The Return of the Ishness!

Ishnesses of Late a.k.a. the Return of the King Ishness!

Heya lovely blog-readers! ❤

It’s been quiiite awhile since I did an ishness post of any sort (it comes to my attention I haven’t Ishness-ified anything from 2017 yet…) so here’s some of the ishnesses I’ve been up to in the last two+ months, ever since 2017 began!

LIFELY THINGS

GRAPHIC DESIGN IS FUNNNN. ❤

I designed my first “official” website for the Vintage Jane Austen series, as I may have mentioned.

I’d like to possibly get into setting up websites for people, as well as freelance copy-editing, so I’m starting to think about working toward these things. 🙂 I’ve just discovered that I really enjoy designing websites, graphic design work, and freeing the world from pesky typos, so I’d like to pursue these things in the future!

In related news, reading the punctuation section of The Chicago Manual of Style is beautifully refreshing because the punctuation is all correct. Be still my beating heart; what a breath of fresh air. ^_^

(On a related note: It pains me to use incorrect punctuation etc. on Twitter, but I often have to. The problems of being a long-winded perfectionist with only 140 characters in which to say something. -_-)

I started a Bullet Journal this week… It’s really mostly things I’ve been doing for ages now, but streamlined into one notebook with a couple new ideas. (Thanks to Lisa Pickle for introducing me to the concept, and Kyle Robert Schultz for a wonderful post on How To Make An Ugly Bullet Journal which inspired me to stop procrastinating and start).

Hopefully it will help me be more productive! (The notebook was a lovely birthday present from my sis. ❤ The epic Sherlock bookmark I won in a giveaway — and got in the mail today AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH — and was made by Hannah McIntyre of simplywalkintomordor @ Etsy. :))

WRITING

I’ve been creeping cautiously into writing this year. I’ve done more than I had this time last year, but less than I used to; I’m just trying to get back into it, carefully, without overwhelming or stressing myself. (I’m aware this makes me sound like a very small, very startle-able rabbit. Excuse me for being twitchy after burning myself out on writing and having too many expectations. XD)

I wrote a short story (Wintertale) and worked a little bit on The Other Half of Everything and The Secret of Kedran’s Wood (also know as Teague and Tare, respectively). And some random stuff like for a dare etc.

I’ve written 6000+ words this year so far, though I’m not keeping too close track (another thing I’m trying… less hounding myself like a police dog — remember the startled rabbit, self!).

SNIPPETS

“That’s none of your concern,” Greg said.

“I’ll find out,” Tare said. He raised one eyebrow, adding, “But you’re right, I’m not concerned. Threats don’t work on me.”

“Then what does?”

“Maybe I’ll let you know if I find that out.”

— The Secret of Kedran’s Wood (KW2)

***

Tare tilted his head. “Oh, I’m not playing this game.”

“What makes you think,” Greg said, bared teeth glittering, “that it’s a game, little boy?”

Tare smiled.

— The Secret of Kedran’s Wood (KW2)

“With how absentminded you are, it’s a wonder your food doesn’t always burn to a crisp,” I grumbled.

“Oh, it usually does,” Teague agreed placidly. “Just not with so many—erm—flames.”

— The Other Half of Everything

***

“What is it you do?” I asked, unable to stop my curiosity.

Teague beamed, staring dreamily off into the middle distance, and announced, as if it was the most natural thing in the world: “I write books.”

That was when I knew I had made a horrible mistake.

— The Other Half of Everything

READING

Aside from short stories, re-reads, and beta-reads, this is what I’ve read lately (a.k.a. new novels I’ve read this year).

