The Sunday Post [7]

 
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. From Kimba's website, "this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies."

It's been a busy freaking month. Holy heck! I start teaching writing classes next week at the local college again (in addition to my other job, which I usually call the "evil day job") so things on the blog were quieter than usual as I ran around trying to get myself together. It was a nice break though and I needed it to reset, make a plan and get organized. I admit I was a bit overwhelmed at times this month, which I blame on the wedding shower, several birthdays, unexpected visitors and two unexpected projects at work, but I made it. This week I hope to be back to my regularly scheduled programming when it comes to writing and blogging, and everything else too. I hope.

But let's get down to business, shall we? Here's what's been happening on the blog, and beyond, this past week:

Books Read/Reviewed Last Week:

Elite (Eagle Elite, #1) by Rachel Van Dyken: I received this as an ARC and I liked it enough to add the second in the series to my TBR.

Deceiving The Witch Next Door by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez: this was also an ARC and a sweet read. The author has set up what looks to be a series; at least, I hope that's the case! Also, the heroine's name rocks.

The Awakening: Aiden by Abby Niles: Shifters, YAY!!!

Sacrifice of Passion by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez: This is the first book in the Deadly Legends series. I had read the second as an ARC, not realizing there was a book before it. (They both work as stand alones though!) Once I read the ARC, I had to run out and purchase this book and I am so glad I did. 

What I'm Reading/Coming Up on the Blog

I have to look through my ARCs and the books in my TBR to make a plan for the week but tentatively I'll be reading and/or reviewing (or preparing the reviews, depending on release dates) the following:

Dead Sexy Dragon by Lolita Lopez
In His Command by Rie Warren
Full Blooded by Amanda Carlson
The Awakening: Liam by Abby Niles
The Companions by R.A. Salvatore
The Demon's Song by Kendra Leigh Castle

Yeah. It's going to be a busy week. But who needs sleep?!

Stacking The Shelves

I behaved this week. Kind of. Sorta...Okay, not really. You can check out my haul HERE.

ARC AUGUST

I'm participating in this challenge to decrease the amount of ARCs I have and get my butt in gear with reviews. You can check out the details HERE.  In terms of progress, here is how I'm doing so far:

I haven't met my goal yet. I had wanted to read 11 ARCs. I've read 5. I still have 6 days left but that would mean a book a day and I don't know if I can do that given my schedule this week.  I'll try my best but no guarantees. On the upside though, getting through 5 ARCs is nothing to sneeze at. At least I've made a dent in the pile. It's a small one, but a dent nonetheless.

ROW80

I have revamped my goals for the last month of ROW80, Round 3, as well as adjusted the blog schedule. My goals is to be consistent with both writing and blogging (specifically with book reviews) since I really love doing that. It combines my love of writing and reading, and well, it's just fun for me. And that's what blogging is all about right?! So here's the plan for the remainder of the round:

• Write one hour a day on a WiP, whether on a draft, outlining, planning, or revising
• Post my ROW80 update on Wednesday: this will be the last post where ROW80 is a part of the Sunday Post.  Or that's the plan anyways. I will be doing a quick update on Wednesdays instead. This will also break up the posts on the blog from being all book reviews and book related memes. I like a little variety in my life. :)
• Finish revisions of Wanted
• Post a minimum of 2 complete book reviews each week, here or on Goodreads
• Post the Stacking the Shelves and Sunday Post memes every week, either separately or combined
• And for this week only: send the dreaded email I don't want to send for the evil day job. I can't say much about the subject of this but bottom line is, it's a task I'm dreading.  I've got to just suck it up and do it though. I'm determined to get this task done and off my desk this week. It's been haunting me for a month. 

It seems like a lot to take on but with classes starting I've revamped my entire work, writing and blog schedule and put everything in my calendar so I can (1) not forget about blog posts or forget do my writing by the end of the day and (2) stay on top of things at both of my jobs so I don't fall behind, get frustrated, and give up. Consistency in writing, blogging and at work is key to keeping me sane this semester.

I can do this. *fingers crossed*

How's your week been? Any interesting books caught your eye or added to your TBR pile? Reviewed any books lately that surprised you or you were disappointed in? What about your writing goals? Have you hit them yet? Let me know how your're doing in the comments and have a great week!

The Sunday Post [6]: Little Progress and a Necessary Break

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. From Kimba's website, "this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies."

I always try to have a plan, especially when I have weeks (or in this case, a month) where I'm swamped with work, reading, writing, family duties, and well, trying to have a personal life. This month that plan hasn't seemed to work so well for me. Oh, I'm getting things done. But I've had to sacrifice sleep and sanity to do it. Thankfully, Saturday will be the end of this month from hell and I can get back to some normalcy. I hope.

On the upside, things at work are going well. Or, going better than they were in the beginning of the year anyways. I've also been managing to pay off some bills (yay!) and stick to my budget (double yay!).  I'm slowly making headway on my website and hope to have that up and running soon. Getting familiar with WordPress has been interesting, to say the least, but once I find a background I like, I think it will be launch time. Maybe by September 1, or at the latest, the middle of September. The organizer in me wants to be sure I understand what I'm doing before I launch so yeah, maybe mid September is a better goal post for this!

But on to the here and now, this week's review of all things reading, reviewing and writing related with some miscellany thrown in between for good measure. 

BOOKS READ/REVIEWED:

Facade by Nyrae Dawn

The Edge of Never by J.A. Redmerski

Both of these made me ball my eyes out, for different reasons, but yeah, I was a sobbing mess by the end of them. I keep my reviews spoiler free for the most part so check them out if you're looking for a new adult book to read.

