It’s Monday. How did this happen?
Most of the renovation is over. We have some shelves that need to be put up, and the front of the house needs stucco repaired and a new coat of paint, but mostly we are done. I’m waiting for it to sink in, so I can exit the crisis mode of the last 4 weeks, but it’s not happening. I’m like a runner who ran a long race and now can’t cope with not running.
I know that the level of stress is pretty high, because I’m watching a really fun Chinese drama, and I became abnormally anxious over the main character’s love life. There are complicated political machinations happening that should be paid attention to, and I’m going, “Can we please break this engagement with A’yao, because he is a Golden Retriever puppy and this is bad for my mental health?” This right here is why romance as a genre requires an HEA. Because sometimes it’s therapy, and knowing everything will be okay helps you through the angst.
It’s a good show, though. I’m not fast forwarding it. A lot of times I watch dramas like this:
Second lead: blah blah blah.
Me: fast forward to the end of the scene.
Kid 1: Mom, why are you doing that?
Me: Because this will be a bonding moment where he will recount childhood trauma, and I’m not invested in his relationship with this side character. They will create sympathy for him here, and then switch to the main lead being a jerk, so they can juggle the tension. See?
Pausing drama in the middle of the flashback and then moving to the next scene, where the main lead is being a jerk.
Sometimes it’s really predictable, like Remarriage and Desires on Netflix. It was so cyclical: heroine scores a small victory, antagonist woman beats her down, heroine comes back, rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. You could literally skip big chunks of it and it wouldn’t affect the overall plot any. This device works well but not 10 times in a row.
I still have an episode of Alchemy of Souls left, hehehe.
In better news, I’m can finally clean the house. There was no point before because half of it was covered in plastic. I bought cute little wooden soap dishes, because Gordon likes Irish Spring soap, so I put them in the bathroom and went to get a new bar for him. I open the cabinet and grab the first box I see. Empty.
Second box.
Empty.
Third box.

8 boxes. I open that cabinet daily, and I never noticed them before. Why? How? Who knows.
We are going to try to speed up on Sweep of the Heart for the next couple of weeks now that the renovations are over and we can work from the office. Neither of us felt comfortable leaving renovation crew unsupervised – specifically the painter crew, who kept trying to kill themselves – and now that they are out, we can go back to normal. So to knock out a few things before I disappear and leave the blog on Mod R’s capable hands.
Sweep of the Heart.
Mod R told me that there was some misunderstanding. We are not hoarding Sweep of the Heart and dolling it out in small chunks. We start writing on Monday, and you get whatever we wrote on Friday. Sometimes it goes through proofread, sometimes it doesn’t. We prioritize meeting the Friday deadline. ::smiley face:: So right now you have everything we have.
Sweep of the Heart: release date
Sweep of the Heart will be edited and revised before being released. Right now we are not anticipating major changes and are planning on late fall for the release date. It will be up on the release page once the manuscript is finished and we know for sure we have met our internal deadline.
Yes, there will be regular audio. We are going with Dina from GA adaptations for the reader. Don’t know about Graphic Audio adaptation yet, but it is likely. If it happens, it will be some months away.
Also there will be more from Graphic Audio in the near future. And that is all I can say at this point.
Chat with Grace and Patrick Draven
Tuesday zoom, 7 pm EST, sponsored by Ashland Public Library. More information here, including how to sign up- there are still spaces left. It will also be recorded and posted on the Ashland Library YouTube channel. Signed copies of Grace’s work and ours are available from Blue Willow. By the way, they still have copies of Jeaniene Frost’s Bones retelling. This is a great chance to snag a signed book if you want one.
Mystery Images on Instagram
More on that next month. Not too long now.
PS from Mod R: Here is Ilona’s Instagram account with the images in question- no worries, when the news comes it will be for everyone not just on Insta!
Fights and Battles
How do we select which battles to show? Fights and battles, when written down, are not that exciting unless there is a strong emotional component. They are similar to sex scenes – unless you are invested in the characters’ feelings, the sex scenes can become boring. Fight scenes are the same. She lunged, he parried, she shied from his blade, blah blah blah. The key to making it interesting is high stakes.
