I wanted to write a full-length blog post about halfway through the month, but things are so nuts right now with my reading and with Christmas and New Year's coming up that I simply can't find the time to do anything longer than what you'll see here. So just to keep you up to date with things, here is a brief overview of the craziness that has been December so far.
I was fully recovered from the insanity of NaNoWriMo by about December 10, and I ended up writing another 2,000 words of my novel in that time. It's still not finished, but it's pretty close. I'm satisfied with where it is for now.
I gave myself a couple of days at the beginning of the month to just do nothing. No writing, no reading - nothing that would tax my already melted brain. But it wasn't long before I finally picked up a book and started my reading quest. As of the last time I posted something here I was reading Psion and Everything, Everything. I have finished the latter; I'm still about 100 pages away from finishing the former. My review for at least one of those will be in my wrap-up at the end of the month.
After I finished Everything, Everything, though, I got a little overzealous with my reading and...well...I am now currently reading four books at the same time.
Yes, yes, I know I'm crazy. But there is a method to my madness - or at least there was when I decided to go ahead and start reading that fourth book. To be fair to myself I am almost done with two of them, and I'm hoping that even with the craziness of Christmas weekend coming up I'll be able to get a decent amount of reading done. My plan is to finish those two books this week so that I'll only be reading two at once, and then power through a shorter book toward the end of the month to get to my goal of 50. Either way, guys, this is the year - I am actually going to make my Goodreads goal for the first time!
This has been a great year for me in terms of both reading and writing. At this point I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get any more work done on Follow the Raven before the New Year, but all things considered, I did really well at getting 95% of my rewrite done in 2017. (Thank you, NaNoWriMo!) And finally reaching my goal of reading 50 books in a year is an awesome accomplishment to add to my other amazing accomplishment. I'm feeling really good about how 2017 treated me in the realm of books. It's a perfect springboard to try something new next year for both reading and writing! (You'll hear more about that in my wrap-up.)
That said, I'm off to finish my reading goals. I'll be back on December 31 with my wrap-up for the month as well as the year, and I'll get to tell you about my grand bookish plans for 2018 as well. See you next time!
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Monday, December 4, 2017
I Freaking Did It (November Book Wrap-Up)
I'm alive! This was yet another NaNoWriMo that was difficult for me (but in a good way) and left me not wanting to do anything for a couple of days. Thus, the late November book wrap-up. But we're here now, and I'm about 50% recovered, so let's get to it!
Writing
Last month I committed to sitting down and writing 50,000 words in 30 days, as I had done three years previous. Once again I emerged victorious and I beat my word count from the previous years, and for the first time ever, I finished NaNoWriMo but not the book I was working on. As it stands right now I estimate I only have a few thousand words left to finish the novel, but my biggest concern as of a few days ago was hitting 50k and validating before midnight on November 30, which I did. I won my fourth year in a row.
My chart above kind of speaks for itself; I started off the first couple of days strong, but then I fell behind and did not catch up again until the very last day when I won. I would say that the first half of the month went fairly well in terms of ease of writing, but as the month drew to a close and I was nearing the climax of the story I found it more and more difficult to sit down and write. I majorly changed the plot at least twice (something I can fix in January and February) and I was writing a lot of excess dialogue and description that I didn't necessarily need just to fill up my word count. And I still didn't finish the actual novel after all that, ironically. By the time it was the last few days of November I simply did not want to sit down and write. Not because I didn't want to write the story but because the deadline was stressing me out and I hated feeling pressured. But as with three years before I made it through and pulled it off in the end.
I think it's safe to say this NaNoWriMo was probably the hardest one I've done so far. The story I was writing was something I have wanted to rewrite for years but never had the discipline or desire to actually follow through with until this year - and even then I wasn't originally planning to write Follow the Raven for this year's NaNo, as you read in my last couple of wrap-ups. The story still isn't entirely figured out, but at least I have a much better feel for my characters than I did before since I opened up my mind a little and let them tell their own story rather than try to control everything myself. And of course, the stress of that deadline wasn't helping as I neared the end of November. But even though this was the hardest NaNo I've done thus far, I think it was also the most rewarding. I finally did something I've wanted to do for years. I only have a few thousand words left to finish my rewrite of Follow the Raven, rather than the daunting entire novel I was staring at a month ago at this time. I'm really proud of the winner's certificate I got this year. It is hanging proudly for all to see. I freaking did it, guys.
