I don't have anything super exciting at the moment, but you know, that's, that's just me sometimes, depending on what's going on in life.

Zinzi Brookbree 3:38

That's okay. Sometimes we are just in a phase of there's, it's not quite a reading slump, it's just for reading good books. For myself, my my sentence is I am on a reading band. I'm not supposed to be reading anything except for our books for the podcast and for, for book club. That's what I'm allowed to read. Otherwise, I need to not read because I have to write and it's going better today. I was supposed to be on this book reading band basically halfway through April, and that did not happen, but now looking ahead at May, I'm gonna be much more strict about not reading so that I'm, I'm working on my own stuff because I wanna get back to, and Katherine and I had teased about this before and have been talking about it. We wanna work on our secret project and I need to not have other people's stories in my head to write my own story, and that's one of them that I wanna work on.

Katherine Suzette 4:33

I was literally thinking about that this morning.

Sage Moreaux 4:35

I love how you said, give us one sentence and we all did like extremely long run on sentences, so.

Zinzi Brookbree 4:40

Yep. Yep. We are not pithy. That is why we have a podcast. Uh, heading into From the Reader's Chair, we started off this year with some reading challenges. How is that going? And to recap, all of us, at the beginning of the year, Sage said that she was gonna work on reading more band books and classics. Some other things that you mentioned you were gonna work on doing was tracking books for data, so you could see your data on a story graph. and also, you DNF'ed, Blood Over Bright Haven or at least set it aside and I wanna check in with you, did you go back to Blood Over Bright Haven and finish it or not?

Sage Moreaux 5:20

Okay, well. That's funny 'cause I forgot all of that. The challenges, I'm not, not a hundred percent, but I have not been reading as many band books and classics as I want to. Hopefully I'll get a little more time over the summer because I actually have to read a lot for, my book reviewer job. And so I've been reading like a book a week for my work, which I don't get to select the titles. And generally they are brand new books, so there's not much in the way of classics or band books 'cause they're too new to have been banned yet. but it is interesting to see what's like new and upcoming out there. I did read Wurthering Heights, although I did not finish before I saw the movie. I wanted to read it, reread, it was a reread, before seeing the movie. And so that was a classic. and I'm about to read Emma because I have, I'm gonna be seeing the play this summer, which I'm very excited for. I am tracking my books on story graph, and in terms of blood over BrightHaven, it keeps popping up on my holds list. and at the library. And I really wanna read it, but I re I learned it's book one of a series, at least there'll be two of them. I'm always conflicted, like I wanna read these new books that I, there's all that that I hear are really amazing and I started it and it was quite good, but. I don't like to read books when they're not all out yet, because then by the time the next book comes out, I don't remember what's happened and I am not sure if I should like do a full reread, which is often what I do and I don't know. So I have put it, I've decided to put that one aside. There's a couple of books actually that are parts of series that I'm desperate to read. Another one is The Knight and The Moth. 'cause I really love that author and I just, I just wanna wait and just like really immerse myself in the story world and read the entire series once it's finished. really trying that.

Zinzi Brookbree 7:16

avoid starting unfinished series books is what I'm

Sage Moreaux 7:21

And sometimes it's like I'm so badly wanna read it and it kind of like pains me not to, but I try and find something else that is complete. you know, there are authors that for example, Sarah J Maas has a couple more books coming out this fall and I think in, and maybe in the winter for ACOTAR. like who knows how many books she'll read. I'll read those when they come out. But who knows how many more there could be AAR books till she dies. Who knows? so some of, some of those kind of things where it's just like an ongoing thing. I'll read 'em.

Zinzi Brookbree 7:53

for myself, one of my challenges that I talked about at the beginning of the year was to DNF more, and I am happy to say, I have been, DNFing more. I also talked about wanting to do arcs. I decided that if I do arcs, they should be audio only, because I'm faster at listening and faster at reviewing if they're audio books. I'm continuing to do reviews both on Good Reads and on Fable and enjoying that, as well as if I'm really, really gonna, enjoy a book, then immersion reading, doing an audiobook at the same time as I've got the text in front of me is absolutely my favorite now, and I, I want to continue doing more of that for sure. something else we talked about, and this was particularly, with Katherine, you brought up wanting to read one nonfiction book a month. We are for, as of today, last day of April, right? four months into the year, have you read at least one nonfiction for each month so far? that.

Katherine Suzette 8:59

definitely. I think I've gone beyond that, but that's okay. I have met that goal.

Zinzi Brookbree 9:02

Mm-hmm. the other goals that you talked about was attempting to track your reading more. How's that going?

