Updates & Whatnots, 6/8/25

Hullo, my beans! Long time, no see. I don't know who will see this post, but I wanted to say hi because, well, it's been a hot minute. I am woefully behind on blog comments which makes me sad, so I owe you an apology for that. 

I also wanted to let you know I started a Substack (onlymildlymad.substack.com). But like...Substack isn't as cozy as Blogger (at least not yet, not for me), and the few things I've posted there have been short and reserved and generally more dignified than what I'm in the mood to do today. 

I want to just natter. 

What's the Nutmeg Been Up To?

Working, mostly. And job-hunting and moving and planning a trip to Italy (I will tell you about it). And, yesterday, going hiking and falling in the creek and ruining my phone. (RIP. It lasted me many years and it is time for us to part.)

What's the Nutmeg Been Reading?

Sometimes, life is busy, and one does not have the time one used to have to read.

On one hand, that’s an excuse. On the other hand, that’s life. To quote Gandalf: we have to decide what to do with the time that is given us.

Here are the books I’ve made time for so far this year.

Heretics, by G. K. Chesterton

The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy L. Sayers

Manalive, by G. K. Chesterton

An Introduction to Prayer, by Bishop Robert E. Barron

I Survived the Great Molasses Flood (the graphic novel), by Lauren Tarshish

Of Slaves and Exiles, by Margaret Gaffney

Of Traitors and Warriors, by Margaret Gaffney

My God and My All: The Life of St. Francis of Assisi, by Elizabeth Goudge

The Horse and His Boy, by C. S. Lewis

Letter to Artists, by St. John Paul II

The Pearl, by John Steinbeck

Humility Rules, by Fr. Wetta

All Things Wise and Wonderful, by James Herriot

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Sainte-Exupery

I wanted to do reviews of each of these books, but, like...time, man. And what do I really have to say about them that adds anything to anybody's life? So if you wanna know what I thought of any of these--ask me in the comments. 

I will tell you that I didn't hate any of them, with the possible exception of The Pearl (because John Steinbeck is SUCH a skilled writer but he also has a talent for depressing his readers). 

What has the Nutmeg Been Watching?

TV show wise? The Chosen, my dudes. The TV show of the year is proving to be The Chosen. Once again I'm late to the fandom, but once again my enthusiasm makes up for it.

I have so many thoughts. There's not room for them here. 

I also saw the first few episodes of the most recent PBS show of All Creatures Great and Small. On one level, I found it utterly charming (the music. the scenery. the CATS). On another level...it's not James Herriot. Like, it's just not. It's too serious. And I 1000% percent share my little sister the Wit's rage about the violence done to the character of Tristan. 

Unfortunately, I can't share my sister's rage to the extent that I don't want to watch more of the show. I do. It's cozy. And I'm more invested than I want to be in all the drama they added. 

So much for TV shows. I've also seen some good movies. My favorite one is definitely A Civil Action, the 1990s John Travolta film about a lawyer going after the companies responsible for poisoning a small town. The protagonist's character arc was SO good. And as my sister the Mistress of Home Ec. put it, it's rare to see a movie that portrays poverty as a good thing, and this one DID. Like...holy poverty, for the sake of the kingdom, was a thing in this movie, albeit in a secular way. (It probably helps that I'd just finished Elizabeth Goudge's book on St. Francis of Assisi. 10/10 would recommend that one, by the way.)

There was also the new documentary Roadmap to Reality about Bl. (soon to be St.) Carlo Acutis. SO good. 

I've also been blessed by some phenomenal theater productions this year: Les Miserables, which my sisters and I drove through a snowstorm to see (and it was worth it), and Irena's Vow (which made me cry). If I can make it to a production of Tecumseh! this year, my theater-loving heart will be full to overflowing. 

What has the Nutmeg Been Writing?

Besides work stuff? Good question. I spent the late winter/early spring doing extensive edits on the Comic Space Opera (now tentatively titled The Prince-Napper), and (not the first time I've said this, of course) I think it's done. I've started querying it in a small way and mean to ramp that up this summer. 

I forget when was the last time I worked on the sequel, Ferdinand in Festerlon, but that draft has been "done" for a while (read: it needs SO much work I'm low-key afraid to look at it). I've started drafting Book 3 in the series, but it's slow going and I can tell I'm gonna need to hammer out some things in the messy earlier books before I can make serious progress on the conclusion.

At a certain point I realized it was silly to focus too much on getting CSO "done," because I enjoy writing CSO and am in no hurry to say goodbye to the characters forever. Right now, the way to respect the story is to focus on querying for Book 1, not churning out drafts of the whole series. Y'know? 

In theory, that frees me up to start drafting other things. Over the last month or so I've been toying with a number of other projects, but so far none of the inspiration sparks have caught fire. I technically have a summer goal of writing 100 pages in my historical fiction project about the Underground Railroad, but I am muy frustrated about that one right now. It doesn't know what it wants to be yet and if it doesn't know, I certainly can't tell it. 

*huffs*

If I could just find a way to make it funny. But it keeps being angsty. And we hates angst, precious. 

OK that's enough about me. I want to hear about you. What have you been reading and watching and writing? Have you any thoughts on The Chosen or All Creatures Great and Small? Are you writing anything? Even if I haven't responded to your comments, know that I read them and love them. (And I do mean to reply to them now. It's summer and I'm one of those spoiled individuals who gets a break in the summer months.)