1. Magician’s Ward by Patricia C. Wrede — Regency Fantasy with a former-street-thief heroine and a one-of-a-kind magician hero and humor and shenanigans and a dash of romance and basically Austen + magic? Gimme. (Seriously, I need more Regency Fantasy — where has it been all my life?) 5 stars
2. Nyssa Glass and the Hall of Mirrors by H.L. Burke — Steampunk/sci-fi reminding me of Doctor Who a bit, with a catburglar heroine and a snarky computer? Yum. A little creepy for me and a touch short, but I quite enjoyed it. Humor makes me happy. Looking forward to the rest of the novellas in this series. 4 stars
3. The Faerie Ring by Kiki Hamilton — Historical fantasy; I admit, I’m only here for the faeries in Victorian (?) England and the mysterious dark guy named Rieker; oh yeah, it also features thieves (is this a trend??) and the heroine annoyed me etc. but still fairly fun. Ought to be 3 stars, but make it 4 stars for Rieker and creepy faerie things and the prince.
4. King’s Warrior by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt — I FINALLY READ THIS ONE. Dragons and fantasy goodness and BRANT AND KIERNAN KANE. <333 I’m very attached, I tell you. ^_^ 5 stars
5. The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doué — Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling? I’M ALL THERE. Great fun, a few annoyances, fun princes, conflicted about the villain. 4 stars
6. Wild Robert by Diana Wynne Jones — Very short, very strange, stopped too suddenly but enormous fun and I loved the twist. One of the only books I’ve ever considered writing fan fiction to continue because I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. Oh well. 😛 5 stars
7. Aunt Maria by Diana Wynne Jones — MORE STRANGENESS BUT WOW. I can’t even describe it. Definitely one of the more strange DWJ books (but they all are) and… yeah, haven’t totally wrapped my mind around what I think, but it had time travel and a girl who writes, and actually delved into some deep stuff too, and was very interesting and fun. Plus Chris is the best. XD 5 stars
8. Mort by Terry Pratchett — Um. It’s full of strange Discworldness because how else do you describe these shenanigans? I got very attached to Mort — he’s a great hero — and it’s dark in a way, so not for everyone, but quite funny. 4 stars
9. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen — Finally read all the main 6 Jane Austen books! It was so difficult for me to read about all the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PEOPLE in this book… ahem. But I ended up finding it a pretty good book all the same. 🙂 4 stars
10. Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett — Another Discworld book, sequel-ish to Mort. Everything I said about that one applies; though Mort himself is not in this one. Bizarre/funny. 4 stars

I’ve also been doing much beta-reading, trying to catch up.

And re-reading lots of things, including the rest of the Chrestomanci books. ❤

I also read Howl’s Moving Castle for the 5th time. #NoRegrets

(See everything I’ve been reading here.)

WATCHING

• The Deputy — I finished this and enjoyed it muchly. ❤ Favorite Western show ever! The humor and characters Deputy Marshall Clay McCord and Chief Marshall Simon Fry (Henry Fonda). Such a great “buddy story”!
• Sherlock season 4 — I… um… don’t know what to think about this except the last episode was too creepy and the first episode was… yeah. But the middle one I liked muchly (I think?) and overall naturally it’s fun to have Sherlock and company doing stuff again. 😀
• Gladiator — So I’ve heard a lot about this? A lot of people I know like it for some reason? I guess it was okay, but I don’t care much for Roman things and SOMEBODY neglected to tell me what happens at the end, so… yeah. But it figures. XD I like the music, though.
• Archer’s Goon — I had no idea this existed until recently (a BBC mini-series from 1992 which is a total of 2.5 hours) and while it was super cheesy and 90s and lacking in budget and the actors weren’t quite right, nevertheless there were a lot of lines from the book and I just greatly enjoyed seeing a Diana Wynne Jones story onscreen. 🙂
• The Scarlet Pimpernel (1982) — Yes indeed, I FINALLY saw the one with Anthony Andrews and Ian McKellen, and I must say, although it wasn’t totally like the book, I did quite enjoy it. 🙂 (Gandalf was young and black-haired and a villain once?? :O) Percy was cool (although huuuugely annoying sometimes XD), Chauvelin was an interesting villain, and Marguerite and Armand are like the most adorable siblings for some reason? I just irrationally enjoyed it a lot, so yes, quite fun. XD
• Persuasion (1995) — Yes indeed, this is the one with Ciaran Hinds, another one everyone always said I needed to watch, so I finally was able to because I won it in a giveaway (thanks, Rachel!), and ’twas quite enjoyable. 🙂 Now I want to re-watch the other one to compare them. 😀

LISTENING

I’ve been listening to smatterings of gorgeousness by Michael Card and Lindsey Stirling, and various Celtic things like by Andy M. Stewart.

