I usually blog on Thursdays but, although I began my blog, life took over and I did not finish it. I did, however, continue reading.

I finally finished reading Shadowlands by Matthew Green. Besides Skara Brae, there were several cities destroyed by climate change. I thought the description of Dunwich where the towns are literally washing into the sea particularly engrossing. We have had that happen in New York and California.

Green usually give a fairly lengthy history of the particular towns. Winchelsea, for example, had vineyards and exported wine during the Medieval Warm Period. The little Ice Age put an end to that. The end of their viniculture and the silting up of the harbor finished off a thriving city.

Not all the villages were lost to the changing climate. Some lost their industry and their population soon followed (Trellich). Some, like Caper Celyn, were taken by the government and flooded to make reservoir. (Since Caper Ceylon is in Wales and the reservoir was for Liverpool, particularly egregious.) In the 1930s, the residents of St. Kilda’s were evacuation from their island home, never to return. Villages near Norfolk were commandeered by the Army during WWII, and never returned to the original inhabitants. And, of course, the Black Death finished off quite a few.

Fascinating.

I also read Easy Pickings, a fan novel based on Faith Hunter’s Jane Yellowrock fantasies.

Jane and a character from another series, the Walker Chronicles, are transported to an alternate New Orleans. Leo Pellisser is not the vamp master of the city in this reality. With Lazarus, a demigod/magic user named Lazarus, Jane and Joanna must discover why they were brought here and solve the problem.

Lots of fun. It is quite short so it goes quickly.

Finally, I read Shadowlands by Marcia Talley.

Hannah and Paul agree to take ballroom dancing lessons with Ruth and her husband to be. Jay and Kay, who run the studio, are professionals. They are training one team for an upcoming competition and they ask Ruth and Hutch to also compete. Before they have a chance to even begin training, Ruth is attacked in the parking lot and left with a broken leg.

This was a disappointment. The setting, the world of competitive dancing, was fascinating. But the murder does not occur until more than halfway through the book and the ending seems rushed.