Up in the sky, middle
Technically, I have a desk, but this has been where I’ve been doing most of my writing and editing recently. It’s comfy, but not too comfy. It’s close to my hubby’s work space (for company) and to the kitchen (for tea refills and snacks). I have my awesome headphones for music, or just to muffle noises so I can focus. And, these days at least, I have a printed copy of the edit letter for the novel I’m working on. Besides my trusty laptop, that’s basically all I need.
Here I am, sporting some sweet goggle marks after my swim this morning. I would totally use this as my author photo.
Since it’s May, and I love May, and since the photo challenge I did in December was so much fun, I decided I’m going to give this May Instagram photo challenge a try.
Like I did in December, I’m going to post my photos here, to the blog. I will probably also post them on Instagram. I don’t usually post anything to my Instagram account, but if you want to follow it, I’m @emmenozzi (extra “m” required because I was apparently a late adopter).
Today’s post is supposed to be “May TBR” but we already went over that in my previous post. But here it is again:
Who else is planning on joining in this photo challenge? If you’re playing along on Instagram, let me know what your account name is there so I can follow you!
April was supposed to be a huge month for swimming. In fact, right now I was supposed to be racing in North Carolina at US Masters Nationals. Instead, I threw all my competition plans out the window so I could focus on my writing. I’m a little sad that I’m missing all the racing fun, but I’m also really happy with the edits I made to The Lost Empire this month.
My April writing calendar doesn’t look super impressive, but those silver dots are hiding a TON of work.
Each dot means that I edited at least one chapter that day. Sometimes “editing” included writing new scenes and/or heavily overhauling old ones. By the time I was done, I think I added about 8k *new* words to The Lost Empire. That long break between 4/18 and 4/27 was my well-deserved, post Pitch to Publication contest, break. Now, on to the next manuscript…
Even though I spent nearly every spare minute in April working on edits, I did manage to read some books.
One sci-fi novella (Binti), one non-fiction audiobook (Pirate Hunters), one paperback ARC from one of my Indiespensible shipments (Fever at Dawn), and a contemporary new adult romance by one of my favorite romance authors (Trade Me). I might have given everything except the ARC five stars (but the ARC was outside my wheelhouse from the start, so it shouldn’t count). Either I was feeling generous (writing and editing a book is HARD, people), or they were amazing and hit me at just the right time to leave a mark. Highly recommend. Links above take you to my Goodreads reviews.
So, that was April, now let’s talk about May. I can’t believe it’s May already! In case you didn’t know, May is my favorite month, and not just because it’s my birthday month. I have a lot of cool stuff to look forward to this month, but I also have a lot of hard work in front of me, as well. As a reward for hard work and my birthday, I’ve gone a little crazy with the pre-orders…
So far, I’ve ordered these four beauties:
A Court of Mist and Fury comes out on Tuesday. I had mixed feelings about the first book in this series, but the world-building was just amazing. SJM gets all the gold stars for building rich magical worlds that make you want to keep coming back for more. This is why I also have book five in the Throne of Glass series on pre-order (Empire of Storms <– what a great title!). I’ve had some issues with the romanic sub-plots in both of these series from time to time. But, book four in the Throne of Glass series made it all worth it for me and gave me hope that book two in the Court of Thorns and Roses series would be better (please let it be better…).
As much as I love SJM’s world-building and swoon-worthy heros, nothing beats Victoria Schwab for examining complicated aspects of human nature. Vicious was one of my favorite books I read last year, and I haven’t even started her most popular series (first book: A Darker Shade of Magic). Her latest, This Savage Song, comes out in July and I can not wait to read this book.
The blurb for Laini Taylor’s new book, Strange the Dreamer, sounds heartbreakingly beautiful. If her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series is any indication, I will love this one, too. Laini Taylor is another writer who is top notch at world-building and romantic sub-plots that add just the right amount of heat to an already edge-of-your-seat adventure.
