Hello Blogiverse!

With the grad school semester and my birthday celebration over, it’s high time I give you guys an update on all things Jonny. There have been a lot of updates over the past six or so months, but with my hectic schedule I’ve only been able to give some hints through my other blog post intros.

I hope you’re ready for a big overall life update!

PS: If you want to catch me up on what you’ve been up to, feel free to comment! I’m trying to keep up with everyone’s blog more often during the summer, but I know I’m way behind. Very sorry!

Personal Stuff

Man, my personal life has been a whirlwind! I’ll try to keep this as condensed as possible.

I’m no longer single! Beginning in November I started seeing this amazing guy, and now we’re boyfriends! Before this relationship started, I had been single for maybe 8 years, not from lack of trying, so I’ve been keeping things on the down low so I don’t jinx anything. Needless to say, my worries were unfounded, and we are moving in together mid-late summer. I’m over the moon in love and now I know that I am deserving of unconditional love and that all that time alone paid off. He’s a keeper (and also a fellow ginger)!

My spring 2023 semester of grad school went off without any big hiccups. My professors this time around were great, and I have zero complaints. I have just three more semesters before I graduate, hoorah! I may even make my shift to being an employed librarian early if I’m in a good enough financial position since local libraries have made it very clear that they want fresh blood!

I got some free therapy through my work and acknowledged the misdirected anger I was feeling towards others and healthy ways to cope or prevent these emotions. I do still have anxiety around super crowded places, but when I go places with my boyfriend I’m much more at ease than by myself. He’s my rock!

Writing

On the writing front, things haven’t exactly been smooth, but there are some developments.

I’ve been working steadily on The Ruins, my LGBT/Fantasy/Horror WIP, and have been polishing the incomplete rough draft as well as working on plotting a potential sequel. I feel like there’s a series or universe that could awaken from this book alone, so I’m trying to take my time in how I’m going to handle that. Once I publish I can’t go back, so I’m taking everything in a little bit at a time. This has admittedly led to some burnout, and since late April I haven’t been actively editing/writing/brainstorming.

However, I have another project I’m working on currently, and it came about in such an odd way I can’t help but gush about it. Book bestie Iseult Murphy and I were finishing up a buddy read, and in the comments of my post I jokingly mentioned mutated tequila worms. Iseult, being the genius that she is, prompted me about a potential story not long after, and since then a horrific plot has been developing. I’m still in the brainstorming phase of this story with Iseult, but I’m excited to be embarking in a new direction that I hadn’t previously thought of.

Though publishing seems to be off the table for this year, I’m still really happy that I’ve been able to continue writing relatively consistently, and I know I’ll probably come out with something next year if I use my downtime to work hard at creating these new dark worlds. It seems that having more than one story idea to fall back on works well for me (that’s how Conscience got published), so I’m not mad about it.

In the meantime, if you haven’t yet had a chance to check out my works, please do! All but The BEK Curse can be considered LGBT and are perfect picks for pride month. Simply click on the images below, or you can check out my full listing right here.

Wish me luck, and best of luck with your endeavors as well!

Reading

One thing that hasn’t changed much are my bibliophile habits. I’ve been steadily reading new works and enjoying them, and it helps me keep my creative batteries charged. If you haven’t been keeping up with my posts, click on the covers of my favorite reads of 2023 below to check them out!

Wrap-Up

Well, that’s it for this post. Thanks for tuning in, and feel free to comment. I’d love to start a dialogue! Take good care of yourself, and happy pride month!

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