Chart Your Course | A Wyrd And Wonder #bookstack as #JorieReads her Year 8 selections!

Hallo, Hallo dear hearts!!

You might have wondered where Jorie has been this first week of Wyrd And Wonder! I must admit, the first week of May did not quite play out the way I had thought it would – as I was gathering books from my local library which parlay into our lovely theme this year of #NauticalFantasy whilst I was happily diving inside the #bookstack I selected to read this May. Those stories are not quite within the theme, but one series is adjacent to the theme which was a happy surprise!

On the 2nd of May, late at night that Friday, my Mum went to the hospital – she had intense back and stomach pains and was truly uncomfortable. I was beside myself as I didn’t know how to help or what to do other than to drive her to the ER as I knew the answer had to be at the hospital. This is on the foot heels of her addressing her asthma which resumed after a long absence in her life. We have been sorting out with her doctors and insurance how to get inhalers and a nebulizer which seems to take longer than necessary to resolve but we were making progress. Then, that Friday, after I was home from my second job I knew something was wrong. We were in the ER from 10p to 130a and when they released her as she still had those same pains, but they were a bit reduced from when we arrived – I did question if they should run more tests and see what was causing the issues. They were convinced it was something more minor and would resolve on its own as her heart and lungs were cleared by the tests they had already run.

I was too exhausted to contemplate it further at that point and we went home. By 1045a Saturday morning we were back in the ER and why it took them *six!* hours to sort out it was her gallbladder causing all the pain and discomfort I am unsure. However, she was admitted to the hospital and surgery was scheduled for Sunday. Except that on Sunday, the 4th her levels were too elevated for surgery, and they had to push the surgery forward to Monday. I took off work on Saturday but went in on Monday as the timing of the surgery was originally scheduled for when I would be at work and afterwards, I could see her in her room as she recovered. Ironically, that didn’t quite go to plan!

Blessedly my boss let me go early as he knew I was growing worried about not knowing what was going on with Mum. The text alerts from the hospital never worked for me and so, I was in the dark. I arrived shortly before 2p and was stunned to find she wasn’t in her room. Apparently, her surgery time had shifted, and I was to hurry to the basement to see her before she went into the OR. On arrival in the family waiting room, I was informed I couldn’t see her as I missed my time window. I was about to leave and go home to return a bit later as I needed to check on my cats and change clothes, etc as I had come straight from work. I also needed to let my night boss know I couldn’t come in as I was going to be at the hospital waiting to speak with the surgeon post-op and to see Mum after she returned to her room. Thankfully that elevator is truly slow moving – as another nurse popped her head out of another door and said, “Come with me”. Somehow, I was able to see Mum after all right before she went into the OR and it was a blessing for both of us!

One interesting bit to note is that when it was time to ride the elevator it wasn’t arriving at all. There was someone from the hospital waiting with me and he said, “Where are you going?” I said first floor and he said, “Come with me” – we went through the secured door and through another one and I found myself in a steep staircase and then, promptly after two flights told “Here you go!” I was so dearly winded as that was more exercise than I usually get during a week – I said, “Thank you.” I had to get directions as I was on the ‘staff’ side of floor one and in a winding route, I made my way back to the front entrance. When I turned to thank him for his kindness again, he had already disappeared.

I returned about an hour later and spoke to one of the surgical nurses who went to find the nurse who had taken me back to see Mum. She let me know everything had gone well even though the surgery took a bit longer than expected (nearly two hours!) and that the surgeon would be out to see me as soon as he could. It would take another hour for me to see Mum as she was still in recovery. I might not have had alerts from the hospital, but I felt buffered by the kindness of nurses and staff who were looking out for me and Mum.

The surgeon was wicked kind and explained everything to me – he was thankful he had taken the case as it was an interesting one from the fact her gallbladder was so dearly inflamed. It was a living testament of prayer and divine interventions – I felt watched over from the moment we entered the hospital to the moment Mum was discharged. Everything just fit into place – she had wonderful and attentive nurses and most of them had wicked humour which helped loads! Including her doctor in the ER who not only helped her with this issue but with her asthma in the weeks prior to her surgery. We were truly blessed and to have her home now recovering is the best bit of all.

Thereby, my Wyrd And Wonder started off with a medical emergency and a rotation of visits to the local hospital – whilst I dreamt of fantastical worlds and characters I couldn’t wait to meet. I did play loads of hours of Puzzles and Spells (ie. the Harry Potter mobile game) — so I was still keeping a toe step into Fantasy, you could say! Laughs. I also put more books on hold at my library. Overall, it was a very intense week, and I am thankful calmer waters are arriving now. I hope if anyone has to go through something similar, they feel as supported as I did by the nurses as they truly are the unsung heroes of hospitals. They not only help patients, but they are the supportive shoulder for families, too, and it was especially kind how they helped me as I was navigating this alone. It was another new experience as I am used to having someone with me – they will have my gratitude forever.