Katherine Suzette 9:12

We had some, a busy month or two, kind of back to back and I had some health things going on in the background. So I definitely did not track at that time and I had to go backwards. And so I think I missed a few books along the way the statistics are, are pretty average for me. I read a book in about a day and I read approximately one book every day or two, those statistics stayed the same, even though I had to go back and kind of fill in some gaps. But I've also been doing a lot of like rereads. So it, even though I'm reading the books via audio, I'm listening to them on repeat because that's all my brain could handle during these last few busy months, even when I was so excited to read something. Like I maybe read one heavier fantasy book a month, like, Katabasis was the last one that I read, and that was in for April. I have read some, but it just, it hasn't been my average. I don't know if you can see with all my lights and everything, but my statistics for the last few months have gone way down. Can you see that up?

Zinzi Brookbree 10:11

Now I can see that, it's just a Mm-hmm.

Katherine Suzette 10:19

Um, and of course May is starting like tomorrow, so that's at the very bottom there, but it's still. It's, it's a, I don't know how, what that ankle is. Total nose dive. think that I did my numbers that I've still read around 85 new books, but like, not my average with like length and content.

Zinzi Brookbree 10:41

four months into the year.

Katherine Suzette 10:43

yeah,

Sage Moreaux 10:44

really is amazing.

Zinzi Brookbree 10:45

My goal for the whole year is 44 books total, and I'm at, like, 34, 35, something around So, I'm gonna meet my goal, probably before we're six months in, which is why it's okay to have a reading band and slow down and be more intentional about my reading. I want to circle back to our reading challenges that we made at the beginning of this year, and I wanna know I've got Sage's I think Sage ended up, yours ended up being my favorite, the, magical element, Bingo. I am one book away from Getting Bingo down the middle with, Magic Bloodline. I, I have a book for that. Necromancy, I have a book for that, although I'm, bending the rule a little bit, I feel like, because I went with the There's a character in it who does necrotic damage to people, even though it's not like Raise the Dead. So I consider it Necromancy adjacent, right, without it being like, "Okay, we're gonna actually raise the dead and have that as the power." So, you can argue with me if you want, Sage. Oh, you agree? That's

Sage Moreaux 11:51

I think that's fair. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Zinzi Brookbree 11:53

I've got

Sage Moreaux 11:54

Dungeons and Dragons as a dungeon master, I say, yes, necrotic damage counts as neman

Zinzi Brookbree 12:01

of approval. and then I had, a novella and the first book in a series that I really, really enjoyed, that The magic is granted by a deity. so the only one I don't have is granted, I need a, a granted by nature. book. To get my, to get my bingo. That's the, that is the bingo I am closest to getting.

Katherine Suzette 12:19

Did you read spells, strings, and forgotten things yet though?

Zinzi Brookbree 12:22

I purchased it, but it has to wait until after I am no longer on a reading band,

Katherine Suzette 12:28

Okay.

Zinzi Brookbree 12:28

Is that one, might that one complete

Katherine Suzette 12:30

it might. It might, because so depends on how you, define that getting magic by nature. Does it have to be from zero or just be an increase?

Sage Moreaux 12:43

I have a question, Zinzi,

Zinzi Brookbree 12:45

Yeah.

Sage Moreaux 12:45

so that's one category per book, right? It's not the same book falling over two categories.

Zinzi Brookbree 12:50

That is, that is correct. These are all, these are one book per each of these categories. And I had a couple of them where I was like, "Oh, well, there's this kind of magic and this kind of magic. Which one do I wanna put it in?

Katherine Suzette 13:01

Hmm.

Zinzi Brookbree 13:02

and I did not strategize, to

Sage Moreaux 13:05

that's a

Zinzi Brookbree 13:05

me be close to bingo. I was just like, "No, this kind of fits here and this kind of fits over here." Because, right like Faee and Elves, I filled that in by reading, How to Fake It With a Fae by Amy Boyles. And that one also could have been, our book club book, How to Find a Nameless Fae, right? They both have Fae in the title, and it could have been either of those books, but I put, How to Find a Nameless Fae as my entry for Dream Magic because there was the whole magical dream

Katherine Suzette 13:31

Oh.

Zinzi Brookbree 13:31

sequence thing because I didn't, I haven't really had other books that have dream magic.

Katherine Suzette 13:35

Mm-hmm.

Zinzi Brookbree 13:37

fantasy books, at least right now. And it's, it hasn't been a trend in a while. How about you guys? Did, Sage, have you gotten your own bingo yet?

Sage Moreaux 13:44

I've been reading a couple of series where there's so many different kinds of magic in it. This is why I was asking that question. There's so many different kinds of magic in it that I haven't like selected because my goal is blackout

Zinzi Brookbree 14:01

I'm trying to as

Sage Moreaux 14:01

I've gotten probably five. Categories based off books. Maybe a couple more, but there's a number of books where it could fall in so many categories. And I'm not sure I have it listed of which books have, which things in it. Like there's a couple with dragons for example, and I am like, do I keep, do I not fill it out until the end because to, you know, or do I, so I'm strategizing. I just list out that this book had dragons and healing magic and. Telepathy or do I, just fill one in and hope for the best? I feel like that's gonna stress me at the end of the year trying to like, pick books to read specifically to fill out the Bingo. So, I don't know, haven't, haven't committed at that point. At this point. The one that I'm having trouble though is I have not read a book, with Time Magic in it as of yet.