I also finished Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie and I fell in love with the hero in that book. And the heroine too. It was heart-warming, sweet and just what I needed after the angst of the other two I read this week. This was a just for fun book, and one I needed to finish so I could return it to the library.  I don't plan on reviewing this for the blog though I think I could write pages and pages on how deeply this book impacted me. The banter was great, the plot was interesting and not in any way over the top and the author had me connecting to the heroine in such a meaningful way that even days later I can't stop thinking about it. I might have to break down and buy this one so I can have it for re-read purposes.

WHAT I'M CURRENTLY READING:

I have way too much to focus on this week so reading will be far down the list for me, sadly.  So other than finishing comments on my CP's book, I don't have much to read this week on my reading list. It's a short list in fact (only two books I think) and on top is Curse of Passion by Melissa Bourbon Ramirez.

STACKING THE SHELVES:

I didn't get to post my week's intake yesterday because I was up at the crack of dawn so I could get to Syracuse for the day. I had to go yesterday to do a final check of the venue and make sure we had everything.

I did get some ARCs this week though, four to be exact, though some of these don't have to be reviewed until later in the month or September so I have time. Thankfully.

Safe in His Arms by Renee Jones
Dead Sexy Dragon by Lolita Lopez
In His Command by Rie Warren
Last Chance Summer by Hope Ramsay

I also bought two of Lauren Dane's books, Giving Chase and Taking Chase, and Rock Hard by Olivia Cunning. I bought these only because I had great coupon offers from Kobo and could not pass them up. I'm a sucker for a sale.

ARC August:

You can check out the details HERE but basically I'm participating in this challenge to decrease the amount of ARCs I have and get my butt in gear with reviews. (Ironic since, I'm trying to decrease the pile of ARCs and yet I got more this week. I don't even think I can explain that. LOL)  Anyways, you can check out my goals for the month, HERE. In terms of progress, here is how I'm doing so far:

• This week I read three of the ARCs and finished (and posted) two of the reviews (see above for the links!). I will finish the third review and post it sometime this week. 

ROW80:

Well, let's just call the week a big ole fail on the writing front, shall we? I don't like making excuses, I really don't. But honestly, with maid of honor duties for this shower I have had to devote my time to getting that done. So the only writing I've gotten in is for the party games templates, emails to the rest of the birdesmaids, and to-do lists. As I said earlier, after the 17th of August life will calm down and at that point I plan to reassess my ROW80 goals and move forward. But until then I'm taking a break from my goals. I'll call it a vacation though I doubt it will be very relaxing!

AROUND THE WEB:

A great post about "blah-ging": dealing with the case of the blahs while blogging and some tips on how to get out of it.

The best blog ever when it comes to books, bookshelves, libraries and everything that is books and reading! Gah! It's heaven! I found heaven, people! And you can find it too by clicking HERE.

Who doesn't like Cookie Monster?! Having grown up with the Muppets and Sesame Street I have a lot of love for them. Heck, I still have my Kermit the Frog stuffed animal I got when I was 4. Yeah, I know, it's crazy, but I can't throw out Kermit!! Anyways, check out Cookie Monster and his song about self control HERE.  (And thanks to @Katiebabs for tweeting this! She comes up with some of the best links ever.)

This is an older link (July 2012) but seriously, these are adorable and make me smile, laugh and some I even get a bit teary eyed over. In fact, I may or may not have been crying when I read #10. So check out The 50 Cutest Things That Ever Happened and don't blame me if you need tissues.

And finally, @smexys_sidekick tweeted this quote from Tina Fey which I re-tweeted because seriously, it's Truth:  “It is impressively arrogant to conclude that just because you don’t like something, it is empirically not good." ― Tina Fey  I love this quote. I need it billboard size.

So that's it for me this week. Between work, where I have a ton of deadlines to meet including one which will keep me tied to my desk Monday and Tuesday all damn day, and until next week's festivities are over I won't be around all that much. I'm even skipping my monthly book club. Can you believe that?! Instead I'll be home, drinking copious amounts of wine and making enough chicken riggies for 50 people.  (If you're from central New York or have been here, you likely know what those are. :D ) I hope everyone has a great week and see you next Sunday!

The Sunday Post [5]: Reading, Writing, Reviewing & Veronica Mars!!

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. From Kimba's website, "this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies."

HEY YOU GUYS...... (Said in the best voice imitation I can muster a la Goonies):

VERONICA MARS IS BACK! 

I want to give a one fingered salute to all those "Suits" in the TV industry who cancelled the show way back in the day and thought there would never be life after the TV show. They clearly didn't realize the amazing, fantasical phenomenon show this was, and is. So, for all your trailer watching pleasure, here it is, a sneak peak for the movie (that I will probably see 5 times, at least, when it comes to theatres):

I am so seriously stoked for this movie I cannot even begin to explain it. This show, for me, brought back all the awesomeness that was Nancy Drew, Fear Street, the Christopher Pike books and everything that is awesome from my 80s/90s childhood, rolled it into one big pile, and then morphed it to meet the culture and reality of the 00s. Yes, it is that good. And also, Logan is my future husband. Just sayin'.

Alright, and now that I have done my fan-girling for the day, on to everything else I did this week:

BOOKS READ/REVIEWED:

I read one of the best books ever last week. I reviewed it for the blog and I literally have gushed about it all week. I even told the lady at the library who was going through the shelves with me at the book sale about it. And I don't like to talk to strangers; the introvert in me freaks out around strangers. But I did it, because seriously this book ROCKS! Here is the link to the post: Red (Transplanted Tales, #1) by Katie SeRine.

