New Website

This blog will no longer be update. You can now find me at my website where I will be now doing updates.

Thank you for following this blog and I hope to see you at my new home!

Cha-cha-cha-changes....

Ok, so, real talk time. I love and hate this blog. I love it because it's a way to reach out to people but I hate it because I cannot be all awesome every week. So I am making a really big change that will be up by October 1st. I am leaving Blogger and going over to a Wordpress site to have an author website. Now, this doesn't mean that the blog is going away. It just means that the blog is over there but it won't be the first thing that you see. It means you'll see a nice shiny front page and then click to go over to the blog. Or just bookmark the blog and you can go straight to it.

The big reason why I'm doing this is because I just don't have the bandwidth to update every week. I need to own that and I am doing that now. However, I still want a landing page and a blog that only gets updated once a month is not a good look. It just isn't. I need to make a change and that involves going over to a new service. I will leave up a post that says "hey, come meet me over at the website" with a link, so you won't be left hanging in a lurch.

So, that's that and we'll be over at the new page in a week. I'm going to go get stuff done now.

Motivation and What To Do When It Runs Away

Motivation is something that is supposed to come easy to writers. We're supposed to put ourselves in front of our computer, open a word document or whatever your software or choice is, and write whatever we're going to get done for the day. However, you also know, as a writer that it doesn't always happen that way. There are days or weeks or even months where you do not have anything going right with your writing. You're stalled on a scene or a chapter and there seems to be nowhere to go. You feel overwhelmed with life tasks and your writing tasks fall by the wayside. I know. I've been there. Let's go through some ways that I help myself get back on the horse.

1. Stalled on scene/chapter: Jump around! This was very hard for me to learn how to do but I'm glad I did. I am a very linear writer, wanting to write from chapter 1 to chapter 30, and I had to write in order. Writing out of order was foreign to me and felt wrong. However, you will do yourself a huge service if you start practicing writing out of order. It means that you can jump from a chapter that's giving you a hard time, go to a chapter or scene where the words flow, and come back to the chapter that's giving you a problem. Also, writing ahead might make you realize what the problem is so you can fix it and get the problem chapter written.

2. Life is overwhelming and there's no time to write. I heard you on this one. I know that a lot of the advice is to get up early and write but that doesn't work for me. I'm a night owl so I'll stay up and write to get some writing in. Or I'll overload my weekends with writing because there was just no time during the week to do so. Also, having a to-do checklist and having one of your to-dos being write x amount of words. Yes, you might push it off, which is why you should add to your word count if you do as long as it won't stress you out. If it does, then just move it and get it done when you can.

3. Your computer is just not comfortable. Oh boy, been there for that too. Right now, I'm going through that. One of the best ways to work through this is change up how you're writing. I know this might not be workable for everyone, but I have a Surface that is my writing computer that goes everywhere with me. While I do like writing on my normal laptop, I'm just not wanting to on there right now. There's no want to get my writing done on it, so I'm working on the Surface to get writing done. However, if you don't, I've got a full recommendations. Write long hand and then type it up to see where you go with it. If possible, see if you can borrow a computer or go to your local library and use one of their computers. Make sure that you save your work to a thumb drive or the cloud or even your email if you go that route. If you have a smartphone, use that with either typing into a program that will save your notes. Or talk into your smartphone! Changing up how your writing really might help.

4. Last one is what to do when all you want is to spend time on the internet. I get it, the internet is awesome and sometimes want to read Twitter or Facebook or whatever you're doing. However, it's a motivational suck because you'll spend a lot of time on it without getting writing done. There are a ton of blockers up there to block certain sites if you still need the internet to Google - I know I do - or you can just turn it off. It is so hard to turn it off so I do recommend using a blocker for the sites that you go through the most. Plus, you can just set it to a timer and at the end of the time, take a break in order to stretch.

Those are my four big ways that I get demotivated and then back into writing. Do you have any other you would like advice on or would like to give your own tips? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter. Until next time, happy writing!

Reading, Pitch Wars, and Everything In-Between

Since we've last chatted readers, a lot of things have happened. Nothing big and life changing, but little and somewhat life changing. Maybe less life changing and more of life helping? Either way, I've been up to things and thought I would pop in for an update. I am going to attempt, key word is attempt, to update this blog every week. It might just be little status messages like this, if you like those sort of things, or it might be writing advice or it might be about a book I decided to binge in the last week. Or even a TV show or a movie that I thought should be on everyone's radar. Yeah, it might not be all that interesting to read every week but I think a fuller blog is helpful.

First off, I've been reading a lot. I've upped my reading goal from 24 to 30 to now 50. I'm six books ahead of schedule to hit 50 by the end of the year and there's two readathons coming up. There's the Creating & Co RIP (read in peace) and then ebookathon that starts right after that. As for past readathons, I did the NEWTs readathon because I'm a geek and love all things Harry Potter. It's similar to the OWLs one I talked about in April, but you could only do the subjects you passed during the OWLs. So I had five subjects to read, with only finishing one up all three levels (Acceptable, Exceeds Expectations, and Outstanding), but I read 9 books in the month of August. That's a new personal best so I'm happy about it. As for books that you should stop reading this and just go get a copy of are Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman and Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. The first one is a prequel to Practical Magic and I loved it. Devoured it in a few days and fell in love with the Aunts all over again. Not sure about Vincent, even all these weeks after I'm done with it, so go read it and tell me what you think. For the second, also a binge read of 3 days, and it was just so nice and refreshing a read. It was a mystery wrapped around this Real Housewives (season 1 NYC) vibe that I was just digging and couldn't put it down. I felt the emotions of so many of the characters on so many levels and that was a very nice connection.

My September reading plans are to just read what I feel like reading. At the moment, it's a lot of adult because I'm feeling burnt out on YA. I'm currently reading Daughters of the Night Sky, which is about the 588th Night Bomber Regiment that's entirely of women called the Night Witches, and I'm kind of liking it. I'm only 18% done and I want to give it a bit more to settle in before I DNF or put it aside for a while. I also want to finish My Lady Jane which is historical fantasy riff on Lady Jane Gray's life. It is so good but I put it aside for NEWTs. Going to pick it back up again to finish so I can read My Plain Jane (Jane Eyre retelling) for an October spooky read.

On the writing front, it's going slowly but steady. I'm querying Mystery of the Dark as often as I can, along with submitting it to Pitch Wars, so we'll see what happens. I'm having a lot of fun connecting with the greater writer community on Twitter and Facebook so that feels like the bigger win to me. On the non-querying front, I'm working on Lady of Arrows, which is a Robin Hood retelling, as well as Of the Sky, which might turn into a romance with fantasy elements instead of the other way around. Oops. It's a standalone, which is amazing because I never really write those, so this is a very nice change of pace from what I'm used to. Seriously - Mystery of the Dark is 6 or 7 books, Lady of Arrows is a duology, Hidden Scions is going to be a trilogy at least, and Watchers, if I ever get to it, is like 12 books. Easily. I think I'm going to try and have more standalones, if I'm able to. It's a lot more with just deciding it and letting the book figure out what it's going to be.

