Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

    Fall is coming, y'all. Just in case you weren't aware. :)     Here's my proof:     See that? Bright yellow leaves. I'm fairly certain those weren't there yesterday.      As a result of the colder weather coming on, I'm going to start adding photos of me wearing my favorite hats with some of my blog posts. And, of course, I'll get a whole post in about my various cloaks, too.      Of course, all those hats and cloaks means you'll likely be getting concept portraits of some of my favorite characters...     So, to kick off the cold-weather hat tradition, here is the hat I'm wearing this morning:     Sorry if it's blurry. My selfie camera is currently covered with tape, so I had to take this picture Relative Race style.      Anyhoo. I hope y'all are as excited about Winter as I am, because the hats, boots, and chocolate theme is going to come out full force over the next few months!  P.S. -- I tried making my hot chocolate recipe into actual

     Welcome back!     In today's post, I'm going to give you all another five books/series that I found clean and highly enjoyable. Not all of the ones I have today are fantasy, but they are all really good.     Ready?     Here we go! Entry #1: The Mysterious Benedict Society,  by Trenton Lee Stewart     I know, it isn't fantasy. But it is a middle-grade puzzle/mystery series, and it is really  good. There are five novels in this series now, and I've read four of them (I never really got into the series prequel).     The sheer amount of puns and wordplay in this series is astonishing. Also, I think it could technically be called satire, because it makes all kinds of points about modern society.     Maybe you've seen the (Netflix?) TV show version of this story and think you know all you need to know about it. Do not make that assumption. I'm fairly confident that the TV series isn't nearly as good as the books are. Look them up, borrow or buy them, and read

     Why are amnesia plots so common?      Because authors and storytellers love them. Duh.      But why do modern bards love the amnesia plot so much? Why does it show up in movie after TV show after comic strip after book? Why does it seem that virtually every SF/F author writes an amnesia plot at some point in their career?      What's the allure?      As someone who is extremely intrigued by the classic amnesia plot, and as a writer with an amnesia-plotted story in my Projects bin, I've been thinking about why they're so popular. What is it about the amnesia plot that resonates with people on such a deep level? Especially since the vast majority of amnesia plots don't even bother to represent amnesia accurately; it's much more fun to write a character who's lost all their memories up to this point, but can still form new ones, than it is to write a character who actually has amnesia.      Is it fear of losing our own memories?      Or is it s

     If you know me, then you know that I am an extremely picky reader. As a strongly conservative Christian, I am diametrically opposed to a lot of the content that can be found in modern YA fantasy, and many a book has found itself figuratively thrown across the room because the author decided to add in something that goes against my morals.      In my opinion, the YA genre has gone down in moral quality a lot in the last decade. It used to be that a young person with a good vocabulary could read teen and young adult fiction without too much concern; I myself was introduced to the genre at the ripe old age of seven  via Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern series. Back then, parents didn't have to worry nearly as much about what their kids were reading from the YA shelves.      Nowadays, it's almost impossible to find a decent-quality novel on the bookstore or library shelves. It's almost like you have the choice of a well-written book or a morally clean book, pick one and

     I have only recently come to the conclusion that I don't have any idea how much I rely on the Lord in my everyday life. It's not common for me to have big spiritual breakthroughs and experiences; I've never had prophetic visions, dreams, or impressions of any sort of magnitude; I don't feel like I'm constantly hearing God in my head.     And yet, He is there in my mind, telling me things instants before I need them, keeping me safe while I'm walking into and out of school or driving alone on the road. He nudges me to take different routes, to pause for half a second before crossing an empty street, to keep my mouth shut--or to open it--at just the right times to help other emotionally.     I don't know how much I rely on God. But I am learning.     Take last Tuesday, for example. My Lifespan Development professor gave us a six-chapter(!) reading assignment out of our textbook. It didn't connect in my brain that the assignment was six chapters long,

 It's only fitting if my very first blog post includes my home-made hot chocolate recipe. This is Hats, Boots, & Chocolate, after all. So here's the recipe, and then we'll see if I've got anything more to say.  For 8 ounces of water, mix 1/32 tsp of stevia extract, 2 tsp of cacao powder, 1/4 tsp of lecithin, 2 tsp of coconut water powder, and 2 tsp of coconut oil at the bottom of your cup. Add the hot water, stir it up, and drink.  So where did this recipe come from?  Well, I work at Thanksgiving Point. And this year, I volunteered to help out at Luminaria--which is essentially a long Christmas-time walk through the Ashton Gardens, surrounded by amazing Christmas lights and decorations, with a side of real, live reindeer. Since I'm working at Luminaria, I have been offered as much free hot chocolate and treats as I want. Unfortunately, the hot chocolate mix I'll be offered won't be particularly wholesome, so I decided to make my own version that could se