It’s now a tradition. After my birthday in late January, it’s become A Thing for me to share a blogpost about stuff I learned (or experienced or tried for the first time) over the previous year. I hope you enjoy this year’s!
Well, the last episode of my first season of Unknown Friends comes out tomorrow. Crazy that I started this little book review podcast seven months ago and it wasn’t remotely on my radar to think in terms of “seasons” then. But here we are, wrapping up Season One with my 30th episode tomorrow morning.
I didn’t know if an audio blooper reel was possible, but behold, here it be! Since today, yea, even the 6th of July, is the fifth birthday of Kittywham Productions, I put together this outtakes sequence as a little piece of fun to celebrate. Hope you get a good chuckle out of it!
I recently finished reading Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel Wives and Daughters. It’s a wise and winsome story, and I look forward to reviewing it on the podcast in a few weeks.
Thought-provoking themes and characters abound in the novel, but today I just want to share a small, unobtrusive insight buried in the middle of the book.
Time flies when you’re trapped at home, am I right?
Haha.
Still though, I didn’t realize it had been a whole month since I last posted on the blog. I’ve been working so hard on my podcast (not to mention wrapping up teaching for the semester) that I’ve neglected the poor blog. So here I am to touch base and share an update, especially on how the podcast has been going.
I’ll take any excuse I can get to talk about books. COVID-19 quarantine seemed a great time to start a new project, so, obviously, the first thing that occurred to me was “I could start a book review podcast,” and so I did.
I’m slow to return to the blog and social media after the holidays, but here I am, alive and well! I hope the season of Christmas and the turning of the new year was a time of rest, reflection, and inspiration for you. It certainly was for me.
It’s been a few months, but I finally got to book #5 in L. M. Montgomery’s Anne series (for the first time ever). After reading books #3 and #4 in June I was getting a bit tired of the plot patterns Montgomery tends to rely on (e.g. Anne befriends a kindred spirit, Anne adopts a cat, Anne melts the heart of an old grouch…).
In some ways, September can seem a long month. It’s when the grind of the academic year fully settles in, there aren’t really any holidays to distinguish it, and (this year) the summer weather just seemed to drag on all month instead of graciously allowing autumn to take its place.
Before I get to the blogpost proper, I’ve got news! We’re hosting our annual Christmas Play Sale this month—ALL month! Through October 1st, all our Christmas scripts are 20% off, so if you plan to perform a play this December now is the time to find a good script to use!