That's pretty much it. I'm always over on Twitter in case you want to interact with me and I hope everyone has a great week. Until next time, take care and happy writing!

Writing Space: the Library

My library is pretty cool. Along with being a place where there's a wide selection of books, it's a great place to plug in and get some writing done. I do love going there to write. It's a nice different place, it gets the juices flowing, but somethings things are loud on the first floor. It's really nobody's fault, because where I like to sit is more of the social area of the library. It's all these little tables sitting around and people like to sit and talk, so that's more on me than the library. If I go into the stacks, I can find quiet tables where I can plug in and write. Those are nice to focus but the place I really love is on the second floor.

On the second floor, they have these study / conference rooms that you can book for two hours. It's structured so you can get work done - a lot people who are in surrounding businesses use them a lot - and it's nice and quiet. Bonus being that I can play music without needing my headphones on.

It is a simple room and, if you ask, they'll give you markers for the white board. That's really helpful when I'm stuck in plot and don't want to write on paper. Or I forgot to bring paper with me. Just write it on the white board, snap a pic, and ta-da, problem solved. If you have the right plugs on your computer, you can hook it up to the TV in the room. I don't, on the Surface, but if I brought the big laptop, I would be able to plug in and play. It's really nice for those who are working on a school project, like I saw when I glanced into a room. That's the other thing - there are windows on the room, which I don't mind, but others might.

Anyways, I just thought I would share a nice writing space of mine. Where do you go to write? Drop me a comment and, until next time, keep on writing!

A Writer's Life: Well Meaning Tips from Friends and Family

Hello and welcome to something I'm hoping to make a regular feature here on the blog. I'm going to be taking parts of what happens in my life, as a writer, and talking about them in what's known as "A Writer's Life". It is a title that is a bit cliche, but I'm okay with that. I've talked in an earlier post on this blog on how we love cliches, as long as they're put in a different light or spin, so I'm hoping to do that as well. If you have a topic you'd like me to cover in this segment of the blog, feel free to leave a comment below.

Now, we all have friends and family that wish us to succeed on our writer's journey, no matter where we are in that journey or what our end goal is. With that comes well meaning tips and tricks that they think will help us succeed. These are well meaning and not meant to put anyone in a negative light. It is more like the meme of what they think vs what's really happening when it's not advice that is best for you. As always, when someone gives you advice - even if you don't like it! - the best thing to do is smile and say "thank you, I'll take that under advisement". Even if that advisement is "oh hell no". So, let's dive in.

Tip 1: You should set up a blog!
Yep, I'm going to tackle this one first. Yes, this is a common tip when talking to writers, especially those with the end goal of publishing in the traditional way or self publishing. It is not bad advice. It is, however, advice that should be taken with a grain of salt. I am finding out, as in all things, when you want followers, you need to be consistent. There needs to be a schedule and you need to stick with it or otherwise you're screaming on the internet with nobody to hear you. Now, for people like that, it would be fine. I'm someone who has the blog because I feel I need it and liked the advice, but I wish that advice came with a how and why. You need to have a schedule, you need to have content, and you need to realize that it is going to take time away from your novel. You need to think if that's something you want to sacrifice or if you're going to try and balance it. I will recommend that if you try and balance it that the blog plate gets dropped first. Your novel is what is going to get you be a published author. It should always come first.

Tip 2: Have a nice and clean Twitter / Facebook / Instagram
This advice came from a well meaning friend of mine who is worried that my views on Twitter is what is stopping me from getting published. If that's true... I'm not sure what to do about it. I go with the idea that whatever I put out there, even in email, will be published on the front page of newspaper of choice. Mine varies from Washington Post to Chicago Sun Times depending on my mood of the day. Now, nothing on my social media accounts is graphic or nudes or anything that anyone should be ashamed of. I have political views that I wear on my sleeve and that's okay. I think that, when you're being rejected, even in form letters, that you should go back to your novel or your letter and work on that. I don't think it means scrubbing your social media accounts of what makes you the person that you are.

Tip 3: Don't write x, write y, because x is out of style at the moment.
So... I struggle with this on a daily basis. I don't even really need a friend or family to suggest it (although some have) and I don't know what to do about it. I have this feeling that everything cycles through major moments but there's always an audience who wants more. You want to focus on that audience. You want to make sure that you're engaging the reader with the best story that you can put forward and the vampires / werewolves / what have you are the icing the cake. Your narrative should push through everything, not the fact that you have a monster of the moment or a situation of the moment. If you look at the classics, even those that are genre classics, you'll see the common thread is more towards the narrative than anything else. Jane Eyre is one of the best classical Gothic novels out there because it's more than that. The Gothic is the backdrop and you're more worried about Jane and wondering what the fuck is up with Rochester. So, yeah, don't worry about what you're writing is out of vogue at the moment. Worry more if you're writing a story that will engage readers.

Tip 4: You should get as much feedback as possible before sending it off to agents.
This is mostly true. You should get feedback and edits from an editor that is not yourself. You should try to have beta readers and be in writing communities and everything else. It is true that the more eyes the better on your novel before you send it off. However, make sure you're not using it as a way to drag your feet because you're worried about agents liking your novel. You could get all the feedback in the world, but if you're not sending it out, you're not getting anywhere. So just be careful and make sure that you get feedback, you process and make the changes, and then you send it out. Just send it out. The worst thing that any agent will say to you is no. Or at least, that's my experience so far.

I hope you enjoyed this segment of A Writer's Life. I do hope to do more in the future. What are some of the odder tips that you've received as a writer? Or what are some of the best tips that you've gotten as a writer? Let a comment down below and, until next time, happy writing.

What I Read in June

I know. We're mostly into July but I thought I would talk about it anyways. Better late than never? Also, I feel like I read a good amount this month, thanks to the Creating and Co relaxathon (a readathon with a theme of relaxing), so let's get into the books!

• Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T Sullivan - Review - This book is still sticking with me in my head because it was so well written. I truly thought it was a narrative non-fiction, because that's the way it felt like as I was reading it, but it turns out it's more based on a true story. That's fine too. It's set to be either a movie or limited series on Amazon with Tom Holland playing Pino. 
• The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin - Review - Like I say in my review, I saw the movie before reading the book. I really wish I had done the opposite. The movie collared a lot on how I saw the book and I came out liking the movie more. Then again, I'm not sure if I would have entertained watching the movie on the book alone. While it's a good book, it does suffer from letting the main male character lead a bit too much instead of making it a partnership. I can see why he did this, mostly because he wrote in a first person limited, but having both characters be strong worked to make the movie as good as it was. The book is good as well. I just wish I had read it first.
• Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell - Review - I... I really think this is the first book in a long time that I've given two stars to. It was too short. He needed more pages to complete the book, which I do say in the review, and I'm hesitant to watch the movie. I wish I had DNF-ed the book, as it was very annoying with the main character and the mystery, and there's no good complete ending. It's just an ending. I feel that, if the book was longer, the ending would feel more complete. Oh well.
• Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett - Review - This was a wonderful book. Now, I do not read all that much contemporary when it's adult fiction. it's even less when it comes to YA and contemporary. However, this was an awesome contemporary book where it's got hints of Wild but toned down for teenagers and set with a backdrop of enemies to friends to much more. I don't care if it's a spoiler because if I can get you to read the book, that's even better. I touch on this in my review, but the blended family without the over explanation of it won me over in the first few pages of the book. It was just "yeah, this is my family" and it was done. Sometimes it is overly drawn out or brought up again and again, usually in terms that are spelled out in a telling not showing situation, where she just showed it. It's a reason why I want to read her other books when I get around to it.
• Closed Circles by Viveca Stein - Review - this is the second book of the Sandhamn Murders series and I'm sticking with this series until the end. That said, I really hope that, in future books, we get a stronger main female character in Nora. She took really big steps in this book, but she needs to do even more. Thomas, on the other hand, really needs to get his house in order. I hope that she keeps them as really good friends, mostly because it feels like it would be forced if they tried to be together, so I'm working on the third book in July. I hope they stay free to read through Kindle Unlimited until I get through the rest of the series.
• Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher - there's no review for this one because it was a re-read. The second season of the Netflix series came out and I thought I would read the book again. I read it mostly in one day again and it felt good to get through it. I still haven't watched the series, as I'm not sure if I want to at this point, but I should probably give it a try. We'll see. At the moment, I'm really not wanting to.
• This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers - Review - someone in a review I read about the book said this is Breakfast Club meets Dawn of the Dead. Truer words were never spoken. Now, I picked up this book on a whim. I was like "hmm, interesting title, I'll try it" and I never read the back. This was one of the books that I couldn't put down because of the pacing and the writing. You felt like you were there, outrunning the zombies, and wondering when it would end. The tension was there and, even though it was sometimes teenage drama, it didn't feel fake or that it was there for the sake of filling pages. Everything had a purpose and it was powerful storytelling. There is a novella / short story that goes after it, told in the voice of the main male character, that I do want to read. I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

So, that's what I read in June. I'm close to my yearly goal of 30 books and will up it to 50 when I hit 30. And then to 60 when I hit 50 and so on. What did you read in June and did any book just hit you in the gut? Or perhaps grabbed your brain and dragged you along for the ride? Leave a comment and, until next time, happy reading. 

Writing a Book: Plotting

Camp NaNoWriMo has been happening for a week already - with me completely behind - so here's me getting even more behind with talking about plotting. Plotting is one of those things that you can either not do, which is called pantsing; do so well a job that it's like you're writing another book; or in a way that gives you the skeleton of the book while leaving you a lot of space to move and grow. While there is no right way to do this, I like to do where I give myself a skeleton and then move and grow while writing the book. There are parts that are somewhat set in stone and there are other parts that can be changed at any given moment.

The thing that you want to do first is have some idea of the story you're going to write. Even if it's a long rambling summary, that's part of the plotting idea. In fact, there's a lot of writers who just go with the rambling plot outline for writing their first draft and then tighten it up in other drafts. For me, I usually write around three to five sentences and leave the plot rambling to another document all together. Also, this can be done on the computer or on paper. There's a few plot bunnies that I've got written down to help with the process and others that work better when typing it out in a Google Document or your program of choice. A lot of my planning goes into Google Docs because I can and will access it from anywhere. That includes my phone, since I have one big enough for typing with both thumbs. Just use what is best for you when giving shape to plot bunnies.

Now, for the next part, there's no right or wrong to what you do first. Some do characters first and some create the world first. I am known to create characters first and world second, because I'm more about a character driven plot. That means that I like the characters to steer the ship. Sometimes this is literally as in the case of Kris in Of the Sky that I'm working on a first draft of but it's more to tell their story in a way that connects everything. The entire book or series will center around them and the connections to others that they make, for good or bad, and then the plot goes from there. That also goes for creating the world. For me, I work on the world where the main character lives first and then do the rest of the world building after I have a good idea of the home country.

For novels set in the real world, as in the case of Mystery of the Dark, I really try to go off of the cities I know or I can go visit to get a lay of the land. It's why, in the first book, you see a lot of St Louis and Asheville. My great-uncle lived in St Louis, along with his home being the basis for Mark's home, and Asheville is where a good friend / family in all but blood lives. Strong connections to each help with making the writing flow easier. Knowing this is probably why I'm having such a hard time with the sequel. They had to move from St Louis due to the plot of the first book and there's no good central ground that I want to set them in. I'm really tempted to let it take on a nomad type vibe with Kate never settling down and trusting the space. But, I'm getting off the topic. For real world settings, it is best to go with what you know. It's why everyone gives that advice - it works.

Ok - you've got your idea down, you have your characters and your world. The next question goes into how much you want to put your plot down on paper or not. You could have all of what you need written down and then decide to pants the rest. You just go where the novel takes you and you'll end up at your destination eventually. What I do is take on a process that I was first taught about by erin is to number a document 1 to 30 and write out 30 scenes with the midpoint being 15-17 and your secondary plot point being 25-27. Every number is a scene or a chapter that you're writing. You could take the same idea but have the number be whatever you like between 1 and infinity as long as you get to an ending. I like doing it in terms of chapters and then shorten / make it longer as needed. For example, Mystery of the Dark is only 28 chapters while Of the Sky will probably be 30 or more. So it's a nice little system.

After that, the best thing to do is sit in the chair and write. It's the only thing that can be done, in the end, if you want to get your book out of your head and onto paper. The plotting helps to bring some order to the chaos but there's nothing stopping you from just writing. So, until next time, keep on putting that butt in the chair and write.

Bout of Books Update: Monday and Tuesday

I know I said I'd update once a day, but we all knew how that was going to go. Also, life kind of exploded. I'm working on different projects, again, querying, and trying to figure out if I want to invest in training that might lead to a job. It's on the expensive side, but, you know, it would be an awesome opportunity. So, yeah, a lot on the mental plate at the moment.

I'm still slugging through Will Grayson, Will Grayson. I can't decide what is wrong about the book, but there's something off. I first thought it was my age being so different than the characters and who the audience is supposed to be. However, as I thought on that, I realized it was a bunch of shit. I've read a good amount of fiction that is not for my age group and I've never felt like I was an outsider listening in on a conversation. I always felt that I was one of the people in the group of the main characters. It could be that I'm just not meshing with the authors' writing style, but I don't know. I'm not even half way through the book, but I'm going to keep on trying with it.

After I get some writing in, I'm going to start Beneath a Scarlet Sky and hope for the best. It seems really good and I think I could burn through it in a day or two. The after effects of an English Lit degree is that you can burn through thick books without thinking about it while retaining all the useful info. It's like having a superpower. A boring superpower, but a superpower nonetheless. After or during that, I'll probably start Moriarty because I'm itching to start that one and there's no reason I can't be reading three books at once.

So that's an extremely quick update on the reading front at the moment. I'll be back tomorrow with Wednesday's progress. Until then, happy reading.

Bout of Books: My TBR List

Hey everyone! This really is just what it says on the can. I'm going to post my video on this below, but I thought people would like to see what my to be read list is instead of just having to listen to me. Also, not listed in the video, my stretch list! Basically, it's a switching in things in case I need to or reading more because I have the time.

1. Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan
2. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
3. The Bone Witch by Rin Chupeco
4. Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
5. Moriarty by Anthony Horowitz

My Stretch List:
1. I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
2. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

Books Review: Norse Mythology and Arrows of the Queen

One of these were on my to be read (TBR) list and one of them was accidentally finished one night when I couldn't sleep. Norse Mythology is the one that I accidentally finished and Arrows of the Queen was on my TBR list. I've been trying to get going on the Valdemar series, which I did last month with finally finishing Magic's Price, so now it's working on the second trilogy and then beyond. However, that is neither here or there at the moment. For now, let's talk books. Also, both images are thanks to Goodreads and are not mine. 

Norse Mythology is a collection slash retelling of the myths of old. Two of the reasons I was drawn to this book in the first place is written by a favorite author and I've been wanting to know more about the background of Thor as he was originally known. Now, that is because of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and not because the idea just popped into my head, but knowing the original stories of some of those characters help them make more sense. Loki lying and cheating his way out of everything, even with knowing he's the God of Mischief, makes a ton more sense to me knowing his stories. I now understand why most people were saying that they were making Thor too uptight in the movies - he's so different in the stories - so, yeah, that was the two big reasons why. Going into the stories themselves, we see Gaiman's short story chops shine. While he respects the original story, we also get to see other characters have a stronger voice. For me, Hela felt that she was taken care of better in his retelling than what happened to her in the original as it felt like she was listened to instead of just cast aside like her brothers. You cared about the fact that they tricked Fenrir and felt the pain of Tyr as he had to take his part in binding the wolf. I thought the depth that he brought worked very well. 

The only two missteps of the entire book were the last two stories. The Last Days of Loki felt out of character to the extreme. Yes, he's the God of Mischief. Yes, he's going to make the other Gods mad. But what he did there with pissing the other Gods off made no sense because there wasn't any plan for it. He was doing it for the sake of doing it, which does not feel like the Loki we know throughout the other stories. In the other ones, there's always a plan and a way out. This had no way out and I wish we could have had why. Maybe he was tired of being what he was or wanted the end to come because he thought he could rule so it leads into Ragnarok? But that's speculation. Maybe that's the point of the story, but... I dunno. It feels very undone and untidy which is so not Loki. The other misstep story, Ragnarok: the Final Destiny of the Gods, felt rushed. It felt like we were rushing to the end instead of savoring the end. While the descriptions of the battle were good, I can't help but get a feeling that he just wanted it to be done. I think I'm wrong about that and Ragnarok is probably a rush job in the original story as well, but I wish it could have been more spread out. That said, the ending of Ragnarok / the entire book? I love it. I can see that happening easily and everything happening all over again is nice. 

The next book, which was on my TBR list for April and moved over to May, is Arrows of the Queen. It's set about five hundred years after Magic's Price / Last Herald Mage trilogy which is part why the series is so good. Originally, I was kind of sad that we were getting such a big jump. I wanted to see more of the characters that I grew to love in the Last Herald Mage trilogy, along with seeing the aftermath of the events of that trilogy. What I didn't expect is that I would get that in this book. I was able to see the after effects of what happened because it's tied into Talia, the main character of this book, reading about the events as it's told as a story now. It is one of the things that Mercedes Lackey does well during this book, along with the tension that's strung along until the middle of the book and it just didn't go away easily. Others might be annoyed by it, but I thought it worked well.

Talia, for all her strength and the role she's thrown into as Queen's Own (meaning she's the confidant / personal adviser of the Queen and the princess), doesn't start out that way. She starts out as a child who wants to be a Herald more than anything in the world and she gets her wish. I think, in the next two books in the trilogy, we're going to get a bit of "be careful what you wish for" as a subtle undertone. I say that because, as a writer myself, I couldn't help but put that into my own work if I set it up that way in the first book. However, Talia has to learn to trust and her gradually opening until she's forced to worked really well for character development. It helped me connect to her and trust her as the narrator of the story, even though we did POV jump, and made me not want to put the book down. The other part that made me not want to put the book down was the POV jumping because it was done seamlessly. Lackey went to another character's perspective only when it was needed to enhance the story and not hinder it. I think anybody who wants to do that in their own writing needs to read this book to see how it is done. Not forcing it at chapters but just weaving it in like it is supposed to be there all along worked wonders. 

As for missteps, I didn't really find any or I didn't have the same that others had. The only thing that I wished was changed was having Skif and Talia realize they should have been friends from the beginning. However, I'm also someone who likes it when fantasy stays away from romance all of the time, so that might be my own bias. 

So, those are my two reviews of what I've been reading so far in the month of May. I should have more coming up soon but, if you want to see my reviews from April, go check out my YouTube channel here. Until next time, happy writing and reading!

Three Things

1. Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology is excellent, as is Mercedes Lackey's Arrows of the Queen, and I should have a book review up before the end of the week for both.

2. I'm participating in Bout of Books readathon next week, so there might be daily updates next week. Might.

3. I so totally wrote Justinian's proposal to Kate yesterday for #1linewed theme of humble: "I don't have all the answers, Katelyn," Justinian said. "I never will. I am asking, possibly begging, for you to simply say yes. If I have to, I'll get on my knees, but only for you. You're the only one worth it."

That's it for now. To be honest, check out my twitter at @CrescentLizzy or my YouTube channel as I update those a lot more. I'm sorry for those who read my blog but I just can't commit to updating on a regular schedule. Anyways, until next time, keep on writing.

Where have I been and where am I going?

Hello again. It's been an interesting turn of events since I last showed up here. I would apologize for disappearing, but this is always the first plate that gets dropped when I start doing a million things at once. I don't mean it to be that way, but it's what happens. Anyways, let's go into what's happening now.

1. I'm querying Mystery of the Dark - what this means is that I am looking up agents and sending out a letter asking them to please look at my novel. In some cases, it means sending them parts of the novel too, which worries me, but only because I'm sending out my baby into the world. It's taken a very long time to get from draft one to sending to agents and while I love it, I'm also anxious about making sure everything is perfect. It's kind of fun and kind of getting more gray hair at the same time.

2. I changed the name of the blog back to Words 'n Books. I'm starting to do a lot of reading again, which is a ton of fun, and I'm glad I'm getting back into the swing of it. I've also started putting videos up on booktube, which is a section of YouTube that deals with all things books, and it's been fun. I just finished Wicked Deep yesterday and will have a spoiler filled review of the book up sometime over the weekend, but I'll link it here. I'm also taking part in the OWLs readathon and I've got two of my OWLs done. One more and I'll have exceeded expectations and that's all kind of awesome. You can find my YouTube channel here.

3. I'm editing Power, which is a trip because my writing is so horrible from 2008, and working on the second book of the Mystery of the Dark series. It's slow, for both of them, but at least I'm getting towards having things done, which is always fun, and then throwing them out to readers / editors / what have you to mix it all up.

4. I have a Facebook author page now! You can find it here.

So, that's where I have been. It's been interesting and a bit insane, but let's talk about where we're going.

1. This Sunday, there's a publishers panel at my library that I'm going to. It'll be interesting to network and hear what people have to say and so on. I'm a bit worried about it, mostly because I tend to be shy and I have to put myself forward, but we'll see how it goes. I'll update on that come next week sometime.