Journey with me into #WyrdAndWonder:

I can’t wait to reveal why I’ve selected these stories to be my main reads during #WyrdAndWonder whilst I’ll be exploring #NauticalFantasy as a secondary focus!

When I originally started to choose my selections to focus on this May, none of the stories were fitting into the theme of Nautical Fantasy. Thereby, I choose them based on the stories I was itching to read – all of which are happily fantastical and they are within different genres of interest, too! I have a Wuxia Fantasy duology – my first foray into this genre whilst I also have the first two novels in an Urban Fantasy series – I have a YA Fantasy and an MG Fantasy whilst diving straight into a Weird West Fantasy series, via an anthology of short stories and the first novel of the series, too. It is a good rounding of stories for me as I’ve always been a reader who likes to shift through genre as much as move between Children’s and Adult literary selections.

Except to say, that the Endless Frontier stories is actually Nautical adjacent!

NOTE: I received a complimentary copy of “Where the Veil Things”, “The Cold Brook Job”, “Folktales from the Endless Frontier”, “Proxima’s Gift”, “Time-Marked Warlock”, “A Thousand Full Moons” and “The Hunter and the Knight” in exchange for an honest review from the authors of the novels. Whereas I received a complimentary copy of “The Heavenly Sword” by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Chart Your Course originally featured on @WyrdAndWonder Insta

Jorie’s charting her own course into Fantasy this May:

The Endless Frontier series by Brett Lurie
as featured for Under the Radar

: Folktales from the Endless Frontier
: The Cold Brook Job
: The Hunter and the Knight

The Sword Maiden from the Moon duology by Alice Poon
as featured for Fantastic Voyages

: The Heavenly Sword
: The Earthly Blaze

The Chronos Chronicles series by Shami Stovall
as previously shared during a #bookpost

: Time-Marked Warlock
: Chronos Warlock

Proxima’s Gift by Marc Peter Keane
Where the Veil Thins by Jasmine Sears
A Thousand Full Moons by Jonathan Glassman

I’ve decided to select a few from my list of stories I’m reading this May to offer a bit of a precursor of a review for those readers who might be keenly interested in the same stories as I am! One of these stories, I gave a slight nod of reference to already when I showcased “The Heavenly Sword” for “Fantastic Voyages” on the Wyrd and Wonder feeds this month.

As I had this to share:

I felt caught in Sai’er’s story long before I started to read it. She has to be brave, but she also has to be self-directing and intuitive. Whilst I had a feeling that she would put duty ahead of self – she is such an interesting character, and her path is not an easy one to walk.

The fact that most of her story is anchoured into the study of kung fu and the ways in which qi play a strong role in defining how the martial arts can be applied is quite wicked. It also helps that I have a personal history of studying Tai Chi which makes me quite familiar with qi and other aspects of the martial arts in the story.

Each of these lovelies are tucked into different sub-niches of Fantasy – offering the reader a lot of lovely discoveries within different branches of the genre. I’m hoping this might tempt your own readerly adventures as much as it will offer a keen insight into where my own adventures are taking me this month as I dive into my #currentreads!

It should be noted: Although I am listening and reading “Time-Marked Warlock” in tandem, this preview of my thoughts on behalf of the book are without the audio in my ears for the first twenty-five pages. Whilst I did not write a preview of my readings for the Endless Frontier as it was a bit harder to do as I’m reading the stories in order of the canon rather than publication – which means, I’m happily invested into the novellas ahead of the novel. 

“Time-Marked Warlock” (Book One: Chronos Chronicles)
by Shami Stovall

Adair Finch is taken aback from the presence of Bree but more alarmingly than having a young girl on his doorstep announcing to the world in loud declarations he’s a warlock was the fact she was the daughter of Vera Blackstone. A witch he knew in the past and one that he knew was excellent at her ability to know the goings on round her house. The details of what happened to Vera surprised Finch and left a bit of a chill in the air as Bree continued to tell him about the incident which changed her life.

When we first meet Finch, he’s quite the unassuming bloke – he’s a bit unkept and reclusive and given the state of his flat, he’s not one to stand on ceremony for anyone. He’s a bit stuck in time I felt – almost as if he has half given up on what he used to do and be (as he was a private investigator with his brother) becoming half the person most would recognise. And, yet, as he was keeping company (albeit impatiently) with Bree, you could see the old FInch returning. He was intrigued.