If you like UF with just the right amount of romance tossed in, read this book. It's not heavy on the steam, but there is enough tension between the two main characters to slice a knife through. And the twists and turns on the Fairy Tales...Just, seriously, check out my review and get this book!

Again, here I am with the fan-girling. What the heck is with me today?! Moving on...

WHAT I'M CURRENTLY READING:

Facade and The Edge of Never are up next and part of the ARC August Challenge I've decided to participate in. (Click on the link for more info on the challenge and see if you want to sign up!) I have a bunch of ARCs to read and my goal is to post 2 ARC reviews a week in the month of August until I get caught up and the TBR list gets smaller. Look for my ARC August goals post tomorrow for all the details!

STACKING THE SHELVES:

Please someone stop me. Check out yesterday's post, HERE to get a look at the damage. Let me know over there if you read any of the ones I got from the library and what you thought. There are a bunch of historicals. (It seems my library has a ton of those!)

ROW80:

ROW80 is the writing challenge, that, as the founder Kait Nolan puts it, "knows you have a life." You can check out the details HERE. I check in every Sunday (or try to!) to update my progress on my goals for this Round. So, here we go:

Write every day: Done. I didn't get a lot of writing in, but I wrote every day.
Review a minimum of one book here or on Goodreads: Done (see above for link!)
Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: Done. See my Stacking the Shelves post from yesterday. (Link is above!)Post Sunday ROW80 Update: Done
Continue Worksheets for WiP(s): In progress. I finished one and have moved on to the next. I'm loving these things!


I failed at Camp NaNo. *sighs* I'm disappointed in myself, but there is always November and 50K more words to tackle. As for my goals for next week, I'm adding the weekly goal of finishing my CP's book and sending it back with my comments to the list. Other than that, not much will change goal wise. I'm just going to keep on keeping on, as they say, and see what happens next week!

MOVING TO WORDPRESS:

As you can see from the header, I am in the midst of making the switch from blogger to Wordpress. I have a domain and am hosted (thanks Lauren for the recommendation!) but now I have to get into the meat of it all. I've been playing around with themes and widgets and plugins, and trying to get familiar with the WP interface and whatnot. I'm finding that customizing the theme is not so easy. I need to find some good tutorials or instructions on the web on how to do this. I know that I can do it, I just need to have something in front of me that walks me through the steps.

Has anyone else made the switch from blogger to WP? What was your experience? Any hints or tips that got you through the move?

AROUND THE WEB:

Here are some awesome ADS for reading/books that someone posted to on twitter earlier in the week. I love these!

I'll try to find some more links of interest next week. And speaking of next week, don't forget--Shark Week starts tonight!




So how'd you guys do this week? Is anyone else participating in ARC August? What about your writing goals: are you making progress on your goals or do you need to make some adjustments? Fill me in on what's going on with you in the comments!

The Sunday Post [4]: The Week In Review & A ROW80 Update

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. From Kimba's website, "this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies."

Look to the right of your screen. Do you see anything different?! You should. I finally found the Allegiant countdown widget that I'd been seeing and, the nerd in me, had to get it for the blog. You can get it HERE. Just click the html option and the code will pop up for you. I'm so happy I finally tracked it down. I just want to stare at it and will the release date to be sooner. *sighs* I need more Four.

Anyways, back to the task at hand which is a run down of the past week on the blog. My house-guests left Friday night and I can't say that I was sad to see them go. Thankfully I have about five more months until the next wave of guests stay at my house and that should be enough time for me to recover. All in all, it was a hectic week and honestly I didn't get much done in terms of writing though I did get quite a few reviews written and some reading in.

Books Read/Reviewed Last Week:

ARC Review: Lions, Tigers and Sexy Bears Oh My! by Candace Havens

ARC Review: The Silver Chain by Primula Bond

ARC Review: Luck of the Dragon by Susannah Scott

And on Goodreads, I did quick reviews of A Highlander's Touch by Karen Marie Moning,  His Risk To Take by Tessa Bailey and Charade by Nyrae Dawn.

(Note: I didn't read all of these books this week. Even I can't read that fast! LOL I'm just really behind on reviewing books.)

What I'm Currently Reading:

At the moment I don't have any books that I'm in the middle of. Big surprise, I know. But with my house-guests around I used last week to finish a bunch of books and book reviews instead of starting anything new.  This week I plan to start Facade, Red and Elite. (Not necessarily in that order though!)  

Stacking The Shelves:

It was another busy week in terms of book sales, deals and galleys that I just had to get. I also made a stop at the library so I took a couple books out there too. To see this week's book haul check out my Stacking the Shelves post.

ROW80

ROW80 is the writing challenge, that, as the founder Kait Nolan puts it, "knows you have a life." You can check out the details HERE.  I check in every Sunday (or try to!) to update my progress on my goals for this Round. So, here we go:

Write every day: I am so behind in writing and especially in Camp NaNo. At this point I don't have any hope of meeting my goal at the end of the month. This makes me sad but at the same time I would rather not rush the words. I won the challenge in April so I don't feel like a complete failure at least. And there is always November. *looks at glass half full*
Blog a minimum of one book review per week, here and/or on Goodreads: Check out my links above. :)
Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: I also completed this weekly goal. Once again it's my Stacking the Shelves post (see above). One of these weeks I won't get any new books and this will be a different post but until I can rein that in, well, it's Stacking the Shelves.
Post my Sunday ROW80 Update: Done!
Work on WiP Worksheets: This continues to be a work in progress

Next week the goals will remain the same. I finished reading/commenting on my CPs chapters so I will hopefully be sending that back today. (This was stalled while I was entertaining this week!) I'm also going to try and get some more words down. I need to reset my writing and really buckle down this week.

