"If there's a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." ~Toni Morrison

Monday, February 29, 2016

Monthly Check-in (February)

Time to check-in on my progress on my yearly goals.

Reading Goals

1.  Read 32 books (2-3 per month)
I read three books this month: The Double Life of Fidel CastroPeeps by Scott Westerfeld and Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult.  Yes, you read that right... I started a new book series.  I am currently reading book 2 of the Peeps series.  Thankfully there are only two.  This puts my yearly total at 7 books, right on track.

2.  Read books I have pinned on Pinterest
Keeping Faith was on my TBR list :)

3.  Complete some book series that I have started
Like I said above, I actually started another book series, though I should finish it really soon.

Writing Goals

1.  Write or edit every day
No editing or writing this month, so that leaves me with 7 writing days so far this year.

2.  Complete first draft of DOVH and Mordred
No progress.

3.  Edit first draft of ZF
No progress.

4.  Complete at least one writing challenge
I participated in A Month of Letters challenge this month.  I didn't write a letter every day, but I did hand-write about 10 letters and received three replies.  I love this challenge.  It is so much fun to sit down and write a real letter.

5.  Continue with my blogging schedule
This month was not great for blogging.  I took a few weeks off, for different reasons; some of it was motivational, but also my eyes were hurting a lot this month.


How are your goals progressing?

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

2016 What I'm Reading Wednesday #6

For my ROW80 Wednesday Check-ins, I will be posting my progress on my reading goals.  
I am currently reading Peeps by Scott Westerfeld and I cannot get enough reading time.  He hooked me from the first page!

Once again my monthly goal is to read 3 books.

2016 Goal: 32 books
Books Read = 5/32
Books from TBR list: 0
Series completed: 0
2016 Pinterest Board

January
1.  Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
2.  Foreign Gods, Inc by Okey Ndibe
3.  Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy by Dinty W. Moore
4.  Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg


February
5.  The Double Life of Fidel Castro by Juan Reinaldo Sánchez


What are you reading this week?  How are your reading goals going?

Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Teaser Tuesday (February 9, 2016)


Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Here is my teaser:

"Peeps have a subtle scent.  Their feverish bodies consume almost everything they eat, leaving few smells of waste.  Their dry skin exudes none of the salty sweat of a regular person.  But no metabolism is perfect -- my predator's nose detected a hint of rotting meat and the whiff of dead skin cells, like fresh leather hanging on a boot factory wall."
from Peeps by Scott Westerfeld, p.154

Sunday, February 7, 2016

Weekly Wrap-up - February 7, 2016


Blog Posts
Book Haul - I posted about the next books on my TBR list and where I found them
What I'm Reading Wednesday - My fifth post this year about my reading

What I read
I finished The Double Life of Fidel Castro by Juan Reinaldo Sánchez with Axel Glydén.  It was an interesting read, although not very shocking.  I have now started reading Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.

Interesting Stuff I Found on the Internet
I rediscovered Month of Letters and decided to participate again.  The last time I tried this challenge was three years ago and it didn't go very well.  Hopefully I can do better this time around.

Fiction Writing
No writing this week :(

Editing
No editing this week, although I did think about it a lot :)


How did your week go?

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

2016 What I'm Reading Wednesday #5

For my ROW80 Wednesday Check-ins, I will be posting my progress on my reading goals.  
I am still reading The Double Life of Fidel Castro.  I know, boring.  So far I am not really surprised by anything I have read.

Once again my monthly goal is to read 3 books.

2016 Goal: 32 books
Books Read = 4/32
Books from TBR list: 0
Series completed: 0
2016 Pinterest Board

January
1.  Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
2.  Foreign Gods, Inc by Okey Ndibe
3.  Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy by Dinty W. Moore
4.  Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg


What are you reading this week?  How are your reading goals going?

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Book Haul (February 2, 2016)


Library Finds:
Ok, I love Scott Westerfeld's books, so when I was in the library at work and saw both of these sitting on the shelf, I couldn't resist.  One of the perks of being a teacher is checking out books from the school library without a due date, so I can take my time with these two books... although I don't think I will.

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld
"A year ago, Cal Thompson was a college freshman more interested in meeting girls and partying than in attending biology class. Now, after a fateful encounter with a mysterious woman named Morgan, biology has become, literally, Cal's life.
Cal was infected by a parasite that has a truly horrifying effect on its host. Cal himself is a carrier, unchanged by the parasite, but he's infected the girlfriends he's had since Morgan. All three have turned into the ravening ghouls Cal calls Peeps. The rest of us know them as vampires. It's Cal's job to hunt them down before they can create more of their kind. . . .
Bursting with the sharp intelligence and sly humor that are fast becoming his trademark, Scott Westerfeld's novel is an utterly original take on an archetype of horror."

Afterworlds  by Scott Westerfeld
"Darcy Patel has put college on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. With a contract in hand, she arrives in New York City with no apartment, no friends, and all the wrong clothes. But lucky for Darcy, she’s taken under the wings of other seasoned and fledgling writers who help her navigate the city and the world of writing and publishing. Over the course of a year, Darcy finishes her book, faces critique, and falls in love.

Woven into Darcy’s personal story is her novel, Afterworlds, a suspenseful thriller about a teen who slips into the “Afterworld” to survive a terrorist attack. The Afterworld is a place between the living and the dead, and where many unsolved—and terrifying—stories need to be reconciled. Like Darcy, Lizzie too falls in love…until a new threat resurfaces, and her special gifts may not be enough to protect those she cares about most."



Gift Books:
This book was gifted to me in Christmas of 2014, I think, and it will help me with my resolution to finish some of the series I have started, so this is definitely on my reading list for this month.

Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
"J. K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyer, Anne Rice—only a few writers capture the imagination the way that Deborah Harkness has with her New York Times–bestselling All Souls trilogy. A Discovery of Witchesintroduces reluctant witch Diana Bishop, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont, and the battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782.

Picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night takes Diana and Matthew on a trip through time to Elizabethan London, where they are plunged into a world of spies, magic, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the School of Night. As the search for Ashmole 782 deepens and Diana seeks out a witch to tutor her in magic, the net of Matthew’s past tightens around them, and they embark on a very different—and vastly more dangerous—journey."

Have you read any of these books?  Or these authors?  What did you think?  What cool books have you found lately?

Monday, February 1, 2016

Monthly Check-in (January)

Time to check-in on my progress on my yearly goals.

Reading Goals

1.  Read 32 books (2-3 per month)
I am making amazing progress on this goal.  I read 4 books this month: Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, Foreign Gods, Inc. by Okey Ndibe, Dear Mister Essay Writer Guy by Dinty W. Moore, and Thunder and Lightning by Natalie Goldberg.

2.  Read books I have pinned on Pinterest
I did not read any books from my TBR list.

3.  Complete some book series that I have started
I did not make progress on any book series.

Writing Goals

1.  Write or edit every day
I wrote 7 out of 31 days; I did not edit.

2.  Complete first draft of DOVH and Mordred
No progress.

3.  Edit first draft of ZF
No progress.

4.  Complete at least one writing challenge
No progress.

5.  Continue with my blogging schedule
I did not write many Stuck in my Head posts but I kept up with the rest of the schedule.  I think I did well.

How are your goals progressing?