Tag Archives: possible wip

Feelin’ Accomplished

18 Tuesday Sep 2018

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I just updated my little bookshelf with the books I’ve read this year and realized that to last the rest of the year I’m going to have to extend the little drawn bookshelf to the next page. It’s lucky that I left it blank just in case. I had enough books on the shelf for my GoodRead’s challenge of 24 books, but I’ve surpassed that this month. And I have high hopes and goals for the remaining months of the year to get through lots more books.

My writing has been slow the last month or so. I’ve been feeling under the weather, so I’ve been focusing on reading and resting versus plotting and writing. Though lots of plotting needs to start because I fully intend to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.

I have started some of my planning for NaNo. As I mentioned before, I’m going to be a rebel and do a collection of shorts instead of one Novel. I finally figured out the overall theme of each of the shorts in the collection. Now I just need to work out the plot for each of the individual shorts. I’m getting there and I should be done in plenty of time to settle into November and my massive word demands. =)

I know this has been a short update, but I don’t have too much to report past plotting for NaNo and my reading. I was under the weather, but I’m getting better and so there’s not too much to report there. Work has been super stressful as well, which hasn’t helped me to keep up on everything. I have a backlog of reviews I want to get up and out, so I’m hoping to work on those this week and see if I can get them scheduled.

I have a review coming out tomorrow, super excited for it. So definitely be sure to come back for that!

New Fall, who dis?

06 Thursday Sep 2018

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Can you believe that it’s Fall?

I mean, ignore the fact that it’s been like 80/90 degrees – way too warm for the sweater weather it’s supposed to be. Though it’s started to rain a lot this week, so that may be slowly settling where it should be.

September means school is back in session. There are no Holidays from work until Thanksgiving in November. I have two months to finish planning for NaNoWriMo. And at some point, when the trees stop believing it’s summer, there will be pretty colors all around before they fall to the ground. Though, my poor Maple Trees already have that fungus that grows on them when it’s too wet in the season. Hopefully, it will clear up so I can get some good photos of the color change though.

With school back in session, I’m busier than ever at my job. Especially because the day I intended to write this blog post and get it up, the entire University had a power surge that took out the computers for a bit, took out the internet for a couple hours, and has left a string of issues in its wake. A brand new phone, it was legit installed last week new, is now dead because of it and needs to be replaced. One of my graduate student’s computers hard drive is now dead because of it – and this computer was bought in August. Thankfully because both are brand new, they’re both under warranty to have replaced.

It’s left a lot of running to fix problems the last couple days. I’m finally winding down enough to think straight and focus on a few things other than work.

I’m currently working out a series of shorts that I plan to get a jump start on during NaNo. That’s right, I’m going to be a rebel! I’m looking to do three 20K shorts during NaNo instead of one 50K novel. It does, though, mean that my goal for NaNo will be approximately 10K longer than the official goal though, so in a way I’m paying for being a rebel by having to work a little harder to get there. But I think, with a solid plan on what I’m doing and where I’m going, that it’s completely doable.

I’m also thinking of participating in PenTober.

What is PenTober? Well, if you’ve ever been on Instagram or Twitter, you’ll probably know of the InkTober event where artists are given a list of prompts, one for every day in October, and they draw something related to that prompt. PenTober is similar, except we’re not drawing – we’re writing.

The goal is to write 500 words or less, every day. Ideally incorporating the prompt for the day, but the organizer’s main goal is to just get everyone writing every day.

For more information, you can check out their website here.

Labor day weekend I wandered around and hit two used bookstores. The books I scored copies of are in the photo above. Overall, I think it’s a pretty awesome haul of new things. And, I’m sure you’re going, but you haven’t updated your TBR list since May, but have no fear. I’m slowly working on that list now. I’m halfway through The Elite as I type this. So while the current May TBR stands for September, there WILL be a new TBR for October.

Speaking of October and TBRs. If you have any creepy horror novel suggestions for me to give a try during the spooky month, please be sure to drop them in the comments! I’d love some more haunting reads for the upcoming month.