2. I'm going to attempt to post more. I'm not going to say how much, but I will work on it. At least once a month, I think, but we'll see.

3. More querying and trying not to have panic attacks with sending emails. The worst thing they're going to say is nothing, the second worst thing is going to be no. So, really, it's not as horrible as I'm making it out to be. Damn anxiety.

So that's that. Bit of an update and a bit of where we're going to try to go from here. Until next time, as there will be one, happy writing.

The Ultimate Book Tag

Hi everyone! I watch YouTube a lot and sometimes the people I watch do tags where there's a set of questions that everyone answers while they film their video. One of my more favorite YouTubers put up a book tag for Riverdale and I thought of doing something similar for the blog. In stumbling around Google, I found the Ultimate Book Tag by ChapterChicks that I thought would be fun to do. So, we'll get started. If you decide to do the tag, please leave me a comment with a link to your blog as I'd love to see your answers. 

The Ultimate Book Tag

1. Do you get sick while reading in the car?: I used to all the time but it's less now. I'm not sure if my body just got used to me reading in the car thanks to being on my phone all the time or what. 

2. Which author’s writing style is completely unique to you and why?: For me, it's a tie between Stephen King and John Irving. Stephen King has a style that sucks you into a book, no matter if it's a horror story or something else, and just holds you in until you can't read anymore or the book is over. John Irving has the older storyteller vibe from ages ago that makes you just want to sit down and listen to everything he has to say. A Prayer for Owen Meany is an excellent example of this and you should go read it if you haven't already.

3. Harry Potter Series or the Twilight Saga? Give 3 points to defend your answer.: ...well, fine. It is going to be Harry Potter.

1. It is not in first person and, while Harry is the focus, you get more of a view of what the other characters are doing. In Twilight Saga, it is all Bella all the time and there are points where you just have to reach in and strangle her for all she's doing. 

2. I like magic and magical schools.

3. I have never cried like I have cried over the death of characters like that series. I'm not just talking Dumbledore and Snape, but a lot of other characters. I call book 7 the book of death considering the death count there.

4. Do you carry a book bag? If so, what is it in (besides books…)?: No, but I have a big messenger bag. The book in there right now is The Fire Pit by Chris Ould. Other than that, I have my wallet, my phone, and usually my iPad or Kindle to read other things on if I want to.

5. Do you smell your books?: ...People don't smell their books? How weird.

6. Books with or without little illustrations?: It depends on the book. I like it when books have maps, which I'm not sure counts or not with the illustrations.

7. What book did you love while reading but discovered later it wasn’t quality writing? (Ex. I read Twilight before I read HP and thought the writing was amazing but read HP and now think Twilight is a little bit of a joke.): My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. There was just so much with that book that was so wrong. The parents not seeing reason, the ending that came out of nowhere, and... it is the first book that I cannot even with. Now, I have a rule that there are great authors out there that have that one or two books where they're just wrong. It was a great idea but it just falls flat, so I have to try at least two books by the same author before I put them on my never read again list. I tried Nineteen Minutes and... yeah, no. Her writing is nice but the quality of plot was just wrong. So, she's not my cup of tea, which is sad, but that's where I am at the moment.

8. Do you have any funny stories involving books from your childhood? Please share!: Mom likes to tell the story where I had to have Three Little Pigs read to me or I would throw fits and not go to sleep. That's about it.

9. What is the thinnest book on your shelf?: Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.

10. What is the thickest book on your shelf?: Three way tie between complete version of Chronicles of Narnia, complete version of Lord of the Rings, and the Mists of Avalon. 

11. Do you write as well as read? Do you see yourself in the future as being an author?: I do, with both questions, and, hopefully, it'll be this year that I am finally an author. 

12. When did you get into reading?: My family likes to joke that I was born reading, so it's been from a very early age. I did not teach myself how to read, but my mom did, and she loves reading. So she passed it onto me. 

13. What is your favorite classic book?: Hmm... this is a tough question. I have way too many classic books that I like. If you were to tie me to a chair with a gun to my head and I could only pick one, it would have to be Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger. It introduced me to the idea that not all heroes are good with the antihero. Until I read that book, I thought that all protagonists were straight and narrow good guys. The idea of the antihero blew my brain and I've been loving the idea ever since. 

14. In school was your best subject Language Arts/English?: It was one of my bests. I also was amazing in math and science but got my BA in English Literature. Now I see plot holes everywhere. 

15. If you were given a book as a present that you had read before and hated…what would you do?: Say thank you and go to Half Price Books to turn it in to get another book.

16. What is a lesser known series that you know of that is similar to Harry Potter or the Hunger Games?: In the idea of a magic school type place, I would say the Harper Hall trilogy by Anne McCaffrey is a good place to start. I'm not sure for Hunger Games.

17. What is a bad habit you always do in writing?: I am horrible at describing places. It's called white box syndrome and I'm working on it.

18. What is your favorite word?: Coccyx. I have yet to use it while writing. 

19. Are you a nerd, dork, or dweeb? Or all of the above?: I'm me and awesome, so it doesn't matter? 

20. Vampires or Fairies? Why?: Both, but fairies are more powerful.

21. Shapeshifters or Angels? Why?: Both but angels are more powerful due to that backing from God thing. 

22. Spirits or Werewolves? Why?: Both but werewolves are more powerful because they're in the living world. Spirits have to cross over and can only do so with the aid of someone who has spirit magic, related to them, or both. 

23. Zombies or Vampires?: What kind of zombies are we talking about here? If we're talking the Max Brooks kind, then zombies. If we're talking about Anne Rice vampires (or my own), then vampires. This is too broad of a question. 

24. Love Triangle or Forbidden Love?: Forbidden love! Love triangles just make me work out how they would be a threesome or more because why not. Honestly. There's not enough time in the world to limit love to just one person. 

25. AND FINALLY: Full on romance books or action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in?: Action-packed with a few love scenes mixed in. I used to be the person who loved to read full on romance but my tastes have changed. 

So, that's that! I hoped you liked reading my answers and I tag anyone who wants to join in on the fun. You can either link me to your own post or answer in the comments. Until next time, happy reading! 

March Goals!

Spring is nearly here! I can't believe I'm saying that, considering I am very much a grump when it comes to too much sunshine. I blame my eyes, because when it gets to be too sunny, everything is just white. It's a white landscape of whiteness because my eyes can't really filter. So, yeah, that's kind of fun but I think there was just a bit too much snow too fast this year. I love, for this week, that we're in the middle 50s because that makes life a lot better. Instead of my winter coat, I get to wear my short in-between seasons coat. Happy.

Anyways, you didn't come here to listen to me fangirl about the weather. Let's get into the goals for March!