Lastly, and on a completely unrelated note, I've been trying to get through the shows I have recorded on my DVR. I've finally caught up on the Rizzoli and Isles episodes I hadn't watched (as in, all of them since I haven't been watching this season), now I just have to catch up on Once Upon A Time and Rookie Blue (I love Sam. I really want him and Andy together and this is why I've put off watching so far. If they don't sort their sh*t and get together for good, I'm going to pissed!) Also, Shark Week starts in the beginning of August! Even though it scares the crap out of me (and makes me glad I live in the center of New York state), I'll be watching.

How was your week? Did you take in any good books this week? And for those who are doing ROW80 and/or Camp NaNo, how're you doing with your goals? Do you tune in to Shark Week or have you watched any good shows of late? Sound off in the comments!

The Sunday Post [3]: My Week of Reading, Reviewing & Writing

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. From Kimba's website, "this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~ It's a chance to share News. A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies."

I don't have a lot of time to myself today so I want to take advantage of the little I do have and get some much needed writing in. So I am going to jump right in here with what's been happening on the blog this week and with my writing.

Books Reviewed Last Week:

The Story Guy by Mary Ann Rivers

Causing Havoc (SBC Fighters, #1) by Lori Foster

Fringe Benefits by Christine Pope

What's Coming Up On The Blog:

I've already read the books I need to review for this week: Lions, Tigers, & Sexy Bears Oh My!, A Lady By Midnight (Spindle Cove, #3) and The Silver Chain. One is completed and I hope to get the other two written today so I am not rushing around this week. *keeps fingers crossed I can accomplish this.*

What I'm Reading:

I've read quite a few of books this past week and this week is another busy week of reviews and galleys to read. The next book(s) up are Charade by Nyrae Dawn (so I can get to the galley copy of book 2, which is Facade.) and also Luck of the Dragon by Susannah Scott. For fun, I'm reading the third book in Karen Marie Moning's Highlander Series, The Highlander's Touch. As usual, I'm loving it and can't wait to continue with this series.

Stacking The Shelves:

It's been another busy week in terms of what books I took in this week. To see what I bought and found free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble, click here.

ROW80:

Write/Revise 7 hours per week: Definitely hit this goal this week. I'm behind in my Camp NaNo count but that's because I haven't been able to write since Wednesday or so. My house guests are stymieing my progress but I am hoping I can make a significant dent today.
Blog a minimum of one book review per week, here and/or on Goodreads: Done times three! See the links above to go to the reviews themselves.
Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: Done! Once again, this ended up being the Stacking the Shelves post. I really love that meme and seeing what others have bought, borrowed, found on sale or free, or received for review. I've found so many new authors and books in the 3 weeks I've been doing it.
Post my Sunday ROW80 Update: Done!
Organize my WiP Plan via Excel: I've made progress! But not in the way I thought. Lena told me in the comments section of last Sunday's post some worksheets from Jami Gold to help me with this and I love them! They are brilliant! So what I'm doing is creating a form for each WIP and then will be able to track my progress that way.

Next week the only changes I'm making is that I will shoot for writing every day and that instead of organizing my WiP via Excel I will continue to complete the Story worksheets. The daily writing on my WiPs will be hard since I have company all week but that almost makes me want to do it even more. I can use that time as "me-time". This introvert is on serious sensory overload and I definitely need some of that!

Around the Web:

The 25 Most Awkward Cat Sleeping Positions Ever: Having a cat, I've witnessed many of these and often thought "WTF? How is that even comfy?!" So this made me laugh hard. I love the warning before the article too.

One of my favorite bands in the 90s was Del Amitri. I loved them and on Wednesday their song "Always the Last to Know" was in my head. Mainly because I have the Uninvited staying with me and it seems every two seconds I find out something that apparently I was the last to know. *scowls* Anyways, that song got be thinking about another one of their songs, "Be My Downfall". I forgot how much I loved it back in the day. For your listening pleasure, you can check it out on YouTube or search it on spotify. It is absolutely worth the 10 seconds it takes to search it. Well it is if you loved music from the 90s and need a reminder of all it's awesomeness.

So how'd you guys do this week? Have you bought or read any new books lately? For those working towards your ROW80 and Camp NaNo goals have you made progress or did you hit a wall? Let me know in the comments and I hope you have a great week!

The Sunday Post [2]

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. 

~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~

It's a chance to share News. 

A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. 

This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. 

This week was crazy, no?! The crazy started on Monday and I swear it didn't stop all week. It didn't help I've been run down from this cold and have been trying to get the house ready for the Uninvited who are coming on Tuesday. I call them the Uninvited because, well, they are. I'm trying not to be mean but they never called to ask me about staying at the house. I mean, I just live here. Why would that be important? Instead they went through my Mom and Aunt who said yes and THEN told me they were coming. Yeah, I know it sounds wacky. It's more than a bit complicated but the bottom line is, they're coming here. Tuesday. For 10 days. Please someone send the wine and hard liquor. And hey, is someone builds me a panic room in 24 hours so I can hide, I might even share the booze.

But despite the stress of it all, I did get a lot of reading, writing and even some reviewing done. Here's this past week, in review:

Books Read/Reviewed Last Week

A Week To Be Wicked (Spindle Cove #2) by Tessa Dare: I read this awhile ago but somehow this was still in the draft folder.  I wonder where my brain is sometimes. *sighs* Anyways, this is a red hot, 5 star historical romance. I really love this series.

Behind Closed Doors (McCloud & Friends, #1) by Shannon McKenna: Holy hell this book had me so conflicted I didn't know whether to keep reading half the time or hide under the covers. It was good but I did have a few issues here and there. Thankfully none of those issues are enough to stop me from adding the next in this series to the TBR list!