Clinging to Health

14 Tuesday Aug 2018

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So my immune system pretty much handed my ass to me a day after I got back from my vacation. There’s nothing a boss loves more than having someone come back from vacation for a day before being out for two more due to sick, believe me.

So first, my vacation. I went camping. A week, Sunday – Sunday, of camping. Tents, air mattresses, limited to no cell service, camping. The first couple days weather wise were good. Then it rained. Then it got ungodly hot. And I was able to come home.

This trip has fully made me realize that while I used to love camping, I can’t do it anymore. I have hip and back problems – and I paid a pretty penny for a mattress at home to help with these problems. So sleeping on an air mattress just doesn’t cut it for my body anymore. I also have problems with the heat – I tend to get heat stroke super easily and so I can’t take prolonged exposure to heavy heat. The last two days of the trip the weather was close to 100 in the shade and I felt like I was going to die. And! And. The chigger bites. I looked like I had chicken pox from the knees down on both my legs. It wasn’t fun. And while I love the people I saw on this vacation, I feel like there’s a better way to see them that won’t leave me in itchy hell after.

Last week I was pretty quiet because after coming back and spending two days in my bed, I got sick. Not sure what it was but it had me going home Wednesday with a half day from work and home Thursday to try and sleep it away. I’m still not a 100% right now, mostly phlem in my throat and fatigue that I’m trying to shake. So trying to be productive has been difficult.

I’m drinking lots of fluids, I’m taking some over the counter meds that help to clear up the issues, and mostly I’m getting to bed at a reasonable time to try and get as much rest as I can so my body will get better faster. However, a couple nights ago I couldn’t get my body tired enough to sleep, but my brain was shot so I spent until Midnight on a video game because I just couldn’t get to sleep. It’s up and down, overall. I’m working on it though.

While I was camping, I brought a WIP that needs to be finished. My plan, because it’s been in progress for a while, had been to read and edit it and then be in the right headspace to finish it. It’s literally only a couple chapters from being done. That worked until I got to about chapter 5.

Then, I woke up at 4am one day and my brain refused to let me go back to sleep until I wrote what it wanted. An hour later I had about half a chapter of a brand new WIP. The rest of the week was spent writing on the new WIP. I finished two chapters before I got in the car to come home. My game plan this week is to get it typed up into a document (because with 100-degree weather this was all written in a notebook) and then continue to finish it. I know it’s going to be a short. And thanks to my friend that I discussed it with while I was writing it, I already know that it will have a sequel. I’m not sure if I’ll try to lengthen it past a mini duology set or not. Depends on how I feel after I get the second short done, I think. But yay! I’m hoping to get that short finished by the end of the month and get it out early September, with the second one to follow shortly after.

My WIP list grows every steady as I go. But I’m excited about this short and it’s sequel.

I’m also currently reading an ARC that will have a review posted soon! Super squeeing about that too. So excited to both read it and share my thoughts!

For now, back to the grind of getting everything set up. I can’t believe summer is almost over, the school year is almost back, and everything is zomg.

Are you ready for the school year? Are you ready for Fall? What’s your favorite Fall activity? Leave your answers in the comments below.

Breath, Just Breath

23 Monday Jul 2018

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Life needs more naps, so we can all look and relaxed and stressfree as the kitten on this post. I’m just sayin’ that right off the bat. I might be a little biased toward naps right now because I’m currently running around like a chicken with no head while I try to get everything done for the camping festival I’ll be on next week.

I’m not sure how it’s next week, but then I’m not exactly sure how we’re almost done with July either. I don’t feel like I’m getting a lot out of my months in general. Though, stress does tend to do that with things in general.

I was going to say July has been better than June, but I’ve published shorts in both and read a decent amount in both. Though I have read a tad bit more this month than last, almost doubling my read count this July.

With camping next week, I’m not looking to take my laptop with me. Which means all writing will have to be done by hand, in a notebook. I’m thinking of bringing my Festival story with me to see if I can hammer out the last couple chapters to get it a finished draft instead of a WIP. What’s possibly worse is that I’ve got edits on the current twenty chapters that are sitting in a binder on my desk waiting for me to roll through them. But I’d love to finish this one and then roll through edits of both my faerie story and this festival story. So thinking of bringing a printed out copy of it with me camping, and my trusty notebook so I can do a quick read through of what I have and then wrap it up.

