Books I've Read: Lycanthropy and other Chronic Illnesses

I picked this one up at the library because of the title.  I mean, who wouldn't?  And it was a super fun read that I whipped through in just a few days.

Priya is at home again after getting sick while studying pre-med at Stanford.  The fallout from her Lyme disease leaves her weak and in constant pain and she feels like a failure for not being able to live out the dreams she worked so hard to achieve.  Yet every day is such a struggle to get through, she can't imagine going back to that life.

The only bright spots in her life are her online pen-pal Brigid and the support group they form with other chronic illness sufferers.  Here she can be honest about how she's feeling, how hard it is to get through each day and know the others will relate.

When Brigid suddenly vanishes from the group and won't respond to Priya's messages, she decides she needs to take matters into her own hands, steals the family car and drives to Brigid's house in the next state.

Where she finds something that might be a werewolf?  And the werewolf might be Brigid?

As their friendship deepens and Brigid's condition worsens, both young women have to face up to the fact this might just be their new normal.

I really enjoyed this book.  The idea that lycanthropy is a chronic illness kind of tickled me in the best possible way.  All the characters felt very real in this book and even at their most preposterous, the challenges they faced were handled with conviction and flare.

But the best thing about it is the depiction of friendship and the lengths people will go to for their friends.  Even if it does cause friction within your own family.  And then, to boot, it's also great fun.  Especially when photographers catch sight of Brigid in her werewolf form and internet rumors start to spiral...

So I'd recommend this one.  It's fun and silly, but has a lot to say about chronic illnesses and the way people suffering from them can be treated.  Especially when it's not something easily visible to others.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Teen Wolf meets Emergency Contact in this sharply observed, hilarious, and heartwarming debut young adult novel about friendship, chronic illness, and . . . werewolves.

Priya worked hard to pursue her premed dreams at Stanford, but the fallout from undiagnosed Lyme disease sends her back to her childhood home in New Jersey during her sophomore year—and leaves her wondering if she’ll ever be able to return to the way things were.

Thankfully she has her online pen pal, Brigid, and the rest of the members of “oof ouch my bones,” a virtual support group that meets on Discord to crack jokes and vent about their own chronic illnesses.

When Brigid suddenly goes offline, Priya does something out of character: she steals the family car and drives to Pennsylvania to check on Brigid. Priya isn’t sure what to expect, but it isn’t the horrifying creature that's shut in the basement.

With Brigid nowhere to be found, Priya begins to puzzle together an impossible but obvious truth: the creature might be a werewolf—and the werewolf might be Brigid. As Brigid's unique condition worsens, their friendship will be deepened and challenged in unexpected ways, forcing them to reckon with their own ideas of what it means to be normal.

Weekly Goals 10-8-26

 The next three or four weeks are going to be the busiest weeks of the year, I think,  in terms of my day jobs, so I'm not setting any goals outside of that.  We have until around the 24th of August to get the new systems up and running so the season launch on 4 September goes smoothly.

I'm teaching five classes at the gym this week on top of that, plus the film festival starts and I have tickets to several films.

I also have concerts Friday and Saturday night and my son's band are playing their last ever gig on Wednesday.

To say I'm overcommitted would be something of an understatement.

So, this week I'm not setting any goals for myself in terms of writing.  I've told my critique group I'm out for three or four weeks and I'm going to use whatever spare time I might be able to find to rest and read and do things that don't require much brain power so I can try and make it through this crazy period.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-8-26

 

It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

So what am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It has been a crazy week and next weeks is going to get even crazier, so I'm going to try and do as much nothing as possible this weekend.  I do have some gym work to do on Sunday, and that involves learning a new class, but other than that, I'm not planning to do much work this weekend. 

My big project at work is going well, but time is very quickly ticking away and we're getting very close to the wire with finishing it.  We have less than a month until the new season launches and less than three weeks to get all the new systems to support it up and running.

Ack!

So, I haven't had any time to write or to really think about writing.

And the film festival starts this week.  I suspect I may have been a little ambitious in buying tickets to thirteen films when we have five concerts in that time too, plus all these new systems to get up and running.

But we'll see.  I'll do my best to do it all.  I can sleep in October.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - August 2026

 It's the first Wednesday of the month so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

Thanks so much to  Shannon Lawrence, Diedre Knight, Liza, and Pat Garcia for being our hosts this month.

This month's question is a good one!

As a writer/author what is something you regret? Or something that you wish you'd done differently in your writing process?

I'm not sure if it's really regret, but if I knew what I now know, I would have done things quite differently in terms of my writing career.  I'm not unhappy with what I've achieved, but I definitely think I made a few mistakes along the way.

My biggest mistake, I think, was not trying to get a new agent as soon as possible after mine left the business.  The world, and most particularly the publishing world has changed immensely in the 10 years or so since then, and my experience trying to get an agent now is very different to the one I would have had if I'd just jumped right back into the trenches then.