In unrelated and smaller news, I also released the prologue and first chapter of my newest Wattpad story, "The Dimension Keepers." It has been received extremely well so far, and I'm so, so excited to really get into this book and introduce a lot of neat things that I think hardcore fans of Sonic will really enjoy. Since we still don't know much about the Boom universe I've taken many creative liberties with this story. There are lots of references and alternate dimension theories coming soon, along with lots and lots of action. (This is a book about war, after all.) This book went live on November 17, and it already has 74 reads, 10 votes, and 5 comments. Crazy! I'm very excited to release more chapters this month and see what my readers think.
Reading
As November was primarily focused on writing, I did not get much reading done at all. Like, at all. There were a couple of days where I just felt really burnt out from writing and decided to read instead, which was refreshing, but ultimately I only managed to finish the two books I'd already started going into NaNoWriMo.
Writing
Last month I committed to sitting down and writing 50,000 words in 30 days, as I had done three years previous. Once again I emerged victorious and I beat my word count from the previous years, and for the first time ever, I finished NaNoWriMo but not the book I was working on. As it stands right now I estimate I only have a few thousand words left to finish the novel, but my biggest concern as of a few days ago was hitting 50k and validating before midnight on November 30, which I did. I won my fourth year in a row.
My chart above kind of speaks for itself; I started off the first couple of days strong, but then I fell behind and did not catch up again until the very last day when I won. I would say that the first half of the month went fairly well in terms of ease of writing, but as the month drew to a close and I was nearing the climax of the story I found it more and more difficult to sit down and write. I majorly changed the plot at least twice (something I can fix in January and February) and I was writing a lot of excess dialogue and description that I didn't necessarily need just to fill up my word count. And I still didn't finish the actual novel after all that, ironically. By the time it was the last few days of November I simply did not want to sit down and write. Not because I didn't want to write the story but because the deadline was stressing me out and I hated feeling pressured. But as with three years before I made it through and pulled it off in the end.
I think it's safe to say this NaNoWriMo was probably the hardest one I've done so far. The story I was writing was something I have wanted to rewrite for years but never had the discipline or desire to actually follow through with until this year - and even then I wasn't originally planning to write Follow the Raven for this year's NaNo, as you read in my last couple of wrap-ups. The story still isn't entirely figured out, but at least I have a much better feel for my characters than I did before since I opened up my mind a little and let them tell their own story rather than try to control everything myself. And of course, the stress of that deadline wasn't helping as I neared the end of November. But even though this was the hardest NaNo I've done thus far, I think it was also the most rewarding. I finally did something I've wanted to do for years. I only have a few thousand words left to finish my rewrite of Follow the Raven, rather than the daunting entire novel I was staring at a month ago at this time. I'm really proud of the winner's certificate I got this year. It is hanging proudly for all to see. I freaking did it, guys.
In unrelated and smaller news, I also released the prologue and first chapter of my newest Wattpad story, "The Dimension Keepers." It has been received extremely well so far, and I'm so, so excited to really get into this book and introduce a lot of neat things that I think hardcore fans of Sonic will really enjoy. Since we still don't know much about the Boom universe I've taken many creative liberties with this story. There are lots of references and alternate dimension theories coming soon, along with lots and lots of action. (This is a book about war, after all.) This book went live on November 17, and it already has 74 reads, 10 votes, and 5 comments. Crazy! I'm very excited to release more chapters this month and see what my readers think.
Reading
As November was primarily focused on writing, I did not get much reading done at all. Like, at all. There were a couple of days where I just felt really burnt out from writing and decided to read instead, which was refreshing, but ultimately I only managed to finish the two books I'd already started going into NaNoWriMo.
- Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
- The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon
Too Many Ghosts was a book I picked up at the library from our sale/donation cart. At the time they had a bunch of older books on there and this was one of three that I picked up over the course of a couple of weeks. I started it in October because I figured it may be some kind of classic ghost story, and it was, in a sense. It took me forever to get through it because the writing was way different from the kind I'm used to reading in today's YA fiction (Too Many Ghosts was published in the 50s), but ultimately I really enjoyed it. The only part that really freaked me out was the beginning, when we didn't yet know it wasn't actually ghosts doing the things that scared everyone in the mansion. Other than that it was just an enjoyable, classic read.
The Silver Eyes, as I explained last month, is one of a couple of books based on the Five Nights at Freddy's game series that scared the crap out of me a couple of years ago when they first came out. I had hoped that the book would be just as scary if not more so, but there were only one or two parts in the entire almost 400 pages that really had me scared or creeped out. The rest was really bad writing that I ended up skimming through because I'm a nerd and I wanted my answers. A lot of my personal questions/theories were answered/confirmed, but now I'm on the fence about whether I want to read the second book as well. Time will tell.