Zinzi Brookbree 15:01

The Everlasting

Sage Moreaux 15:02

one.

Zinzi Brookbree 15:03

Ejaro. Read it. Please

Sage Moreaux 15:04

Oh,

Zinzi Brookbree 15:05

I read it at the end of the year and I was like, "This might be my best read last year's." And that one is, that one. is time travel. So do that one.

Sage Moreaux 15:14

I also wanna read, that author has like 10,000 doors of January, I think is the same author and I that's been on my to read list for a long time.

Zinzi Brookbree 15:23

Also, uh, The Starling House, which is on mine, because I'm hoping that might be another sentient house book. I also ended up doing the, a book made me feel Book Bingo, our little emoji one and filling stuff in. I don't have the smirky face. I don't have, uh, s- smirky face on Book Bingo yet. but I'm also, I'm going for Blackout on that one as well. And I'm actually finding my own, things in 4s Bingo, the hardest one to fill out, because the things on it are so broad. So I have three. I have read 35 books, but only three of which I felt qualified into different spots on that particular, bingo challenge. So I'm gonna have to put more effort and strategy like Sage into filling that out. How about you, Katherine? have, you, looked at the bingo stuff, tried to fill some of it out to see if you'd get some with your 80-some

Katherine Suzette 16:23

have, yeah.

Zinzi Brookbree 16:25

I'm

Katherine Suzette 16:26

Yes,

Zinzi Brookbree 16:27

kind of bingo in you.

Katherine Suzette 16:28

I'm missing in, in the magical element. One, I'm missing illusion magic and animal magic. But this book that I have here, the beasts that we bury is, is all animal magic. And I'm hoping for the best for that. And then illusion magic, the only reason I didn't like keep it is because it wasn't like the, it was in, in a book that I chose for a different category. So I only did like one book per category. but I did get the healing magic, the fe alchemy shape shifting and fortune telling all the way down that one.

Zinzi Brookbree 17:00

Ooh.

Katherine Suzette 17:02

And then in, in your four things in fours, I have four on there and each of them were actually like, for example, the directions, the west one that I chose it, it was a journey west. and it was not a Western, but the character, it's in the Bloody Jack series. It is like book four. There's this big journey west and there's a whole thing about it. and like the travel over sea is the voyage of the damned. that one is excellent. It's one of my top favorites of this year so far. I did, I have tried the books that made me feel, and the books, that I picked to feel, because it aligns a lot with my challenge, but I have not been as consistent for sure on that.

Zinzi Brookbree 17:46

Sage, did you end up filling out or trying to do the other ones, or are you just focused on your own challenge?

Sage Moreaux 17:52

don't know if I'm gonna hit all of the emojis. 'cause I don't know, I, maybe I just have, either I choose books that have similar types of outcomes. I like a lot of drama, so that leads me to being either like crying or, you know, I'm usually crying, but not in a bad way. Just in

Katherine Suzette 18:15

too

Sage Moreaux 18:15

I love it, but it makes me you know.

Zinzi Brookbree 18:18

none of the books that I have read yet this year have made me cry. So I was like, "Oh, man. I haven't, I haven't had a good, the Sword of Kaigen heart wrenching." So I'm looking out for when that happens. I definitely had books that made me mad though that I had a couple that I was like, "These, these could all be this emoji." and I did actually count the books that I DNF'ed were options for my, It Made Me Mad on the Bingo, Bingo Reading Challenge. of which, so DNF is did not finish. I made a note and I know I listed at least four. I had two books that I desperately wished that I had DNF'ed. And I will preface this with, these books are probably great for somebody who is not me. My DNFs are books that are just, they're not for me, right? so if it's a book for you, that's awesome. I'm glad that you enjoyed it and had a different experience with the book. It just wasn't my experience. So those books were, When the Moon Hatched by Sarah A. Parker. I call that my 700 pages of why that I read and I will say she did a great, like the, there is pacing, things are constantly happening. the language is a bit flowery for me, a bit overdone. It was hard to find lines that really shined because everything was, felt overdone. but the second book in that series is coming out very shortly. after my book band, I will be reading it, even though I didn't like the first one. Even though I wished I DNF the first one, the world building on that book, intrigued me enough that I'm willing to give the second book an attempt. another book was, Master of Salt and Bones. I don't remember the author off the top of my head, but that one came up in a book club, and it's a dark romance and the cover of it makes it look like it's a dark fantasy romance, and there is no fantasy. there is no humor. so that one was a DNF for me, as well as Feather So Vicious, which I attempted to read because I talked about it here on the pod and I misremembered that is not the book that had, a love scene where the character gets ripped in half and then like healed midway through sex. That did not happen, at least not in the pages that I read. But Feather So Vicious is one of those, where there is absolutely more sex happening than plot. Sex basically is the plot, We've talked about this before, Katherine, where there are some books where it's almost like the author's trying to horrify the reader a bit with the, the things they put on the page and as a, as normally a cozy fantasy reader, right? was reading Feather So Vicious listening to it and just sitting there being like, "I, it's a car accident. I wanna look away. I can't look away. I'm mildly disturbed. Now I'm really disturbed. Why am I still re- Like that that was the thought process as I was reading The book. Why am I still reading this? Okay. Nope, nope. Now I'm, now I can't. I can't, can't keep giving it my time." but that immediately prompted a need for a palette cleanser, right? I went from feathers so vicious and being thoroughly uncomfortable and needing something absolutely different. And I will talk about what I went to as my palate cleanser after. But, saging Katherine, for you guys, what did you DNF and why?