When Maud fought Lady Illemina, the stakes were sky high. Her future literally hung in the balance, suspended on the edge of her sword, because if her future mother-in-law viewed her with contempt, her life with House Krahr would be much harder. There was pride there, and survival, and so many things.
By contrast, Bestata and Karat sparring, the stakes are very small. Even if Karat lost that practice bout, nobody would really care. Had Bestata been some mortal enemy against whom Karat struggled for the whole story, we would’ve shown the fight in technicolor detail. Same with the space pirate. The fight wasn’t really important; the fact that he was dead by the end of it was, because the audience wasn’t that invested in the pirate himself. They mostly wanted the Special Snowflake to get her comeuppance for being a back stabber.
Okay, I think I covered most of it. I will see you Tuesday at zoom, and if not, then Friday, when the next chunk will be up.
So glad to hear most of the renovations are done. I hope you will be able to relax soon.
I had the same reaction to the engagement with A’Yao lol
I’m so excited for tomorrow’s episode ????
I know what will happen because I’ve read the novel but they’ve done such a good job with the drama that I am still enjoying every episode.
And I’m really curious about the mystery images on Instagram but I’ll wait ????
I whole heartedly agree about many fight scenes being tedious but in the case of Maud fighting Lady Illemina, for me, it wasn’t just that I was invested in Maud. Her internal dialog made the fight itself interesting. If you had just described the fight without that, I probably would have skimmed it, but I was all in as she tried to calculate how to survive without killing Arland’s mother.
It was also interesting that it didn’t feel like she was thinking about Illemina as her own potential mother-in-law as they fought and how that would affect herself, but purely about how it might affect Arland if she killed her and Helen if she died.
I think the internal dialogue is how you get emotionally invested, really. For the Bestata fight scene, most of the BDH is already invested in Karat, and Bestata is more of a secondary character. Unless an author wanted to elevate Bestata’s importance, there wouldn’t be a lot of internal dialogue coming from her. And you’ve got to figure any internal dialogue from Karat would be along the lines of “Really? That’s all you’ve got? Show me something Helen can use.”
And since SotH is recounted through Dina’s POV, we wouldn’t have had internal monologue of either the combatants 🙂
True. There could have been some internal monologue on Dina’s part about the stakes if they had to go there, though.
You are so kind to answers all our questions with such patience. I am getting really excited about Ruby Fever now that it is getting closer to the release date. I am glad your renovations are done. I did renovations last summer and then sold my house to move to be the nanny for my granddaughter. It was so stressful to oversee those renovations and I did part of them myself so I understand completely what a relief it is to be finished with that.
Hope you have a great week.
Enjoy the calming effects of cleaning and of the absence of the paint crew 🙂 and enjoy your “guilty” pleasures (like fast forwarding thru scenes) as you need. Deep breaths. We love ya’all.
Thank you for sharing Sweep of the Heart with us, can’t wait to see how it wraps up.
I’m enjoying the whole pick a mate show, that I keep forgetting this is to get Wilmos back.
Glad to hear that renovation is done. Empty boxes and or not mentioning we are out of xyz drives me crazy.
Thanks for the updates
Reading this just reminded me of Wilmos! I’m fully invested in the spousal selection and forgot there was more to it! Oooooo, now I’m anticipating a long book (or maybe even 2, but my cliffhanger despising heart is going “Noooooooooo”). ????
Yay! More Graphic Audio! Can’t wait. Glad our special Snowflake melted so spectacularly. Also glad that the kamikaze painters have flown the coop and you guys can get back to your lives!
+1 to everything, but especially to more Graphic Audio! ????
It’s always a delight to hear about the process! Also glad things are calming down for the house stuff. What you wrote about romance HEA stuff is so very very relatable especially in times of high stress. I’ve mostly been rereading or reading HEA because of that.
hehehe for many empty boxes….
Congratulations on the completions of your interor renovations. It takes a while to wind down after a major upheaval and to settle back into your happy healthy routine. Please be patient with yourself. When it feels like it’s unfolding too slowly, you can always visit your soft & inviting yarn shrine…
Hey Mod R,
I hope the weather has become more agreeable and that you are moderating in comfort. We’re experiencing a heatwave, but we have air conditioning to help us cope with the 103* weather. Quick question: what were the Mystery Images on Instagram Ilona mentioned?