By the time he had convinced her they needed to return to her house and give him a chance to see the scene for himself – she was uncertain of how that would go. She was dearly afraid of the person who caused the death of her Mum and the disappearance of her father – going back to a place that now haunted her with more trauma than she could process wasn’t exactly ideal. Finch on the other hand tried to bolster her courage with a special brewed tea and later on arrival at her house, gave her the mark of Chronos to further protect her from anything unwanted and unwelcome.

The bit I loved most though was his interactions with the lead detective – they had a shared history, and the detective was weary of his kind. He wasn’t entirely convinced the magical were strait-laced citizens who always did good and never lied to the police. He had a point there and Finch wasn’t going to correct him about what lie he was withholding either. The crime scene was devoid of information – except for the brutal truths of what happened to Vera it didn’t fully explain the why of the matter. Why someone would take her life and why there wasn’t a trace of magic left behind either.

You feel so dearly attached to the story at this point – your curious how Finch is going to unravel the mystery but also, how time places a key role in his pursuit of the truth. It was mentioned he has to reset time in less than twenty-three hours – how is that relevant and how come that has to be done as well? It was also mentioned he struck a pact with Chronos himself and that left me wickedly intrigued as I felt that was true even before I started reading the novel given the fact the series is the Chronos Chronicles – I knew the series would revolve around Chronos and Time.

This definitely has Urban Fantasy vibes about it as well. The setting is quite modern and urban – as your pursuing the story in a timeline that is both familiar and recognisable. There are even subtle hints towards our own pop cultural lives and things which readers would know about in our own world too. I love when the magical are living alongside mortals and how the veil of their world and ours is quite thin and set side by side. I can’t wait to find out more about Finch and his brother – to learn how they became the detectives they were and what happened to Carter Finch.

“A Thousand Full Moons” by Jonathan Glassman

You alight in the story at a book signing – wherein, the author of the stories is ruminating about the creation of graphic novels and in particular, the graphic novels about her young son Silas, of whom she fictionalised. You can also feel her emotional angst as she recollects certain aspects of his life and of the moments captured in the book itself – whilst frustrated with the onslaught of questions by the people attending her book signing. It felt like an invasion of her privacy and yet, rightly so, due the nature of the stories themselves – you can perceive how their enquiries were half justified and partially ill-timed.

There is an ease about this narrative – you almost felt that you had already spent time in this scene and world – returning if you will – rather than just arriving inside it now. This is a credit to how expansive Glassman made the story feel as soon as you start to read the novel. I appreciate that approach – because I like to feel anchoured inside a story quite quickly – connecting to either the character, the setting or the timescape or the world therein.

Nothing quite prepared me for the scene at the bridge where Leigh has to jump in to save children from a van about to submerge itself into the current of a fast-moving river. Glassman pulls at your heart as you feel the urgency and desperate choices that Leigh had to make in the moment of rescue. She knew her limitations and she knew how to prioritise which person to extract from the van first – three children, one boy, one girl and a baby. Plus, two adults in the front seats who were not conscience when she reached the van. The heart wrenching choices she had to make and the realisation that the girl had gone back to save her mother – all those moments happening all at the same time and knowing that between lack of oxygen and lack of energy, Leigh could only save what she had strength to take back to the surface. It was a keenly intensive scene and one that was well-written by Glassman.

This was in the middle of a reflection of the past on behalf of Leigh – as the book signing and dredged up her memories of Silas and the life they had shared together. Someone had a polaroid picture of him and her at the signing and that took her mind and heart back to the point where she had first met Silas. Memories and their intricate ways of bridging time and space can be difficult to filter and for Leigh, the memories felt as real now as they had once been lived.

The story is an intersection of memory and time – moving backwards to tell the story of the present. It is here where we learn the origins of how Silas came to live with Daniel and Leigh – a couple who were unable to have children of their own and by the change of fate of how Leigh saved Silas from the van in the river – motivated them to seek a custody hearing to bring Silas and potentially his brother Milton home to live with them. That led them to the boy’s grandmother – where this reading of mine ended – a curious cabin with sculptures of dragonflies in trees and a covered cabin of vines and foliage.

It leaves a curious door open to finding how all the lives in the story are interconnected and what becomes of their lives after they are brought together. Plus, I was truly invested in learning how Silas became a wild boy living in the woods and going on those adventures of his which played out in the graphic novels Leigh was publishing. As that is how the story started – showing you that final aspect of their lives, where Leigh is actively publishing the stories of Silas’s life and how those adventures were inspiring others who read the stories.

I was grateful for the extended backstory on the characters and how Glassman took his time setting the stage for the present and future of the characters. It allowed us to gain a more interpersonal connection to everyone but also to better understand how their lives started to intersect with each other.

