May 2024 Roundup

Making The Most Of The Stakes In Your... How To Elevate The Descriptions In Yo...

May 2024 Roundup

Welcome to the May 2024 roundup!

Can you believe we are about to cross into the 6th month of the year? This first half of 2024 truly has flown by, and although I didn’t start any serious writing until this month, I’m still hoping to release a book by the end of the year. It won’t be a work of fiction, but rather my non-fiction Checklist Book Project (not the title), which has given me a sense of purpose again. That was something I’d lost after publishing my final Blackbirch book last November, and even though this isn’t a creative writing project, it’s scratching that writing itch for me—and I’m loving it!

As for what else I got up to in May, please read on…

What I’ve Been…Writing

Blogs and The Checklist Project. Even though I feel like I haven’t achieved much so far this year, I did get a little ahead on my blog posts, which means I was able to spend most of my writing time this month deciding what content to have in my Checklist Project. Because it’s me, I added way too much and ended up with 160 pieces of content to sort through. This was made up of 1 intro, 8 writing routines, 4 blog posts, and 147 checklists, 17 of which are new checklist ideas that still need to be written (the others are existing checklists that need to be updated, or blog posts that need to be converted). I then started the task of categorizing them and going through each one to see what would work and what wouldn’t. It’s been both cathartic and frustrating. As of today, I’ve cut 28 checklists and first-draft edited 60. There’s still a lot to do, but I’m having fun, and I hope this project will be as helpful to other writers as I’d like it to be when all is said and done.

Watching

The Idea Of You

There’s been a lot of chatter about the age gap between the characters, and Anne Hathaway being a 41-year-old woman playing—shock horror—a 40-year-old woman. The only thing I found off about this movie was her character being a pretentious art gallery owner. When Solène goes to Coachella with her 16-year-old daughter, she crosses paths with 24-year-old boy band member, Hayes Campbell, and there’s an instant attraction. It’s something she tries to put out of her mind until he turns up at her art gallery and buys the place out. A relationship ensues, at first in secret, and then in front of the world, leading to family and business issues, and an ending that is different to the book. I’m glad about that change because I enjoyed the end of the movie. Both Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine were great as Solène and Hayes. I think showing more of their connection rather than montages of them laughing, and more of Solène’s business partner (who has a bigger role in the book) would have made some aspects more believable, but it’s fun for what it was—a romantic comedy that mostly works.

Baby Reindeer

If you heard this series was about stalking, you heard right. But if that’s all you’ve heard, then be prepared if/when you sit down to watch it. It’s a trigger-filled show about the worst of people, and situations. When Donny, a failed comedian working in a bar, gives a cup of tea to a woman named Martha, he doesn’t realize it will kick off years of stalking, or lead him to deal with the trauma he experienced that blew up his relationships and derailed his career. This is an emotional show that will stay with you and is worthy of the attention it’s been getting.

Girls5Eva (Seasons 1-3)

A shoutout to writer Jodie Fitzsimons for posting about this show on her blog because it was the perfect, lighthearted entertainment I needed this month. Girls5Eva is about a 90s girl group band that reforms when a rapper samples one of their hits. There’s Wickie, the lead vocalist running from a washed-up life. Dawn, who after settling into motherhood and wife-life, wants to be the songwriter the band never allowed her to be. Summer, the girl who grew up always being told what to do. And Gloria, who never enjoyed their fame as someone who was in the closet at the time. She’s purposely played by an actress who is double the age of everyone else to make fun of the absurd entertainment industry—and that’s the beauty of this show. The flashbacks to the totally inappropriate 90s Girls5Eva songs, the situations they found themselves in, and the jokes the show makes about past and present pop culture and celebrity are why it’s worth a watch.