Hey Regina, hope your heatwave disperses soon! We’re much more comfortable over here, thank you!
The Ilona Andrews Instagram account and mystery image post are here https://www.instagram.com/p/CgCYCI-LhLB/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Thank you for the well wishes and the link to the images, they are epic!
I’m hoping that Ilona’s Instagram post is a hint of things to come. The Innkeeper chronicals would translate well into manga style (or any other style of) comics, or even to an animated series.
Ilona’s post about Arland not caring about wedding preparations has me wondering if Maud & Arland will get married at the Inn or at his family estate. (I’m team Gertrude Hunt.)
Pamper yourselves for a day or two. Do what makes you happy and kick back and relax if possible. Get massages , look at yarn or tools or patterns, eat tangerine ice pops and try to stay cool. Stress comes to everyone’s lives. You deserve the break so take one and take care of each other.
Spill the details!! Whats the chinese drama that’s got you on the hook?
Love like the Galaxy 🙂 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Like_the_Galaxy
Thanks. I have been wondering too.
Oooh thanks!! I am always looking for new c- drama and k- drama recommendations! I’m loving Yumis Cells 2 and excite to start alchemy of souls!!
I was scrolling down the comments for the name of the drama!!
It’s on my list..
Just finisher Dream of Splendor and loved it…
Glad to hear renovation hell is over, I am still cleaning up after like 26 years post major Reno. Been having my own bouts of weirdness, a brand new dishwasher that nearly started a fire, a shower head hose that should have taken 5 minutes to attach, that ended up needing me to order a new one.
The empty boxes of Irish Spring? Gordon loves to recreate the commercials where the guy cuts the soap with a knife to show what is inside, he is obsessed with it,hence the empty boxes…
More GraphicAudio, hurray!
All that news and I zeroed in on that like a hawk! Happy about the house, and oh my giddy aunt, why are we keeping empty boxes in the cabinets? My people are fond of that move too, and argh.
So … Sweep of the House, then Sweep of the Heart? … sounds like a plan 🙂
YASSSSS! MORE GA CONTENT! *happy dance* also I love that the voice actor from GA is going to be doing the audio for sweep of the heart : D
I totally cracked up when I saw the soap boxes. When it happens at my house, I usually slap my head and ask “Why? why? why?” I still don’t know the answer but I think it has to do with the faith other people have the box fairy will come and clean up after them. (Sadly, I’m also enabling that faith.)
Yes, because not all of us can stand going through a bunch of empty boxes to find what we’re looking for. I don’t miss that aspect of sharing space at all.
Hi,
This is in regards to pop, It won’t let me post a comment there so..
What is your take on Fan films, Would you like a fan to make a film if they allowed you to have an influence on the film/show/short, etc?
Marc,
The problem is the grant of rights. When the film studios buy those, they want to grab everything, so us approving any kind of fan film would be problematic. We would have to give you a non-exclusive, and things can get complicated.
And the fight scene is exactly why you all are awesome. I just finished reading a book where I literally skipped 10 pages of unnecessary fight scene because it was the 3rd fight and I wasn’t even halfway through the book. It didn’t move the plot forward and it served only to show how great of a fight the MC is. Yeah, got it. Moving on.
Enjoy your return to a more normal routine. I read the comment about being so caught in the spouse selection that the person forgot that this was all to rescue Wilmos. It made me laugh because I’m also so caught up in the drama at the Inn that I forget about Wilmos.
I just reread Maud’s story, and I think it is still my favorite of the Innkeeper books. They are all great, but there is just something special about SOTB. SOTH is becoming that way too. Thank you for the hours of fun and relaxation I get from your books.
My mother used to open both ends of soap boxes and left them to dry, so that they would last longer. But she’d toss the boxes as she used them.
I started a new show on Netflix called “Cafe Minamdang“… it’s really entertaining. No sad parts as far as I can tell … a former criminal profiler now poses as a shaman to solve cases and help clients… fun banter with super law and order female lead. Who also seems to have extraordinary martial art skills!
Glad your house is settling back to normal! ????
Ah, that pitch is a lot better than what Netflix told me – I wondered why that show got pushed on me by the algorithm ???? Now I might actually try it… ????
