In 2025, I read 45.5 books. (The .5 is for Le Morte Darthur, which I am halfway through—I started it in August, but sometimes reading medieval literature in the middle of a school semester is not the most leisurely reading experience.) Admittedly, my Reading Recap Part 2 for this year is on the slim side. …
Continue reading Reading Recap 2025 Part 2: Myth, Mystery, & Magic
Huzzah, The Myth-Keepers Draft 2 is complete! This semester-long project has been an absolute delight to work on in the beginning part of 2025. I mostly kept up with my goal of revising 10 chapters each month, though that fell off in April entering into finals. However, the flexibility of May post-finals week allowed me …
Continue reading A Completed Draft 2: Writing Update May 2025
I’ve read a ton in 2025 already, from massive fantasy fiction to thought-provoking nonfiction. Here’s a roundup of the highlights, starting with the biggest book I’ve read this year: Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson (3.5/5 Stars): Let’s start off with my highest anticipated read of 2024, which I finished at the start of 2025. …
Confession: I don’t like a lot of women characters in fiction. On the one hand, you’ve got the one-note damsels in distress, which we’ve largely moved away from as a society. On the other hand, we’ve overcorrected with the tough girlboss trope that largely masculinizes women. Neither extreme lends itself well to creating and presenting …
Happy 2025! Wow, can’t believe I haven’t written on the blog since last year… (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Anyways, terrible joke aside, I have some exciting progress to report. Since my last writing update, despite starting a Ph.D. program in the Fall, I managed to write a rough draft for not one, but TWO novels! …
Continue reading Writing Update January 2025: A New Year Full Of New Excitement
In 2024, I read 52 books across a wide range of genres and interests: fiction and nonfiction, fantasy and YA thriller, sci-fi and mystery, classics and writing advice—and more. I finally finished reading The History of Middle-earth series, a major achievement that took me about a decade. I also reread a few favorites, like Andrew …
As a Tolkien fan, maybe it’s surprising I haven’t brought up Rings of Power yet. The truth is, I haven’t talked about the showbecause I didn’t think I had anything to add to the conversation that wasn’t out there. But as I’ve considered the series—and the conversation surrounding it—I finally landed on something I want …
This year, I finally finished The History of Middle-earth series, a 12-book dive into the development of Tolkien’s writing of The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings across the span of his life, edited and with commentary from Tolkien’s son Christopher. It took me ten years to read through them all; as much as …
I didn’t intend to take a six month break from the blog, but here we are. In a nutshell, after writing my series “Confessions of a Christian Writer,” I felt led to take a hiatus from writing (including for the blog) for some time to pray and continue to reflect. I picked up novel-writing again …
Continue reading Writing Update September 2024: Where I’ve Been
To ring in the new year, I’d like to talk about my favorite authors, the writers who inspire me, who move me, and whose writing style I love. Every time I pick up a book of theirs, whether I’ve never read it before or I’ve read it dozens of times, these are the writers who …
By Madelynn Orion 