I have a couple shorts in the back of my head too but I think I want to try and back burner them for the week and really push to finish this story. It’s been sitting for more than a few months unfinished and I’d love to get it to a point where I can just worry about the edits of it.

I’m just kind of behind on everything and I’m slowly crawling toward catching up with it all. My plan, honestly, is to get caught up on everything by the time I’m back from the camping trip. I know you’re probably blinking and going, but that’s like two weeks away, but honestly, I think with some elbow grease I can do it. I’ve already made a list of what I need to do, and ideally when I’d like it to post so it’s just a matter of sticking to my new schedule to get caught up with everything.

I can do it!

And if you’re behind on anything, just take a piece of paper, breath for a second, and jot down what you’re behind on and what needs to be done to catch up. After that give yourself dates for some of those tasks.

I felt better after writing out and giving myself dates for everything that I felt needed to be done. Because it gives me a plan to work with, and deadlines to know when everything should be done by.

And at the end of the day, just take one day at a time. After all, there are only so many hours in the day but I’m starting to learn – after a lot of being told so by some really good friends – that it’s more manageable when you have a plan and a schedule to live it by. (It just took a while to sink into my stubborn brain)

So much for Spring

09 Monday Apr 2018

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So I didn’t believe the weather apps and news reporters that kept saying we’d get snow. I thought, they must be wrong. It’s too late in the season for snow. And yet here we are. With snow on the ground.

Traffic was horrible due to it, plus late getting out because I had to clean off my car. And everyone at work today has been late due to the snow and traffic. It’s been a long, interesting morning today.

This weekend has been quick, but I’m not sure if that’s just because I ended up doing a lot of cleaning. And all that work leaves me sitting at 6pm looking around confused on how late it happened to be. It’s feeling good to get the stuff cleaned up though.

Writing wise, I didn’t get too much done. I’ve been added a little to chapter three of Honor as I can. Because I’ve needed to rework the beginning of the chapter, and how everything opens, it’s taken a little longer than just editing the chapter itself. But it’s definitely looking tighter and better, at least in my opinion.

I’ve also got a side novella project that I’m working on with the hopeful plans to reveal and release it in 2019. It’s been a little slower in coming than I’d like it to, but at the same time this year has seemed to be going super fast around me.

I’m not entirely sure how it’s already April. Or how my plate has felt full every minute of the day, especially at work. I feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day, or energy in my life, to get everything done. And it’s a strain on me sometimes for how much I look around and see what’s not yet done.

Here’s hoping the year gets better, but with how it started I’m just not sure about that yet. How is your year going so far? Are you like me, having time fly faster than you can track through the day? What do you do to try and slow it down so you can focus and get work done?

 

New Snuggles

12 Monday Mar 2018

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Hello Lovely readers. I love Build-A-Bear and may have a mild addiction to them. I can’t help it. They’re so soft, snuggly, and just bring me cheer on a bad day or week.

Please note, totally not a paid shout out for the company. I just have a deep love for them. I got an email Friday that they came out with a new Girl Scout bear. Which prompted a trip to go get her – I have all the Girl Scout bears because I grew up a Girl Scout. (If you’re wondering, this is the fifth bear in the Girl Scout set for BaB). I also have the main six My Little Pony BaBs.

For some reason, last week ended up being really stressful and I ended up super sensitive and not feeling the world/people/job much. So this little doll coming out really brightened my day. And I can’t have naked bears, so I had to get her some super cute clothes as well. Naturally. I think the only naked BaBs I have are the My Little Ponies.

She came in especially well Sunday because I got sick and nauseous and ended up sleeping 90% of my Sunday away. What little I was awake for it, I read. I’m really working on reading Message of the Crow by Ellen Dugan because it’s been on my TBR for the last three months and I really want to finish this book. I’m on chapter three now! Getting there. My motivation is low, so my reading speed has slowed down a bit.

