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I enjoyed this novel. There was a disjoint at first with the narrative because, well, I guess I’m too nice a person to be alright with the first lines of the novel.

Mild spoiler alert, the protagonist insists that the heroic young man who continually saves peoples lives needs to die. But I mean, that’s legitimately one of the first lines so it can’t really be considered a spoiler.

In any case, I was cautious with the protagonist after that first line because I quite enjoyed Orion and didn’t want to see him die. But as the story unfolded it was clear that Galadriel – that’s our protagonist – didn’t really want him dead either. And she didn’t want anyone else kicking the bucket, even if she was trying to confront the fact that the very school they were attending liked to eat children.

Also not a spoiler, it’s basically the premise of the novel itself.

I found the world in which this novel takes place interesting, especially the concept of the Void spitting books out at you. I wouldn’t mind a cupboard that I could open and have a void right there to shove new reading material at me whenever I wanted. Though admittedly, I wouldn’t want it to replace my real library. There’s something pleasing about shelves and shelves full of books.

It was a fast and fun read, if you enjoy a little darker humor, but I will admit that there were times I wished Galadriel would stop telling me about the world itself. Her voice was snarky and often funny, but sometimes I prefer to live in the world itself, rather than have its history relayed to me.

I’m looking forward to the second installment of the series and recommend the novel to anyone who enjoys a quasi-urban-fantasy Young Adult novel where magic is dangerous and snarky girls get to steal the show.

Purchase Link for Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education!

I was digging through my TBR pile and unearthed this gem on my Kindle. The 100th Queen by Emily R. King features an orphaned girl named Kalinda who lives in a world where women are warriors but have lost their sense of sisterhood. They’ve been pit up against one another, wives and courtesans both, to earn the favored position with the Rajah, who rules as a tyrant.

It’s sort of like if the harem turned into gladiator fights, and the women are allowed to be ferocious instead of the comical hair-pulling you might expect from such a setup.

I enjoyed this book a good deal. The style of writing took a moment for me to get used to, but once I caught the rhythm it flowed nicely. It was quite lean on descriptions, which is unique in fantasy novels that rely heavily on transporting you to a setting, but the worldbuilding was still exemplary. Instead of lengthy backstory to support it, the author relied on the reader paying attention to what the characters said about the world, and that worked just fine.

I did see through one major red herring toward the end of the novel, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book as a whole. That said, my one major complaint is that the male counterpart for Kalinda was a little weak. I didn’t find myself rooting for him the same way some others may have, but he is not the main protagonist of the novel so perhaps that’s a good thing.

Given the subject matter, I should warn parents that this should be considered a PG-13 novel. There are no explicit scenes, but enough is alluded to that the warning should go out.

Confetti is still flying over here for the release of Paw Prints on the Wall, my Christian Romance novel featuring an animal shelter. Thus far it is doing great and I am very pleased by the feedback I have been getting. I know it’s not my usual fantasy or science fiction novel, so those of you who branched out and supported the novel anyway — Thank you. I hope you enjoy it even though there aren’t spaceships or warmongering elves wandering the pages.

For those of you who were sitting back wondering when I would write a story more like this — Thank you! I hope this hits all the right spots for you. I promise it won’t be the last of its kind.

As I sitting back, waiting for reviews, anxiously praying at least a couple of you enjoy the story, I can’t help thinking back to my time at the shelter. It is a no-kill animal shelter and my time there was amazing. While I have a ton of pictures of the animals, most of them were adopted and therefore have new families, so I cannot share their pictures with you.

It’s alright, though. My animals are pretty and happy to be photographed for your viewing pleasure.

That said, I can tell you some of the funny stories that happened while I was there.

#1 – The Escape Artist

We had a black lab whose name we shall pretend was Shyla.

Now, Shyla was one of those neurotic messes – much like Molly from the novel. Shyla was terrified of thunderstorms to the point she needed CBD oil to calm her down. And one stormy Sunday afternoon when I came in to do animal care, Shyla was not in her kennel.

Normally if an animal has had issues and needed vet care, I would have been alerted via a text message to let me know not to expect her, but that day I had nothing. Confused, I turned to go back to the lobby, thinking maybe someone had left a hand written note on the desk instead. I took two steps away when I realized something funny about the kennel directly beside Shyla’s…

At the time, we had a pair of hounds living next to Shyla. They were sisters and they were very pretty.