It’s really fun! I’m on episode 3. ???????? there was an awesome “falling into his arms” moment that I could picture reading the scene in a book and loving it…
I’m such a sucker for that trope ???? I love the one they put in as the “meet cute” at the end of episode 1 of Healer as well ????
I really like seeing into the mind of the writer, esp yours. It’s fascinating.
As to skipping forward, I do it on cooking competition shows. I don’t usually care how they get to the final product.
Thank you, and I am so happy for you that, IRL the renovation is complete…your heart and mind will wind down
Glad the major renovations are done.
Why would someone want to leave empty soap boxes in the cabinet unless they’re either making a point or spoofing the rest of the family? Is someone carving up the soap to make it last longer or doing some soap art? That’s a lot of soap gone. 🙂
I understand about the “keep going even after everything is done” drama. I get like that before and/or after a move. I think “oh I need to do this”. Five minutes later I think “no that’s already done”, but I think…. When my brain gets on the hamster wheel like that, I take a deep breath, look around, and say out loud “everything’s done that needs to be done right now. The rest can get done later.” For some reason that seems to calm my brain and mind down. You are not alone in that Ilona. 😀
It’s for the Box Fairy 🙂 (see higher in the comments)
Borrowers shower cabins?
Maybe the gremlins took all the soap and forgot to leave a message. 🙂
Or it could be for the Karakun ship…everyone on the ship needs to get cleaned. 😉
Congratulations on receiving Kirkus Review Star for Ruby Fever. Can’t wait to read it.
I apologize, as I’m sure you have most likely have answered this question before, but will we see those child-exiling bastards House Ervan get their comeuppance? I just finished Sweep of the Blade GA for the 3rd time and am feeling suitably stabby ????
Ilona has spoken about it before in Q&As, I believe the words she used were “that would be fun” 😀 so there is reason to hope!
Fingers crossed that will happen. When the announcer of either House says Maude’s name with all her titles with Arland on her arm, and then with Ilemina and Otubar coming after them, that would be a smack down of all smack downs. Bring it on!
Interesting as always. I am truly sorry to hear the stress levels are still rather high, but the stress period was reasonably long and unpleasant. I hope you’ll both start to relax now that the house is mostly back to normal and looks good. As to the empty soap boxes, rofl.
I am actually surprised to hear anyone thinks you’re hoarding the new serialization. That’s not how serializations work and I would have sworn the BDH understood the mechanics. Given I just paid for the serialization on Amazon of a story from another author I follow, the BDH needs to just say thank you very much!!! I thought I’d try it out and it wasn’t horribly expensive, but in future I’ll just wait for the finished copy. So, many many thanks Ilona and Gordon for the weekly funfest!!
Re: fights. I hadn’t thought about the mechanics of good/bad for the story as such. But just knowing Karat bested Bestata rather firmly really was sufficient, heh. And the re-enactment by the Lees was such a hoot, it made it that much more memorable.
The re-enactment was genius, if you want to look at writing technique, and just pure fun if you don’t.
I hadn’t thought about fight scenes in the context of sex scenes, but that makes perfect sense to me. I love a good sex scene that advances the story and characters, but too often find myself skipping pages of the stuff to get back to the actual story. Same thing with battle scenes in some books, unless I’m really hooked on the characters first.
Particularly if the sex scene is around 60 pages long. If it isn’t advancing the plot, it gets skipped.
So glad your ordeal is over with. I have been through it myself, and finally got away from “why me” feeling.
PS: Around southern MS people buy up loads of Irish Spring not just for personal hygiene, but to take out to various hunting and fishing camps to ward off mice. My first thoughts that the workers helped themselves to free bars of I.S. For rodent control.
Cool.
Since the Ashland Library Event starts at 7 pm Eastern, I will be grateful for the recorded version. I will be driving home from work here in the Central time zone.
May be the event can help y’all refocus. Take whatever time you need to distress. The BDH will wait ( or learn to do so)
Are you by any chance watching Love Like the Galaxy on Viki??
Xo
That’s the one 🙂
Thanks for the information. So happy you have your home and peaceful energy back. My friend and I were just discussing the importance of peace in a house to maintain one’s sanity. Happy Writing!