Sage Moreaux 21:54

The only book IDNF so far this year was Wurthering Heights, and it wasn't that I didn't finish because I, I intended to finish. I've read it before. I know it happens at the end. I just. Kind of like slowed down on it and I was getting towards the end. And then the movie, I was reading it 'cause I wanted to compare it with the movie. The movie came out and I saw it and then my hold from the library, it expired. And so I just didn't finish it. I kept intending to go back. So it wasn't like it was bad in any way. It was just kind of like, since it was a reread and does it count as a DNF?

Zinzi Brookbree 22:29

yeah, does it count as a DNF because you, because like, right, that's the, that's part of the thing. You know the end of the story. When I DNF? something, I have to go look up. I I went on Reddit and I went on the internet at large and it was like, "What is the ending of Feathers So Vicious? What happens in the sequel of Feathers So Vicious?" Because I still, I still need the resolution of like how, how does it end? I still need to know that for the most part with the DNF. with Master of Salt and Bones, I asked, one of my other friends, she heard me talk about that I DNFed it and she decided to read it and I was like, "If you do, please tell me how it ends." And she did. Like, you know, she and I then got to have a conversation about, why IDNF did and what her thoughts were. And I love being able to do that, right? Like just because don't like a book, like I still want to have a conversation about the book and that's not gonna be me going, "You should dislike the book too because I disliked it. That's gonna be me going like, "What did you like about it? What, you know, what things did you notice from your perspective that I missed because we have different lives?" so that was a really cool conversation I got to have from her out of going, "How does the book end? I need to know how the book ends, even if I can't finish it myself."

Sage Moreaux 23:35

There was a book I wished I had, dnf.

Zinzi Brookbree 23:37

time.

Sage Moreaux 23:38

But I'm not gonna say the title was a book that I had to read for, work I would have gotten probably 10 pages in and, 'cause I didn't like the writing style and it was boring.

Zinzi Brookbree 23:49

okay.

Sage Moreaux 23:52

Generally that's how it is for me with DNFs. Like I will read a little ways in and I'm like, it's either it's for me or it's not for me. And so I don't even know if that counts as a DNF because it's almost like an exploration into the story to see if this writing style, this plot style matches for me. And I'm fairly specific with what kind of writing style I'll grab. And sometimes I'll pick it back up and like let over a BrightHaven. It wasn't a DNF because I didn't like anything about it. I was like, this is amazing and I don't have the bandwidth for it at this moment, or, and that then I found out that it was, you know, a part of a series. So I was like, well now I'm just gonna wait.

Zinzi Brookbree 24:28

argue that's not a DNF, then that's, that's a not right now, an NRN, right? Like, that's, it's a book that you

Sage Moreaux 24:34

not for me. What about one where I'm just like, nah, that's not for me,

Zinzi Brookbree 24:38

Well, that's still a DNF,

Sage Moreaux 24:40

and

Zinzi Brookbree 24:40

because I mean, that's how I'm defining my DNFs is I got halfway through both of those books and then went no. The other book that I, the, I mentioned it earlier, the How to Fake It with a Fae, right? Like that was advertised to me as a cozy romantic, cozy fantasy and damn it, no spoilers. there's a way that the romantic relationship progresses that to me is everything against what is cozy fantasy and what should be in a cozy fantasy romance and relationship with, in my opinion is toxic.

Katherine Suzette 25:17

Yeah.

Zinzi Brookbree 25:19

I should have just at that scene that broke the cozy fantasy rules, I should have DNF there and that's really frustrating because it's the first book in a series because it's gotta a character that's the oldest sister of seven sisters and each of the, next characters are like, one of them is a vampire and one of them is a magician and one of them is a wizard. Like they're all different, and like the whole premise of the series sounds right up my alley, but this first book broke my trust and now I don't think I can read the rest of them. I don't like that. I finished that one and I wish I had DNF'd it. I might've given the other books on her series a chance if it didn't piss me off so much.