March Goals

• Research and start writing query letters for Mystery of the Dark
• Work on writing Sleight of Hand
• Finish that outline for Sleight of Hand before we get to the parts that are marked "Placeholder"
• Work on Flash of Fang's outline to make sure it fits with Mystery of the Dark and Sleight of Hand
• Work on Song of Siren's outline to make sure it fits with the other three books in the series
• Continue editing Power - this is a bit of a blast from the past. I was thinking I wanted another editing project and this story popped into my mind. It was my first NaNoWriMo win and... isn't that bad of a story? Honestly? It's just got major plot holes and grammar problems. 
• Read (placeholder) for book group - we haven't decided what we're reading yet. I'll update when we do. 
• Read The Fire Pit
• Finish reading Magic's Price

So, yeah, that's pretty much it. Lots of working on plot with some writing and editing thrown in for good measure. I've got three books for March because The Fire Pit just came out. It's the third book in the series and I have a desperate need to figure out what happens next. The idea of book group is really helping to make me read more, which is nice, and I'm reading things that I either wouldn't have read before or was just putting off. All good things.

Well, what are your goals for March? Feel free to leave them below or hit me up on Twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, happy writing. 

February in Review: Wow, That Went Better

I feel like I blinked and February is over. That's what happens when it's the shortest month of the year and I feel like I've done a lot. I also got sick, which was so freaking annoying, but it gave me a very good excuse to watch the Olympics. Also, people crabbing that the USA didn't win enough can go away. We got the gold in women's hockey after 20 years of losing to Canada. We got gold in men's curling for the first time ever. So what we didn't do that great in other categories? Part of that, like figure skating, is the fact that we need to up our program. Also, it would be great if the guys didn't fall so much but apparently I'm in the minority on that. Oh well.

Right, February review. Let's get back on track. Mystery of the Dark re-edits are done and it is out to readers! Readers who, at the moment, are enjoying it and put the idea in my head that Mark might be better as gay. To be honest, I've entertained that idea far too much in my head and it would be so easy to change Celestrina to Celestrino. That might be happening, which is great, and yeah. Book 1 is done until I get my reader's feedback so it's been put away.

Now, book 2 - Sleight of Hand - is still a bit clunky. I've got where I want to start, but the outline is still unfinished. I decided to start writing and see where I go with it. I know what I want to focus on, but this is the hart part of taking it out of my brain and putting it on paper. I need someone to get on the idea where you can just plug your brain in and it just spews out everything into a word document. That would make my life a whole lot easier.

Also, books! I finished World War Z which had a lot more realism than I expected it to. I expected it to be more zombie focus and less human focus, probably due to the movie, and it was the opposite. It was an excellent book and I have way too many parts highlighted but it was a ton better than the movie. I wish, instead of the movie, that we could have a TV series focused on the different parts of the book. Tell it in flashbacks or something, but yeah, it needed a better adaptation than it got. I also read, in a day, Dragonsinger because it's been a while since I read it. I can't remember where I left off in the Dragonriders of Pern series, but I'll probably figure it out soon enough. I do remember enough of the series so I won't be lost, so that's good too.

How did your February go? Feel free to leave it in the comments or hit me up on Twitter at CrescentLizzy. Until next time, happy writing!

Coming Out of the Blanket Fort

One of the hardest things that I've found is being a writer and being sick at the same time. There is so much that I have to do but I can't do it. I have to sit there and be sick in my sickness and let it all go. Just let things drop and try to get better. It is stressful because all I can think about, while not napping, is what isn't getting done. The blog posts aren't getting done and my gratitude week self imploded. The editing isn't getting done. No writing is getting done. It's hell because I want to do things. I really do. I want to write the blog posts. I want to get things done. I just couldn't last week because that's how sick I was. It sucked. It really really sucked. There's no other way to put it, honestly.

So, here I am, on Tuesday, a week later, and I'm starting to feel normal again. I'm starting to pick things up again, like this blog, and get things done. I've got a to-do list, I'm feeling better, but there's also this question at the back of my head. I'm wondering how last week and feeling right now would have gone if I had pushed myself to get things done. If I had pushed myself to finish gratitude week or get the editing done, how good would it be? I wouldn't be able to give my all to my projects and that idea terrifies me a bit more than just not doing anything at all. It terrifies me not to give my all to my craft and put every bit of me into my writing or editing. Or even blogging. If I'm not giving 100%, what am I giving? How good will it be? How much will I have to go back and redo things because I pushed myself?

Underneath all of those questions is one more - how would I be feeling right now if I did that? Not mentally with my work but physically. I have a pretty nasty virus going on - I went into a clinic on Thursday and got a faint positive for strep but the culture came back negative - and I had no energy. I was sleeping and watching the Olympics with a little bit of playing World of Warcraft. There were times when even that was too much. So, in pushing myself, I don't think I would be feeling better now. I don't think I would be up and able to get my work done or even take care of the house as it is. Now, sure, I'm still not 100% physically but I am feeling that way mentally. I'm still losing my voice and coughing and all that fun stuff but at least I'm clear headed enough to work. At least I am ready to get things done.

And that, truth be told, is the best part about coming out the other side when feeling sick. To give yourself the time off in order to come back better. I know a lot of people can't do that because of the ways that sick days and PTO is set up in the United States but it would be nice if it was. It would be nice if we could get sick and take all the time we needed to get better. It would be nice to go to see your doctor, without the fear of it bankrupting you in case it turned out to be worse than a cold or strep, and getting your medicine without wondering if you would be able to eat. I think, along with a lot of other reforms, we need to start striving towards that. Let's make ourselves better first and then get back to work, with a clear mind and, hopefully, some clear sinuses.

See you all next week and, until then, happy writing.

Monday and Tuesday Gratitude

Two for the price of one here because, like with all good intentions, I seem to off the road as soon as I got on it. I am fighting off the start of a cold or the flu or something but yeah, I am sick. It's not fun. However, we've got a plot twist coming up.

I am grateful for the fact that I can be sick and there are no big world ending things that'll happen to my life for being sick. A lot of people, like retail workers, cannot say the same thing and they usually have to go in sick. So do a lot of other people. The US is crap when it comes to PTO - paid time off - and it is hit and miss at every company you work at. Nobody should have to worry about money coming in or bills being paid when they're sick. They should be worried about getting well and making sure their family stays well when they're sick. This goes for any sort of illness - chronic, acute (colds and flu fall here), mental - it shouldn't matter how you're sick, just that you can get the time off and get yourself well.

So, yes, today, I am grateful that I could call yesterday a sick day and today too. Probably tomorrow as well but we'll see. Maybe, someday, we'll get to the point where everyone can relax and focus on getting better than on the fact that they need to work to survive.

Until tomorrow everyone.

A Welcome to Gratitude Week

Hello! If you didn't know, this week contains Valentine's Day. In celebration of that, I am doing a gratitude week where, instead of complaining or explaining about something, I am instead going to be grateful. I'm not sure if I'm going to do it spur of the moment when I think of something and have it go up or if Monday's Gratitude will appear on Tuesday and it'll be staggered so we'll see. I thought it would be interesting to show a different kind of love rather than the traditional type of love that we see around this time of year.

Please feel free to join either in the comments or with me on twitter. You can always find me @CrescentLizzy and I'd love to see you join in.

The Woes of Outlining

An alternative title for this post was "Ranting About How Outlining Sucks" which might have been catcher. However, I am having issues with outlining and just butt in the chair in general. The re-edits for the first chunk of Mystery of the Dark book 1 is done, so why not outline book 2? And, you know, write it so you can be editing it while trying to push book 1 towards publishing? It all seems like a good plan on paper but, in practice? I am having so many issues here. Let's go through my top three with the problem and the solution.