“Proxima’s Gift” by Marc Peter Keane

I knew when I first received this novel and took a look into its chapters and Appendixes that this was a very uniquely written and organised novel. When we first open the pages – we alight on an affirmed sentiment about how to track time and how time can be measured by seasons rather than hours. In this, we learn about the Sprouting – the time of renewal when life is just germinating back to life and ‘sprouting’ out of the frost of Winter. Ahead of that – was a small poetic explanation of the ‘glow’ and how it is a connective piece to the natural world. To become aware of the glow is to become interconnected to the world – to where you belong but do not own. It was beautifully stated.

The illustrations are striking – not just on the cover which illuminates such an incredible insight into the lead character and voice of the story – but the full page illustrations which grace the beginning of chapters, too. It is part art and part prose throughout the novel.

Azami has a gift of awareness that would overpower most people and leave others overwhelmed beyond repair. She can feel the world round her – from the plants to the trees to the insects to the animals – everything which as a breath of life force within it is within her reach to feel, sense and know. It is a lot for her to take in all at once – as all of their life energies are felt altogether and at once. We’re given just a glimpse into what this feels like for Azami and how she tries to process those feelings and knowledge – which is why she takes to the flute to momentarily drown out the noise and the chaos those presences cause in her consciousness. Her glow causes her duress at the best of times and a gifted awareness of life outside our normal perspective and understanding.

There is a shift in the narrative where instead of continuing with Azami’s journey we are reading a journal entry by another person, talking about her day and her enthused joy of getting an internship she requested. Then, on the next breath, a new chapter begins, and we walk alongside a hunter seeking boar. We’re taken into the life of the boar with his sow and offsprings – feeling their joys in life and observing how dangerous it is for them to be out in the open with the threat of being hunted. The hunter has the glow within him as well except he uses it to extract experiences out of death – as his motivation for hunting is to experience what others might consider not natural. As death is his only intent and yet, he lives through it as he bonds to animals in order to take their life as a measure of experience for himself.

Just after this scene, we are brought back into the journal – as this story time shifts between the Children of Proxima and the life of the person in the journal. It was a bit confusing what interconnects the journalled life with this one of Proxima, too. Except in this entry, they mentioned ‘sunquakes’ and I had a feeling that had to so with the shifting climate and weather patterns. Apparently at the end of all the chapters are journalled entries – as they walk hand in hand with the life set within Proxima. I had also forgotten part of the premise of the novel as there was a solar event which killed nearly everyone on Earth – thereby, the journals are entries of the past, before the solar event and is a testimony of life ahead of the event itself. Most of the story is set 300 years into the future and thereby, the journal offers a bit of an anchour to the past and interlinks the future with what happened all those centuries ago.

Each chapter offers a tour of the people of Proxima – from how their gift of glow emerges into their lives and how each of them chooses to use it. Some cannot use it at all but feel it all the same. For some, that disconnection to the bond they urgently feel they need to connect can have leftover trauma and anguish. Still for others, deepening their knowledge of the glow and how they can personally harness it is a lifetime achievement.

You gather a sense of urgency in these opening chapters – of how the glow hasn’t truly been defined in respect of how its purpose is truly meant to be fashioned into use. Is it for a singular individual to harness a certain way and with a certain method of understanding to utilise it in a way that others cannot and thereby save the people overall? Also, what is the key purpose of the glow and why does it affect so many children in different ways? It is a curious premise and a working thesis as you shift forward into the novel. I look forward to seeing where the journey ultimately leads.

NOTE: As previously mentioned, and hinted at – this novel is a genre of itself – as it parlays into different aspects of Speculative Fiction. It is also part time shift on the level that we’re moving between two different timelines – the journals of the past and the current events of the present following Azami and others of Proxima who have the gift of the glow and how that affects their lives.

Closing Thoughts:

I am truly curious – which of these stories whet a thirst of curiosity and interest for you? Were my takeaways and thoughts tempting you to consider picking one up yourself? I can’t wait to carry-on reading these stories and bringing my fuller reviews to my blog lateron in the month. Each of them is written so uniquely different from each other that it is a wicked wonderful fantastical adventure I am having this May!

All about Wyrd And Wonder:

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Be sure to keep a watchful eye on our @WyrdAndWonder BlueSKy feeds for the content we’ll be sharing inasmuch as our @WyrdAndWonder Insta; expect monthly engagements from the Power of Five – across social channels & our blogs. We are happily ready to start visiting blogs & start the Fantastical conversations which we know will be enjoyed by all who LOVE Fantasy! Join us for our 8th Year and let it be fantastically engaging for everyone who joins us on this adventure.

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