I turned back to their kennel and saw not two pairs of eyes staring back at me, but three.

Shyla had managed to leap to the top of her kennel – which is a feat because those kennels are super high on purpose – and then hop down into the hound-twin’s kennel. They were cuddled up in a happy dogpile as though this were the normal living arrangement and I had to snap a picture to send to my boss.

#2 – The Giant Dog

There was some debate about this dog’s breed. He was either a Cane Corso or an English Mastiff or some mix between because he was enormous. He was so big, in fact, that rather than living in one of the kennels, we had to give him the entirety of the quarantine bay. We will call him Gus.

Gus loved people.

He also loved being outside and since we had already given him the whole of quarantine, this meant he often was able to have his back door open, allowing him to go outside into the quarantine yard as he pleased.

But above all, he loved being with people outside, so he would get stubborn. If you came inside quarantine to start shutting things down, he would rush outside and stay there, absolutely refusing to return to his bed. We managed to trick him a couple of times with treats, but he grew wise quickly. It normally took two of us to get him in for the night, with one person hiding outside to close the door while the other sat on his bed until he came in for some affection.

#3 – Cat on the Loose

We had a special room for cats that didn’t quite like others, or who were having a particularly rough time adjusting to the shelter. This room had cat towers and shelves, lots of places up high where they could go to relax. Well, one particular cat discovered that the shelves were just high enough they could push their way through and into the ceiling.

Somehow, he managed to skirt his way up into the attic, which was problematic because we had an attic cat who took care of any mice that happened up there.

A day or so later, I went up to the attic to take care of said Attic Cat and she was quite displeased. Instead of being near the back where her water and litter box were, she was up front and she was particularly hissy. There was rustling in the area where she normally liked to be and I was able to put two and two together. We were able to catch him once we knew where he was hiding and had to give him a different kennel space, but for a couple of days there we were listening to his thumping overhead in the ceiling.

We are still on Release Shenanigans for Paw Prints on the Wall, my novel that features a no-kill animal shelter that is currently AVAILABLE through multiple booksellers. I will get to funny shelter stories in my next post but for today I wanted to put forward a more serious discussion.

If you’re anything like me, the term Compassion Fatigue may be unfamiliar to you.

I certainly didn’t know about it until it hit me full force, so it seems important to mention.

I had already been suffering under the loss of a beloved animal at the shelter. It was nobody’s fault. The poor dog got bloat, which is a thing that happens sometimes in larger animals and there’s literally no means of anticipating it. In most cases, the moment symptoms show up you’re already too late.

But this dog in particular was mine.

Sure, she was in the shelter, but I was the one who worked with her the most. She was the dog I took special care of because I wanted her. If I could have worked out the logistics of getting her home with me, everyone I worked with knows I would have had her home in an instant. But we had some obstacles – she didn’t like other dogs and I already had Delta at home, and she was, quite frankly, a neurotic mess terrified of all new things ever.

In any case, I was already grieving by the time Hell Week showed up.

This particular week we had an elderly animal pass away overnight. Then another animal had complications with surgery – they had cancer and the vets were trying to fix it – and they too perished. Then we had a surrender that was heartbreaking because the animals owner died, which is always terrible because the animal knows. Say what you want, but they know when we’re gone.

Then came Saturday when two recently adopted dogs had to be returned to us.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, an adoption does not work out. It’s just the way of things. We learn something a little new, we make the restrictions on who can adopt them tighter, and we pray the next home is the one that sticks.

Hell Week did me in.

I tried to put some distance between myself and the losses. I told my husband I needed out of town and I didn’t care where, just somewhere else. We went for a drive and wound up deep in New York State, in the Catskill Mountains. I remember the trip.

I remember struggling to find my sense of balance again. To find the willpower to get in my car on my next work day and drive to work.

I never really found it, regardless of how often I showed up to work. The losses became more prominent no matter how many animals successfully found homes. My patience took a flying leap into God Only Knows Where and I started to suspect adopters were going to fail, rather than holding tight to the hope that they would succeed. And so, when my husband got a new job and transportation started becoming a problem, I used the excuse to bow out of shelter work.