Katherine Suzette 25:56

I'll absolutely DNF if toxic relationships are represented as positive, much like you, it's even, it's on my manuscript wishlist right up on my website. I don't wanna edit these books. I don't wanna read them. There's something for a negative character arc or toxic situations that the characters learn from and turn around and like, there becomes a positive or negative arc as, as a result that I can still get behind and enjoy and, and. Be interested in, but especially when it comes to romance, if it's toxic, represented as positive, not okay with that. but again, that's, that's, that's a personal thing. I also, I know a lot of readers who, who enjoy teasing those dark elements in their romance because it, it teases that part of the brain. Like in psychology, you need that darkness sometimes, the adventure, the weariness, that fear element sometimes to, and it's almost like a relieving adventure, mentally of some of those, those stressors. But I won't go down that road too far. back to DNFs. I will also DNF if I get bored, and that's whether it's in book one or book 10. And some of those are not ones that I would or enjoy when I then get back to mental capacity. and so I'll. at that point, or I, I just get bored enough in that series. and those boredom elements are usually like flat rhythm, flat arcs, like nothing's changing. It's the same thing over and over. Each book there, there's nothing unpredictable, lack of banter, boring backstories. Like also in those first pages, like Sage mentioned, backstory is relevant for a lot of authors and stories, but not every one of them. if there's too much of that, that isn't a part of the actual story, I will DNF and I just won't get back to it. unlikeable characters. well. Like if I, if I can't develop a, like with the character or relatability, that is some degree or interesting, I'm gonna DNF and then also since I'm an audio book reader, primarily, I completely understand why a lot of writers need to use AI voice to read their stories, because that audiobook production accessible to them financially, can tell it's AI voice, which so far I can't, 100% of the time I won't read it. And it's, it's not because I hate that they chose AI specifically, but rather I can't mentally digest that as. As well as an actual human voice. It does decrease barriers to production, but I am not one of those who enjoys it. However, on the other hand, I wanna put out there some people love this. My brother is one of those. He loves AI voice and it is the weirdest thing. But he prefers AI voice, his brain prefers it. And I think it's the weirdest thing on the planet. But there is an audience for some of these things just to to,

Zinzi Brookbree 29:01

That's brothers for you. weirdest thing on the planet is brothers.

Katherine Suzette 29:07

too true.

Zinzi Brookbree 29:07

All right. Palette cleansers, after your DNF, what did you pivot to after reading something That just like you, you needed to move away from? For myself, I went from Feather So Vicious, Dark Romance, Romantasy, dark Romantasy to, the other Bennett's sister, which is, Jane Austen fan fiction, basically, but, from perspective. I went from a book that was intentionally in to- toxic relationships to, Burn and the amount of touching is, oh, our hands briefly touched over a teacup or passing a letter or helping me into a ca- right? Like, just the complete separation of people's bodies and the focus on, on feelings. and that ended up being a, a perfect and palate cleanser for me. actually some really lovely things that are handled in, other Bennett's sister, we get this perspective from Mary. Mary is far more especially at the outset of the story. Her relationship with her parents and even with her other sisters is very different. She's kind of the odd one out. and so it was just really interesting getting this other perspective and getting to see some depth in these relationships, and Mary's circumstances, right, as the, as the ugly Bennett's sister, ugly, Bennett's sister. And it just continued my love of the world that Jane Austen created, right? 'Cause, like, her, the Regency period in her stories is not It's still a fictionalized version of Regency. It's still, its own fantasy version of what she hoped it would be and those romantic, what those romantic relationships could be. If you need a pallet cleanser or you enjoy Regency Tales, go read that one. Highly recommend.

Katherine Suzette 31:07

That sounds great.

Zinzi Brookbree 31:08

for you guys.

Sage Moreaux 31:08

I tend to do a reread of one of my favorite books if I need a palate cleanser. And I haven't d nfd that much this time, but, if I read like really intensive book that takes a lot of mental energy, then I will go to something kind of either cozy, cozy mystery, or I will go to a reread. and that tends to be like where my comfort comes in. 'cause I already know what's gonna happen. I already know I love it. And then I do that and it just varies. Or I'll read like a middle grade novel, like Per C Jackson or something like that, which, 'cause I have kids that read that stuff, so I'll read something they're reading to kind of, although now they're getting older, they're reading more advanced stuff. I can't dive into that quite as often. but, so I'll do something along those lines.

Zinzi Brookbree 31:49

Hmm.

