Taylor > Recent Status Updates

That is a wildly dramatic prologue lol. And that last super graphic paragraph about the taste of a guy's cum from her teenage years? Wtf. I'm cackling, I don't know how I feel about this yet.

Poor Norbert lol, I forgot how ridiculous that whole chapter was.

Made it to cinema and the origins of Sherlock Holmes' curved pipe. And the murder of Breezy Bill Terriss. The next chapter is 58 pages, hoo boy...

first quidditch match of the season, finally. I forgot how slow this book was to get to the actual school year at Hogwarts. The first HALF of the book almost still takes place mostly in the muggle world.

Bartlett's case is fascinatingly bizarre, and at the three hundred page count, we are finally introduced to the meeting of John Watson and Sherlock Holmes. Honestly, for as dense in references and footnotes as this tome is (and a tome it only can be, at near 500 pages), it's a fantastic, sometimes dryly witty read. So far a great investment.

The poison panic of the 1840s was WILD. And, as should be expected, a tool to stomp down on the working classes and poor women, servants and country women with no defenses to help them. Disgusting but predictable.

Rereading for gay fanfiction research. Fuck jkr

Oooo, love triangle territory. But like, not *really* a love triangle? More like, a will they won't they and a strongly disapproved of potential relationship rolled into one. The money trouble puts pressure on it, that's fun. Also looking forward to the "crack inside her" Carlota is trying to hide and afraid of. That's our chekov's gun.

A hundred and forty pages in. I have finally hit chapter 4. Four. Holy shit this book is dense, I love it.

Lord, there were a lot of plays about murderers and melodramas about killers. Lol I respect the hustle, but have some respect, damn.

The Greenacre spectacle is WILD, man. And we don't crown Queen Victoria until the last sentence of the chapter!

Interesting so far, the setting especially. Lush and run down, vibrant and decayed. Carlota is a little young, starting at 14 when the book begins, but I'm interested in both her childhood friends and Montgomery, who just arrived. I'm not sure where this is going yet, but I'm along for the ride.

The new police's uniforms had been carefully chosen to indicate their professionalism, while at the same time .... to reassure the population that, unlike the red-coated army, this was a civil, not a military force. (Not that the new color choice made much difference: the police were quickly dubbed 'raw lobsters' or 'the unboiled'... Thus a policeman was only 'hot water' away from being a soldier.)

The SHADE.

Finally made it through the plot and pacing notes, and even character voices, which was fun if basic. Great examples and a good practice exercise in it too.

Still in the plot chapter, but taking a break to sleep. Still pretty great advice so far, even if a lot of it feels obvious or basic to me (having read a lot of 'how to' books and articles on writing in general), but I'm making notes as I go. Still down to keep reading tomorrow.

Finally made it to arcs, plots, and subplots. Will update when I'm done chewing that chapter.

Lots of talk about power limitations and magic and how it works, definitely coming back to this too. Great ideas and suggestions to avoid power creep or author cheats.

Great advice on cliches, and some good exercises so far in expanding on those cliches and developing them more fully to break the mold. (Also a few good ideas in general, I might come back to that later...)

A lot of good recommendations in here about making interviews and inquiries more successful. Great ideas for worldbuilding too.

Funny and lighthearted so far, doesn't take himself too seriously. I like his Voice.

Absolutely fascinated with the prospect of "for profit" murder entertainment. You can definitely see the origins of our human fascination with death and violence and justice, and as a true crime podcast listener and avid mystery reader, I'm very invested so far, but god DAYUM this book is dense. I'm taking it slow, really digesting what I read.