You know it’s a good year for reading (and a bad year for your book budget) when three of your most favorite YA authors are all releasing new books!
Since only one of those comes out in May, here’s what I put on my May TBR:
You may notice a few repeat offenders on this list… oh, who am I kidding? This is basically the same list as last month. I did add Lagoon to the list after finishing Binti this month. I’ve had Lagoon on my Kindle since October, and I’ve had my eye on it since around this time last summer. So, it’s about time I read it.
But first, I have to do some edits on Godda’s War (which may also need a new title…), and I really want to start working on the outline for a new book that’s been bouncing around in my head for far too long. Maybe I can add some stars to May’s writing calendar in addition to the silver dots…
Since this post is now epic-length, I should get back to work. Happy May, everybody!
I saw this post on Twitter last week and LOVED it because it felt like exactly what I’ve been thinking for the past month while I’ve been working on the Pitch to Publication edits for The Lost Empire.
Lol I feel like this is so you! @veschwab pic.twitter.com/u92qgkGjfu
— cassie ➰ (@SmoaknRickards) April 18, 2016
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I think that sometimes the longer I spend looking at anything I’ve written, the more I become convinced that it’s terrible and I have no idea what I’m doing.
Then I stumbled on this YouTube video and realized this is totally normal…
I’ve watched several of her videos and am not convinced that she’s a freaking genius.
What I’m trying to say here is that this writing stuff is HARD, people.
One of my friends on Twitter shared a Readathon that’s happening this weekend, and I think I may join in the fun. Anyone else in for a little “spring cleaning” of your TBR?
When I saw this blog post, I immediately thought it would be a great excuse to tackle some of the *really* old stuff on my TBR — books that I purchased years ago, but still haven’t gotten around to reading yet. But, most of those are on Kindle, and what I really want to do is free up some of my shelf space.
I don’t get a chance to read physical books much, and weekends are usually a great time to tackle my backlog of paperbacks and hardcovers because I don’t have to lug them anywhere with me. This weekend I’d already decided I wanted to dig into some of my Indiespensible shipment reads, especially because I noticed that two of the ARC copies I received in previous shipments were both released this month. I meant to get to these sooner… oops!
While I was at it, I thought I might also check another book off my 2016 Read Harder challenge.
All of these are definitely outside my usual reading genres, but they all look like fascinating reads. This should be interesting!
Anyone else want to join in the fun? If you’re on Twitter or Instagram, follow #SpringCleanReads and post your TBR!
Even though I said I wasn’t going to do any book challenges this year, I have been tracking progress against Book Riot’s 2016 Read Harder Challenge, a list of 24 reading tasks to be completed in 2016.
I’m still trying to find a good way to keep track of the tasks and which book I plan to read for each. I created a new Goodreads shelf, and I’m thinking about printing out a copy of their form. But, for now, I’ll just re-post the list of tasks below along with the book I selected for each. Bold means I’ve completed that task (5 done so far), and blue means it’s on my TBR (6 on deck) to read between now and June.
Below is the list for 2016 (book selections are in parenthesis):
Is anyone else participating in Book Riot’s Read Harder Challenge this year? If so, what are you reading?
March was mostly a writing month. I didn’t get much reading done. In fact, I didn’t touch my Kindle for the entire month. Instead, I read one comic and one audio book.
I never got to read the one book I wanted to read in March (The Story of a New Name), and I had to return it to the library. 😦 I’m now going to have to go back to the bottom of the hold list at the library. But it’s okay. I don’t have time to read it now anyway.
My TBR for April is basically the same as my TBR for March. I’ve filled it with a bunch of short books that I think will be fast reads. I’m hoping I can use them as distractions from my writing projects when I need a break.