It took me a full year before I was able to pick up Paw Prints on the Wall and really start working on it again.

So.

Compassion Fatigue is a thing. If you know someone who works in a veterinarian’s office, or an animal shelter, or an emergency room, or a homeless shelter, or a police station, then I encourage you to thank them. Tell them they are amazing and they are doing important things, because they are. And because you never know when they are in the middle of their Hell Week.

It could be what they need to get them through.

With this in mind, I have a few people I want to give a public shout to. Most you will find in the back of the book, under the Acknowledgements page, but they deserve a round of applause here too.

Shauna Griffin, Wendy Hall, Zofia Anzak, DJ O’Gara, Amy Elizabeth Rich, Danielle Bowes, and Nicole Tremblay – you are all amazing. It was a privilege to work beside you. Some of you have moved on to different jobs, but for those of you still working with animals, you have a standing ovation from me.

And to every veterinarian, vet-tech, nurse, doctor, shelter worker (both human and animal), policeman or any other profession that puts you on the front lines where the need is great and the pain is in your face every day – what you do is incredible. On behalf of those who wish they could say in person, thank you.

Just, thank you.

Because Paw Prints on the Wall came out THIS WEEK and is currently AVAILABLE wherever you prefer to order your books, we are still in celebratory mode here in my house.

Basically this means I get to eat pie and I get a bottle of wine that’ll last me like 3 months. Red wine is the best.

This also means that I get to shove a ton of related posts up about the novel and because this book is about a no-kill animal shelter, I’ve decided to name the top 3 things you should know before you walk into an animal shelter to adopt your next family member.

And remember, I did work in a shelter for two years as an adoption counselor, so I’ve got some experience here.

#1 – We love all the animals in that shelter.

All of them. From the newly arrived to the long-time residents, we absolutely want to see these animals in a home with people who will love them for the rest of their lives. So when we’re discussing what each individual animal needs in their future home, it is because we know how hard it is on the animal when a new home doesn’t work out.

Home visits or interviews between pets and all the family members in the home (to include meet-and-greets between dogs) and paperwork from landlords that promise you’re allowed to have an animal on the premises, are all put into place for the animal’s safety. Please be open to what the counselors are saying to you about each individual animal. They really do want what’s best for everyone.

#2 – What you see in the shelter is an animal under stress.

No matter how nice the facilities, there is no denying that a shelter is still a shelter. Pets need and want love and while every counselor on the premises has loads of love to give, it is not the same as belonging to a home. So while they are in the shelter, they may exhibit behaviors that will not be seen in the home. The stress of having a ton of other dogs nearby can make a normally quiet animal quite vocal, and vice versa.

What does this mean?

It means that there is a transitional period when any shelter animal is brought into a new home. Generally speaking, you’re not going to see that dog or cat’s true personality for several weeks after you’ve opened your home to them. Once they have settled and truly believe that they are in their forever home, they will show you who they really are. And more often than not, that personality is far sweeter than you would have been able to see through the kennel door.

#3 – Shelter work is hard and it is physical.

Visiting hours in a shelter are set so that every animal in the facility is given the appropriate time for cleaning, walking, and socialization. Because we do love every animal in there, we don’t want to skimp on any one of them. Please be patient if you show up and the doors are not open yet. Sometimes there is a new arrival that needs a little extra attention and it has thrown staff behind. Sometimes a dog decided to make a third (or fourth or fifth) mess in their kennel and it needs to be taken care of.

Sometimes that mess has gotten in our hair and we need to clean ourselves up before we open the door too.

Often there are volunteers who come out to help at a shelter, and they are worth their weight in gold. I cannot count the number of times I internally blessed the volunteers who showed up and helped muck kennels because it meant every single animal was going to be loved a little extra that day. But in the end, I can promise that a shelter worker deals with more poop (literal poop) in a day than you probably do in weeks, so please just be patient.

A final note —

Staff love – and I do mean love – to hear progress reports about the animals who have gone home. Send them pictures of the animal loving life. Send a holiday card where they are lounging with their family. Because shelter work is so hard, these little reminders that an animal they’ve cared for is out there living their best life can mean the difference between throwing in the towel and pushing through another day.

Compassion fatigue is a thing and I will explore it a little more in my next post, but suffice to say, those updates are a lifesaver.