January In Hindsight: Bookish Conquests and Other Things
Good Morning World!
How have you been holding up? Good I hope!
Instead of my usual weekly progress update, today we’ll be taking a look back on January and all the great things that have happened.
First off, I can’t believe we’re already through a month of this year. Time, slow down!
This month was quite the roller coaster, lots of ups and downs.
Work has been getting better, though some days I still find myself extremely stressed out to where I just want to give up. I got to meet some cool new people going out on a whim and made new friends. Financially, I’m doing really well and was able to file my taxes the other day and was happy with my refund. On the other hand, there’s the whole coronavirus thing going on, so really a big mixed bag of things.
Still, ultimately I did enjoy my month. There really was a lot of great things going on! Let’s take a look, shall we?
Writing Conquests
As you know, I’m writing the sequel to Reaper: A Horror Novella.
I’m well into my second act, and most of this month I spent plotting out the final chapters of it. It wasn’t until this week that I started writing the final 4-5 chapters of that act. So how did I do?
This week I wrote a total of 3,763 words, or roughly 15 pages. I am super surprised that I managed to write this much, since I usually plan on writing about 2,000 words goalwise. I think all that time spent on plotting things really did make a difference, and I hit the ground running. Very proud of myself!
To date, my sequel is 66,171 words, or about 265 pages. Woohoo! This next month, I hope to write the rest of the second act, maybe 10k words? I think that’s a fair goal to set for myself.
After that, I’ll be plotting out the two-three chapters of my final act along with epilogue before working on getting a real first draft finished and ready for alpha and beta readers.
In the meantime, feel free to check out my debut novella Reaper: A Horror Novella.
It’s got chills, thrills, and is bound to keep you up at night!
Bookish Conquests
On the bookish side of things this month, I was SUPER busy. I read a total of nine works, comprised of 6 books and 3 short stories.
The books I read this month were Animorphs #17-18.5 by KA Applegate, The Dysasters by P.C. Cast, Artificial Condition by Martha Wells, and The Die of Death by Kenneth B. Andersen.
The short stories I read were Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams by Sunny Moraine, Four Horsemen, At Their Leisure by Richard Parks, and Brokeback Mountain by Annie Proulx.
Overall, it was a mixed bag this month. There were some books that I felt kinda meh about, and one of the short stories, I didn’t like all that much, but I’m still happy I got to read so much last month!
Here’s to another great month!
For my full review of this month’s reads, check the links out below.
Eyes I Dare Not Meet in Dreams Review
Four Horsemen, At Their Leisure Review
Movie & Series Conquests
On the watching side of things, there were a lot of big ticket items this month. I watched The Witcher, Watchmen (series), His Dark Materials (series), Train to Busan, It Chapter Two, The Mandalorian, and the first season of The Magicians.
I really enjoyed all of these except for His Dark Materials, so I definitely recommend most of these bad boys!
The Witcher, Season One Review
His Dark Materials, Season One Review
The Mandalorian, Season One Review
The Magicians, Season One ReviewÂ
That’s a Wrap!
All right, there goes the month of January. How was your month? Did you read or see something in my conquests? Do you have any recommendations for books, tv, or movies? As always, feel free to comment!
Happy Reading and Watching, everyone!
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I had a mixed bag of book quality wise. I read 9 books but I did have two 5 star books this month.
Yeah, something about this month was hit and miss for me too. In the end, it’s all up to chance, really.
I just got Martha Wells’ first book in the Murderbot series. It’s gonna be a buddy read with the hubster.
Oh yay, I remember you telling me about that! I cant wait to hear how you feel about it. Happy reading!