Now that the insanity of National Novel Writing Month is over, I'm going to shift gears this month and focus primarily on reading. I am currently in the middle of two books - Psion and Everything, Everything - which you'll hear more about at the end of this month when I've finished them. GUYS. I am SO close to reaching my goal of 50 books this year. I've had this goal for the past three years and gotten really close the last two, but I seriously think I'm going to make it this time! Once I finish the two books I'm currently reading I'll be at 46/50. I'm so excited; I'm actually going to reach my goal of 50 this year. 2017 is the year! YES!
That said, I'm going to go read. Make sure to check back here at the end of December to see if I made it to 50, and to find out what I believe were the best books I read and/or discovered this year. See you next time!
Monday, November 20, 2017
NaNoWriMo 2017 Update #2
A couple of days ago I got this HUGE burst of competitive writing energy because a friend of mine who is also doing NaNoWriMo has been consistently ahead of me by just a thousand or so words all month and I was finally like, "Enough is enough!" So yesterday I wrote 5,000 words to catch up by a couple of days and surpass her, and I am very proud of myself for now being ahead of her for once! I'm the one who wants to write for a living. Behind behind so much for so long was just sad. But no more!
I'm now finally in the middle of the story, after having passed the 25k mark yesterday during my crazy burst of inspiration, except now I've come to a point where I think I'm a little confused as to what the actual plotline is that I'm following, so most of my writing today has been one of my characters kind of figuring that out for me kinda sorta maybe. I don't know. We'll see. But this alternate-chapters thing has suddenly become difficult where it used to be super easy for the first ten days of this month. (Cale and Amber's chapters finally synced up, by the way - all on their own!) Here's hoping I can pull through and figure things out in time for my characters to start dominating the 30,000s and beyond this Thanksgiving week!
I am determined to stay ahead of my friend from now on. You don't even understand how upsetting it was to be behind someone who hasn't spent her whole life learning how to be a good writer.
I am currently at 27,203 words.
I'm now finally in the middle of the story, after having passed the 25k mark yesterday during my crazy burst of inspiration, except now I've come to a point where I think I'm a little confused as to what the actual plotline is that I'm following, so most of my writing today has been one of my characters kind of figuring that out for me kinda sorta maybe. I don't know. We'll see. But this alternate-chapters thing has suddenly become difficult where it used to be super easy for the first ten days of this month. (Cale and Amber's chapters finally synced up, by the way - all on their own!) Here's hoping I can pull through and figure things out in time for my characters to start dominating the 30,000s and beyond this Thanksgiving week!
I am determined to stay ahead of my friend from now on. You don't even understand how upsetting it was to be behind someone who hasn't spent her whole life learning how to be a good writer.
I am currently at 27,203 words.
Friday, November 10, 2017
NaNoWriMo 2017 Update #1
I'm pretty sure I've not been this far behind this early on in NaNoWriMo before (with the obvious exception of the year I didn't win), but it's only 7k words. Compared to the 25k I was behind two years ago, I'm SO not worried about it. I'll catch up, no problem. Especially once the story really starts to get underway.
So far I'm still kind of in the beginning stages of Follow the Raven (again), so the story hasn't exactly picked up yet. It's been kind of interesting to switch from the third person in every other version of this story to first person in this current rewrite, because in some ways it's easier and in other ways it's hard to keep up because Cale and Amber started telling their sides of the story at different points in time. So right now Cale is actually talking about what happened before she met Amber while Amber is talking about how she met Cale and what became of that. It's different, but I'm kind of liking it. (Also I've become a master at secret noveling, which is something I've never done before. Most of the writing I did this week was done at work when I had a few spare minutes here and there. My average is 800 words a night. Shh!)
In other news, I'm really stressed about my reading right now because WHY did I think it would be okay for me to go into NaNoWriMo while still in the middle of three books?! I'm almost done with two of them, and I think finishing them will help immensely, but still. WHAT have I done. Help meeeee. I sincerely hope that by the next update I'll only be reading one or maybe two at the same time, because I cannot continue to handle all this stress. XD
I am currently at 8,018 words.
So far I'm still kind of in the beginning stages of Follow the Raven (again), so the story hasn't exactly picked up yet. It's been kind of interesting to switch from the third person in every other version of this story to first person in this current rewrite, because in some ways it's easier and in other ways it's hard to keep up because Cale and Amber started telling their sides of the story at different points in time. So right now Cale is actually talking about what happened before she met Amber while Amber is talking about how she met Cale and what became of that. It's different, but I'm kind of liking it. (Also I've become a master at secret noveling, which is something I've never done before. Most of the writing I did this week was done at work when I had a few spare minutes here and there. My average is 800 words a night. Shh!)