There’s so much gorgeous music in the world, and I don’t often remember to listen to it, so I’m trying to remind myself!

I’ve also been listening to Stars by Skillet, their acoustic version of it (which I hear is for a movie or something but it’s just SO PRETTY). Seriously if you haven’t heard this, go listen to it. ❤

ONLINE THINGS

I live on Goodreads and Twitter a lot lately. *gasp* So if I’m not blogging much about life or reading, I may still be talking about it over there!

In case you missed them… (Feel free to skip this bit. XD)

Book Blog posts this year:

• Top 12 Books I Read in 2016!
• Top Ten(ish…okay 24) Books Releasing 2017!
• February is Fantasy Month! {2017}
• Fantasy Month Plans/Nightstand Books
• Magician’s Ward by Patricia C. Wrede
• DWJ Quote: why should unhappy be truer?
• #MarchMagics/Nightstand Books {March 2017}

Posts around here:

• i can’t see where the road goes
• Brief Ishness of December
• My Year in Writing {2016}
• If You Want To Write
• Life Lessons Learned From Fantasy Tag
• I Love Austen Week Tag + #VintageJaneAusten Project
• Emma Retold: Emmeline by Sarah Holman (Review)
• Wintertale: A Short Story
• With Blossoms Gold Cover Reveal!
• C is for Cade Peregrine (Songkeeper Blogtour + Giveaway)

It’s March Magics! Celebrating Diana Wynne Jones (and Terry Pratchett) all month long. ❤ I’m having a blast, y’all. 🙂

It Is Not Too Much To Ask For A Happy Ending (from The Invisible Moth) — THIS POST MAKES ME HAPPY. PLEASE READ IT. ❤

Speaking of happy endings… This is the end of this (long) post, because that’s all I can think of just now. I hope you enjoyed the Return of the Ishness! Thanks so much for reading! Thoughts? Share them below, along with what you’ve been up to lately! ^_^ I hope you’re having a lovely March, roadlings! ❤

Brief Ishness of December

Ishnesses, my dear Roadlings!

My December of 2016 was spent…

WRITING

Getting over the last of my end-of-NaNo cold and finishing up last NaNo-and-ML things.

Writing a thousand words of Tare and the Chess Club only a week after NaNo because I’m insane like that. (I’d missed them. <3)

Getting Scrivener and playing with it to my heart’s content, organizing stories etc. — I adore it.

Skimming through The Library in the Stars (in order to find snippets to post) and finding that it wasn’t as bad as I thought and that I also love it more than I thought.

Being attacked by plotbunnies — a very vicious pair who are here to stay, happily chewing at my brain and taking over my room and stockpiling word-carrots. (I don’t even know where this sentence came from — apparently they’re taking my sanity too.)

READING

Frantically reading through Once so that I could review it on time. (I’m sure there’s a great “once upon a time” pun in there somewhere if you’ll just give me and Baz a second.)

Collapsing happily into spontaneously re-reading three of Diana Wynne Jones’ Chrestomanci books aloud. ❤

Reading a book about writing which I actually adored. (FYI, this is Very Big News.)

Finishing some daily-readings books I’d been reading all year.

Finally getting to read Eight Days of Luke (because I got it for Christmas) and really enjoying it because Luke and DWJ writing and all the things!

LIFE & CHRISTMAS

Christmas tree and Christmas music — yay!

Spending a warm sunny afternoon writing Christmas cards while sitting on porch steps in the sun in short sleeves (and actually feeling too warm) while ladybugs made occasional visits; and, a little while later the same day, running hectically down the street in a strong cold wind while wearing a winter coat, to catch the post office on time. (Ah yes, a Texan “Blue Norther”. That was such a steep temperature change it was hilarious.)

