Let’s start here:

If you chose not to watch the video, which I understand since we’re on a more reading focused site, not video focused, the idea is why do we get the sudden urge to go back to a book and re-read it instead of moving forward with new stories.

The books that got me last night?
The Heir and The Crown by Kiera Cass

I loved this continuation of the Selection Series. America and Maxon were fine but I’m not big on secret loves and indecisive romance so they were only enjoyable. These two with Eadlyn who is both very decisive and incredibly not when she doesn’t trust herself just stole my heart. And I know I am in the minority on my belief that this half of the series was better than the first half. Most people found Eadlyn annoying but she did it for me man.

As I was saying, I had a sudden flashback to the glorious ending, the moment of I love you and chose you and suddenly I wanted to go back and read the pair of books again. And I have read them at their own duo once I made it through the first three once. Which means this wouldn’t be the second time reading them but the THIRD.

I have literally THOUSANDS of books in the Kindle Library. I’ve been a Bookbub person for five or more years now. If your book has ever gone on sale for FREE, I probably own it and have never read it. Apologies. I know it happens but I’m really bad about it. I think I have read maybe 15 of the books I have purchased in that manner.

An yet, I want to visit my ol’ friend Eadlyn again.

And when it isn’t her, it is Morgaine in Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. Or Harry Potter, The Abhorsen/Old Kingdom Series by Garth Nix, or Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Then there are some lesser known novels I’ve visited three to five times: The Firebird Series by Kathy Tyers or Arena by Karen Hancock

I was pondering why? We do this? Why do I do this?

And some of it is knowing what you’re reaching for. It is buying a McGriddle at McDonalds because it is going to taste the same as the previous 50 of them I’ve ordered in my lifetime. (Truthfully, we might be approaching 100… During Tax Season, McD’s is my morning stop…)

But it is also the love of depth of story. Why do I love this, the second generation of a story world, something I share with The Abhorsen/Old Kingdom Series where Lirael and getting to the end of her adventure in Goldenhand is my favorite part of the journey? Why is Bridgerton Season 3 my favorite even though it has some major weaknesses too? Because we’re IN with the world and the people and we’re getting to see the coming together of things that were held apart.

I’m impatient in many respects and yet hook me into a slow burn and don’t give me the satisfaction of they’re together but instead tease the promise and deliver it later? Yum! I am in! Get me to the point where I am not thinking about the world building anymore but just plain living in it with the characters and I’m sold. In fact, with the aforementioned Firebird series, I have three of those kinds of books to dig into and I’m excited to get to them now that I’ve reminded myself they exist through this blog.

But coming back around to Kiera Cass and the Selection novels, I wanted to point out that those were the last books I read before I sat down to write Renaissance of Self, back when it was a NaNoWriMo project and I thought it was going to be one book. (Ha!) I loved the idea of a competition novel where the competition wasn’t for love but for the love of a time period and a talent and some mad skills.

The Historical Sewing Society and the Renaissance Age of Discovery Pageant that grounds the Renaissance of Self series is an outpouring of love for what Kiera Cass did in the Selection and so as I’m digging in and marketing Part 1 – The Escape and preparing Part 2 – the Change for publication, it ends up feeling natural that I want to revisit the place where that inspiration found root and became something entirely new.

I thank you for coming on this journey of mind with me, and I hope that the tidbits of where Renaissance of Self came from were fun and that you spend some time thinking about where your preferences lie in stories and why your favorites are your favorites. Being able to articulate such things is becoming a superpower and I would love you all to have that one. 🙂

Chat soon and I’ll let you know what I’ve digging into soon, whether I do go visit some old friends and take a path untraveled.