The heartiest of greetings and salutations dear readers!

After a wee bit of adventuring, and a couple of months of side quests, it’s REALLY good to be back in this corner of the world! I hope you are all having a good day, afternoon or evening, depending on your timezone 😉

A lot of things happen organically in my life and although I do constantly pray for better structure, I often find I am moved into a more emotional/intuitional execution of said things.

Such is the case with my second content theme of the year. If you’ll remember 2024 saw fantasy in it’s second month and as it turns out, that’s what February wanted again this year.

It all formed itself by stumbling upon an independent author who’s Instagram ads began to find me daily, a Netflix live action adaptation I was year behind on watching and finding an unexpected prequel score in the used section of my local bookstore.

I am thrilled to say it fell together rather enjoyably and I’m really excited to share it all with you!!

Let’s start with Avatar: The Last Airbender

Outside of the episode of the animated series where Aang learns about energy via Chakras (which as a Reiki practitioner made me happy), this live action adaptation from Netflix was my gateway to the lore. In the weeks since I watched it, I have become aware of how passionate the fandom is and how wide the range of opinions are on how this one landed…but you know how we do things here and I am not going to compare them 😉

Personally, I was moved from the very beginning by the art of bending the elements itself. I think it’s beautiful, in this lore, that some people are born with a gift, that with a little self mastery, can serve each community.

Aang’s (born an air bender) story is a heartbreaking one. I can’t begin to fathom discovering, as a child, that I was the key to protecting/saving the world from the clutches of whatever set out to harm it. That’s a lot of pressure for someone just learning to master his first element.

The threat in this story is the Fire Nation, who have dubbed themselves the supreme nation and have set out to conquer all the rest of them.

In effort to blow off some steam after realizing there is nothing to do but accept his destiny, Aang takes flight aboard his sky bison, Appa. While he is gone, the Fire Nation attacks his home and kills everyone they can find.

Aang never makes it back to discover this as he flies over stormy seas and somehow ends up in hibernation for 100 years.

Not only does he wake not knowing how much time has passed, he immediately faces a world that has given up on the Avatar’s return. He is the Avatar but it will take much more than that fact alone to prepare him to don the mantle.

Over the course of this first season Aang must ride the pendulum swing of “being the only one who can” to knowing he can’t “do it alone”.

I found this adaptation to be a wonderful introduction to a cast of unforgettable characters, beautiful landscapes and I appreciated the undercurrent of hope, determination and fellowship in the face of many trials, that beat throughout each episode.

We are BIG fans of The Witcher around here and were basking in enjoyment of S1-S3 of the Netflix series for a really long time…possibly because we (I) weren’t ready to part with Henry Cavill portraying Geralt 😉

Thankfully, I know fans of the video game, The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, and they consider voice actor Doug Cockle their Geralt. That knowledge helped open my mind to having my own experience with him, so I went down to my local used book store and was able to find Andrzej Sapkowski on the shelves!

Rather than starting where the show starts, with book 3 in the series, I chose to start at the beginning, and I am so glad that I did! The Last Wish is a short story collection that flips between Geralt’s various adventures in monster hunting and seeking solace at the Temple of Melitele with Nenneke in the chapters labeled The Voice of Reason. I found that a particularly brilliant way to arrange the stories once I could see the pattern.

You’ll familiarize yourself quickly with the monsters Geralt comes across in each tale and while it was really easy to want to draw imagery from the show, I did my best to let the written words build my world, right down to the descriptions of Dandelion (Jaskier) and Yennefer. This really excited me as I found myself needing to know how and why they are all so connected…and I did! 🙂

The Last Wish added so much depth to a lore that I already enjoy and it left me hungry to continue the journey in Sword of Destiny. It’s also probably safe to say there will be another post once I’ve read all the books, because I can’t imagine myself stopping now, lol.

It would have been a huge commitment to go back and watch three seasons of a show for the sake of this theme, especially considering that The Witcher deserves it’s own post at some point, am I right?

So, I opted to supplement by continuing my newbie journey into anime with Nightmare of the Wolf and it did not disappoint.

Synopsis: Escaping from poverty to become a witcher, Vesemir slays monsters for coin and glory, but when a new menace rises, he must face the demons of his past

An all star cast including Theo James, Lara Pulver, Graham McTavish and Mary McDonnell come together to tell the origin story of Vesemir, Geralt’s mentor and fellow witcher.

His cocky bravado is knocked off kilter when a looming menace has him reunited with a dear childhood friend and also confronting a fellow witcher, Deglan, who’s desire to preserve their way of life crosses a line that threatens their very existence.

Full of all the action, violence, gore, magic, heart and epic battle scenes the TV show is known for, this brilliantly animated story adds itself well into The Witcher Universe and is a great addition for those wanting just a little more or to dip your toes into a new viewing medium (I have to say that I kinda love anime so far). 🙂

At last!!!

A.P Beswick had been showing up in my Insta algorithm for about 3 months before I hit the follow button, I didn’t hesitate because I wasn’t interested in what I saw, I just knew how large my TBR was and I thought to myself “I’ll add them later”.

By the time that 3 months rolled around, even though I wasn’t following him, I saw his adds multiple times a day. Again, I liked the premise of the books but it wasn’t until I saw the one where he mentions leaving his lucrative job as a nurse to write full time that my ears really turned on. As an aspiring author (who currently has two jobs in addition to all the writing), I followed him.

Then, I had a full view of what this author was up to and why I was seeing so much of him on my social media platform.

It’s my understanding that A.P Beswick wanted some fresh takes on stories that seemed to be losing some of their punch, so his wife challenged him to write one. He did and went one step further when it came to publishing it. Not only did he choose the independent route, he became an independent publisher!!!! Isn’t that incredible!?

What began as a retelling of the story of Robin Hood (A Forest of Vanity and Valour) has turned into an entire collection of stories called The Levanthria Series. Each book follows the story of different, compelling sets of characters who are tracked to all come together for the BIG, two book finale.

I have read everything up to the War, so far, and have found myself as excited to read this series as I was the very first fantasy series that I ever read. On top of that, it’s been a great experience to know that he cared about his work enough to make a way to put it out in to the world. RESPECT!!!!

Knowing that all of that is why I see his ads in my feed regularly has given me a fresh perspective as someone who wants to see my books “out there” someday and helps me add a few more wishes of much continued success A.P Beswick’s way!!!

He is having a sale on bundles right now, so be sure to check it out!

*****

The last bit of news for this post is that one of the side quests I was occupied with was redecorating my office. It took a really long time (and a little help) to fully execute my vision but it got there and I am so thankful for that!

I’ve already been sat at my desk more the last two months than in the 7 years I have lived in my apartment.

If that doesn’t give hope to a more consistent posting schedule, I don’t know what else will, lol!

Until next time, Good Journey!

~CC