Winter Wrap-Up/Spring Goals (+Street Team Sign-Ups!)

Well, it's nearly springtime, which means allergies and the fast-approaching release date of Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs. 

These past few months have been filled with lots of activity, both with my writing and with other hobbies. 

1. Helena and I finished our second? round of edits on Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs and sent it off to beta readers. I was really proud of us. We had to work extra hard on getting that done on time. Our betas were awesome, as we had to put them on a pretty tight deadline because we had to turn right back around and do the final developmental round of edits so we could get out cover done in time. We're currently in the middle of that round of edits and, again, working hard to reach our deadline. After that, it should only need a copyedit to check for spelling/grammar issues and it'll be ready to go for publication in May!

2. I did a read through of The Dawn of a Hero, making tons of notes. And by tons, I mean tons. I began edits, focusing on redoing the world building, description, and minor character arcs. 

3. Milwordy finally started looking up. January was the first month where I got close to the required word count for the month (though it wasn't anywhere near close to how much I needed to get caught up).

Reading Goal Progress: 9/60

I've switched from Goodreads to Storygraph. Their interface is much cleaner and the stats are much more in-depth. I also really like how you can write your reviews. Not only are you able to put your written review, you can also rate how quick of a read the book is, what mood it falls under, as well as add in content warnings. Yes, you read that correctly. They have content warnings! Now, obviously, since they are reader-added, the books that don't have as many reviews on there aren't going to have the most accurate warnings ever, but it is definitely a bonus to have those in advance in case there is some triggering content.

I do want to try and write better reviews, so instead of having a reading wrap-up post, I'm planning on just linking to my reviews. I'll continue adding links as I write the reviews. 

Cat Naps: the key to contentment by Robin Haywood

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

Murder on a Midnight Clear by Sara Rosett

The Legend of Luke by Brian Jacques

The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

The Hollow by Agatha Christie

Parker Pyne Investigates by Agatha Christie

January:

January was a pretty fun month. I felt very productive all month, which isn't something I can say about most of 2020. 

Helena and I met up at a bookstore and browsed for a bit (aka an hour) and then went for lunch. I got six books, which is super fun! Also, Moe's is my most favoritists place to eat, so I was thrilled to go there for lunch (even though I can't eat rice, which makes me very sad because what is a Moe's burrito without rice?)!

I also got a lot of quilting done and finished nearly three quilts, which was sooo exciting! And I got back into playing my violin regularly. 

February:

I started my YouTube channel!! It took me a looonnnggg time to muster up the courage to start it (like, I had the goal to start a channel over two years ago and I even filmed lots of clips for videos), but I finally told myself that I needed to sit my butt down and film something. So I did! I'm really happy that I did. If you have any videos you'd like me to make, let me know!

One of my biggest barriers was I didn't have any video editing software and I wasn't about to put out a video that I didn't edit at least a little. I didn't necessarily want to pay anything because I wasn't sure if this was going to be something I was going to do for the long run, so I did some digging and found Davinci Resolve, which is free. Definitely recommend if you're looking for free video editing software. 

Anywhos, I had a bit of a whirlwind month in February. I had to get a covid test, which was not on my bucket list, but I had potentially been exposed to someone with Covid, so I wanted to make sure I wasn't going to pass it along to anyone else.

I registered for Realm Makers! If you're planning on going, let me know so I can be on the lookout for you!!

Helena, Mars, and I got together for a short hike at the end of the month and then met up with my younger brother and his girlfriend for lunch, which was really nice.

We also set up a street team for The Order of the Pen Press, which you can now apply for!

1. Publish Sins, Sons, and Siren Songs!!! I am so freaking excited for this!! I can't wait for y'all to be able to read this story! Keep an eye out for a cover reveal happening very soon, as well as preorder goodies!

2. Write Pirate Hunters Book 4!! Helena and I plan to write this in April during Camp NaNo.

3. Complete edits on The Dawn of a Hero. I want to get it done on time for Realm Makers. I also want to start on edits for The Fall of Chemmit, but we'll see how things go.

4. Probably finish at least one round of edits on Rumors. The interesting part about publishing a series is that, while everyone else is freaking out over one book, you're knee-deep in work for the next and have all but forgotten the previous book. This is especially true when the release for the next book is four months away.

5. Prep for Realm Makers. I want to revise all of the materials I took last time and update them with any new edits that I've done. I also have to get marketing things together for The Order of the Pen Press, which is super exciting!!

That's it for me! What have y'all been up to? Are you planning on going to Realm Makers? Let me know all the things down below!!