Thanks for the update and answers! Glad to hear things are starting to look up 🙂
I have a question about Hidden Legacy, and I don’t know where to ask it.
I noticed in Burn for me that there is mention of a different form of the US, with something like the United Tribes or something (re the Mexican war that Rogan was in). There was no further mention of it in later books (that I can recall, anyway). Will this ever be further developed or explored? Would love to know more…
A lot of the worlbuilding of Hidden Legacy is based on the fact that the Osiris Serum was discovered in the 1800s and the geopolitical fate of the planet was irreversibly changed. Individuals becoming insanely powerful all of a sudden would impact the way the world works, and they are left with an alternative history to ours.
The United Native Tribes, spanning the territories of the Dakotas, Wyoming, and Montana are independent and separate from the USA, Russia is still an Empire with a Tzar (we know Alexei Ist, who was assassinated as a child with the rest of his family in our world, took the throne), China’s Cultural Revolution happened much earlier etc. It has been expanded on already throughout the books 🙂
The best explanation comes when Leon discusses his Smirnoff Rubber Band Theory homework with Nevada in White Hot:
“It says that a space-time continuum is acted upon by many different factors. The influence of these factors is too great for any small change to affect the state of a continuum. It says that our reality is like a tangle of rubber bands. If you pull one out, the state of the tangle isn’t significantly affected.[…]The rubber band theory is the complete opposite of the chain-link theory, which says that events are directly precipitated by each other, so if you go back in time and kill a mosquito, we’d all evolve gills or something.” […]
“It’s like two roads branching from each other. At first they are close and going almost in the same direction, but the farther you go, the more they split. In the beginning magic didn’t change much. But with each generation it transforms our world more and more. Think about it. Without the magic we wouldn’t have Houses or Primes. Some things would probably stay the same, because some strings remained relatively untouched for a short while, but others would be completely different. Inevitably all strings will be affected, and the further we go, the more different the world will be.”
Andrews, Ilona. White Hot, Avon 2017. Kindle Edition, page 160 and following
Another small (-ish) thing. There was no nuke that ended WW2.
Yes, there are many things throughout the books 🙂 I didn’t do an exhaustive enumeration. Whilst there was a conflict involving Mexico and Belize in our world (the Caste War of Yucatan) it happened at the beginning of the 20th century, and did not have the magnitude of the one in Hidden Legacy. Not to mention it wasn’t fought over large deposits of magically potent mineral.
You can make a game of spotting them all on your next reread 🙂
8 empty boxes! That has to be a record…somewhere. 🙂
🙂 Yay for almost completely done – double yay for clean and dust-free.
LOL at another husband, just like mine, with an Irish Spring attachment.
I am also watching Alchemy and have hoarded episodes waiting to be seen. I blame you – and Park Seo Joon – since you are the one who clued me in to What’s The Matter With Secretary Kim and Viki. Did I say blame? Really I meant thank you ever so.
Glad your lives are going to back to normal post product. Love the insights you share. Thank you very much!!
My brother had a sledding accident about 50 years ago (yes, I’m old) and our parents weren’t home. So, we cleaned off all the blood with Irish Spring soap, bandaged him, filled him with Bufferin, and put him on the couch. To this day, my sister gags when she smells Irish Spring soap.
But, clearly, it is a long-time favorite for many, and has enjoyed a long run on personal care shelves.
I know that feeling! I went into our Scout Dry Store at the HQ when the first UK Covid Lockdown ended, convinced that we had plenty of tinned food etc. to use for a ‘Ready Steady Cook’ challenge… turned out I’d remembered the tins correctly, just forgotten that they were all empty ready for making mini Methylated Spirit stoves with! (So we did that instead and then made mini pancakes on top)
I have recently found a great new narrater and one of my favorites yet.
Her name is Yu-Li Alice Shen and she is the reader for Aimee Easterling”s
kitsuni fox/werewolf adventures in the Kira Fairwood series “Full Moon Saloon”
and “Rogue Moon”. She is so easy to listen to that yesterday I listened to her for about 10 hours straight. I listen to about 50 books a year and, for me, the narrater can make or break the enjoyment for me.
If you are looking to hire a fresh voice that does multiple characters well,
I would highly recommend her to you.
