Tag Archives: White Collar

Behold the Ishness! {Feb-March 2018}

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Oh, look, the last time I did an Ishness was for January; it’s high time to let y’all know about the ishnesses going on in my life these last two months!

Let’s see what I was up to in the blur that was February and March . . .

WRITING

(via pixabay.com)

I wrote a grand total of 1.5K words in these past two months.

I know. So amazing.

Ahem. XD

Basically, I’ve been in a little bit of a writing slump this year. 😛 I’m hoping Camp NaNo will help with that.

BUT! I am very pleased with those 1500 words, so that’s a good thing, yes?

I finished a particularly tricky chapter of The Secret of Kedran’s Wood. This work-in-progress is now 75K words long, so far. (Yikes!)

(via fellowshipoffantasy.com)

I wrote We Otter Do It, which, although it was small, I really enjoyed writing. Having such a tight wordcount limit was a fascinating puzzle, and I kind of loved it. 😀

I’ve also been doing some plotting for The Other Half of Everything and some other stories.

READING

In reverse-chronological order (recentest reads at the top), here’s a screen-shot of my March and February reads taken from my Goodreads challenge.

(via goodreads.com)

(If you are curious what I thought of any of the books/stories pictured, just ask!)

So much reading! Actually, a lot of those are short stories and novellas and random things, so it’s not as many as it looks like. XD I’ve been including everything on my reading challenge, not just novels, so . . . yeah.

I’ve enjoyed most of these, but highlights were DEFINITELY:

 

  • Lady Moon by Rachel Starr Thomson — With a subtitle like A Tale of Love & Magic & Other Improbable, Unpredictable Things of COURSE I love this book! I have no words for this other than it’s one of my new top favorite books and I loved it SO MUCH that I read it twice in February. You know: that short month? TWICE, I say. I read it in a single day and then the next week I turned around and read the whole thing aloud to my younger siblings because I just could NOT resist re-reading it at once. Everyone should read this if you like whimsical fantasy. It’s DELIGHTFUL and Tomas is my favorite. ❤ (Thanks to Mary Horton for the recommendation!)
  • Masque by W. R. Gingell — I adored this book and I can’t wait to try more by this author. It was brilliant and hilarious, a Beauty and the Beast magical murder mystery which felt rather like a magical Georgette Heyer novel. I LOVED IT. There were a couple very gruesome scenes (because magical murder mystery) which I could have done without, but otherwise it was PERFECT. Everyone go read it, right now. (Thanks to Suzannah Rowntree for bringing this delightful novel to my attention.)
  • Minstrel’s Call by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt — Reviewed this one; I absolutely loved it! Brilliant conclusion to one of my favorite fantasy series! ^_^ Gaah. Brant! KIERNAN KANE! (Thanks to Jenelle for my review ARC. <3)
  • Sage by Jamie Foley — Let’s just say the same thing about this as about Minstrel’s Call. XD Because it was an awesome conclusion to another favorite fantasy series! (Look at me, actually finishing series I’ve been reading. #SoProud) Read my review here. ALSO JET IS STILL MY FAVE. ❤ (Thanks to Jamie for my gorgeous copy. <3)

(Look at how pretty the series is together! ❤ )

WATCHING

Er… not much? A little more Once Upon a Time (I think I still enjoyed Season One more? But still enjoying it somewhat and we’ll see how it goes), some old Batman movies which were weird, Alex Rider which was kinda fun.

Oh! And I started watching White Collar, a show about a con man who works with an FBI agent to solve crimes. I’ve only seen the first half of Season 1, so I don’t know how it goes on from there, but I LOVE it so far! XD It’s like Leverage meets Castle, and the characters are great. 😀

(via giphy.com)

BLOGGING

I’m also working on my “official” website, which reminds me I need to finish that . . .

(And I passed 1000 followers here, which — JUST. GUYS. ❤ *flails* I know some of those are my social media numbers, BUT STILL. THANK YOU SO MUCH, EVERYONE.)

LIFE

I had a birthday and got the One Ring for it. Which means it was my birthday present, Preciousss . . . Yes, I made all the jokes. XD

I also had my bjournal anniversary. I’ve kept a bullet journal for over a year now! *gasp* I’m on my fourth one, and I’m not as organized with it as I should be, but it’s still helpful.

A few writer workshops happened, which I attended, and they were interesting. I always learn SOMETHING new, even if it’s just a couple little tricks or a new perspective, but it’s also getting to the point where I seem to already know 80% of the information presented. That makes me feel weird, because I’m not a published author, but I’ve been learning so much about all of this for so many years that I’ve accumulated quite a bit of knowledge. People I meet seem to assume I don’t know much because I’m younger than they are. It’s kind of funny. XD

I’ve also been kicking off my editing freelancing, which I’m really excited about! Shoutout to fabulous author Kyle Robert Shultz, whose book I’m currently editing. 🙂

(via realmmakers.com)

And, most exciting of all, I signed up for Realm Makers! I’m going to the 2018 Realm Makers conference in July! Which means I’m trying to prepare for that, which means work, and trying to get my website and other things done, and starting my costume, etc. But I’m SO excited about going and getting to hopefully meet so many good online friends, and see a few I’ve met before, and just — I’M EXCITED.

APRIL PLANS

(via campnanowrimo.org)

I’m doing Camp NaNo! Which . . . well . . . as usual, I have no business doing, because BUSY, but at the same time it’s my excuse to make myself write again. So that makes me happy. 🙂 I’m working on plotting/outlining/draft-zero/writing The Siren and the Skyship, with slight forays into trying to wrangle the plots of the two sequels in this Sky Voyages series. I’m doing a 10 hour goal, so we’ll see how that goes!

(via Bethany Jennings @simmeringmind on Twitter.com)

I’m allegedly doing #WIPjoy with The Siren and the Skyship over on my Twitter and Facebook, although . . . I haven’t been keeping up very well. XD

I’m also participating in a couple of bookclub readalongs, which are fun so far! The three short stories I’ve read so far in the Mythical Doorways anthology have been delightful, and Trial by Song (a modern-day Jack-and-the-Beanstalk novel with scary Fae) has been quite creepy but otherwise fascinating. I can’t wait to see how both books finish up! (The FB book club group links for both are here and here.)

Mostly, I’m trying to keep up with whatever busyness life throws at me, and wondering how on earth it’s April already . . . (Because SERIOUSLY, THOUGH??)

So that’s what’s new with me! 🙂 How about you? What are you up to? I hope you enjoyed this glimpse at the goings-on around here. ^_^ Thanks for reading, and have a lovely April! ❤