In other news, I'm really stressed about my reading right now because WHY did I think it would be okay for me to go into NaNoWriMo while still in the middle of three books?! I'm almost done with two of them, and I think finishing them will help immensely, but still. WHAT have I done. Help meeeee. I sincerely hope that by the next update I'll only be reading one or maybe two at the same time, because I cannot continue to handle all this stress. XD
I am currently at 8,018 words.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
The First DNF of 2017 (October Book Wrap-Up)
Happy Halloween! Hard to believe it's the end of October already, and with NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow November is going to fly on by as well. What a year, already! This month I hosted my very own readathon (which had one other participant besides myself), but despite that I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked. My NaNoWriMo planning took a complete u-turn, as well. Let's talk about it!
Writing
As NaNo loomed on the horizon this year I knew I truly wanted to focus on Follow the Raven, but at the same time I felt the story was going nowhere, which is why I allowed myself to think of other ides for this November. But once the story hit a standstill and I had some time to think about it, I realized that if I ever, ever want to really get on the road towards publication, I have to put in the effort, even if there are times when I'd rather do anything else. In last month's wrap up I talked to you guys about the novel I'd been planning to write, Star Island. While it is a really fun idea that I hope to give life to later, I ultimately decided not to work on that project this year in favor of sticking to my 2017 New Year's Resolution of rewriting Follow the Raven, which is the novel I hope to have published first. I've done some rethinking and opened my mind up to a few new ideas, and I'm hoping to take those ideas and implement them in the 3.0 draft I'll be writing starting at midnight tonight.
I want Follow the Raven to take center stage until it is done. The biggest issue I've been struggling with recently is that I haven't been able to get through that rewrite. At the end of every November for the past three years, I've had a completed draft of a novel. This year, that draft will be Follow the Raven. After that I'll at least have something to work with, and I can focus more on revising and editing. I'm hoping I can use this year's NaNoWriMo as a springboard for my grander plans down the road.
Reading
In terms of reading, I did manage to finish three books this month and start two others, although that wasn't as much as I was hoping to finish - especially with the readathon that happened last week. My bookworm friend on Goodreads completely left me in the dust with that one, having finished almost three books over the course of seven days. She's awesome. But alas, my slow reading pace plagues me again. Here's what I was able to finish in October:
Writing
As NaNo loomed on the horizon this year I knew I truly wanted to focus on Follow the Raven, but at the same time I felt the story was going nowhere, which is why I allowed myself to think of other ides for this November. But once the story hit a standstill and I had some time to think about it, I realized that if I ever, ever want to really get on the road towards publication, I have to put in the effort, even if there are times when I'd rather do anything else. In last month's wrap up I talked to you guys about the novel I'd been planning to write, Star Island. While it is a really fun idea that I hope to give life to later, I ultimately decided not to work on that project this year in favor of sticking to my 2017 New Year's Resolution of rewriting Follow the Raven, which is the novel I hope to have published first. I've done some rethinking and opened my mind up to a few new ideas, and I'm hoping to take those ideas and implement them in the 3.0 draft I'll be writing starting at midnight tonight.
I want Follow the Raven to take center stage until it is done. The biggest issue I've been struggling with recently is that I haven't been able to get through that rewrite. At the end of every November for the past three years, I've had a completed draft of a novel. This year, that draft will be Follow the Raven. After that I'll at least have something to work with, and I can focus more on revising and editing. I'm hoping I can use this year's NaNoWriMo as a springboard for my grander plans down the road.
Reading
In terms of reading, I did manage to finish three books this month and start two others, although that wasn't as much as I was hoping to finish - especially with the readathon that happened last week. My bookworm friend on Goodreads completely left me in the dust with that one, having finished almost three books over the course of seven days. She's awesome. But alas, my slow reading pace plagues me again. Here's what I was able to finish in October:
- A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
- The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles by G.S. Denning
- One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
I can't even put into words how amazing A Monster Calls was. I really don't even remember why I picked it up; I think I was trying to be thematic with Halloween coming up and whatnot, searching for books about monsters and ghosts and things. "Monster" is literally in the title, and the synopsis was intriguing, so that's probably what did it. But oh, my goodness, this was so much more than just a monster story. It was so amazing, and so heartbreaking, and just so well done. I absolutely loved the dynamic between the Monster and Conor, and how their relationship grew over the course of the novel. I don't want to spoil too much, but I will say that this is the first book in a while that has made me cry in a good way.
