Exiting hibernation mode?

Also, the Legends of Eerie-on-Sea.

Covers of Malamander, Gargantis, and Shadowghast, by Thomas Taylor

I laughed out loud when I hit this passage in Gargantis, by Thomas Taylor:

When the tourists are here, the fishermen keep away, and the landlord scrubs the place down. He puts out a sign saying FAMILIES WELCOME and sets little tables and chairs on the quayside, with a quirky “seaside” menu and candles in the evening. Out-of-towners nibble crab sandwiches and specialty ice cream in crispy cones as they coo over the quaint doings of the fisherfolk out on the harbor wall. Some nights there are even trivia contests.

No true fisherman of Eerie would be seen dead in the place then.

But the world turns and the season ends and the out-of-towners drift away. The last tourists to retreat from the Whelk & Walrus are driven from it by a rising tide of sullen knitwear and heavy beards as the nights draw in and the fisherfolk return. Pipes are smoked once more as sea songs are sung and beer is spilled and fights erupt, and Boadicea Bates presides over it all.

It’s unexpected to Feel Seen when you’re reading a series set in a town rife with sea monsters and faeries and shadow stealers and evil authors, but here we are. After all, I *do* live in a place where the locals very noticeably disappear in the summertime and reappear in the off-season.

This series is so much fun. Like Kate Milford’s Greenglass House books, it’s warm and cozy and a little scary, it’s peopled with quirky characters and set in a place with a rich history and just DRIPPING with atmosphere. These books read a bit younger than the Milford books, and more adventure-fantasy-mystery than mystery-fantasy-adventure, but I’d say they’d be a solid pick for your younger Milford fans.

When I realized that I was going to have to wait months and months and months for the next installment, I wanted to kick something, and that’s always a good sign.

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Hello, friends! How are you? How has winter—assuming you’re in the Northern Hemisphere—been treating you?

I’m slowly coming out of hibernation over here. With the exception of the Eerie-on-Sea series mentioned above, I’ve been reading very, very little, but I’m starting to Feel It again, so I wouldn’t be surprised if these newsletters start hitting your inboxes with more regularity soon.

In the meantime, I’ve been watching a lot of movies (top directors so far this year are Alfred Hitchcock (I’ve watched ten), and Sergio Martino (I’ve watched three)), listening to a lot of podcasts (I am somehow 60 episodes into Dungeons and Daddies, and I only started it a couple of weeks ago?), and going on a lot of walks.

A LOT. OF WALKS.

I mentioned Pikmin Bloom when I first downloaded it back in November:

So Many Empty Rooms: Haunted Hotels

…and somehow, I’ve walked almost a million steps since I downloaded it?

All that walking prompted me to look into those virtual races, and I’ve been doing those, too?

Tokens from two Wizard of Oz virtual walks & an incredibly frustrated sign from Ogunquit that made me laugh so hard that I had to stop walking for a few minutes

Also I bought snowshoes???

I’m going to need to get some crampons, though, because this past weekend I was walking on the Eastern Trail and I wiped out on the ice and faceplanted so hard that once my brain started working again, my thoughts went something like:

• oh my god did i break my nose

• oh my god did i break my glasses

• oh my god did anyone see that

(No, no, and no, by the way. But I *did* learn my lesson! The next day I drove over to check out Vaughan Woods State Park and when I noticed that the entire place was currently basically a GLACIER, I just backed away slowly like Homer into the bushes, and vowed to return in the spring.)

Homer in the bushes. Or, you know, me at the park.

So, I don’t even know who I am anymore—will my slothful ways ever return???—but I’m having a good time with it all at the moment.

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While I’ve traditionally struggled during the wintertime—the lack of sun can be a real bummer up here—this winter I haven’t at ALL, and I didn’t even pull out my therapy light.

It could be all of the outdoor time. It could be that I’ve made a real effort to allow myself to go to bed at 7pm and get up at 3am if that’s what I’m feeling—rather than trying to adhere to some arbitrary standard of Appropriate Adult Bedtimes, I mean. Or it could be a combination of the two? Whatever it is that I’m doing, it’s working.

And, finally, now that the days are getting longer, I’m waking up and feeling more like being out in the world again. In a Go Explore Outdoor Places and Possibly Go To Some Out-of-the-Way Museums kind of way, not in a pre-covid Go To A Packed Indoor Venue With Garbage Ventilation kind of way. So I’ll keep you posted on what happens with that.

In the meantime, let me know how—and what!—you’ve been doing.

What you’ve been doing, what you’ve been reading, watching, listening to.

Talk to you soon,
Leila

PS. And yes, I’ve also been playing Wordle.