But, at the time I was kind of traumatized by how everything had happened and I didn't feel like I wanted to go through it all again.  So, I accepted a small press offer and went ahead with publishing my books that way.  And don't get me wrong.  I'm proud of those books.  I'm thrilled with the emails I get from readers whose lives I touched, and the reviews have been almost universally great for all of them.  I just can't help thinking they'd be better books and would sell better if they'd had the benefit of a bigger publisher.

Not to mention, I might have a better chance at getting an agent now if I didn't have six well-reviewed books with a very low sales figures (except one: my first published novel, An Unstill Life, has been an Amazon bestseller twice) to my resume.

But, it's too late to change anything now.  I made the decisions I made at the time for a reason, so now I have to live with them.  It doesn't stop me wondering where I might be now if I had taken a different path back then...  

What is something you regret about your author-life decisions?

Weekly Goals 3-8-26

 The next month or so are going to be crazy busy for me at work, so I'm trying not to set myself a bunch of unrealistic goals around anything else.  Between my main job and teaching 6 classes this week, I'll be lucky if I find the time to even do any critiques for my writing group.  Luckily I finished my beta read yesterday, so that's one more thing off my plate.

I will try to write a few pieces of flash fiction just to keep that part of me satisfied, but I'm not hopeful about getting to one every day.  Last week I managed one.

I figure things will settle down a little innate September or October and I'll be able to start thinking about writing again then.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 31-7-26

 

It's the end of the week so it's time to celebrate the small things!

It's the weekend!

It has been a busy week (again), so I'm looking forward to a little downtime.  Although, a little is what it will be.  I have a lot of chores to get through, a beta read to finish and I'm teaching on Sunday.  But at least it's a little different to everything I do at work during the week.  Except the teaching... I've been doing a lot of that.

Things are really ramping up at work with the new ticketing system and website needing to go live in about three weeks.  God.  Is it August already?  Yep.  Three weeks.  Ack!  That's really soon...

I don't think I'm going to get any writing done for a few more weeks.  With everything else going on, I don't see myself having the time to commit to anything other than the odd piece of flash fiction.  And even that is going to be a struggle to get to.  

I went to the dress rehearsal of the opera on Thursday night and really enjoyed it.  I don't usually like operas much, but I keep trying because I feel like they're something I should enjoy.  So I was pleased that I actually did like this one.  There were a lot of school kids n the audience at the dress rehearsal and they were very vocal which was fun.  I don't imagine the audience on opening night will be anything like as raucous.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: We Fell Apart

I've read a bunch of other books by this author, so when I found this one in the bargain bin at The Warehouse, I decided to give it a whirl.  

When Matilda gets a letter from the father she's never met, she jumps at the opportunity to visit him.  Her mother has recently moved to Mexico with a new lover, leaving Matilda behind with a former boyfriend.  With a few months before college starts, Matilda is searching for connection and this seems like an opportunity to finally connect with her father, a celebrated artist.

When she arrives on the island, she finds no father.  Apparently he left to sell a painting.  What she does find is Meer, a brother who is almost exactly the same age.  Meer is lovable as a puppy and Matilda finds herself instantly bonding with him.  Also living in the house are Brock, a former child-star battling addiction and seeking meaning in is post-Hollywood life, Tatum, a brooding, intense boy with a love of water, and June, Meer's mother who seems startled by Matilda's arrival and not at all welcoming.

Without her father,  Matilda tries to navigate life in this strange place while trying to find answers to her myriad questions.  But the more she discovers, the more secrets she stumbles upon.  And with each new secret, she becomes more and more certain that something weird is going on in the house.  And that everyone in it is lying.

I enjoyed this book.  The three boys Matilda finds at the house are well drawn and very distinct.  I did feel like June might have been a little over the top as the kind of wicked stepmother, but once the big reveal was ... revealed toward the end, her character made a lot more sense.

So, it you're a reader who likes twisted families with secrets, a touch of romance and wealthy people behaving badly, this might just be the book for you.

But don't just listen to me,  Here's the blurb:

The invitation arrives out of the blue.

In it, Matilda discovers a father she’s never met. Kingsley Cello is a visionary, a reclusive artist. And when he asks her to spend the summer at his seaside home, Hidden Beach, Matilda expects to find a part of herself she’s never fully understood.

Instead, she finds Meer, her long-lost, openhearted brother; Brock, a former child star battling demons; and brooding, wild Tatum, who just wants her to leave their crumbling sanctuary.

With Kingsley nowhere to be seen, Matilda must delve into the twisted heart of Hidden Beach to uncover the answers she’s desperately craving. But secrets run thicker than blood, and blood runs like seawater.

And everyone here is lying.