Problem: The butt-in-chair isn't happenning - it's just not. I can think of everything else that needs to get done - like my laundry yesterday and the fact that I should go shovel Cookie's area outside (she's a short dog) and the dishes and and and.. you get the idea. It's not that they're things that need to get done right this second, save for maybe Cookie's area as it's just going to get colder in a few hours, but there's no reason why I cannot just sit in the chair and try to outline. And yet, I can still feel like I'm wanting to get up and go do something - anything - other than try to figure out where this book is supposed to go.
Solution: Write down the most exciting parts and then go do a house chore that needs to be done. In doing so, you might find the dot that connects the exciting parts together.

Problem: The butt is in the chair but there's other stuff to be done online - this is harder. This is a lot harder and I'm actually doing one of the butt is in the chair but yet I'm still procrastinating right this second by writing this blog post. So, thank you for being my procrastination. Or there's all those plan with me videos I could be watching or I could catch up with Lucifer or some other TV show I've got a back log on the DVR with.
Solution: Get an extension to Chrome or whatever web browser you are using and use it. Make sure all the sites you would go to procrastinate and your email is included in them. Do not put in Google because you might need to search for something. Hide your cell phone / put it in to airline mode so you don't use it as a go-around to get to a site. Then, set a timer or get an extension with a timer so you're dedicating a block of time to do what needs to be done.

Problem: I have no clue what the hell I'm doing and why am I a writer in the first place?! This is all going wrong.
Solution: Deep calming breaths, maybe some yoga, and either tea or coffee. More deep calming breaths. It'll pass. It'll pass and you'll go right back to being the kick ass writer you know that you are.

These are my top three. I have a lot more, but those are a lot more my own issues and related to the book itself. For those related to the book, the solution is all the same for me. Grab a notebook or a yellow pad of paper - I've been using a yellow pad a lot and love it more than a notebook - and start writing down what you need to figure out. For me, it was making sure that everything connected back to the first book and what I needed to get done plot wise in the series. It also helped to figure out my antagonists for each book and how to loop in the eventually insane end to the series. I hope that my top three problem / solution helped you and if you have any tips or would like some help with your own problem, leave a comment below or hit me up on twitter at @CrescentLizzy. Until next time, take care and kick some writing butt.

February Goals

No fancy banner this month, just a list of what needs to get done. I'm in this place where black and white lists seem like the best thing right now. I'm also taking a mental health day, where the only thing that's getting done is this blog post, so there's that as well. I did a project last night that just took all my mental energy, even though I got paid, and I'm just not having it with doing anything today. So, that's that. I know I need to work better on it, but that's for another day and post.

This month, the goals are:

• Mystery of the Dark re-edits
• Send out Mystery of the Dark to readers
• Start working on query letters
• Finish working out plot threads for Sleight of Hand
• Outline Sleight of Hand
• Start writing Sleight of Hand by the 16th-20th
• Read World War Z for book group
• Try to finish Magic's Price

The reason why this is a bit heavy on the Mystery of the Dark stuff is... I should have the re-edits of the second and the third chunk by the end of this weekend / next weekend. The re-edits, where I put in things that I might have missed, are going insanely fast. Like I blink between one edit and the next and I've jumped multiple chapters fast. The thing that's going to eat at my mental worry this month is the query letters because I'm only sending it out to readers who are going to be sending me love back in the form of their criticism. So, there's that. I really want to get Sleight of Hand to writing mode by the middle of the month, if not sooner, because the week where February goes into March, I will have very little responsibilities at home in terms of taking care of the dog. I want to channel the free time into writing time with a good mix of downtime. 

So those are the goals for February. What are your goals for the month? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and I'll catch you next time.

January Review: Dropping Plates

Heeeyyy... so you know the thought about dropping plates in a metaphorical sense? It's when you have way too much to do, so you're balancing plates that have everything you need to get done in your life. One plate is family and another plate is writing and another plate is something completely else that is going on in your life. With dropping a plate, you're doing so in order to keep the other plates and your life in balance. It's kind of refreshing to realize that, depending on what plate you're dropping, it will not bring about the end of the world. Now, if you drop the family plate without good reason - toxic family relationship, people demanding too much of your time when you don't have enough to give - then there are big consequences. If you drop say, the writing plate, you are going to suffer because you're not writing and growing as a writer.

For me, the plates I dropped were this blog and my big reading list for January. I did read a book and started others but the book that I finished was 11/22/63 by Stephen King about going back in time to save Kennedy. It's one of the best, believable time travel stories that I have read in a long time and I forgot how much I love Stephen King's writing. I started Turtles All the Way Down but didn't really finish it. That's more my fault than the book - the start is excellent and grabs you - but I just dropped it for no good reason than I needed to. Devil in the White City is being pushed back and so on and so forth. So, yes, I completely dropped my reading plate. However, I am picking it back up in February and allowing myself one fiction and one nonfiction book that I am reading on my own. I am now part of a very loose book club and I will allow myself a third book as the book club choice. However, we might also go with a read your own book and talk about it thing so that would be helpful too. So, in dropping the plate of reading, it helped me realize that I tried to do too much. Scaling it back to one dedicated book of fiction and nonfiction will help. Now, might I read more? Yep. However, we're going to stay with the baseline.

The other plate I dropped was this blog. I apologize to people who are here reading and were wondering where the heck I went. I am always on Twitter as CrescentLizzy so please, feel free to go follow me. I am a lot more political on there, so you have been warned, but I'm not ashamed of it. Sorry not sorry as people say now. However, the reason I dropped the blog is two fold. One is that I just had a mental breakdown the second week of January. I was getting nothing done, it felt like everything was sufficating me, and I just felt there was no way out. Thankfully, I have a very understanding friend who got it and showed me the way to get out of the funk. Basically, it's a list everyday in my Erin Condren planner of what needs to get done no matter what during the day. Every day I write down dishes as the last thing to check off because I always need to do dishes. I've taken up yoga which has been so helpful with the mental health and that goes at the top of the checklist. Making order out of my life has helped a lot with getting things done.

The second reason, that I am extremely happy to annouce, is that I finished getting the edits in for the third chunk of Mystery of the Dark. As of this writing, it has been sent back to my editor who is going to rain down rainbows and puppies on me for fixing a lot of the things. Ok, maybe not rainbows and puppies, but I feel a ton better just getting that out of the way. The problem now is that I need to go and fix the series to redo some subplots. Like the entire romance subplot between Kate and Justinian that is now on the official slow burn train. It works so much better for them, so I'm happy it got pointed out and I went that way. However, it now means that I have to figure out when their official first kiss is and so on. Also, I have a better understanding of where to go with book two because I was kind of floundering with writing it. It was a minor clusterbomb and it's going to be better now. So, yeah, the blog plate got dropped due to mental health and editing.

I'm looking at my January goals and laughing at getting the third chunk done by the 15th. That didn't happen but it did get done. Ditto to the second book being completely written and so on. For next month, we're going to have overall goals for the month and, if things get done before the 28th, then that's great. If they get done on the 28th, that's great too. The thing is that shit is getting done and, for me, that's an awesome goal to hit.

