June Wrap-Up
Hey all, Sam here.
We have made it halfway through the year! Somehow we have survived half of this year. At times it has absolutely been a struggle, but here we are, still trying to keep going. This has been such a difficult year already, and I know a lot of us are concerned about the present and the future. I don’t know how, but somehow we’ll get through this.
Anyway, we’ve reached that time where I reflect back on the last month and do little check-ups on my yearly goals for reading, writing, blogging, and trips/conventions. There’s actually a decent amount to cover, so let’s go ahead and get started with that.
ReadingAs usual, let’s start with the reading wrap-up, and June was another pretty good month of reading, although I definitely felt like there were many day stretches where I didn’t read at all, so there’s definitely potential to finish even more books. However, for the month of June I completed 11 books, which is still pretty darn good.
When Among Crows by Veronica Roth — 4 stars
Of Knights and Books and Falling in Love by Rita A Rubin — 3 stars
Realm of Thieves by Karina Halle — 3.75 stars
House of Frost and Feathers by Lauren Wiesebron — 4 stars
Writing Mr Right by Alina Khawaja — 4.5 stars
The Author Stuck List by Becca Syme — 4 stars
Dear Writer, You’re Doing it Wrong by Becca Syme — 4 stars
A Legionnaire’s Guide to Love and Peace by Emily Skrutskie — 4 stars
Betrayed by the Hero, I Formed a MILF Party with His Mom! Vol 1 by Ishino Yassan and Makoto Kuon — 4.5 stars
Whoever Steals This Book Vol 1 by Nowaki Fukamidori and Kakeru Sora — 3 stars
The Ruin Reveals by Aimee Donnellan — 5 stars
WritingIn the month of June I managed to write snippets and scenes from a story I’m writing following my current D&D character, but I also started participating in the Pathfinders Writing Collective Bookish Bootcamp. The writing challenge is taking place between June 20th and July 31st, so I’m hoping to make some decent progress on my D&D romance story (working title Roll for Romance, but I definitely need to come up with a new title).
Working on the story also gives me even more of an excuse to play around with our terrain and miniatures and character sheets and dice…because yes, I actually set up some of the in-game scenarios and David and I actually roll the dice to see how it goes for the party. So unlike in a “typical novel” where the author plans how events go for the characters, sometimes I get absolutely surprised by how everything turns out, which is really fun.
With the way the world is going, I am struggling with writing stories the way I used to, with delightful reckless abandon, doing it just because. I think too much of reality is pressing in on me and making the writing process feel WAY harder than it used to. But I really want to get this story written. I don’t know if I’ll publish, if I would even be able to publish, but I’m at least determined to find a way to keep writing, even if it’s just for myself and David to read.
BloggingI think I did a decent amount of blogging this month. Actually I did better than last month, which is a nice improvement. There were eight posts this month and hopefully I can do the same (or more) in July. We’ll see what happens. Here’s the links to all the posts, just in case you missed any or want to check any of them out.
NetGalley Review: Realm of Thieves by Karina Halle
NetGalley Review: Roll for Romance by Lenora Woods
I’m Looking Forward to These July Releases
PaWriCo Bookish Bootcamp June 20-26 Check-In
NetGalley Review: Pearly Gates by Bonnie Solomon
Trips/ConventionsHmm…I don’t think I have anything to really talk about here this month. Everything’s all set for Gen Con, which we’re only a month away from now, which is very exciting.
Oh, I guess I can say that I surprised David with concert tickets for his birthday last week. The concert isn’t until September, but we’ll be going to see Lindsey Stirling, Halestorm, and Apocalyptica. That’s a pretty awesome lineup, and I guess it counts as a trip because the concert venue is about two hours away.
All right, well that is all from me for today. How did your June go? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