Flailing over the Jayne from Firefly hat which SarahTPS made me for Christmas WHICH I CANNOT GET OVER AND I LOVE IT SO MUUUUCH! ❤

Having a lovely quiet Christmas with my family and getting excited about books which I received.

WATCHING

(don’t ask what’s with the color-coding all grey-blue-white except for the western, because I have no idea how that happened)

Seeing Star Wars: Rogue One (enjoyed most of the movie — the humor and Cassian, anyway — and loathed the end).

Rewatching some Sherlock because You Know Why. *cue shrieking* (If you don’t know why, it’s because Season 4 is currently starting. o.o I’m currently too terrified to watch it because I value my non-shredded heart. Ahem.)

Rewatching Divergent and Insurgent, and watching Allegiant — kinda fun. 🙂

Watching The Deputy — buddy show!! I love Clay McCord and Simon Fry so much. ❤ They’re da best! ^_^

(And I forgot to put it in the picture, but I re-watched A Muppet Christmas Carol for Christmas and I just love that movie. :))

LISTENING

Listening to the epic music from Ren: The Girl With the Mark, because I got the soundtrack download for Christmas — THIS MUSIC IS EPIC!

(have a taste — listen to part of this gorgeousness)

LINKS YOU MUST READ ❤

Reading possibly the best and most beautiful and true post that I have EVER read about Story and life, all wrapped up in Tolkien and Lewis quotes and the story of Christmas. It was by word-wizard DJ Edwardson and I highly recommend hopping over to his site and giving it a read!

Getting excited about the tutorial Cait @ PaperFury posted (which I hope to try out soon) about How to Make Origami Lucky Stars.

BLOGGING

 

Posting about my Ishness of NaNo 2016, reviewing Once (fairytales, yay!), posting snippets of The Library in the Stars (Part 1 and Part 2), and a couple of tags posts, one Wintry one for Christmas, and one on words and quotes.

On my book blog, The Page Dreamer, also posting a brief review for Ghostly Echoes (Jackaby #3), and some For Your Ishness Reading Randomosities.

That was my December, and finishes up the final Ishness of 2016! On Monday I’ll be posting an update on my writing of the year, so stay tuned! How was your December? ^_^ Happy 2017 to you all!

10 NaNoWriMo Survival Tips

So I was throwing some random NaNoWriMo advice at a friend on Goodreads, and decided to actually post that advice and a couple other things as a blog post. Because hey, why not? Maybe someone will benefit. 🙂 (Plus, how better to procrastinate plotting that book I need to start writing tomorrow than by blogging, amIright? 😉 )

In no particular order, here is some random advice for how to survive NaNoWriMo. Because writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days definitely calls for survival tips.

(You may know all of these and/or I may have said all of this before, in which case OH WELL you may as well hear it again. XD We could probably use a refresher course…)

1) Know your plot! …If you don’t yet, you’re in a little bit of trouble, but don’t despair, you still have a day-ish left. 😉 And you haven’t, you can try to do some outlining during the month. Just be aware that you may need to do this… (If you’re a pantser, I salute you, brave soul.)

2) Lots of wordwars/wordsprints! If there’s nobody to wordwar with, I like to just set a timer and wordwar against that. If there’s a timer going for 10-15 minutes, I feel like I need to be writing the whole time and so I actually WRITE; and it’s a very rewarding feeling, writing down the amount of words I get each time, to know that after that amount of time I actually got words written. 🙂

(EDIT: New on the NaNo site this year is a wordsprint timer with optional prompts! Check it out!)

3) If you can, write to music. Turn on some fast music with a steady fast beat if you can write to music, because I’ve found I type faster with that. (May just be me.)

4) Try to stay on top of the 1667 per day goal if you possibly can — it’s no fun being behind later in the month. Falling behind really adds up. That being said, also try to write more at the beginning if you can! Chances are you’ll be more excited about your story at the beginning and not tired out yet, so the more you write early on, the better it will be. 🙂

5) Be willing to just write anything, and do not even think about going back to edit! That will derail you pretty fast if you go back and tweak. Leave a note to yourself about what to change if you need to and move on.