I also read Causing Havoc by Lori Foster this week. I just finished last night and let me tell you, this book was un-put-down-able. Yes, I'm going to somehow make that a word. I took it to my niece's softball game last night because I had to finish it. Look for this review on the blog soon!

What I'm Reading

At the moment I don't have a book that I'm currently in the middle of which is definitely out of the ordinary for me! But tonight I am going to start tackling one of the ARCs I received this week. Or maybe I'll start that tomorrow and instead grab one of Kristen Ashley's or Maya Banks' Highlander book to re-read. I'm feeling a comfort read coming on! 

Stacking The Shelves

I have a vitural back ache from the book haul I took in this week. Between netgalley invites, Read Now options and ARCs direct from publishers, I have enough to review to last quite awhile. The good thing is that based on the release dates of the books I'm able to spread out the reading and the reviewing over the next 6 weeks or so. For the titles I bought, borrowed or was asked to review, check out my post HERE.

ROW80 Update

Write/Revise 5 hours per week: I've been writing like crazy to catch up on my Camp NaNo deficit. Thankfully, I'm just about there. I need to write just over 1K words a day to make my 30K word goal for Camp.
Blog a minimum of one book review per week, here and/or on Goodreads: I reviewed two books on the blog this week; see the links above!
Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: Done! It seems that, so far, this ends up being Saturday's Stacking the Shelves post, which is fine with me because I've met some great folks through this meme! :D
Post my Sunday ROW80 Update: Done!
Organize my WiP Plan via Excel: Errrr, ummmmm, well, let's just skip this task for now, shall we? *grins sheepishly* I'm stuck on this mainly because I can't quite figure out how to do a tracking thingy (yeah I know, I said thingy) for the WiPs within the spreadsheet. I need to do more research on this and hopefully next week I will have a more productive update.

Next week I plan on keeping the same goals but I'm going to add 2 hours to my writing schedule. I want to get in about 1 hour of writing every day so I can get back into the habit of daily writing.

Not exactly exciting, I know, but I'm pretty happy with my Camp NaNo progress. I, sadly, don't have any awesome llama gifs to share this week, but I'll work on something just as awesome for next week. Until then, have a great week and if you're doing ROW80 and/or Camp NaNo, good luck! 

The Sunday Post: Reading, Writing, ROW80 & Camp NaNo

 

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer. 

~this meme was inspired in part by ~ In My Mailbox~

It's a chance to share News. 

A post to recap the past week, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up for the week on our blog. 

This is your news post, so personalize it! Include as much as you want or as little. Be creative, it can be a vlog or just a showcase of your goodies. 

This week, I'm going to start participating in The Sunday Post, a weekly meme that is sort of a week in review (see description and link above).  Because of this my Sunday ROW80 updates will be combined with the rest of the reading and reviewing I've done during the week. Combining everything in this "week in review" post saves me time so I can concentrate on doing what I need to do-that is, writing, reading and reviewing. I'll try to keep these short and sweet, but well, no promises!

Books Read/Reviewed Last Week

The Rake's Vow (Cynster #2) by Stephanie Laurens: Although the heroine annoyed the crap out of me at times I really did like this book. I just thought the miscommuncation between them went on way too long. No worries though, Scandal (aka Richard) is up next in this series and I can't wait to see who he's paired with!

I also did a re-read of Kristen Ashley's Sweet Dreams this week because I cannot get enough of Tate. I really love this book and even after 5 re-reads it doesn't get old for me. I mean it's TATE!  I also started to read Fringe Benefits by Christine Pope but I am having a hard time getting into it. I hope to finish it soon but right now I've set it aside for a bit.

What I'm Reading This Week 

I'm going to tackle Behind Closed Doors by Shannon McKenna today. I've been trying to get to this for over a week but events have conspired against me. I also want to read Nine Rules of Romancing A Rake, one of the books I purchased on sale this week. Hopefully I can get to them both and post some reviews. 

Stacking The Shelves

You can check out my weekly book haul HERE, in the Stacking The Shelves post.  I'm going to be participating in this meme most weekends (likely Friday/Saturdays)-or at least those weekends that follow the purchase of books. And since I have a slight book addiction, it will be often. Sad for my wallet, but good for me. :D As a side note, I have been very picky lately with what books I'm buying and try to hit only sales and freebies. With the latest plagiarism debacles out there I am being very careful about where and who I spend my cash on. I've also been getting great books from the library, both in ebook format for my Nook and paperback. I've saved a ton of money this way and found some great authors/series  I've missed. I like being able to on something new to see if I'll like before spending the dough.

ROW80

I decided to do Camp NaNo in July. With everything going on I might have been  a bit crazed when I decided to give it a go but I need to get back into my daily writing and with Round 3 of ROW80, well, what better time than now?! That being said, I set a goal of 30K words which is only 1K a day, but I'm already behind. Oops. Anyways, here's my ROW80 update:

Write/Revise 5 hours per week: Done though I haven't made any progress wordcount wise for Camp NaNo. I've been writing a bunch of back stories for characters and outlining chapters/scenes. Hopefully I can make up some ground this week with that.
Blog a minimum of one book review per week, here and/or on Goodreads: Done, see above for link to my GR review.
Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: Done! Again, see above for my Stacking the Shelves post!
Post my Sunday ROW80 Update: Clearly this is done.
Organize my WiP Plan via Excel: I didn't get to figuring out exactly how to create the spreadsheet I want though I've been doing some google searches/research on how to put this together. Hopefully this week I will have more success.