The Hell-Hound of the Baskervilles was the second book in the Warlock Holmes series. You may recall last year at about this time how I was raving about the first book and couldn't wait for the second and so on. I was super excited for this second book because the case of the Baskervilles has always been my favorite Sherlock mystery, and I was curious to see how the author of Warlock Holmes would parody it. Ultimately, though, while I thought it definitely had its moments (Warlock's backstory was outstandingly well done), I feel like I was just hoping for...more. I mean, it was decent, but I feel like I trudged through the last 150 pages or so because there was just so much happening all at once and it was too difficult to try and keep up with. The hell-hound itself was a straight-up disappointment (although the way it came into being was brilliant), and all the smaller mysteries that came before the primary story seemed kind of pointless. I don't know. It was still a fun read, but when it came to the Baskervilles mystery I feel like I was left wanting more, and not in a good way. With that said, however, I am definitely going to read book three next year.
I'm not sure I can go into a lot of detail about One of Us Is Lying without also having to go on a rant/rave, so I'll try to keep this brief. I chose this audiobook for October because it was a murder mystery (again, I thought it was thematic). In short, this book was incredible. I could only read it in spurts because it made me so mad in all the best ways; the injustice of what was happening to the four main characters was just too much on top of all the personal crap each of them were going through. And when it all came together in the end...oh my goodness. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was absolutely, without a doubt, completely and 100% fantastic.
(Side Note: The narrators for this book were all pretty good; I was impressed with the voice of Cooper for not trying to go over-the-top with the Southern accent. And I actually just found out that the guy who voiced Nate also voices Olly's part in the audiobook for Everything, Everything which, coincidentally, is the next audiobook I've chosen to listen to. That was not planned! Haha!)
Now it's time to talk about the title of this blog post. I am sorry to say that for the first time this year (and longer, for that matter), I had to DNF a book that I'd planned to read this month. That book was The Farm by Emily McKay. The really sad part is I'd had my eye on this book for years - literally, years. The premise sounded really good, and I think if the right author had done it it would have been good. But Emily McKay simply could not pull it off. Not just because of how unbelievable a lot of things were, but because of the awful writing and how unlikeable the main character was. I cannot begin to describe to you how terrible the writing was. It was like reading a fanfiction that was trying too hard to be canon. The way the characters spoke to each other was cringeworthy at best, and the main character (I don't even remember her name now) would NEVER let anyone else talk. She'd interrupt them when they were trying to explain something important to her, asking a bunch of sarcastic questions, and then a few pages later she'd be all mad because "no one told me about this." Well DUH. She was just not a character I felt I could get behind. Also the author decided to write from multiple POVs, which is fine, but every time she got to Carter's POV she wrote in the third person. That doesn't even make sense! And having chapters from Carter's POV completely ruined the suspense of the novel, because everything was revealed right away, so there was no mystery as to why he was acting the way he was.
It was just bad writing all around, a really awful main character, and an unbelievable story. (Like, the Ticks invaded less than a year before the start of this novel, yet everyone is now suddenly calling the pre-invasion "The Before?" Not that fast, they wouldn't. Maybe five or six years down the line, but less than a year? No one would call it "The Before." They'd just say "before." Come on.) I was really sad about it, but I just did not feel like powering through something so poorly written, so I DNF-ed at 112 pages in. Better luck next time, McKay. (Also this book was published by an imprint of Penguin. HOW.)
As I said earlier, I started two other books in addition to the ones I actually finished this month. I just couldn't get to the 100 pages or less mark in time for them to count for October's wrap-up, so you'll see them next month. I am currently reading Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico and The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon. The former is kind of slow, but still interesting. I'm liking it so far. The latter is something I tried to get my hands on last year at this time but couldn't; I'm just over 100 pages in and it's just now getting to the part that may actually be scary. If you don't know, Scott Cawthon is the guy who created the Five Nights at Freddy's games, and this book is supposed to be based in that world / provide some extra story behind the animatronics being so hell-bent on murder. The FNAF series scared me when it came out initially, but now I'm kind of used to it. I hope the book will change my mind about that. We'll see!
It was just bad writing all around, a really awful main character, and an unbelievable story. (Like, the Ticks invaded less than a year before the start of this novel, yet everyone is now suddenly calling the pre-invasion "The Before?" Not that fast, they wouldn't. Maybe five or six years down the line, but less than a year? No one would call it "The Before." They'd just say "before." Come on.) I was really sad about it, but I just did not feel like powering through something so poorly written, so I DNF-ed at 112 pages in. Better luck next time, McKay. (Also this book was published by an imprint of Penguin. HOW.)