6) Get some encouragement if you’re feeling behind. Reading a pep-talk or ranting to a writing friend about being stuck/behind and getting reassured, or having some chocolate, or rewarding yourself when you hit that particular goal by getting to read a chapter of that book you really want to read or something, can totally help. (Of course, I’m the first to admit that the reading-a-chapter thing can backfire if you accidentally read the whole book… >.> So, beware!)

7) Remember to get up and move around. …Wait, what? For real, you should try not to spend the ENTIRE month of November sitting hunched over a laptop/notebook. (As someone who spent a few months this year with serious back pain from using too much computer and not moving enough, take it from me: you don’t want that.) Stretch! Take a walk! (It’s amazing the benefits of a good brisk walk to brainstorm scenes. Almost as good as the notorious in-the-shower-inspiration. I still maintain both of these are because you can’t actually write down your ideas at the time…)

8) Drink water. You thought I was going to say coffee, didn’t you? 😉 Which is good in the caffeine/warming-up categories, but seriously, it’s important to stay hydrated, and  you’d be surprised how much better I feel when I drink 8-10 glasses of water every day. Give it a shot. 🙂 Coffee and tea, while also good November drinks, especially when it’s cold, just don’t hydrate like good ol’ water. I fill a gallon water jug up to the line I marked after measuring 10 cups into it, and just pour the water into a glass throughout the day, which is an easy way to keep track. It helps SO much, especially since I tend to get headaches when I don’t drink enough water; and it’s super hard to write with a headache.

9) Don’t give up! Even if it looks like you won’t hit the goal for the day, or for the month, just keep writing anyway. You’ll be surprised with where you end up if you just keep going. 🙂

10) Have fun! Enjoy the ride and try not to get too stressed out — just enjoy the crazy fun that is writing and knowing others are too. 🙂 (I’m trying to remind MYSELF with this one… I tend to get stressed instead of enjoying myself. :P)

…

Aaand while I’m in a NaNo-y mood . . .

If you haven’t seen it, you can pop over to my post from last year, NaNoWriMo, My Dear Watson, which is NaNo-in-a-Nutshell-with-Sherlock-gifs.

(And even if you have seen it, go see it again, because NaNo + Sherlock Holmes = why wouldn’t you? 😉 )

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll just be over in the corner wrapped in my shock blanket, because NaNo’s TOMORROW???

(source)

Share your best advice for NaNo in the comments! We can all always use more tips! 🙂 Best of luck, everyone! YOU’VE GOT THIS.

Sweater Weather Fall Tag

Since tomorrow’s the first day of Fall, I thought I’d do an Autumnal sort of tag today! And how fortunate that Aspen @ Texas Rebel Girl tagged me (awhile back) for the Sweater Weather Tag — thank you, deary!

Sweater Weather Tag

1. Favorite candle scent?

All of them!

2. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?

Hot chocolate, always! 🙂

3. What’s the best Fall memory you have?

Visiting relatives for Thanksgiving during NaNo that one year.

4. Best fragrance for Fall?

Ummm… the smell of cinnamon maybe? I have no idea. XD

5. Favorite Thanksgiving food?

All of it. (Okay, okay, I’m partial to stuffing and corn and cranberry sauce and those little dinner roll things. And pie, of course.)

(source)

6. What is Autumn weather like where you live?

Usually… hot. 😛 It’ll cool off eventually, but it tends to be kinda warm most of the time. Oh well…

7. Most worn sweater?

My NaNo hoodie! *hugs it*

8. Football games or jumping in leaf piles?

LEAVES ALL THE WAY. I do not understand football at all. *shakes head*

9. Skinny jeans or leggings?

Leggings I guess? You can wear them with skirts too. Jeans are kinda cold to wear in the Fall…

10. Combat boots or Uggs?

I had to look up Uggs. XD Um… combat boots if I actually had them? I like laced-up boots and it’s normally not cold enough for warm boots… and you can always wear extra socks if it is.

