Treaty Stay, Fandom Holidays, And The Book Devouring Horde

An Explanation

I’m no stranger to made up holidays. I celebrate May The 4th as Star Wars Day every year, which I also mix with my own made up holiday of Audreymas (Audrey Hepburn’s Birthday) (If you’ve been good all year long a droid will bring you a pastry and champagne!). My friends and I enthusiastically send Leslie Knope gifs to mark Galentines each year. I air my Grievances as Frank Costanza instructed each December 23 on Festivus.

I was exceptionally excited this year, as January 14 approached to mark Treaty Stay, the Holiday from Ilona Andrews’s The Inkeeper Chronicles. Last summer, while I was circling the drain burning out at my day job, trying to figure out how I was going to crawl out of a very stupid debt hole I’d built for myself, and not sure I’d ever love a fictional world again after the disaster that was me reading a certain very popular series about Faeries. (You can guess the one) I decided to take the book recommendation of a friend, (Maggie, of Magpie Making Due, check out her blog) and read Magic Bites the first book in The Kate Daniels Series by Ilona Andrews, a husband and wife writing team.

I was smitten and spent the month of June reading all 10 of Kate’s books, as well every spin off novella, and the beginnings of the four sequel series. I loved this world and the writing, I loved Kate and her love interest, the sexy, arrogant Beast Lord Curran Lennart. (Curran is now my one and only Book Boyfriend and I am obnoxious about him) It’s been less than 6 months and I’ve already reread the series twice, and listened to all the released Graphic Audios. I fell hard.

Then I read the Hidden Legacy series and loved that too! The Baylor Sisters, and their journey through the complicated magical society that they called home in an alternate version of Houston, Texas captured my imagination too.

Then came The Innkeepers Chronicles. While I still don’t know that I love it as much as I love Kate Daniels, I felt deeply seen by this series, about a woman who runs an intergalactic inn, a way station on this planet for people on their way to somewhere else, the family she lost but is piecing back together slowly, and the werewolf who loves her, steeped in heart, humor and the undeniable power of hospitality.

The Innkeepers celebrate a holiday every winter that marks the founding of their profession, where no one can be turned away for any reason.

I wanted to mark it to this year, because these books, by this couple made a difficult year a little bit less difficult.

What I’m Cooking

“The Naked Dinner”

OK, so Treaty Stay is an Innkeeper’s thing and this is a Kate thing, BUT! I made pulled pork last week (the first think that Dina and Sean make together), and I dare not attempt Chef Orro’s “Greatest Roast Chicken In The Galaxy”…SO. In the third Kate Daniels book, Magic Strikes due to a lot of shenanigans by one of their teenage sidekicks Derek (there are several. Kate collects troubled kids. Like Batman), Kate and Curran wind up in a bet where if he wins she has to cook and serve him dinner naked. (There’s also a whole complicated social ritual about shapeshifters and food…)

She loses. And Curran requests:

Lamb or Venison Steaks
Baked Potatoes With Honey Butter
Corn On The Cob

And Apple Pie

I wasn’t going to make Venison, so I went with beef steak, and Corn on The Cob is out of season here (and I’m not really a fan), so I went with a corn salsa. And I made mashed potatoes instead of baked (again, personal preference) And I bought a little mini apple pie. (Alas, no one showed up to steal it from my fridge, thus declaring their intentions to woo me.)

Kate and Curran’s dinner gets delayed for…plot plot plot…but they get to it eventually (two books later) I’m pretty proud of my take on it.

What I’m Reading:

For She Is Wrath by Emily Varga

This beautifully rendered, fantasy, Persian set retelling of The Count of Monte Cristo took a little while for me to get into but I got there. Definitely a lot of fun, super emotional and I’m glad I managed to get over the hump with it.

What I’m Watching

Bad Sisters (Season 2)

A bit of a let down after the first season, but still pretty great.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

A perennial favorite, and while I still find the first season massively flawed, I’m now into the truly spectacular Season 2. Watching Sara Lance realize she needs to live for more than vengeance, Ray Palmer and Nate Haywood fall madly into bro love, and an excuse for Victor Garber to sing “Edelweiss” plus delicious villain scenery chewing from Neal McDonoagh, John Barrowman and Matt Lescher. Honestly, a perfect season of television.

Jaws and Close Encounters of The Third Kind

I don’t know why no one ever talks about how good these two movies are but they’re really quite good. I think everyone should watch them.

What I’m Listening To:

The Who’s Tommy

Due to various scheduling and health shenanigans, on Saturday, I finally got my Christmas present from my brother and sister in law, a scented candle, and a copy of The Who’s Tommy on vinyl, with a note, “Listen to Tommy with a candle burning. You’ll see your whole future.” An album I wanted wrapped in an Almost Famous reference. It doesn’t get better than that, frankly.

Writing News

Line edits on Anything Other Than You have begun in earnest, it’ll be out on Kindle Unlimited and in paperback on May 2, but if you want an ARC copy, you can still sign up here.

The Marina Chronicle Book 6: Wheel of Fate And Freedom is now available for preorder for Ebooks on Amazon, and The Marina Chronicle: Book 1: Dreams of The Lost is available on Kindle Unlimited, the rest of the series is available as ebooks to purchase or paperbacks on Amazon.

I’ll start revisions on Can’t Fight The Moonlight once I finish the line edits for Anything Other Than You, I already know pretty much what I want to change around, but revisions and rewriting always take a ton out of me.

Links

As always, you can read my random yappings on Threads and now Bluesky see occasional pictures when I remember on Instagram! See me summarize my thoughts on books in yippee one liners on Goodreads