Next week my goals will be the same. As I mentioned in my initial Round 3 post, I'm starting slow and will build up my goals as the Round progresses.

Around the Web

Because Llamas really are fabulous

Some great tips from Julie Jordan Scott on how to use your phone to improve your writing.  I love #4, that's an exercise I have my students do when I am teaching composition. Nothing like a little bit of free writing to get the creative juices flowing!

Danielle Hubert's Hehehe pinterest board is freaking hilarious. Check it out if you get a minute. I laughed until my stomach hurt at some of those pins.

So how did you do this week? What are you reading or what kind of book haul did you have this week? And writers (and ROWers), how is your week going? Are you moving forward on your goals? Let me know in the comments!

That's it for me, for now. I've got to go to another baseball game-my nephew's team advanced in the Little League All-Stars tournament. But I'm taking my Nook so I can get some reading in before it starts. It is going to be painful-literally-because I'm nursing a wicked cold and can't hear a thing (I hate when my ears get plugged!) but I have to go because it's his last year in Little League.  So if anyone has any remedies for curing plugged up ears, let me know. (I will be eternally grateful!!) I've already tried swallowing, yawning, eating hard candy, taking Mucinex D, and OTC drops to clear them and still, nothing. It's driving me crazy not being able to hear anything. I can't even hear me typing this! Crazy, no?! And it's kind of freaking me out too. Anyways, enough of my whining! I hope everyone enjoys their Sunday and have a great week!

Jumping Into ROW80, Round 3: Let's Try This Again

I did so well in ROW80 Round 1. And then Round 2 came and though I was trucking along, doing great, somewhere along the way things slowed down and so did I. A lot was going on in life and I found myself sliding into the fiction of books, reading instead of doing what I should have been, writing. I lost my focus and though I was working on various WiPs sporadically, I wasn't being consistent. I knew I had to get back into it. I knew I had to update my blog and get on top of that too. But I couldn't muster the energy to do it. Even writing a book review was difficult and I was leaving most of those on Goodreads instead of my blog.

I can't explain why all this happened. All I know is that during March and April I was writing all the time and moving forward. It was during this time that I got sick-with pneumonia that lasted way too long and did way too much damage (of which I'm mostly recovered from thank goodness). I did Camp NaNo in April during the height of my illness and that may have had something to do with my burnout, I guess. Though I did NaNo in November and I didn't unravel like I did this time. It's all a mystery really but the bottom line is, I let things go and I needed to get back to my routine, shake off the "dust" from my WiPs, and move ahead. I just wasn't sure how.

And then I remembered ROW80 Round 3 was starting. It's just the push I need to grab onto my focus, hold tight, and move ahead.  I went back and reviewed my year long goals and hammered out some weekly goals to shoot for. They are somewhat simple to start but I want to start small and see how I progress. This will allow me to take stock and make adjustments as I go. It's my way of easing back into things.

So, here are my weekly goals:

• Write/Revise 5 hours per week: I'm starting off with a timed goal and will slowly expand this to daily writing/revising. Eventually. I hope. My focus will be on Wanted (I am halfway there on my second round of revisions!) and my Camp NaNo project. I should have a name for that my next week. 
• Blog a minimum of one book review per week, here and/or on Goodreads.
• Blog once per week on something that isn't a book review or ROW80 update: this will likely be writing/reading related, but not a specific book review or update. Or it could be something I find humorous. Or a TV show I've started to watch. Or music. Who knows? 
• Post my Sunday ROW80 Update: I will be getting back to my "Week In Review" posts and hopefully will have some fun stuff to post, including books I've bought or am reading, and an update on my ROW80 goals. 
• Organize my WiP Plan via Excel: this was a larger goal of Round 2 that I let get away from me. It's now a Round 3 goal and I want to work on this 1 hr per week. I need to prioritize my WiPs (of which there are a lot) and outlines (there are even more of these) and see what was salvageable and what isn't. I've read through most of them and written down my list but I think I am going to make a spreadsheet of some kind so I can not only put them in order I want to work on them, but also track my progress. This should give me some accountability and keep me on track. The only problem is I suck at Excel so figuring out how to organize the spreadsheet and progress via word count (for writing) and page counts (for revisions) might take some time. 

So that's it for now. As for the bigger picture, specifically those year long goals I mentioned earlier, I'm behind in revisions for Wanted as I had hoped to have that ready for submissions by mid year, but the submission process of Music & Motors (f.k.a. Finding Home), delayed all that. (Speaking of which, I'm still in the midst of that, including reviewing/negotiating a possible contract). My hope is to get Wanted finished by the end of July/middle of August and then it will be time for decisions to be made on where I go from there.

I am wishing everyone in ROW80 the best of luck on their goals this Round and I can't wait see you all around the ROW!

Back On Track

After two Sundays of rest and relaxation I am back with my Week in Review and weekly ROW80 updates. I know, you guys missed me, right?! Unfortunately today will be relatively quick as I have a busy day ahead of me. I have plans to write, read and and, eventually, mowing the lawn. If it stops raining. I hope it does, cause I really need to get on that. There's a whole lot of other things on my to-do list too and I want to get as much done as I can so I'm not bogged down this week.

On the blog this week I reviewed the first in Tessa Dare's Spindle Cove series, A Night To Surrender. I seriously love this book and this entire series. The fourth novel (there are two novellas in the series as well) will be released on May 28th. I cannot wait!

I also found two highlander romances at the library by Paula Quinn, Laird of the Mist (MacGregors, #1) and A Highlander Never Surrenders (MacGregors, #2),  that I read this week. I really enjoyed both of them and gave them each 4 stars on Goodreads. Her characters are well developed but it was the research she clearly did that had a huge impact on me. She gave a pretty accurate portrayal of Scotland during that time and the fighting between clans, as well as the issues between England and Scotland. Often times in historicals/highlanders actual facts are glossed over so this was a nice change.