Happy to hear the “torture” session has ended and to the greatest extent possible you are satisfied with the final results. I’m sure many unappreciated lessons have been learned on both sides. I locked my keys in my car Sunday, another unappreciated lesson in keeping my mind on what I’m doing instead of thinking about other things. All’s well that ends well.
Any new stories about Kid 2s cat?
Dear Ilona,
Thank you very much for your recommendations!
Again my Life was superb and Alchemy of Souls is also really good.
I will be watching The princess soon!
Thank you also for the Love like the galaxy recommendation.
I would be really very thankful for further recommendation regarding Asian dramas, as I am addicted to these at the moment!
Marina
I think it is interesting & telling that Bestata/House Meer didn’t challenge Karat to fight when Karat was at 100%. She/they waited until after Karat had been been in a battle that left her with broken bones & sepsis. Admittedly Karat had received medical care & had healed from most of it. But at less than 24 hours later, she still wasn’t back to 100%. And even at less than her best, Karat still administered 3 mortal blows.
I suppose the same principle from Arland’s fight with the 9 pirate vampires applies. But instead of how making House Meer wonder how many vampires it takes to beat 1 member of House Krahr, Karat makes them wonder just how extremely wounded a vampire from House Krahr has to be for a vampire from another house to even have a slight chance of beating them.
Too bad Dina doesn’t have film of Karat fighting the corrupt Ad-hal along with the fight with Bestata. I think that House Krahr ought to leak both so that Karat can receive the same infamy & marriage offers that Arland got.
I imagine Karat’s armor-cam filmed that fight, LynnG. After all, Maud’s did all of her fights on the exile planet — remember her playing it for the House Krahr historian while she was in the clinic recovering from the “practice” bout?
OMG, I watch Alchemy of Souls too! My new fav k-drama guilty pleasure 😛
So happy that most of the renovations are done!
Deep breaths, keep taking them and it slows you down and eventually will get you out of the rush, rush, rush feeling.
Deep breath, deep breath. Keep doing that it slows down your system, slows down your brain.
So glad life is back to what passes for normal.
I am a proponent of fast forwarding too. Particularly when binging a season.
Does that mean Renee Raudman will be Dina?
Hi Lynne,
No, DIna from the Graphic Audio adaptations will be the narrator for Sweep of the Heart 🙂 . You can check out the Graphic Audio adaptations and listen to samples here https://www.graphicaudiointernational.net/our-productions/series/innkeeper-chronicles.html
The smiley face – that was a Kate Daniels -trademarked smiley face, wasn’t it? WE NEED BDH EMOJI!!!!
We cannot use emojis in the blog posts because the newsletter blows them up 🙁
Dear Ilona, it does take time to settle down from crisis mode, especially when it’s been ongoing for a long time. I hope you find your zen soon!
And thank you, ModR, for the link to Ilona’s Instagram! Rash words are gonna come back to bite him haha! (and probably Karat, too …)
This description of the fight scenes kind of brought to mind something I have been thinking about in White Hot. In the scene where Rogan and Nevada are blocked by the cousin and the school children and they are in the car he abruptly turns (of course) to avoid them. However I was thinking about it -Rogan can lift lift and carry inanimate objects and I have in my head a conversation with Mad Rogan that kind of goes like this, “So sir, you can manipulate and move inanimate objects and a car is an inanimate object even if you are in it so why in that situation did you not simply use your magic to lift the car up-and-over the obstacle? It brings to mind the idea of Aladdin and his magic carpet, the carpet being an inanimate object and the idea of flying with it is well established. Uh sir by the look on your face I believe I will see myself out.”
Any thoughts out there for or against this idea?
This has been answered many times by House Andrews: as explained in Burn For Me, he can’t levitate people. His magic doesn’t work on biological threats and levitation requires specific mages. Had he tried to levitate the car with him and Nevada in it, he would’ve turned them both into human hamburger.
“She lunged, he parried, she shied from his blade, blah blah blah.”
So is that the fight scene or the sex scene?
(Sorry, sorry- tried to resist really I did)
Could be both really ????
I am happy for the people who love Graphic Audio that there will be more releases in that format, but I am THRILLED that there is still going to be regular audio!