TV and movies:
I haven’t had a ton of time to watch TV and movies this month. But I did manage to get caught up on The 100 and Super Girl. I’m not as worked up about The 100 and I LOVED the Super Girl / Flash cross-over episode. I don’t watch The Flash, but those two were so cute together I feel like this should be a regular thing. I’m still watching The Magicians, and I still think it’s better than the book (at least the first book in the series, which is all I’ve read so far). I need to get caught up on the rest of the season, and I need to catch up on Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., if for no other reason then to finally decide that I no longer need to watch that show.
Swimming:
Something had to give this month. For the first time since I started swimming competitively again, it ended up being swimming. I’ve bailed on all the in-season swim meets this year (except for two ill-advised races at Rinconada). I’m still training hard, but I’ve cut it back to about 4x per week, and I decided that giving up my weekends for all-weekend swim meets is not the best use of my time right now. This means no more races for me until July or August. It’s not a huge sacrifice, considering that I plan to keep racing for as long as I’m alive. I’m planning on being one fast 90+ age-group breaststroker. But right now, I need that time for writing.
Writing:
Something unexpected (and really good) happened that has kept me VERY busy with writing this month. I entered The Lost Empire (my YA epic fantasy novel) into a contest, and I was selected to work with an editor (we’re name twins) in preparation for an “agent round” in April! I still can’t believe it.
I also started using a new way of tracking (and rewarding) my writing. I’m dabbling with the “calendar method” (borrowed from V. E. Schwab) where you give yourself a sticker on the calendar to represent writing days. Each sticker is supposed to stand for a certain number of words written. This is what March looked like:
I decided to give myself a foil star for any days with over 500 words written. I gave myself a foil circle for days I edited at least one chapter. I may be more generous next month and make each star worth 500 words and each circle worth one chapter of edits. Then I’d give myself more than two stars if I wrote 1000 words, or two circles if I edited two chapters, etc. But that just seems like overkill at this point.
As you can see from the calendar, I got some writing done in the first half of the month, and I spent the second half working on edits for TLE. I like the changes I’m making and I think the novel is getting better. But I probably won’t be done with edits until mid-April.
If I have time for writing in April, I’ll probably be working on a short story for Camp NaNoWriMo. But I also plan on trying to post more short blog posts in April. So stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I hope you are all enjoying your spring!
I did say I was going to try to avoid buying books this year and use my library more, instead. But when books I want to read go on sale, I just can’t resist.
Here’s everything I snapped up (all at less than $3 per book) in the first three months of this year:
Now… I just need more time to read!
I don’t talk much about writing on my blog, but writing has been pretty much all I can think about for the past month or more. Today I was reflecting on how there’s usually one song that I heard at some point while writing each of my stories that, when I hear it, reminds me of that novel and puts me right back into the feel of that story.
Curious what songs inspire my writing?
Well, I’d been writing bits and pieces of The Lost Empire for a while when, one day, on a KEXP Music That Matters podcast, I heard Home by Villagers and something just clicked.
Oh, man. The feels in that song. Dang. There are a couple of lines that definitely get right at what I wanted to write in this novel. I listen to it whenever I want to remember that.
Before I finished TLE, I started another crazy novel that has a bananas narrative structure that somehow fits with the world. It was based on a writing exercise I did for one of my UC Berkeley Extension writing classes. When I heard Witchcraft by Pendulum, one of the scenes just popped into my head.
I didn’t know where that scene went in the story, but I could vividly see it in my imagination. I nicknamed that novel “Falling” and wrote nearly the whole thing during NaNoWriMo 2013. It still needs work, and every time I hear that song, I want to dive back into that world.
This past NaNoWriMo, it happened again. I was working on what I eventually named Godda’s War, and I heard Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood and something just clicked.
There is so much about this song that reminds me of Drew (one of the two POV characters). I just want to curl this song around me and play it over and over again when I work on this novel.
If you’re curious, you can read blurbs about these stories by clicking on my “Writing” page. None of these are currently published, so you can’t buy them anywhere, yet. I’m working on that. 🙂
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