On a side note, I am loving being able to download eBooks from my library. However, as I noted on twitter this week, I am pretty impatient. The eBooks can be out for 14 days and for me, who reads fast, I'm practically jumping out of my chair as I wait for others ahead of me in the 'hold' line to get done. Yeah, this is something I need to work on.

Also, has anyone else noticed an uptick in twitter drama of late? I love twitter, but lately it's like there is drama and/or controversy every time I turn around, especially with authors. Maybe it's always been there and I've only just noticed it because I'm more active on twitter of late. I don't know, but whatever it is, it's making me need to turn away from social media more and more so I can focus. This might be a good thing because focusing on my to-do list and WiPs is of course a priority but still, I'll be happy when things settle down. I don't like drama and conflict. It makes me twitch. 

Anyways, back to more important things. Here's my ROW80 update:

• Write every day: I hit 5 out of 7 days. Not too bad but next week I hope to make it every day. 
• Review minimum of 3 books per week via the blog or GR: See above for the break down. 
• Post my Sunday ROW80 update: Done
• Finish organizing all WiPs and make a plan: In progress. I've gone through my outlines and cleaned those up a bit, added info where I needed to, and started to prioritize them in a way that makes a reasonable amount of sense in terms of order to write them in. Now I have to move on to the WiPs I have half started, nearly finished, etc. There are a bunch of those. I have to read through each this week and see if they are salvageable or if I should toss 'em. 
• Workout a minimum of 3 times per week: Well, I didn't get any yoga in but I did take a couple walks. I'm dog sitting for a month while my uncle has surgery on his back and the dog likes his walks. In addition to walking I've also been doing a bunch of yard work. I am trying to get more comfortable about being outside in nature. It would be perfect if the bees just left me alone but I swear my face is on a "Most Wanted" poster somewhere in the buzzing insect community. Every time I step outside they freaking find me! So yeah, I gotta work on this still. :D

Anyways, that was my week. Not too exciting but at least somewhat productive. My goals for next week will remain the same and hopefully next Sunday I can tack on some others. I hope everyone had a great week and good luck!

Getting Back To Writing & ROW80

The last two weeks have been insanity. I've barely posted. As a matter of fact, I haven't posted at all. I've only gotten my daily writing in a handful of times. Instead, I've been working, grading papers, reading when I can and falling asleep on the couch way too early. I blame this on a lot of things: work, of course. It's the end of the semester and if anyone has seen my recent tweets you'd see many consist of me being buried in papers and finals and trying to close out the semester for my students. When I get done grading 50 critical essays I find my brain is numb and I'm not very good at putting words down on the page at that point. So I read. Or sleep.

But also I've had a lot of little league and softball games to go to during the week and on the weekend. My niece has three games a week; my nephew has two. This doesn't include spring concerts of which my niece is in three. (She is in chorus and chorale. She's a busy kid!)

I feel bad for the slacking. And I hate not writing. It makes me twitch to not find time to tap out words onto the computer screen. And the lack of blogging is frustrating cause of course I have lots to say, just not a lot of time to sit at the computer and ya know, actually say it. But at the same time I've enjoyed spending lots of time with my niece and nephew. They are growing up so fast-she's 14, he'll be 13 later this summer-and I don't want to miss a minute of it.  I know it sounds cheesy, but what can I say? I guess I'm becoming a sap in my middle age!

But with classes over, my grading done and just waiting to be submitted (I can't officially hit 'submit' on the grades until Friday) time is opening up for me. I can now get back to the WiPs that have been languishing and type up a few rough outlines I've been scribbling on a legal pad for future stories. I'm excited to jump back in. I know two weeks isn't all that long, but for me, who was writing every day, I feel a bit lost.

But I won't stress over getting back into the swing of things for long. I'm just going to jump right in. Starting this morning. No time like the present, right?

As for my ROW80 goals, I've done a bit of tweaking.  My overall goal for the round of finishing the revisions of Wanted (as indicated in my starting post for Round 2) will remain the same but I am tweaking my weekly goals as follows:

• Write every day: Camp NaNo is done so my focus will be on revisions of Wanted and the Camp NaNo still untitled project but I'm open to working on any of my WiPs as long as I am writing every day.    
• Review minimum of 3 books per week via the blog or GR: I will get back on track with this. I have so many reviews to post that are in my draft folder. Gah!
• Post my Sunday ROW80 update
• Finish organizing all WiPs and make a plan: One of my larger goals for this Round was to go through and get myself together, prioritize, and make a plan. This will now be a weekly goal until I finish it. 
• Workout a minimum of 3 times per week:  In my 2 week hiatus I am happy to say I was doing this. Yay! Well, if you count all the outdoor work I've been doing and the lawn mowing. (I have a huge backyard and a push mower so yeah, my legs and arms have been getting a workout!)  

My other overall goal for round 2 has been completed: completing Camp NaNo. I'm glad I did it. It was a long and exhausting month but I have proven to myself that I can write a heck of a lot of words in a month's time that don't completely suck. :D  This will bode well for the other WiPs I have on the back-burner, I hope!

I hope everyone is having good luck with completing their goals! Oh, and LET'S GO RANGERS! Yeah, it's playoff time again in hockey! 

Three Days Until Camp NaNo Comes To A Close...