11. Is pumpkin spice worth the hype?

It depends. If it’s in pumpkin bread, then…

Otherwise… Eh, not sure.

12. Favorite fall TV show?

I… don’t watch many TV shows, and then always from the library on DVD so… I don’t know? So I’ll just use this to say my favorite TV shows instead. 😉

• Firefly (it looks Fall-ish!)
• Sherlock
• Hustle
• Leverage

13. What song really gets you into the Fall spirit?

So Ghostly Then the Girl Came In by Kate Price… simply because I heard it first in Fall, and it’s eerie and makes me think of NaNoWriMo because of my NaNo poem.

14. What do you want to be for Halloween?

I don’t really do Halloween so… I dunno. I’ve always thought it would be fun to dress up like an elf though. *shrug*

15. Hats or Scarves?

Um. Since I don’t really have a hat (how did this happen?), scarves I guess. I tend to use a soft neckwarmer instead actually. I even actually use one for a hat-ish thing too sometimes, because that way it holds my hair back. I’m eccentric. XD

16. What’s your #1 favorite thing about Fall?

The feel in the air of adventure, the cooling weather, and NaNo probably.

How about you? Do you enjoy Fall? Anything favorite about this Autumnal time of year? Feel free to snag the tag if you’re feeling Fall-ish!

(Also, FYI: if I don’t reply to comments for awhile, it’s merely because I will be internetless for a week. But I shall return! 🙂 )

Ishness/Hiatus

July 2016

Hiiii everyone! *collapses and waves slightly* Today’s the first time in like a week that I feel like I can breathe. Oof. So busy. BUT! It’s time for another Ishness post! Because, somehow, it’s… August. What even. I’m very confused…? ANYHOW. July happened, so that’s a thing.

Life-ing

I feel like July was a roller-coaster of insanity at the beginning and end, with a lull in the middle. Independence Day was fun and busy, and the last week or so I feel like I’ve been gone a lot… Also in there we had the Silmarillion Awards and other fun things, so it’s been a good month overall.

I took a quiz which confirmed my suspicion… (I always knew I was like Tolkien. ;))

While I’m posting fun random things, I’m just going to leave this here because it’s my favorite thing about the book Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, ever:

I even remembered to tweet occasional things on my twitter.

My life in a nutshell this month in three tweets:

(Okay, I was being melodramatic on this one — it wasn’t THAT bad.)

Writing

The above tweet sums up my writing pretty well for July. So many plot bunnies eating me. My fairy godmother muse is apparently distraught at the fact that I’m not writing much, so she’s “helping” by giving me all sorts of story ideas…

However I did manage to write some of The Invisible Mask, hitting 20k and finally finishing the part I’d been stuck on for like a year, so YAY!

And also a bit of an old short story I started AGES ago which I may have mentioned, Hairdo Havoc.

It probably says something about the state of my chronic writer’s block that I wrote about 3600 words this month and that that’s the most I’ve done in a month this year so far… Ahem.

I’m making progress on plotting various story ideas too.

Also, this happened:

I’m beginning to wonder how similar Tare and I am… >.>

And I’m totally counting my Silmarillion Award Presentation post as “writing” since it was basically a Tolkien/Narnia fanfiction crossover written in verse, and was one of the most difficult and rewarding things I’ve ever written. I did lots of research too (although in the end I ended up writing most of it in a burst of inspiration at 2 a.m. one morning. This likes to happen to me… #nightowl).

Accurate representation of my research… (Don’t ask what I was doing with so many pens; I’ve no idea.)