As I said earlier, I started two other books in addition to the ones I actually finished this month. I just couldn't get to the 100 pages or less mark in time for them to count for October's wrap-up, so you'll see them next month. I am currently reading Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico and The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon. The former is kind of slow, but still interesting. I'm liking it so far. The latter is something I tried to get my hands on last year at this time but couldn't; I'm just over 100 pages in and it's just now getting to the part that may actually be scary. If you don't know, Scott Cawthon is the guy who created the Five Nights at Freddy's games, and this book is supposed to be based in that world / provide some extra story behind the animatronics being so hell-bent on murder. The FNAF series scared me when it came out initially, but now I'm kind of used to it. I hope the book will change my mind about that. We'll see!
As for the readathon, I already mentioned above but despite my constant posting about it on Twitter and even here on my blog, only one other person joined me in my quest to read three horror novels in a week. And, as mentioned above, she blew me away. I didn't even touch the third book I had lined up, and I barely got started with the other two. Ah, well. It was fun to try, and I'll probably do it again next year just for the heck of it. Haha!
Now...on to National Novel Writing Month! :D
Note: I apologize if the format of this blog is wonky for some of you. I don't know what happened to Blogger as I was editing this but it suddenly decided to change the font and text size of certain paragraphs on me and I had to do some work to get it back to looking mostly normal. Technology, right?
Now...on to National Novel Writing Month! :D
Note: I apologize if the format of this blog is wonky for some of you. I don't know what happened to Blogger as I was editing this but it suddenly decided to change the font and text size of certain paragraphs on me and I had to do some work to get it back to looking mostly normal. Technology, right?
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
I'm Hosting a Readathon!
That's right! Last month in my book wrap-up I briefly mentioned that I had decided to host a readathon, despite how small I anticipate it being. I did this for a couple of reasons. First, I absolutely love Halloween, and I also love reading. I thought it would be fun to have a horror-themed readathon in the week leading up to Halloween for those who enjoy a good scary story, and also for those (like me) who are planning on doing NaNoWriMo next month and will have little to no time for reading. Second, I thought it would be fun to try and take the reins for once, so to speak. I've participated in a lot of readathons but I've never hosted one until now, and it got me really excited to try it out. It may just be me and my bookworm friend Kailey, but hey, it will be fun either way.
All that said, bear with me here, as this is my first time hosting a readathon and I've yet to work out any kinks.
Dates
The official name for this readathon is inspired by my friend Kailey, who came up with it after I informed her that someone else had beaten me to the original name I had in mind. Thus I present to you the Hallowreader's Marathon of Monsters! This year's readathon will take place from Monday, October 23 - Sunday, October 29, starting of course at midnight on the 23rd and ending at midnight on the 30th, in your respective time zones.
Challenges
As this is the first year I'm doing this, I've come up with three challenges for participants:
How to Join
If you're interested in joining this readathon and are a member of Goodreads, you can find the link to the group I've created for this event here. The only reason I've made this group private is so I can keep track of who joins, basically. There's no criteria; just ask to join and I'll make it happen!
If you don't have a Goodreads account or are simply not interested in joining the official group, just tag me on Twitter (@ForeverMobian) letting me know you're interested. If you want to go ahead and follow me, too, that will be a good way to keep up with any further readathon info, as well as a way to share TBRs and other challenge ideas and etc. (Fair warning - if you follow my Twitter be prepared for lots of nerdy fangirling and some ranting.) Depending on how many people join I may host some reading sprints, too. We'll see!
If you would prefer to do neither of the above, you can also comment on this blog post to let me know you're in.
I'm very excited to host this readathon and see how it goes! It may be a total flop, but I'll have fun with it either way. I've got at least one other person joining me. That has to count for something, right? I look forward to seeing if anyone else is interested in this very first Hallowreader's Marathon of Monsters!
All that said, bear with me here, as this is my first time hosting a readathon and I've yet to work out any kinks.
Dates
The official name for this readathon is inspired by my friend Kailey, who came up with it after I informed her that someone else had beaten me to the original name I had in mind. Thus I present to you the Hallowreader's Marathon of Monsters! This year's readathon will take place from Monday, October 23 - Sunday, October 29, starting of course at midnight on the 23rd and ending at midnight on the 30th, in your respective time zones.
Challenges
As this is the first year I'm doing this, I've come up with three challenges for participants:
- Read a classic horror story (Dracula, Turn of the Screw, Frankenstein, etc.)
- Read a horror story that was published this year
- Read the horror story that has been on your TBR/WTR the longest
Of course if you want to try the classic "seven books, seven days" challenge you can feel free to do that, as well as any other personal challenges you come up with. These are just the "official" ones which are, of course, completely optional. The point is just to read scary stuff!