I’m still working on it, and getting things done as I can. I’m trying to not let life stop me, inch along if it slows me down but not stop completely. Still working on edits, but at 20+ chapters, the edits will take a bit. But I’ll get it! I refuse to not!

How is your March going so far? Getting things done? Is the month feeling a little draggy for you too?

Of course, some of my drag today could probably be associated with both not feeling well yesterday and the fact that Daylight Savings was yesterday so I lost an hour.

New Year, New Adventures

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

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So the above phone is from my phone. That’s the weather right now when I get up. It wasn’t terrible to get up at that coldness when I could roll over, burrow into my blankets and do planning from bed or catch up on some of my shows. But now that it’s back to work in the am, it’s really hard to want to leave my bed.

I had hoped to get this post up on Monday, but, well. Family came first. My family always gets together New Years Day to be together, and kind of ring in the new year together. So that’s where I was most of yesterday. It was a good day over all too. I enjoy spending the time together. Unfortunately, it meant that I didn’t get much of anything else done yesterday.

I’ve been keeping a fairly decent momentum here on this blog, which I’m looking to keep going with for 2018. I want to keep posting once a week, on Mondays. (Holidays may cause posting day to be set back a day like this post) But I’m also hoping to potentially draft and schedule my posts for Monday in the future so even Holidays will have the post. =) Goals, ya’ll.

A lot of people make New Year Resolutions at the beginning of the year. I did too. Posting every Monday is one of them. What are the rest? Well.

  • Finish Editing Into the Faerietale
  • Finish Summer Starlight Festival
  • Write/plot 3 times a week
  • Read more
  • Post a Book Review on blog twice a month

Over all, I think it’s a doable list. It’s just planning out time, and making sure I sit down at work. Something that too is doable.

Do you have any resolutions? What is the one you’re planning to work really hard at? Leave it below in the comments!

Happy Holidays!

26 Tuesday Dec 2017

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I hope that you’re having a happy and wonderful Holiday! No matter what you celebrate, this season is a time for family. Make sure to stop for a while and spend the time to enjoy some time with those you love, be they family by blood or family by marriage or chosen family.

This week’s blog is a little light, due to the Holidays. I’ve been celebrating with friends and family since Saturday. Yule, my annual Holiday lunch with my Aunt and Cousin, and Christmas with the family in town.

This week I do have off work, but I’m also taking some time to reflect on how this year went, and what goals I want to have for 2018. Which, honestly, will probably be next week’s blog post, at least some of it. (There’s also massive cleaning that needs to be done when not reflecting and planning)

Keep posted for my plans for 2018! They’re bound to be exciting!

Nearly 2018. Nearly

18 Monday Dec 2017

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This picture above? That’s pretty much been my life the last week. Me trying to do something, and some obstacle making it harder. The obstacle in this picture is my cat, PT, trying to chew on my pen while I write a letter to my friend – because we are keeping communication old school by writing letters to each other and snail mailing them back and forth. It’s actually been really fun.

Work has been increasingly hectic for me, but it always is during the Holiday season. I’m actually excited for it to be Thursday because all the interviews, visiting interviewees, and parties will be over. Most of the students and faculty will be gone, the halls will be quiet, and my brain can actually settle back down while I get started on the PhD applications for my department – something that’s not too demanding when I have actual time to organize it. And all next week, beautiful vacation. I mean, the house needs to be cleaned, and Christmas is a week from today. A WEEK! And a week after that? WE START A NEW YEAR!

Can you believe that 2018 is almost upon us?

It was two years ago that I said I was going to kick myself in the pants and get this blog back in shape. Due to… well life, it’s taken a little bit to get there, but I think I’m finally on my way to. I’ve been doing good at updating regularly and I’m planning to continue to do so. I’m looking to get a WIP page going so it lists all my current WIP. Keeps me accountable, and hopefully moving on them. And I’ve been reading and because I’m reading I’ve been able to post reviews of the books I finish. All and all this last half of the year has been incredibly productive for this side of my life.