Young Sheldon (Final Season)

(Spoilers) It may have morphed into a show about the characters in the family rather than just about Young Sheldon over the 7-year run, but that’s the reason why this series ended so emotionally as it did. The episode where the family finds out about George’s heart attack, and the funeral episode that follows is so crushing you’d have to have no heart to not shed a tear. The final episode reveals the whole series was a grown Sheldon writing his memoir, and conceded that all the awful stories he’d told about his dad and family in the 12-year run of The Big Bang Theory were his way of coping with a death that was the first time he’d really dealt with emotions in his life. Now that he is the same age as his father, he could see the kind of man George really was—and it was the perfect way to conclude the show.

Reading

The Car Share by Lucy Mitchell

This is one of those reads that is just so fun to immerse yourself in. Matteo and Lia are strangers dealing with the failing health of older parents, death, and relationship breakdowns that have scarred them. When their circumstances lead them to a car share service, they meet each other and Stella, one of the best book characters I’ve come across in a while. She’s loud, her children are teenage monsters, and she has an unreliable friend named Useful Kim who is never that useful at all. Her antics are entertaining against the main story of Matteo and Lia carrying demons from past relationships, a frosty friends-to-lovers move, and the running commentary about commutes from the radio DJ they listen to during their drives. The Car Share is about finding new friends, new loves, and who you used to be, from a writer who knows how to pull all of the right heartstrings.

The Blood Curse (Gardens of War & Wasteland #2) by Jessica A. McMinn

Just as entertaining as the first book, The Blood Curse continues the adventures of Amika, her fallen prince brother, Kio, his demon lover Rei-Hai, and Kriah, another chosen along with Amika who has been separated from their mission but is trying to get back to them to help break the seals to release the Goddess. They need this now more than ever as a blood curse begins sweeping the lands. Author Jessica A. McMinn knows how to create a fantastical world and even more fascinating characters as reunions are emotional, relationships grow and deepen, and prickly characters become favorites as the action-packed story unfolds. Highly recommended for fans of dark fantasy stories with LGBTIQA+ representation.

Rebel Rising by Rebel Wilson

Funny, relatable, and full of life lessons, Rebel Rising spends the majority of the memoir focusing on Rebel’s childhood and high school years, including the fever dream she had while on a trip to Africa where she contracted Malaria and hallucinated about winning an Oscar. This led her to pursue the love of acting she acquired as a theater kid in high school, and she did it while also studying to be a lawyer. After her acting career took off in Australia, Rebel made the move to America, where she delved into both the good and bad things that acting brought into her life. Touching on life events such as losing a parent, dating, the struggles of polycystic ovary syndrome, obesity, and IVF and surrogacy journeys, there’s also some fun celebrity name-dropping and the book touches on much more than the sensational headlines that surrounded its release.

Christopher Pike Books

Inspired by the Netflix series, The Midnight Club, I’m re-reading the books of my favorite author, Christopher Pike, and enjoying the nostalgia and reading for fun and not to review. In 2022/2023, I read Pike’s YA books. For 2024, I’m reading his Adult books.

This month I read The Blind Mirror.

If you’ve got any good book recommendations, let me know in the comments, or be my friend on Goodreads and share your books/recommendations! You can also find and follow my reviews and book recommendations on Amazon and BookBub.

If you’d like to add the Blackbirch books to your Goodreads “Want to Read” shelf and/or check out the reviews, click the following links:

Blackbirch: The Beginning Blackbirch: The Dark Half Blackbirch: The Ritual Blackbirch: The Collector

Taking Photos Of

The aurora, winter walks, and an ARC. This month, like the rest of the world, I saw the aurora and was able to snap a pic. Winter has come on cold and fast here in Melbourne, making my morning walks chilly but beautiful. I also received some book mail from the UK when my very awesome friend and fellow blogger, M.L. Davis, sent me an ARC of her debut novel, Vanishing Act. I beta read her excellent mystery a few years ago and can’t wait to read the published version ahead of its July release.

Blackbirch Teaser Of The Month

This month’s teaser is one of my favorite mysteries from The Beginning. Guidance counselor, Arden Flynn, is recounting the time an otherworldly fire took the lives of his firefighting unit but spared him. Or did it? You’ll have to read the book to find out if you haven’t already.