Katherine Suzette 31:50

Yeah, I'm similar. I like a good reread where I already know what's happening and I already know I like it. Clearly. I also do that when I kinda get life overwhelmed too. if the story itself is overwhelming me, and I might even pause, during a read and like go have a palate cleanser and then come back to it. But I will choose something different. But for example, last time when I read Alchemized, like I still really enjoyed so much of it, but I needed a palate cleanser because of the, the depth, the, the, the emotions that it brought up, the, the depth to which I had to confront some of those emotions. so I went and I read like the whole Weirdies series, which is actually like a genuine children's book series. But I listened to it and it was really cute, it was adorable, and I have zero regrets. So I, I will go pretty extreme. Like I'll go straight into like. Children's books. I also love, like Miss Peregrine's, home for Wayward Children or whatever that is, or special. Or I'll go to a, what I, what I think of mentally as a slightly more boring book. that doesn't mean it's, it's to do with the quality of the book or the author's writing, but rather like it's predictable. Its rhythm is pretty baseline I can, yeah, I can enjoy it without feeling too much connection to anything going on.

Zinzi Brookbree 33:08

It's a book that has a little bit more distance between your emotions and the content.

Katherine Suzette 33:14

Yeah, absolutely.

Zinzi Brookbree 33:16

Let us move into what is your best fantasy read so far this year?

Sage Moreaux 33:21

the Realm Breaker series, which I already mentioned, is so good. So fun and, adventuresome. I don't wanna talk about it to give spoilers. I just would say go pick it up. It has an amazing map, on the inside, and then they travel around a lot in the course of the story, and I've been loving, like, tracing it on the map. I had to have my physical copy and my ebook copy also. So as I was reading it on the ebook, I could be tracing it on the map. And then Dungeon Crawler. Carl, I read the first book in that series. The second one is on hold for me, and I just thoroughly enjoyed it. Very fun. That was a little bit of a palate cleanser because it was just funny and super violent, but just in a kind of funny way and so that it didn't really bother me. And then the other one was a, yep,

Zinzi Brookbree 34:11

darker, so I'll be really interested to see, like, as you continue the series, if it continues to be a favorite of yours, or if the,

Sage Moreaux 34:18

okay.

Zinzi Brookbree 34:19

gets to you.

Sage Moreaux 34:21

Yeah. Okay. I'm generally pretty good with dark, depending on the style. Like if it's about relationships, not so much, but just dark stuff happening. I'm like, no problem. Then the last one is a young adult. the last one is this young adult novel called Queen of Faces, which is actually the first in a series. I didn't realize it when I started reading it, but it's got this really cool kind of future. it's fantasy, but almost like, dystopian with this cool like drowned city world thing. And then, this magic that allows you to change bodies so you can get like a new body and you know, the wealthy have fancy bodies and there's just like a very, there's a lot of interesting stuff around gender and personal, personal feeling about who you are as a person outside of your physical form because you can change that. So that was great, adventuresome and very cool in terms of like, thought provoking around some of the gender stuff. Really enjoyed it. But none of those are my best book of the year that I've read so far. My best book of the year is a Non fantasy.

Zinzi Brookbree 35:31

Is Well, we're, we're gonna cover best you've read. So well, non-fantasy favorites. Next. Katherine, what's your fantasy favorite so far this year?

Katherine Suzette 35:40

I really loved how to find a nameless Faee from our book, podcast, our book cast, whatever that's called.

Zinzi Brookbree 35:46

Book club episode.

Katherine Suzette 35:47

I've already mentioned it a couple times, but Voyage of the Damned was really fun for me.

Zinzi Brookbree 35:51

Awesome. Um, my favorite fantasy so far of the year, and I don't, I don't know what is gonna beat this for the rest of the year. We will see if anything tops it, but it is going to be, This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, by Iona Andrews, Iona Andrews, however that's pronounced. I read this book, within 24 hours, and then I read it again immediately. I started it over and listened to it again. so I read it twice in a period of 72 hours. I now own it as a hardcover, as an ebook, and as an audiobook. I am obsessed. and part of that is, is because it's an epic high fantasy. There's tons of politics going on. And for me, like, that's not normally my thing, right? I'm a cozy fantasy reader, and I like my epics occasionally on the side. But for this one, Iona Andrews has done a really great job of blending some of my favorite elements from cozy fantasy, but then put it into this, high fantasy, epic, fantasy setting. so I really hope that, our listeners will check it out. So that was my This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me. It was my favorite fantasy read so far of this year, and that's from the, Maggie the Undying series, and it is the first book in a series. I don't know how many books are intended to be in it. I think maybe a trilogy. I would have to go back to the author's website, but am so excited to get Sage and Katherine to read it as well.

Katherine Suzette 37:23

I'm excited too,

Zinzi Brookbree 37:24

All right, moving on to our best non-fantasy read of the year, what was yours?