How to Join
If you're interested in joining this readathon and are a member of Goodreads, you can find the link to the group I've created for this event here. The only reason I've made this group private is so I can keep track of who joins, basically. There's no criteria; just ask to join and I'll make it happen!
If you don't have a Goodreads account or are simply not interested in joining the official group, just tag me on Twitter (@ForeverMobian) letting me know you're interested. If you want to go ahead and follow me, too, that will be a good way to keep up with any further readathon info, as well as a way to share TBRs and other challenge ideas and etc. (Fair warning - if you follow my Twitter be prepared for lots of nerdy fangirling and some ranting.) Depending on how many people join I may host some reading sprints, too. We'll see!
If you would prefer to do neither of the above, you can also comment on this blog post to let me know you're in.
I'm very excited to host this readathon and see how it goes! It may be a total flop, but I'll have fun with it either way. I've got at least one other person joining me. That has to count for something, right? I look forward to seeing if anyone else is interested in this very first Hallowreader's Marathon of Monsters!
Saturday, September 30, 2017
What Happened to September? (September Book Wrap-Up)
I swear I blinked and September was over. I was so excited for it to get here because it means fall and cooler weather and cozy days indoors with hot chocolate, but it all happened too fast, and now we're entering October! Yikes! I feel like I didn't get a lot done this month, but looking back on it now I think I did all right. This always seems to be the time of year where I start to lag a little bit in terms of both reading and writing. Compared to last year at this time I'm definitely ahead of the game.
Writing
In lieu of working on Follow the Raven, I've begun planning for NaNoWriMo 2017! September and October are both prep months for the main event in November, and I spent most if it initially listing stories I was interested in, then narrowing down my choices to six, then to three, and finally choosing the one I think I'm going to stick with. The working title for it is Star Island. I'll tell you more as I develop and plan more. I think it goes without saying that I'm very excited for this year's NaNo!
Alas, "Everything Changes" over on Wattpad has come to a close. Yesterday I released the final chapter and epilogue of the story, which were both received extremely well. My readers are excited for the next book (which I'll be releasing in November), and I'm excited to finally get into the more action-packed parts of Kay's newest adventure. (And don't worry - I have a plan for balancing both this story and my actual novel in November. I've thought ahead.) My stats for this story have currently rested at 2,821 reads; 224 votes; and 62 comments.
Reading
I feel like this was a slow reading month for me. I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked, but the books that I did read were all very good in their own ways.
It took me the entire month of September to finish Mortal Coil, which is the fifth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. I can't even really explain why. I think it was a combination of it being just shy of 600 pages and the fact that I had fairly flown through the first four books to get to that one. Either way I think I've reached some sort of Skulduggery Pleasant burnout (even though I would never have thought it possible) and I've decided to revise my initial goal of reading the entire series by the end of the year. At this point I'd like to at least finish book six, which will be the end of the second arc in the series. I feel like that's much more manageable and less stressful at this point in time, and in a way I'll still be completing some part of the series, at least.
With all of that said, I enjoyed Mortal Coil. It was much darker than the rest of the books before it, but I liked it more because of that. Valkyrie had a lot of character development in this one, and the primary threat was much bigger and more dangerous than ever before as the book neared its end. I'm really intrigued by the concept of the Death Bringer and I'm curious to see how Valkyrie is going to handle it all.
Writing
In lieu of working on Follow the Raven, I've begun planning for NaNoWriMo 2017! September and October are both prep months for the main event in November, and I spent most if it initially listing stories I was interested in, then narrowing down my choices to six, then to three, and finally choosing the one I think I'm going to stick with. The working title for it is Star Island. I'll tell you more as I develop and plan more. I think it goes without saying that I'm very excited for this year's NaNo!
Alas, "Everything Changes" over on Wattpad has come to a close. Yesterday I released the final chapter and epilogue of the story, which were both received extremely well. My readers are excited for the next book (which I'll be releasing in November), and I'm excited to finally get into the more action-packed parts of Kay's newest adventure. (And don't worry - I have a plan for balancing both this story and my actual novel in November. I've thought ahead.) My stats for this story have currently rested at 2,821 reads; 224 votes; and 62 comments.
Reading
I feel like this was a slow reading month for me. I didn't get as much reading done as I would have liked, but the books that I did read were all very good in their own ways.