I love audiobooks, it is my very favorite way to enjoy books since I get so much more time to listen than I do to actually read, but I want EVERY word the author wrote. The fact that GA is abridged (since some of it is acted out and they don’t feel the actual description is required) really makes me hate that format.
I have tried to love it. Eileen Wilks Lupi series is a favorite of mine and I got a bunch of them in GA form as a gift. I didn’t even make it all the way through the first book.
Please, please, please keep giving us “regular” audio, too, with all your books!
By the way, I had to stop myself from buying the Innkeeper books in GA form even knowing that I hate it. It just feel wrong to have something House Andrews sold that I don’t buy!
🙂
There are no plans to stop the “traditional” audiobooks as part of a book release 🙂
THANK YOU!
Haven’t heard much lately from the Mowing Mafia. Maybe they’re holding the Irish Spring as a hostage.
Your bit about fast-forwarding the shows is why I could never get into soap operas. You didn’t need to watch the M-Th episodes because the Friday episode always recapped everything and left with a cliffhanger. At least, that was how it seemed to me years ago.
I’ve been thinking about your feelings during the Chinese TV dramas and remembered this :
Eucatastrophe.
That’s a term invented by Tolkien, the crash of good fortune. He called it
the consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale — or otherworld — setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.
The end of The Return of the King is a series of eucatastrophes.
Wow, I had never heard of “eucatastrophe” before, that is very cool, thanks!
When I saw all those Irish Spring boxes, I thought you must have hung the soap in the bushes to deter deer. Given your herd (hoard?) of deer, this made a lot of sense to me. But “un-awayed” empty boxes makes sense too, if one of your household is away-impaired (one of mine is).
“More from graphic audio”…I’m trying to control myself…but I’m hoping for KD…trying to control myself with the hoping…I’d accept hidden legacy too…but KD is like my security blanket series. I need it!!!
Congrats on the Reno being finished!! Looks like exciting things are ahead!
More Graphic Audio? Kate? Hugh? The Baylors? New stuff??? Yes please!
Glad to hear the renovations finally ended without death or or dismemberment.
I am very interested in beta reading Sweep of the Heart if there’s a need! (I beta read Sweep of the Blade for HA. I think I filled the niche of “very familiar with the series but hadn’t read the serialization,” since I prefer to read things in one big chunk.)
I love the graphic audio I just love it and anxiously await the next installment and any more
Same thought for A’Yao; he is just too naive for Naio Naio, who needs someone strong, quick and clever like she is. Her mom is really ticking me off…
I love the graphic audio. Happy to buy whatever is produced. I like how when they are far away they sound far away and somehow the humour comes through better which makes it that little bit more enjoyable for me. It just brings each character to life so well.
I admit I’d rather a Kate Daniels than a Hidden Legacy graphic audio but that’s just personal preference for the series I enjoyed more. (Blood Heir would be amazing though. Derek has always been my fav character).
I’m also enjoying Love Like the Galaxy and find it interesting to watch Asian dramas and see such a different culture to mine play out, particularly the wuxia/historical dramas like LLTG.
When we were given the potential partners I couldn’t help having an interest in Nycati as he reminds me of the merfolk in Mirror: Twin Cities animae (was that partly your inspiration..?).
As I know from previous posts, you also watch animae/donghua and Asian dramas, I have often wondered if you draw any inspiration for your battle/fight scenes from these types of dramas. The vampire knights for example have always reminded me of a character that could easily exist in a wuxia drama.
Congratulations on the paint crew’s survival!
Alchemy of Souls is fun in how it goes about things. Episode 12 is so. good.
I’m also enjoying Extraordinary Attorney Woo a lot right now. Hoping it will finish strong for Woo Young Woo.
A great many times, I put the show on 1.5x or 2x playback and that works very well. Wouldn’t have finished Vincenzo without the feature. Fun but meh, the romance in it was annoying.
Thanks for all the updates and glad things are going back to normal!
Very excited about more from GA! A good narrator makes all the difference and you’ve chosen very talented ones (Steve West is one the best IMHO????) but GA adds a different and fun dimension to the story.
I am also waiting for the engagement with A’Yao to end!
Not because I do not like him, because he is a sweet person and helped her with rebuilding the town. But yes, he is not suited to her.