I did not do Camp NaNo, but I know that many of you did, and I’ve been watching a few stats graphs over there (in a totally non-creepy way) and cheering you on! Shoutout to SarahTPS, Savannah, Emily Drown, E. Kaiser, Kayla, and Abi for being AMAZING and winning Camp! Shoutout to Mary Horton and Jenelle, for being AWESOME and writing so many words — y’all are amazing! Writing at all during the month means you win too! ^_^

Everyone who did Camp or any writing at all this last month… I applaud you. You inspire me with your awesomeness. *salutes*

Reading

I… have been reading very odd things lately. O_O Contemporaries, historical fiction, steampunk… it’s been quite interesting! 😀

So that I don’t ramble about books this ENTIRE post, you can see my mini-thoughts on these books in my July Reading Roundup + Announcements post on my book blog, and also pop over there to read about a fun blog event my friend Shantelle @ A Writer’s Heart is having! 🙂

Oh, and The Rose and the Balloon releases today!!! *cue excitement* IT’S SO PRECIOUS AND AWESOME. ❤ You need it in your life. *shoos you in that direction* GO GO!! I’ll be reviewing it soonish. ^_^

Blogging

So much blogging fun this month! Silmarillion Awards, plus Tare got interviewed (!!) and I even did a writer tag and some reviews in there.

• Junishness {2016}
• Phase 2: Vote! (Silmarillion Awards)
• Beautiful People: Tare {July 2016}
• The Wisteria Writer Tag
• “So it Begins…” (Silmarillion Awards Presentations)
• Superpowers, Cookies, & Penguins (Twinepathy Review/Blogtour)
• Kidnappings, Siblings, & Ireland (The Silent Blade Review/Blogtour)
• Presenting the Winner of the Strangest Character Silmaril Award! (Bombadil + Puddleglum = fun times)
  
• Lord of the Rings Celebration! (reminiscing & celebrating LOTR’s 62nd birthday)
  

On my book blog in July:

• Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag {2016}
• Top Ten (ish) Lesser-Known Books I Love
• Random Bookish Post Thing
• 25 Bookish Facts About Me
• By the Book Tag
• The Rose and the Balloon – Cover Reveal

Watching

I finally saw Zootopia! It was adorable and cute and fun and amusing and I kinda loved it a lot. ^_^ It’s… like… a HEIST movie! Ish. I mean, there’s a con-manfox which is cool and he was so neat and they are all such CUUUUTE animals. ‘Twas fun. ❤

(source)

I’ve also been rewatching Sherlock. Because Sherlock. Also, they were so YOUNG in the first season. O_O Lookit young John + Sherlock + Mycroft, all being young adorable childs… BEFORE THEY AGED FROM ALL THE STRESS AND HORRIBLE THINGS HAPPENING TO THEM. *sobs from depths of shock blanket* (And, y’know, the fact that it’s taking them centuries to film between seasons. That could be a thing too. *shrug*) I’m currently in the middle of the second season AND AWK JOHN AND SHERLOCK ARE SO ADORBZ AND FUN AND LESTRADE AND MYCROFT AND I JUST LOVE THEM AAAALL.

(source)

Also also, I saw the first trailer for Sherlock Season 4 and it’s terrifying. They’re all so doomed and it’s going to be scary but I’ll still watch it because Sherlock but I will probably never be the same again.

HALP. …Or rather . . . JOHN!

(Has anybody noticed that Sherlock always says “John” instead of “help”? IT’S TRUE.) (source)

August Plans: Taking a Break

I’ll likely disappear for much of August, since I’m planning on taking a bit of a break from internet.

Never fear! I’ll be back! And I’ll still be checking email from time to time, methinks, so I can still be gotten hold of if you need to talk to me, but I’m going to probably be avoiding other parts of the interwebs for the most part, so if you don’t see me commenting or lurking on Goodreads etc., it’s not because I was devoured by a dragon or anything. 😉 Nothing so exciting. Just taking a break.

No reason other than I’ve been too distracted by fun internet things, and I think I just need a break and want to focus on other things in life for a bit, especially before SeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember (yes, it’s one month… shhh) comes along and kidnaps the rest of my year in the blink of an eye as it always does… Ahem.

I do have a couple of reviews actually coming soon on the blog (hopefully; eek), but otherwise, The Road of a Writer is on hiatus till September, when I’ll return with lots of exciting blog things that I’ve got planned! Seriously, it’s going to be awesome. *rubs hands gleefully together*

Meanwhile, have an awesome August/rest of summer! ❤ I love you guys and shall return! ^_^

(Ezra from “Star Wars: Rebels”)