Beauty & Despair (travel log + book recs)

How’s February? Also, how is it February already? O.o I can’t quite comprehend. January felt a like a weird time loop to me, both eternal and instantaneous.

Menu for today:

·      RL + travel photos + recipe

·      Writing updates

·      Hardback updates

·      Kittens fresh off the press!

I’m currently in Bariloche, known as a ski/hiking city south of Buenos Aires. For the people of the Americas… it’s barely 17 hours drive from Buenos Aires. Europeans, don’t faint, it’s just 2 hours on a plane, which is how I got here since I don’t think my body can handle that kind of travel. It was also quite a shock to go for 30 degrees Celsius to 15. I’m visiting with one of my best friends and her kid and they have been amazing.

Being with them has made me excited to cook again, which is a relief because keeping up with my diet has had me pretty exhausted (scheduling doctor appointments to hopefully find some path out of pretty much all food making me sick)

Also, drinking into the gorgeousness of the mountains and the lakes—read: gasping every time we turn and this view comes up.

Nothing is quite like I imagined it in Argentina. People are warm here, chatting non-stop, always willing to help. When they ask you how you are and you tell them, they want to know more. They often have a decent solution that they heard from one of the million people they talk to and about every day. It’s very much how I am, but I hadn’t quite realised it was such a cultural trait.

Sometimes it’s great and sometimes it’s too much, everyone wants you to come over to their house and feed you a meal, chat about life. My second cousin, who I have met a total of perhaps five times in my life (only one of which I remember) told me I can stay at her house too. Just had lunch with her and she was lovely, looking forward to getting to know her better. I definitely can use some more friendly family members!

There are a lot of cheeks to kiss (in excess if you ask me) every time someone comes in or even casually crosses your path as they greet the person you are with. There is also a lot of poverty around me and it’s like a weight, I don’t want to see it because I have problems of my own (I won’t get started, none of them have been solved yet and I’d rather tell you something new), but how do you reconcile the beauty and the despair?

Mostly I feel guilty and I tip (something else that is new because I didn’t do it at 14 when I left and in the areas of Europe I have lived in, tipping is not normal because people are getting decent salaries).

Something I love is that I’m finding time to read. I have gone back to KJ Charles’ Magpie Lord series and I loved book 1 when I was fairly indifferent to it the first time I read years ago (Waiting for book 2 to be available from my library), and now I’m rereading Hallucinating Foucault by Patricia Duncker, which I have adored for years. It’s a writer-reader love story that still makes me shivery with linguistic pleasure, the language so elegant and the themes so personal for me. It’s also a queer book, if you need further carrots.

Any recs very welcome, I realise I’m completely disconnected from the latest releases and I mostly get overwhelmed trying samples.

It’s actually quite chilly here (though unfortunately there are also quite intense fires further south in the area that could use some proper rain) so I ended up making my Joy Lentil Stew.

I realise I neglected my traveller duties when it comes to Buenos Aires, so here, in 10 days, I’m going back to this:

I have been writing every day for twenty-six days now and today was a fantastic one where I hit 4k in one prolonged session in a coffee shop (Today I’m grateful for lactose-free milk in the first place I asked :).

The babyfic is in the final curtain!fic phases. A very fanfic term that basically means they are being sweet and domestic and making love. It’s not very N.J. Lysk but I’m enjoying it!

Now it’s also time to start edits on The Price of Ice. Technically it’s done, but I want to expand Levy’s storyline (the whole story is told by Kallen so I feel the guy didn’t get enough spotlight, you know?).

The cover artist who did the hardbacks actualy told me she won’t do the final adjustments and to find someone else for the final adjustments of The Stars of the Pack on my own. I have no idea what happened there, especially because I already paid ☹ But it was nearly perfect already and today I fixed them myself and proofs have been ordered. Mind you, since they are bespoke they won’t arrive for a month (We'll have a proper unveiling this time!), but once that's done, I can order the final ones and send them to everyone who waited so patiently!

And finally, isn't that sofa just made for my 'niece' (She certainly thinks she owns it, of course)

Have a lovely weekend,

NJ