Katherine Suzette 37:31

I actually had to think about this one for a minute earlier because I, I al, I read Katabasis and a theory of dreaming as well, and like I didn't put them in the fantasy category. For myself, which is so strange. 'cause technically they absolutely are, they have magical elements and all of that. But it's like they go so deep and made me think so intellectually that, that I wasn't feeling what I normally associate with fantasy. It was just like that, that magical romping around with magic and like, I suppose it doesn't have to be romping, but like, you know, just adventuring and, and feeling fun and cozy and all of that with magic. let's put those in the in-between category. And then my best non fantasy was, What was it? It was Bloody Jack. And actually this was a reread series from my youth. One of those books that I read while sitting on my bed with all of my girlfriends at the time, all cozied up and I was reading aloud for days and weeks on End. Bloody Jack was one of those series. And then we got to the end of what the author had available. So I recently realized that not only are they all complete, the author has, unfortunately passed on many years ago. And so I went back to read the now Complete series and see what I thought. And honestly, I still love it. I still really love it and, you know, it makes sense for how that impacted some of my, my development in my youth with all of my friendships and things like that.

Zinzi Brookbree 38:52

Hmm.

Sage Moreaux 39:16

She really like created a lot of tension and complex kind of storytelling in her use of first person and third person narrative. There's like, there's the story that's happening. It's also about a young mother, so as a mother, I, I liked that aspect of it, but there's the story that she's telling and then there's like the character's musings and these kind of other pieces that entwine and it's very thought-provoking. Very fun, very interesting, very thought-provoking. Highly recommend, loved it.

Zinzi Brookbree 39:50

I'm also going to mention a series because I started the first book and just inhaled and immersed myself in the rest of it. that would be The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. these are historical fiction. They are formatted as journals, but they are ju- they're beautifully written. They feel very immersive. The voice of Emma is very distinct as a, as a character. the town of St. Chrispian's that she lives in is wonderful and a place you absolutely just want to be able to visit or live, for yourself. But particularly in the first five books, now the author, as she was writing it, she envisions the whole series as kind of like a, a TV show and she's got like four seasons of her, of her book TV show planned out, and books one through five is the first season and part of it deals with, the main character, Emma, processing grief of a loved one, and that particularly struck home, for me, having also lost a loved one over the, over the last month reading this book series helped, even though the relationship is very different, in terms of who the person is for her versus myself, but just seeing her grief processed over the course of a year in these, oh, about a year in these journals, helped me process my own grief and has helped smooth, some of the pain inside of the hard, hard edges, the books are not about her grief. That's just one component, of this beautiful, very playful story. There's lots of, funny episodes of things that happen in the journals, so I cannot recommend them enough that is the unselected journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower. just, I know for myself, like, that will be a series that is absolutely a comfort reread that I will go back to again and again. And I can't wait for book nine, volume nine, to come out. I'm hoping later this year. But we're going to go ahead now and, transition right ahead into the writer's desk and catch up a bit on some of the things that we talked about that we had planned at the beginning of the year to do in our writing lives, and follow up on how those are going. For Kat and myself, we had talked about our secret project, getting some work done on that. We have not started work on it yet, other than just kind of looking at it and revisiting it and knowing that we want to, very soon. I had also mentioned working on short stories throughout the year, which I did do. I did write, one short story that I am very proud of that I really liked, and that I hope to edit and then probably publish on Substack, but I haven't gotten to the editing portion yet. And then I have a couple other short stories that I started, but have not finished or shared, with my critique partners. then I have been continuing to journal because that is what I need to do for my mental health. Sage, you had mentioned that you wanted to finish your first draft by the end of April. Here we are at the end of April. How's that

Sage Moreaux 43:06

So it was actually, my first draft is finished. It was my first revision, so revising to second draft, which some of the scenes were already like revised to a second. So it's like a messy for second draft combo that I'm trying to get all to the same level. I did not finish. I got busy and I got stuck in a couple of spots, but I did make serious progress. So I'm definitely behind, but I'm also feeling good about where the story's going and how the revisions are going. I also kind of like jumped ship and started working on another story that I'm. Actually drafting because revisions are hard for me. and sometimes drafting is just easier. I also said that I would write a short story but not edit a month, and I think that I did three out of four, but none of them are like fully finished. Some are started and some like, they're just really messy drafts, so some don't have an ending yet, and some do, but like chunks are missing. So, I'm okay with it. short stories are hard for me because my ideas are usually really expansive. So to try and figure out how to tell it in a short way, is a challenge. But I, I was glad that I gave myself the challenge and I'm gonna keep doing. I might not get 12, but maybe I'll get like six. Maybe I'll get eight. I don't know, by the end of the year.

Zinzi Brookbree 44:45

Katherine, was there anything about your writing process that you wanted to share

Katherine Suzette 44:49

Definitely more mental than they are physical. I am really excited to get into our collaborative project, beyond having ideas and seeing some of the world take shape and vibes kind of aligning, there's not a whole lot going on actual actively. when it comes to my actual books, the most that I am doing is paying my subscription to my writing software, not actually writing all. I would love to say that I am, and I constantly have ideas, but it's just, you know, if I have such limited capacity, not one of those things that I have been prioritizing lately. And you ladies know, I've had some of, like, some, some bottom zero capacity moments in the last several months. So just hasn't crept back up to top of interest in priority. I want it to though. Sooner the better. We'll see.