How did your January go? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter and I'll see you next time.

What I'm Reading in January

source: fanpop

Alright, so let's get to what I'm reading in January! Now, this is not going to be everything I'm reading in January. I sometimes swap books in and out, depending on how they're holding my interest, and I might move something I started reading in January to finish in a different month. With that out of the way, let's get into what I'm reading.

• The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro - A couple goes to find their son that they haven't seen in years and there's a tag of dragons with it. I loved Never Let Me Go and my friend Amanda recommended this, so I'm thinking it's a good follow up read of the author.
• Turtles All the Way Down by John Green - My friend (and editor!) erin basically went, in all caps, you have to read this. She's rarely ever wrong on good books when John Green is involved, so we'll give this one a shot too.
• Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris - This, while sounding amazing, might end up on my DNF (did not finish) list. I read Chocolat and it is not one of my favorite books. I always like to give an author another try before I swear them off completely due to incapability in narrative and other things. The only author that I have not given a second chance to is George R.R. Martin and he knows what he did. 
• Unmentionable : The Victorian Lady's Guide To Sex, Marriage, And Manners by Therese Oneill - This is my research book of the month. I like reading one book where I break out a notebook and take notes about it for a future book setting.
• Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton - I still don't know how I haven't already read this book. When I was a teenager, I devoured so much of his work and multiple times too. So this will be a nice throwback to my teenage years.
• The Devil In The White City : Murder, Magic, And Madness At The Fair That Changed America by Erik Larson - I've been told I need to read this for a few years now. So I'm going to read it already. That's the long and short of the story for this one.
• Mrs. Sherlock Holmes : The True Story Of New York's City's Greatest Female Detective And The 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated A Nation by Brad Ricca - My friend Katie recommended it to me for reasons that I don't remember. Or maybe I saw it on her Facebook or Goodreads feed and thought it sounded good. Either way, it's on the list to be read this month.

So that's the reading list for the month. It seems like a lot, but considering how I want to pick back up how I used to read, it doesn't feel like too much. Time will tell and I wish you all happy reading!

The 2018 Books Post

This is the dump post for books that I will be reading in 2018. As I love lists, I'm going to be segmenting what I read into the following: to read, rereads, finish this year, read, did not finish, and move to 2019. The last will be used more as we get into the later part of 2018 as I've got a long list of things I want to read along with rereads. I'm going to try to do a mix of new and rereads, but we'll see how that goes. Also, these are not in any order. They're more in the "oh, that one" type order. Also, this list will probably grow throughout the year.

To Read
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
The Fire Pit by Chris Ould (book 3 of Faroes)
Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton
Mrs Sherlock Holmes by Brad Ricca

Rereads
The Martian by Andy Weir
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey

Finish This Year
Magic's Price by Mercedes Lackey

Read

Did Not Finish

Move to 2019

Photo of the Day - What's Your Winter Quote?

Happy Wednesday from what is a very cold Chicago Suburb. I decided to gt out of the house - a mixture of stir crazy and routine - and the walk was cold but nice. There's something about walking through snow that brings on a meditative quality. You calm down as you continue to walk, making sure that you don't slip on that bit of ice you can't see, and control breathing through your nose instead of your mouth. Not just because your glasses will fog up but because breathing through the nose in winter might be better for you. Until your face is cold even with the scarf and you breathe out through the mouth to warm up.

It can't compare to the much better activity of walking through fallen leaves. For one, it's not usually as cold and there's a crunch that brings joy to the heart. Good things are happening with the season changing and the colors being a vibrant red or orange instead of just green. There's a favorite quote of mine - Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower (Albert Camus) - because it's true. Yes, the flowers are dying and we won't see them again until spring, but you look up and color is all around you.

I have yet to find a favorite quote about winter. I loathe the song "Baby It's Cold Outside" and the quote that goes along with it. I've always hated the song. At first, it was too cutesy to be taken seriously and then, when I became an adult, it was hard not to see all the date rape references in it. BrainyQuote, when you search for winter, came up with this: In seed time, learn. In harvest time, teach, in winter enjoy (William Blake). Which... okay, it's good. It's true. But does it resonate? Eh, not really. Let's look at the others.

"Winter is a season of recovery and preparation" - Paul Theroux
"Winter is not a season, it's an occupation" - Sinclair Lewis
"The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship" - Norman Douglas

Okay. I found it. "There are only two season - winter and baseball" says Bill Veeck. That might be the winner for today. What's your favorite winter quote? Feel free to leave it below or hit me up on social media. Until later, have a great day of creativity!

The Specific January Goals

image credit to bored panda

Yesterday I posted my goals for the 1st quarter of 2018 and... well, those are the big goals. I need some smaller goals, for the month, in order to get things done. This is going to be short and to the point. I do apologize for it not being longer or more in depth, but we might do that in other posts.

So, this month's goals:

• Finish the final chunk of MoD 1 editing by January 15th
• Finish writing MoD 2 by January 31st
• Start the 1st chunk re-edits of MoD 1 on January 16th to finish by January 31st
• Finish redoing the plot of MoD 3 by January 31st
• Read!
• Keep on updating this blog and annoying people with blog posts.

Okay, so maybe not annoying, but you know what I mean. I hope. Good luck with your goals for the month and feel free to share them in the comments!

Goals for 2018: The Quarters of the Year

credit autumnonfoxst.com

Hello 2018 and a Happy New Year / New Year's Day to you! This is my goals post, where I'm breaking down what I want to get done via the quarters of the year. If you're unfamiliar with this system, it's 4 chunks of the years with 90-92 days each and it seems like a good way to set somewhat concrete goals. I am toying with the idea of monthly goals, but we'll see how it goes. I will be posting updates on Sundays on what is getting done and my goals for the upcoming week, so keep an eye out for that.

Now, this is going to look weird. It's supposed to look weird. I want to see how much I get done in quarter 1 before I start to plan quarter 2. So, this is the master post of the goals for 2018. At the end of March, I'll edit this post with what got done, why it didn't get done, and write down my quarter 2 goals. I'll also make another post that shows that too so you don't have to come back to this one unless you want to. Let's get into the list of goals, shall we? And feel free to share your goals in the comments.

Quarter One: January - March

• Finish the third chunk of editing Mystery of the Dark and send it back to editor.
• Do the last edit of the first and second chunks of Mystery of the Dark
• Do the last edit of the third chunk of Mystery of the Dark when they're sent back
• Finish writing Slight of Hand: Mystery of the Dark Book 2
• Rework the plot of Flash of Fang: Mystery of the Dark Book 3
• Rewrite parts of Flash of Fang: Mystery of the Dark Book 3
• Plot Song of Siren: Mystery of the Dark Book 4
• Start editing Slight of Hand: Mystery of the Dark Book 2
• Research / set up the Podcast: Words 'n Geekery on iTunes or another place for podcasts
• Reading: Read 3 novels
• Blogging: Blog at least once a week, try for twice a week

Quarter Two: April - June

• Start writing Song of Siren: Mystery of the Dark Book 4

Quarter Three: July - September

Quarter Four: October - December