Simone Shirazi's Blog, page 4
April 30, 2019
Simone Read What? – March & April ’19
Hoo boy, it’s been a busy two months. I have to apologize for the lack of updates and the fact that I skipped March’s round-up completely, but here it is now in combination with April’s.
I’m a little disappointed that I didn’t manage to read as much as I wanted to, but sometimes other things have to take priority. That said, I did manage to read 3 books in March and 3 books in April, one short each month of my 4-books-a-month goal. Thankfully I had a cushion from reading more in previous mont...
April 27, 2019
Dubious Writing Advice with Simone: Writing Every Day
Welcome to a new series of posts that I’ve decided to call Dubious Writing Advice with Simone, where I bring you writing tips that may or may not be all that great! After all, everyone’s creative process is different, and what works for me may not work for you.
To kick things off, I want to talk about something I’ve been trying to do since the start of 2019: write every day.
I used to be one of those people who only sat down to write when either 1) the Writing Muse struck, or 2) the guilt I f...
February 27, 2019
Simone Read What? – February ’19
February has been a busy month! Between work, writing, and everyday life, I didn’t have a chance to read as much as I wanted to over the last 28 days. I still managed to read 5 books though, so I’m definitely still ahead of my Goodreads goal for this year!
Here’s what I read during February!
(all summaries and covers from Goodreads)
1. Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon[image error] All Dr. Sloan Copeland needed was someone to watch her kids. What she found was the man of her dreams…
After a nasty divorce and...
February 9, 2019
My Favorite Environmentally Conscious Clothing Stores
Here are a few things you should know about me: I like shopping for clothes. I like saving money. And I believe in climate change (and I’m trying to do my own personal part in cutting back on my contribution to it)
Those three things are often at odds with each other. If you want to save money when buying clothes, you tend to buy cheaper products, which are often “fast fashion” items. Fashion in general has a massive impact on the planet, as the apparel industry is one of the biggest industri...
February 3, 2019
Simone Bought What? – January ’19
Yet another goal of mine for 2019 is to start saving more money. I’m in my 20s, I’m out of school, and I have Adult Responsibilities that must be taken care of, which means having a pretty strict budget.
Usually, I’m pretty good at budgeting my money (that sound you hear is my bank account laughing in the distance) but sometimes when I get paid, all I wanna do is go full Treat Yo’ Self. So I figured, well, if I’m gonna Treat Myself, I also have to hold myself accountable for it.
So, here are...
February 1, 2019
I KonMari’d My Stories
I recently removed a four-book series (The Fairytale Series) from my Wattpad profile.
A week prior to that, I announced that I was going to take a break from the site and go on a bit of a hiatus.
A month before that, I started watching Marie Kondo‘s show on Netflix, Tidying Up With Marie Kondo.
Re-discovering the KonMari method, which I’d heard about years before, made me realize something: I was hanging on to things that no longer brought me joy. While some of those things were clothes and k...
January 31, 2019
Simone Read What? – January ’19
For 2019, I’ve set my Goodreads Reading Challenge to 48 books, up by 12 from last year. I have faith in myself that I can do it, but it still seems like a lot to read—to me at least!
While end of the year round-ups are fun, I figured I’d do monthly ones too. So if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve read this month and what I thought about them, please do read on!
(all summaries and covers from Goodreads)
1. The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli
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Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Su...
January 29, 2019
Origin Stories: Turnpike
Welcome back for another installment of Origin Stories, where I talk about the origins of my stories! In today’s post, I’m going to be talking about turnpike, a dark short-story of mine.
I’ve previously discussed Once Upon a One Night Stand and All That is Gold, which you should check out first for some extra background and context!
Timeline wise, we’re still in the Plagiarism Haven days, though that era was slowly coming to an end…
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Acronym: Since this is a one-word title, there’s no acrony...
January 27, 2019
Q&A – January ’19
Hi, friends!
Whether through comments, PMs, emails, or the various other ways there are to contact me on This Here Internet, I get a lot of questions. Some of those questions are things that I’ve been asked many times before, and while I really don’t mind answering everyone individually, I figured there were people out there who would like to know some of these things but were too hesitant to ask.
So, that’s why I’m going to start this series of Q&A posts where I publicly answer questions th...
January 23, 2019
Why I’m Taking a Break from Wattpad
I’m burned out.
It’s taken me a while to truly understand and acknowledge that, but there’s no ignoring it now. I’m burned out and have been for about a year now.
I’m feeling the same way I did when I took about a two year break from writing a while back. And you know what? Those two years were some of the best of my life. I don’t regret taking a break from writing because I needed it. I had to recharge. I needed to live my life so that I could come back and put those experiences down on the...