Zinzi Brookbree 45:42

Sage, you wanna talk about word count goals versus writing habits? Do you have a word count goal for the week that you're trying to hit? Or do you have, like, a habit of, "I wanna sit down and write five days out of the week?" Which do you find, helps you your button share, words on page, get more done?

Sage Moreaux 46:02

Yeah, I've never been a big word count person. And this is one of the reasons that I didn't participate in Nana, so, successfully in the past when that was happening

Zinzi Brookbree 46:10

Hmm.

Sage Moreaux 46:11

I am a, like mood based writer. And some days I'm going to be drafting like crazy and other days I'm gonna decide to edit some stuff and other days I'm gonna be outlining. So it's hard. And I move between those things pretty consistently. And when I'm editing, I'm usually trimming. 'cause when I'm right, when I'm drafting, I'm pretty wordy. So then when I'm editing, I'm trimming, which turns into like a negative word count for the day. So I've always been one more to be like. I wanna write as many days of the week as I can, but I don't give myself a deadline because I don't like to do things that make me feel bad about my writing. I only wanna do things that encourage me with my writing. So I focus more on how I feel for writing session. I think about like, at the end of a writing session, how did I feel about the work I got done? How did I feel about my characters? That kind of thing. So that's the way that I approach it. I will do writing sprints sometimes where it is like word, count word, word count. and that's fun. And I will do that using different software and stuff like that, but I don't hold myself to like a standard, because I feel like that puts me in the wrong mindset.

Zinzi Brookbree 47:22

I do most of my drafting on a website called 4thewords, which has a whole bunch of, quests and story that as you write and your word count affects it and, defeats the monsters, with the number of words that you write, as well as it tracks your writing streak, how frequently you, write. And while I use that, I don't have a set goal for myself either as to how many days of the week that I write, or can I hit a certain, number of words outside of, like, I just wanted to defeat whatever monsters in this list. If that's 2,000 words, that's 2,000 words today. And if it's 300 words, it's 300 words today, right? I have also since transitioned to doing my journals as, speech to text, which has dramatically changed the word count, that I can get, and I'm hoping to transition maybe to writing some of my fiction also via talking, to save my wrist, which frequently gets, pain. So we'll see if that ups my, productivity and my writing progress and if I can build some more momentum doing speech to text instead of typing everything. So, we'll check in with that later this year. Katherine,

Katherine Suzette 48:35

Well, all of that sounds amazing. I am definitely a mood writer, but I also am super excited to eventually try a sprint with Zzi in which we're both like defeating monsters on this writing site that she uses. Because this sounds so fun. Like it, it sounds like a fun challenge, like maybe we should add that to, like do this with, with our substack people. let us know in those comments if you're interested in joining us for a day of just defeating monsters and writing sprints because I'm down. But beyond that, that kind of made me a little exhausted to hear all of the you ladies are doing. So it just kind of makes me want like a hot chocolate and a rest. So, you know, pros and cons and that's it.

Zinzi Brookbree 49:17

4thewords does actually have, group writing challenges where, you get into a room together and your word count collectively defeats one big monster, which

Katherine Suzette 49:26

am in.

Zinzi Brookbree 49:27

I need more buddies to do that part of it with, because I'm pretty solo over on 4thewords otherwise.

Katherine Suzette 49:33

Awesome.

Zinzi Brookbree 49:33

Mm-hmm. All right. That is gonna be it from us today. thank you So much for joining us. check out our book club. We have our book club over on Fable. We are currently reading The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez. And that should be our next episode, is, how we feel about that one. we will also be wrapping up season one of Book Dragon Banter.

Katherine Suzette 49:55

we are planning a really cool deep dive for the summer so that we can like really get into the weeds of one particular book that did get mentioned earlier as a favorite in this episode. So if you're interested in any of those favorites, we're going to deep dive into one of them. And I am personally extremely excited. I know we're all excited, so we have some great things planned for that.

Zinzi Brookbree 50:16

Outside our podcast, we run retreats as Book Dragon Inc. That is Ink INK, as well as, weekly Zoom write-ins with me that's at a Write With Me, Zinzi Bree on Substack. We'd love for you to check those out. You can find our info on that in our show notes. if you like our book chats here on the pod, please leave us a review. It really helps indie podcasts like ours to get noticed, and thank you so much for tuning outro music.

Sage Moreaux 50:50

Hi. Thanks.

Katherine Suzette 50:53

Thank you.

Zinzi Brookbree 50:55

See you. next time.