Writing
Follow the Raven went great this month! As you know I set out to write 10,000 words of the story during April's Camp NaNoWriMo, and I'm proud to say that I did exactly that. (My winner's certificate looks pretty awesome. Just saying.) The story is coming along at a nice pace; I actually just introduced one of the villains during the sprint that put me over the 10k mark. I'm excited to have more scenes with him in it in the near future. Next month I'll go back to aiming for 5k, but you can bet that come July I'm going to try and make this the first time that I win BOTH camps in the same year. For now, though, I'm going to take a well-deserved rest.
"Everything Changes" over on Wattpad really took off this month. I hit 1,000 reads and now have over 100 votes on the story. My readers are totally on board with this unique take on the Sonic Boom universe, and I'm excited to see how they feel in another month after tensions rise even higher than they are now. Some exciting stuff is coming, for sure! My current stats are 1,111 reads; 128 votes; and 23 comments.
Reading
If you read my last blog post, you're already aware that earlier this month I went through what I dubbed a "mid-takedown crisis" in which I suddenly lost all motivation to read books from my TBR because I felt like I was forcing myself to read them. I have since dealt with said crisis, but for the month of April my reading schedule went all out of whack and I read one less book than I had hoped to. The first book on this list is from my TBR. The rest are from the library.
- Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes
- The Selection by Kiera Cass
- Naermyth by Karen Francisco
- The Elite by Kiera Cass
Falling Kingdoms is a book that I saw at Barnes and Noble the last time I went and I distinctly remember thinking when I picked it up that, "Maybe this is a series I could get into." If you know my reading habits at all you know I'm really not one to just get hooked on a series; I'll read the first books of several different series but nine times out of ten I won't have a desire to finish them right away. Falling Kingdoms was that one out of ten exception, just like I anticipated it might be. It's a young adult high fantasy (seriously) that I am so, so on board with. I'm actually trying to hold out for our first Montana trip of the year before I buy the second book even though I really want it now because I have other books I need to get to first. Ha! I'm also going to state for the record that my favorite character thus far is Prince Magnus. We'll see if that lasts as I (eventually) move into the other books.
A full review of Naermyth (along with the crazy story of how I managed to acquire a copy to read in the first place) will be coming in May.
The Selection is the book I started reading to get me out of my early April reading slump, and suffice it to say, it did its job. I tore through that book so fast and was on to The Elite before I knew it. I've only just started The One (that will be part of my May wrap-up) so I can't give any thoughts on how the main trilogy ends quite yet, but so far I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed with Kiera Cass. Picking up superbly popular books in the young adult category is always a hit and miss. Sometimes you get The Hunger Games, sometimes you get Divergent. Going into The Selection I knew that it had a premise that was very similar to Princess Academy, which I read in elementary school. But Kiera Cass adds so much more to the idea of that story and creates characters that are so real and raw and relateable.
There was a point near the end of the first book where I honestly just sat there and thought, "Wow, this author knows what she's doing!" She threw a massive wrench in just the right place and it was perfect. She also made me so, so angry at one of the characters in the second book that I actually put it down and could not pick it up again for a day or two. She's just so good at what she does. Her writing is excellent, her characters are believable, and there is a PERFECT balance of romance and tension. The Selection, in my opinion, is well worth the popularity it has received. I'm eager to see how it ends. (Stay tuned for my thoughts on that in May!)
Now that I've gotten through the worst of my mid-takedown crisis and have had a chance to rethink what I'm doing, here is the basic idea of how I want to continue plowing through my TBR from here until the end of August. Basically, I want to read at least three books from my list in May. I'm planning on starting my Skulduggery Pleasant readthrough in June, and that will take me through about mid-August. After that I'm hoping to read a couple more books that same month. We'll see where I stand after all of that, but for now, that's the general idea for you to follow along with if you so desire. Interspersed with my TBR books will be a few more library books than I've allowed thus far, and that's okay. That's part of my coping mechanism because there are so many good books coming out nowadays goodness gracious.
Speaking of Skulduggery Pleasant, I am beyond happy to announce that with the exception of the book set to release in June, I now own the entire series! This is a major dream come true for me! I'm elated to finally be able to find out what happens to Mr. Pleasant after the cliffhanger ending of Book 3 that I've been dangling off of all these years. At this point all I need is Book 10 (which I was going to pre-order from Amazon) but Amazon has taken it off of their site so I now have to go hunt it down somewhere else. But fear not! It shall soon be mine as well! :D
And that's all I've got for April! It's been kind of crazy with Camp NaNo and my mini reading crisis and whatnot, but I made it! See you next month!
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