I’m looking to also set up a schedule to work on my Etsy shop and get that profitable this coming year. A little extra income is always a good thing, I think.

As well, I’ve signed up for OwlCrate. My first one should be arriving today, actually, and I’m pretty excited to get it. I’ve been watching my friend get them for a bit now and they’re always amazing. So I figured, why not! I’m thinking of dedicating a post to unboxing it after it arrives too, which I think will be fun.

Anything you’re trying to get finished in the last two weeks of 2017? Do you already know what your new year resolutions will be for 2018? Let me know down in the comments!

NaNo – Week 4 Recap

27 Monday Nov 2017

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Hey Everyone! I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

And for those that don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, I hope you just had a wonderful week. =)

For those of us in the States, Thanksgiving is a time when we gather with family, enjoy people we may not see all the time, cook some delicious food, and be thankful for the time we have together.

My family also celebrates my Uncle’s birthday, and one of my cousin’s birthdays, at the same time, so it just adds to the joy of the day. Over all it’s a good day for my family. We all gather at my Aunt’s house and she cooks the turkey (wrapped and cooked in bacon). My Mom makes a mushroom pie that is just divine. And my uncle gets enough beer as birthday presents to last him until the new year – a gift that my mom and I started when I was little and everyone and their brother decided in the last few years to jump on the bandwagon and do for him.

While it’s a good day, it’s also a long day. The mushroom pie has to be baked so that it comes out of the oven just prior to us leaving the house, so the morning is spent eating a quick breakfast and then baking. We’re out the door and to my Aunt’s for a serve time of 1pm, and then we’re there until 5/6pm. Leaves little time to really get much else done.

Not that I’m using that as an excuse. Not completely anyway. I mean, I didn’t have family obligations for the rest of the weekend. A dentist appointment and getting together with one of mom’s friends to talk about writing, yes, but nothing that ate up the whole of my day either.

Truthfully, I just needed a weekend off I think. I didn’t get a single word written from Thanksgiving through the weekend. I focused on what I felt was important to me this weekend: Family, Friends, and my Health. I also took this weekend to read, something I’m still sorely lacking a majority of the time. But it felt REALLY good to be able to just pick up a book (or well download it to my phone through kindle) and read. I started it Friday while sitting in my dentist’s office waiting to be called back and finished it Sunday morning. I pretty much did nothing but read Saturday night. And I took a little time to enjoy some video games Sunday afternoon when Mom decided to crash for a little bit because she wasn’t feeling well.

You guessed it though. It means that my NaNo word count did suffer greatly. So let’s get into the numbers, shall we.

Day 20 – 964

Day 21 – 0

Day 22 – 1562

Day 23 – 0

Day 24 – 0

Day 25 – 0

Day 26 – 0

Total: 24,227 (Goal: 43,333)

So. I’m roughly 20,000 words behind. I didn’t even bother to look at what day NaNo’s site suggested I would complete my 50,000 words, or look at how many words I would have to complete per day to catch up.

We only have four more days left of NaNo, counting today. I can safely say that because I took the weekend off, I’m not going to.

This isn’t to say I won’t continue to work on the story I started, I totally will. I want to see it to completion. And NaNo helped me to get a good portion of the way through the first draft. For that, I’m always grateful.

I will say, I have had the habit of bringing a novel back for a round two of sorts the following year if I don’t finish it or NaNo, but my goal for this novel is to have it finished before NaNo is even a blimp on my radar for 2018.

Ideally, and I’m not sure just how feasable it is yet, my goal will be to have my second Faerie novel planned out and ready to start for NaNo 2018. It’s a year off, which gives me a year to finish this year’s Fantasy novel and finish editing my Faerie book 1 novel, polishing it up before I start to save and potentially look for an editor to take a wack at it. Even, pending how long the first two goals take me, potentially have it back from said editor. We’ll see.

I’m still back and forth on if I want to try and quarry my novel or just ship it off into the world myself. There are a lot of pros and cons in both categories for what I should do. I’m still trying to feel my way through what I think might be the best route for me though.

I still have time before I get there, though. A couple rounds of edits at least.

Until next time, dear readers!