- Mortal Coil by Derek Landy
- The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
- Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
- The Siren by Kiera Cass
It took me the entire month of September to finish Mortal Coil, which is the fifth book in the Skulduggery Pleasant series. I can't even really explain why. I think it was a combination of it being just shy of 600 pages and the fact that I had fairly flown through the first four books to get to that one. Either way I think I've reached some sort of Skulduggery Pleasant burnout (even though I would never have thought it possible) and I've decided to revise my initial goal of reading the entire series by the end of the year. At this point I'd like to at least finish book six, which will be the end of the second arc in the series. I feel like that's much more manageable and less stressful at this point in time, and in a way I'll still be completing some part of the series, at least.
With all of that said, I enjoyed Mortal Coil. It was much darker than the rest of the books before it, but I liked it more because of that. Valkyrie had a lot of character development in this one, and the primary threat was much bigger and more dangerous than ever before as the book neared its end. I'm really intrigued by the concept of the Death Bringer and I'm curious to see how Valkyrie is going to handle it all.
The Love Interest is a book that I added to my WTR the instant I saw it on Goodreads back in April. Then, while on vacation in the Yellowstone area, I saw it sitting on the shelf at the town's public library and I was like, "Heck yeah, I'm getting that!" So I checked it out while on vacation and then brought it home with me to read, since it was from another library in the state and I was allowed to do that. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. I loved the unique - very unique - spin on the classic love triangle story and the fact that it was told from the perspective of one of the guys instead of the girl. I felt like I was being introduced to the love triangle trope for the first time, in a way. I absolutely loved it and I'm so on board with whatever this author comes up with next.
Howl's Moving Castle and The Siren were both books that were a) from my TBR and b) audiobooks I listened to this month. I had watched the movie Howl's Moving Castle as a kid but never really understood what was going on. My roommate in college and now best friend is a huge anime fan and so when she and I saw the book sitting on the shelf at Hastings before it closed down, I gave it a second look and she convinced me to buy it. I put off reading it for a while, but when I finally did I couldn't get enough of it. Oh my goodness this book was so amazing. I loved absolutely everything about it, and the narrator was fantastic! I love Howl and Sophie so much, and now that I've listened to the book I want to try and find the movie to watch again so I can compare the two and see if I understand it any better now that I'm older and have read the book it was based on.
Earlier this year I read the first three books of The Selection series by Kiera Cass and absolutely loved them. They were amazing in all the right ways. So when I saw The Siren sitting on the shelf at a little bookstore in the Yellowstone area, it only took a moment for me to decide I wanted it. I not only loved the audiobook version of this novel (with yet another fantastic narrator), I completely fell in love with the entire story because of how incredibly unique and pure it was, just as The Selection series had been. To date I've rated every book I've ever read from Kiera Cass four stars, and I think she's quickly becoming a new favorite author for me. (Plus I just recently found out that she's a woman of the faith in a mainstream publishing world, which is absolute goals, so I admire her doubly for that.) I fully intend to read the rest of The Selection series (with America's daughter) as soon as I can, and I'm super excited to see what Kiera Cass comes up with next.
Earlier this year I read the first three books of The Selection series by Kiera Cass and absolutely loved them. They were amazing in all the right ways. So when I saw The Siren sitting on the shelf at a little bookstore in the Yellowstone area, it only took a moment for me to decide I wanted it. I not only loved the audiobook version of this novel (with yet another fantastic narrator), I completely fell in love with the entire story because of how incredibly unique and pure it was, just as The Selection series had been. To date I've rated every book I've ever read from Kiera Cass four stars, and I think she's quickly becoming a new favorite author for me. (Plus I just recently found out that she's a woman of the faith in a mainstream publishing world, which is absolute goals, so I admire her doubly for that.) I fully intend to read the rest of The Selection series (with America's daughter) as soon as I can, and I'm super excited to see what Kiera Cass comes up with next.
That's all I have for September, but I have big reading (and writing) plans for October! I have no idea if anyone besides myself and my bookworm friend Kailey will even be interested in doing this, but I've officially decided to host my first readathon! I initially was going to call it Halloreadathon, but as it turns out, that's already been taken. So I'll have to come up with a new name. The readathon will take place from October 23-29, and there are three challenges that go along with it. The overall goal is to read a bunch of horror novels (in the spirit of Halloween) and to get those last minute books in before the craziness of NaNoWriMo starts in November. I'll be posting a full, in-depth overview of this readathon here on Endless Possibilities very soon, but in the meantime if you're interested in joining feel free to let me know! (I may or may not be stating a Goodreads Group for it. We'll see.)
Anyway, that's all she wrote, folks! See you in October! :D
Anyway, that's all she wrote, folks! See you in October! :D
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)