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Goodbye February

26 Monday Feb 2018

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Hey! It’s Monday! I’m a little late with the post, but it’s still Monday!

Not sure I can count this for starting March off on the right foot or not. Since, you know, it is still February. But It’s definitely not hurting for starting March off. Getting the posts back on track and where they belong.

I subscribed to OwlCrate back in December. I do have to say, I’m loving the crates. I keep meaning to do a blog post for the unboxings, and I keep forgetting with the whirlwind that is life. I’ll try and get one done for February’s though. Just need to get some good pictures in for it. So far I’ve been loving their book choices too. I can’t wait to get into those books.

Reading has picked up this last bit of the month. I don’t know if I’ll finish the whole of my February TBR, and the books I don’t will be moved up to March, but I’m at least getting some done. I always forget how nice it is to curl up and read a good book when I’ve not been doing it a while.

Writing and Editing are going a little slower than reading, but I am getting some of the stuff done.

We had more rain this weekend too, so that didn’t help the whole, my basement is a lake scenario. But now that it’s warm and sunny, it seems to finally be clearing up the way it needs to. Thankfully. So excited for that issue to be done.

What are you excited for come March? Any book releases? Movie releases? Writing or Editing goals? Let me know down in the comments!

Down and Dirty

23 Friday Feb 2018

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It’s the last full week of February. February has not been kind to my life. And as a reflection, this blog has started posting on Fridays instead of Mondays.

I’m hoping to get back on track starting with next week. But it’s a small hope. One that I’m going to cling to.

The weather has been crazy here. One day 70’s the next 30’s. That doesn’t seem terrible, but when you get migraines at the drop of a hat due to the shifts in pressure caused by those radical temperature shifts, it becomes a serious issue. I’ve been lucky to be at work most days with the weather turning back and forth like it has been.

I was able to get about one page of editing done this last week. Just one page. It’s not a lot, and I’m actually a little disappointed in myself for it.

And reading wise, I haven’t been after a couple of books at the beginning of the month. So I’ve got some catching up to do there too. I have goals and books to finish – both my own writing wise and other people’s reading wise.

Short update because short week. Also, my basement flooded the last two days, and I’m exhausted from the up and downs of pumping all that water out. So I’m just going to leave you with, I will do better! And the cute picture of the cat sleeping on a ball of yarn above.

Halfway Gone

16 Friday Feb 2018

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Can you believe we’re a little over halfway through February. The second month of the year. We’re almost a sixth of the way through 2018. I’m not even sure where the month went.

I lost a whole week due to a root canal getting slightly infected and being on both antibiotics to kill it and pain meds to mange everything going on in my mouth. It’s why I didn’t get to post Monday, and it’s why I’ve been fairly quiet on Twitter recently. It’s taken everything in me to be able to get into work and focus. Especially with the cold and the snow storm we ended up having.

I mean, look at those icicles up in that picture! That’s the eve of my roof as the sun rises over my neighbor’s house. The bushes in front of my house are about a foot shorter due to the weight of the snow we received over last weekend. Of course, Wednesday and Thursday were in the 40’s so all the snow and ice is slowly melting. But it’s supposed to drop back into the teens for the weekend. At least it means I’ll be snuggled in the house, finally feeling better, so I can write, edit, and read all weekend.

I want to get Chapters 2 and 3 of my current WIP edited by next Thursday! The goal is to get them to my writer’s group for feedback.

I also want to work on the short that a friend of mine is helping and encouraging over on her blog. You should check her out here!

Hopefully though, the end of February will be good to me. After the pain the first half caused me, I think the month owes me.

Frozen but Working

06 Tuesday Feb 2018

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The Midwest had a couple days of nice weather. Just a couple. And then it plunged right back down into single digits and dumped a bunch of snow on us too. The above photo is not from after it snowed, but it is from this winter. I have an outdoor mall near me, and they have a fountain that runs all winter to keep the pipes from freezing over. So the top of this fountain, for the most part, is all frozen except for where the jets of water come out. It’s super cool to see.

With the snow has come the one thing I hate with weather shits. Migraines. Sunday I was knocked back for a good chunk of the day with a migraine and I couldn’t do much of anything.

One thing I managed to do was rewrite the beginning of a short I had started that caught my attention. I was proud of myself. I took this bit of story and the three pages I had flourished into six pages after expanding on the detail and reworking everything.

And then in the shower my brain went – but what if we do this, that, and the other.

Needless to say, I’m hoping to get it rewritten for a third time this week. and then hopefully that will be put to bed enough that I can flush it out and finish it. I’m only expecting a 10k short from it. But it’d be nice to get it finished. One more thing off my long list of open WIPs that I can cross off.

How is your WIP going? Do you have one you have as your sole focus? Do you have many with an idea book beside you to jot down any wayward plots that cross your brain? Let me know down in the comments!

Also! Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of Twisted Fate by Jessi Elliott! You’re going to love it!

Time – I know not how

29 Monday Jan 2018

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Sometimes I really don’t know how time flies in my life. I look around and the day is gone, or the week is gone. Take last week as an example. I’m not sure how, but I completely phased through last week and I’m not sure how.