Love Zhou Lusi ????. She is so talented any funny.
Thankyou for the updates. I am eagerly anticipating the “speed up on Sweep of the Heart” and hope that is code for maybe some extra, unexpected instalments. ( Since intermittent reward is a very powerful motivator I foresee the BDH haunting the site! )
Thankyou ModR for the link to the instagram post. I rely on the blog to keep up to date on HA’s news so appreciated the heads up.
Re the audio/ Graphic Audio versions of Sweep of the Heart I am pleased that an audio version is planned and am happy that the lady who played Dina in the GA production is the narrator as she did an excellent job ( though I will always have a soft spot for Renee Raudman and wish she still narrated the Ilona Andrews books).
I enjoy both audiobooks and the Graphic Audio versions : one as another way to enjoy every word of the story while I am doing other things (like household chores) and one as a dramatic presentation of the story. Both have their challenges that are not always overcome IMO.
In an audiobook telling of the story it takes a really talented narrator to capture all the voices successfully but I think we understand this challenge when we listen and forgive any shortcomings.
The challenge for a dramatic presentation is that if the actor chosen for a particular character doesn’t “ match” how the character sounds in our imagination we are less forgiving because we expect the producer to cast voice actors who can capture the characters. I was a bit disappointed in some of the characters in the GA productions e.g Caldenia sounded to me like a slightly dithery old English lady when I expected someone who can inject steel into her voice ( like Helen Mirren or Maggie Smith ). That said I enjoyed the productions overall and look forward to further additions to the Innkeeper GA presentations.
Can we talk about how absolutely COOL the graphic audio adaptations are? I literally hold out hope for every House Andrews book ever being on there.
I am beyond excited that there’s more coming from them. And I’m hoping nobody’s a jerk about Renee not being Dina’s voice for this next installment. The GA voice actor, whose name I’m sorry to say I don’t know, does an awesome job.
Excited for the book form Sweep of the Heart!
Yao is such a puppy dog and the fact that the actor that plays him is actually older than Wu Lei boggles my mind a little.
I haven’t FF either, depending on how it ends Love Like the Galaxy might be my favorite Cdrama of 2022.
I got enough satisfaction knowing the scaled woman cut the pirate into pieces: I saw enough of it. It brought to mind the fight in the giant alabaster swan where Kate cut Hibla into little pieces. It was good. (I am far more bloodthirsty than I used to think.) 🙂
I can commiserate with you on the empty boxes. I will scan my pantry/refrigerator before I go shopping. As I am putting things away, I discover empty boxes of cereal, pasta, frozen waffles, etc. I ask the family, “Why?” Noone ever has a good answer. However, I have to admit that 8 empty boxes of the same thing is a record my family hasn’t come close to achieving. 8 different boxes empty – yes. So, the crown goes to Gordon. Heehee
We don’t know who the culprit is/are ????
It was six-pack beer cartons in my house. “Like the Beer Fairy’s going to fill them back up!” as a friend said. Not happening.
Speakingof of Sweep of the Blade, I am concerned about the Savoks. Are they getting enough exercise and riders? As Maven, does Maud have enough time for them? Will Helen be taught to ride them?
The space pirate DIES?!!
For those of us waiting for the edited release, too many spoilers today.
Might have to give up the blog until book published, too hard to read chat without picking up pivotal plot points.
I am also loving “ Love like a galaxy “. It’s a cute drama.
YES that description about Romance is exactly why I have difficulties with the genre. I often find it boringly predictable, and tend to stay away from “pure” romance, when it’s not combined with something else. Exception: Hidden Legacy for example,
where there is an exciting plot even outside of the romance, and that’s exactly what I need to be invested. *Side note*: Catalina and Alessandro are one of my favourite book couples ever, just love them so much ????
Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. I am just so grateful to get to read snippet weekly. It gives me something pleasant to look forward to each week because dealing with an advanced senile dementia patient who was/ is my mother with sundowners syndrome is ulcerative for me. Thank you.
Love like Galaxy? I am watching, too.
Super late in commenting but I am stoked to note you are watching Love Like the Galaxy! I’ve watched quite a few C-period dramas and it’s one of the best I’ve seen so far! Team Ling Buyi all the way!