Things friends are up to lately

[sholio]

slhuang's latest novel, Root of Unity, came out at the end of September - I was traveling and neglected to post about it then! I've enthused about this series before; it's fast-paced and fun and unusual (a little bit urban fantasy, but with highly advanced math in lieu of magic) and now, in the third book, is starting to delve deeper into the character relationships and the mysteries of Cas's past. I think it's my favorite of the books so far, though I also feel like it stands on its own somewhat less than the other two did -- you can read it as a stand-alone, but really you need the emotional setup from the first two books to get the full effect from this one.

There's also a short story, Ladies' Day Out, which bridges books 2 and 3.

ellenmillion has a new Kickstarter for a nifty new service: Monthly coloring book subscriptions. You can choose between 6-month or year-long subscriptions, and digital or print books. (The video for the Kickstarter was done by me, under Ellen's art direction.)

Ellen and I are also doing a coloring book together, which will debut locally at the UWA bazaar in November, and which I am super excited about! \o/ I get to see proofs tomorrow! We've been working on the art since July, and I think it's going to be very pretty. Here's a sneak preview of the cover, laid out beautifully by Ellen using one of my art pieces from the book:

Comments

[nenya_kanadka]

Oh! I didn't know the next Cas Russell book was out! I was just bemoaning the lack of same to myself a couple days ago. Thank you!

How necessary to enjoying book 3 is the short story?

[sholio]

Not necessary at all! I read them in reverse order (I didn't realize the short story connected so closely to the third book) and I didn't feel like I was missing anything. It works just fine either way.

[the_rck]

Those coloring books are so pretty! I really wish I could do coloring books now. I did in college, but my fine motor control was a casualty of the doctor who made me stay on Prozac for three years, in spite of the side effects. I was really sad when I admitted I wasn't going to use my Prismacolor pencils again and put them in my MIL's garage sale.

[sholio]

Thank you! I've really enjoyed working on this project, and it looks like the finished products are going to turn out nice.

I can't even really imagine how frustrating and difficult it would be to lose fine motor control like that. I guess everybody deals with what they have to deal with (and I have a condition that makes it hard for me to walk, which I'm sure would be considered hard to deal with by a lot of people, too) but that would be a hard one, for me.