It’s August 6th already? Really? So much has happened and yet it’s not that different than things have been for the past few weeks. Breaking Dawn came out and I didn’t go to Barnes and Noble… I haven’t really been that excited. Could have to do with the fact that I’ve been reading more Kresley Cole, and also that King’s Shield by Sherwood Smith came in to the library the other day. I saw that email and I squealed. Squealed!

Inda, The Fox, and now King’s Shield are part of this series by Sherwood Smith — I don’t know if it’s planned to be a trilogy or a series — and it’s amazing. Amazing. I just finished part one of King’s Shield — roughly half of the book — today and I’m trying to pace myself. I devoured the other two at a steady page-eating pace and while it was exhilarating I denied myself the pleasure of reading a really, really, really good book by tearing through it. I bought Inda on a whim when I saw it on the shelf because I loved Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith — it’s one of the books that I re-read regularly. The back description was okay — not “exciting” — but I recognized something immediately — it was set in Meliara’s world, the same world in Crown Duel, but in an entirely different region of the globe. Meliara’s world was informed by the different customs of the same nations and they spoke of mages from the same kingdoms… so by that, simply by that, I was hooked. Then I read it, and I could not wait for the next.

These books are so good because the world in which they’re situated is so firmly realized. There are so many different cultures with interwoven histories and the characters are all products of their cultures and their own personalities. The fascinating intersection between cultures, personalities, happenstance, and intent make for a plot that constantly changes while being so smooth, for proceeding at a pace that is both exhilarating and steady. She doesn’t rush events but rather lets them unwind organically, but that in itself is fascinating because once you get used to it, it makes predicting what might happen — because you cannot predict what “will” happen — fun and fascinating. The point of view is also fluid in a third person sense, so that you get the feelings of anyone to whom a relevant view would color the scene in a fascinating way, from a small child looking at Inda from afar and passing an unusual judgment to a couple looking at one another and seeing two completely different things on one another’s faces. And you get that in a very sophisticated third person voice that feels organic. It’s so hard to do but she pulls it off beautifully. It’s epic fantasy made personal.

So anyway I’ve been pacing myself through King’s Shield and in the meantime have also been doing other random stuff. Writing a little since Bryan renewed his Warcraft account on Tuesday night — I reluctantly assented, and he told me not to play until Lich King (the next major expansion) comes out so I’m abiding by that because he’s right; all the good players quit until Lich King or PvP so it’s annoying to play the content I’m up to now. It’s good, of course. Bryan tried Tabula Rasa for a while after Age of Conan bored him, but he keeps wanting to go back to Warcraft. So I relented. Sigh.

I’ve also been doing wedding planning, big time, mostly doing research with New York Magazine, the New York Times, and TheKnot.com. This past weekend Bryan and I set a date (March 7, 2009!) and we need to figure out a place — so that the date gets set for real — then figure out all of the other details. Oy. I need to talk to my friend Leah who wants to help with planning… sigh. The whole thing is so exhausting. I spent a good part of yesterday morning working with Photoshop and designing something for a save-the-date card and it’s just so…. time consuming. Fun, admittedly, but when you realize half the day has disappeared and all you’ve accomplished is to decide a font? Sigh.