Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays! 2021 is coming to an end, and that means it’s time to ring in what’s becoming an annual tradition for me: my reading recap of the year! Since I read nearly 40 books this year, I'm only going to go over a few of the highlights. I’ve …
Audience Expectations, Longing for Redemption, and Spider-Man: No Way Home
Careful! A web of major spiders–er, spoilers for Spider-Man: No Way Home lies ahead! Despite my neutral feelings about Spider-Man, Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to land in my Top 5 Favorite MCU Movies, sitting just behind Avengers: Infinity War & Endgame, Thor: Ragnarok, and Thor. Putting aside my nostalgic bias for Thor (the superhero …
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Writing Update: December 2021
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Here’s my present to you: a Winter Writing Update! My latest writing update can be summed up in one simple sentence: I’m going all in to the Whitman Court series. While this isn’t necessarily shocking or new, it’s reflective of my state of mind to actually declare the series as …
My Quest to Nashville: An Advent Reflection
If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that my appreciation of Andrew Peterson—a singer-songwriter and author—goes back many years. His music encouraged me through my gap year, I once described his book Adorning the Dark as a writing retreat in book form, and I’m a fan of his Wingfeather Saga, which I reread …
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The Thanksgiving Post 2021
The 20s are weird. No, I don’t mean the 2020s—though it certainly has been a strange decade so far. I mean the 20-somethings, the age every kid wants to reach, the stage of life that many people might say are the best years of your life… The age that is, well, underwhelming. And overwhelming. At …
The Worldview of Marvel’s Eternals
Spoilers for Marvel’s Eternals ahead. Consider yourself warned! Anyone who’s followed me for a while knows that I am a huge Marvel Cinematic Universe fan (particularly of the Thor movies). The way Marvel has built this massive, interconnected universe that still continues to captivate and excite is impressive to me, and much of my own …
Rereading the Harry Potter Series by J. K. Rowling
This summer, I reread the Harry Potter books for the first time in a decade. I’ve been a fan of Harry Potter since my elementary school days, though my journey through the whole series was slow, as I was too young for the later books when I first started reading them. I still have vivid …
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My 10th Novel Wasn’t What I Expected…
On September 30, 2021, I hit a special milestone. I finished my 10th original novel. “Finished” used very, very loosely—there’s still a lot of editing to come. The funny thing is...I didn’t expect this book to be No. 10. I’ve been waiting to hit this milestone for nearly three years now, and I never would’ve …
Why I Love the Minnesota Vikings (and Football)
SKOL! FOOTBALL IS BACK! ...I love football. It’s one of the things that makes autumn feel like autumn. The weather gets colder, school begins again, Thanksgiving’s right around the corner--and the football season kicks off. (I’ll let you decide if the pun was intended or not.) All the perfect pieces to the Fall puzzle. It …
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August 2021 Writing Update
I’ll admit, it’s weird to reach the start of a new academic semester and NOT have homework to do. And...no sugar coating about it, I don’t miss it. It’s SO GOOD to be done with school. Though earlier this summer I thought I’d start up my monthly schedule writing updates again, I’m just going to …
By Madelynn Orion 