Or I guess to a point maybe I do. A good chunk of the first part was spent editing Chapter 1 of my drafted novel. I’ve been wanting to get to editing it, get to plotting book 2 for the series, and get everything moving along. And I sat down last week and I worked my way through Chapter 1.

Unfortunately I got tangled up enough in my words that I missed getting a blog post out last week. But fear not! I have not forgotten you, my dear readers! This week I’ll have two posts up. Today’s update of how things are going – great, I got Chapter 1 edited! I’ll also be doing a January Wrap-Up/February TBR post on the 1st! So thankfully I’ll make up for missing the post last week.

Aside from editing, I have been video gaming, not going to lie. Microsoft and Rare have a new game coming out called Sea of Thieves (March 20 – not sponsored). It’s a pirate game where you sail the seas, hunt for treasure and glory, and defend or attack other pirates as they too hunt for treasure and glory. The Closed Beta is currently in full swing for another couple of days and my friends and I got in so we’ve all been taking advantage of being able to spend some time together on the high seas.

To make it even more enticing, the game really is stunningly beautiful. You have to really, truly learn how to sail your ships from a one/two man boat to the beautiful galleon you can see behind my friend and I in a screenshot our third friend took.

It’s been an incredible time playing it, and I will truly be sad when the Beta closes in the next few days. This is completely and totally how I spent my weekend. Not going to lie.

I also stopped long enough to read a book, and while I have certain books on my January TBR list, I think I’m going to slip past them briefly because the one I read left off in a cliffhanger and I’m dying to know what happens next so I may skip to that book instead and slide my waiting TBR list forward to Feb. We’ll see how fast I can devour the second book. I do have a few more days left in January, after all.

Also, We’re a few days out before we finish with the first month of the new year. Can you believe it’s almost February yet? Can you believe we’ve had a whole 31 days of 2018 yet? Is the year treating you well so far? I’d say it’s treating me pretty well currently. No real complaints here.

Craziness = Life

18 Thursday Jan 2018

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So, life has been a wee bit crazy this week. And apologies for this being posted a few days behind schedule.

I can’t remember if I mentioned I ended up joining a friend in a knit-along for a scarf that’s done very DnD fashion, in that you create a character and deck him or her out in awesome adventure gear, and every week a new installment of the adventure is released and you actually roll to see which chart you’ll end up doing for the different sections of the chapters. It’s been a small process for me to get everything all set up for it. Namely, I bought some nice yarn, didn’t have anything to make my life easy for winding it into a usable ball, and did it by hand. My first attempt took me two days to un-knot. -_-  Thankfully my second attempt in a different color went incredibly smoothly because I had learned. But needless to say, it’s week three of the knit-along and I have one row of the first chart of chapter one done. I’m a wee bit behind.

I will say, with great confidence, that I’ve finished two of the books on my January TBR list. So Reading wise, I have been doing well.

Writing wise, I’ve been trying to plot out a small series of novellas. That part has been slow going, but it’s getting done. I’m hoping to spend a good chunk of my weekend on it in order to hopefully start writing the first one in Feb.

I’m also getting settled in to work on the edits for the first draft of my finished novel. If all goes well, my hope is to get the first two chapters edited by the end of the month. Part of me though, feels like it’s crazy that we’re already more than halfway into our first month of 2018.

As well, I’m trying to follow along on my friend’s 2018 writing challenge. She just posted the third week of this challenge over on her blog this morning, so you should definitely check her out: Follow the clicky Link to Writing Fun! 

How is your first month of 2018 going? Let me know down in the comments!

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!

Words, Books, Life

11 Monday Dec 2017

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So, I still haven’t done much writing since NaNo ended. I’d say not for lack of wanting, because I do want to write it and I want to get words on paper. But truthfully if I wanted it THAT much, I’d carve out some time for it, right?

The truth of the matter is, life this time of year gets super busy. Working picks up this time of year because of application season for next Fall, and we have people that are coming in to interview and that requires travel prep that I take care of, and I am the one that plans, orders, sets up, and cleans up all of my Department’s Holiday party stuff. Personal has finalizing Christmas presents, getting all the stuff done for family, cleaning so family can visit, etc.

It’s pretty much a whirlwind until I get my Holiday break, a.k.a. the week of Christmas/New Years.

My goal this week is to try and get words on paper, before my actual break. Because if I’m writing before my break I can hopefully write through my break. That’s the goal. *crosses fingers*

Last week was absolutely amazing, despite no words written. I read two books. TWO! (Watch for the coming book reviews to a blog near you soon ^_~ )

I treated Mom to Wicked for her Christmas present. It was her first time seeing it, and she loved it. It was my second time seeing it, and I still loved it. It’s an amazing show.

Thursday I also had my writers group. =) First time I submitted a piece for feedback. I gave them a horror short. General consensus was, super creepy, would read something like this from me again. Which, makes me feel good. I’m glad it did its job.

I was considering writing something Holiday-ish if I completed NaNo, but I never worked out what, and I still need to finish NaNo. So that is the goal for the time being! Finish my NaNo WIP. My completion goal is Dec. 31st. So I start the new year with it complete, and I can dig into editing one of the novels I have drafted. I’d love to fully get it finished.

How was your week? Do you have a hectic schedule for the Holiday season? Let me know in the comments below!