And I'm trying to take deep, calming breaths, because I can finish this. Right? I should, by Tuesday, have hit my word count goal of 30K for the month of April. (This was 30K words in addition to the 38K the WiP already had when I started )  Right now I think I am about 6500 words shy of this goal. I bet you can guess what I will be doing the next couple days.

Because of my need to get lots of words down (and preferably words that don't completely suck) I will do a fairly short (at least for me) week in review.  On the blog this week I reviewed the following:

Conviction by Nicole Edwards (Club Destiny, #1): I rated this 3 stars. It was good, but I did have some issues with it that I go through in my review. I will be reading other books by this author though in hopes that the issues I had with the narrative improve.

Star Crossed by Kele Moon (Battered Hearts, #2): 5 stars for this one. This was such a great mix of romance and the suspense plot was great. It had be on the edge of my seat towards the end. The main characters were so adorable but they could certainly burn up the sheets.

As for my ROW80 goals, here's how I did:

• Write every day: I did write every day however much of my writing was in the realm of revising. As I am getting close to the end of Camp NaNoWriMo I have been going through my WiP and seeing where I need to add missing scenes. This is exciting and terrifying since it basically means that, yep, I have my third book done. This will also mean that for the rest of this ROW80 Round, I will be focused on revisions and edits of this WiP and Wanted. (The latter is close to being done though, thank goodness!) But still, after years of not ever finishing the books I've begun to write, now to have one submitted to publishers and two drafts complete and moving to the revise/edit phase, well, it's a bit overwhelming. 
• Review minimum of 3 books per week via the blog or GR: I was able to hit two of these this week. I also finished reading two other books that I am in the process of writing reviews for. So I guess two out of three ain't bad.
• Post my Sunday ROW80 update: Done!
• Complete all outstanding grading: Um, erm...just ignore the stack of papers on my desk.  
• Prepare final exam: In progress. 
• Work out twice per week: I am super excited to say that I got in two workouts. I am still taking it slow, doing yoga and stretching routines as opposed to heavy cardio, but still, working out is working out! In addition to that I worked in the garden for an hour this morning before it got too hot out: pulling weeds, transferring plants from area to another, shoveling, watering, and well, other garden-type things. I don't know if that counts as a workout but ya know, I was wiped out after and muscles I didn't even know I had were aching (in a good way). 

My goals for next week are the same. Classes are winding down so this week and next I will be hip deep in grading students' research papers, final exams and calculating grades but I will do my best to get my daily writing in! I hope everyone is having a great round and see you around the ROW!

Little Progress This Week: A ROW80 Update

Tragic, sad, gut wrenching  horrifying, terrifying and finally triumph as the manhunt for the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon ended. And then there was the explosion in West, Texas that occurred, killing many volunteer firefighters and EMS workers. Again: tragic, sad, gut wrenching, horrifying and terrifying. My heart goes out to those affected by these tragedies and they are all in my thoughts and prayers. Also, to the cops, firefighters, EMS, federal officials, members of the military and other heroes and heroines who do the hard work every day of trying to keep us safe: thank you for everything you do. I don't say it enough, but I should. And after this week and seeing these men and women run towards the danger instead of away from it -just like so many did on 9/11- I plan on saying it more often.

Because of the events this week I, like so many, have been restless. I moved through the week as if on autopilot, getting my work done, reading, always keeping an eye and ear on the news, and trying to get some sleep. I say trying because my insomnia came back with a vengeance this week. This tends to occur whenever I'm worried or anxious and well, what can I say: this was a week full of worrying and anxiety. From this point on all I want the world to experience is that which includes rainbows and unicorns  

So how did I do with ROW80? Well, not great. My progress is seriously lacking. This means I am way behind on Camp NaNo too. I guess I better get my butt in my chair today and get my fingers
moving. Here's how I did:

• Write every day: So much for maintaining the progress I'd been making both on my Camp NaNo project and the revisions/edits of Wanted. I wrote Monday and Tuesday and for about 30 minutes yesterday. Yeah, I sucked this week.
• Review min. 3 books per week on the blog and/or GR: I only achieved one book review this week and that was Enslaved by Shoshanna Evers. I received this ARC via Netgalley. I did read this week, but they were comfort re-reads for me. I need to get on this goal though because I have so many books I need to read and want to review. 
• Post a Sunday ROW80 Update: Done
• Catch Up On Grading: Well, I have about half of it done. I don't know if I can finish them today either but I am going to try and get through at least half of the half. 
• Work out once per week: I didn't get a full workout in this week. Well at least not all once. Because of work, my niece's first softball game of the season and the wacky weather, I had to resort to short bursts here and there. Not ideal, but it's better than nothing I guess! 

Next week my goals will be:

• Write every day
• Review minimum of 3 books per week via the blog or GR
• Post my Sunday ROW80 update
• Complete all outstanding grading
• Prepare final exam
• Work out twice per week

I've added a few other things to my goal list and I am hoping that I can get back on track starting today. I hope everyone has a quiet, calm, and relaxing week with nothing but sunshine, roses and those rainbows and unicorns I mentioned. Have a great week!

A Busy Week With Lots of Reflection & Writing

I debated whether to post my week in review. The 14th of April is always a hard day for me. It's the  anniversary of when my grandma passed away and so I've been out of sorts since I woke up. Actually, I've been out of sorts for the past week. It doesn't seem like it was 6 years ago. In fact it feels very much like it was yesterday. But I will try not to dwell on the sad and instead try to enjoy the sunshine she brought to Central New York today. Well, I think she brought it. She loved spring after all and was always outside with her flowers. And it makes me feel a little better thinking she is the reason for the sunshine.

Because of the above, add in some things going on work, catching up on grading, writing, and having to do my taxes, I've been a bit more reflective -and busier than is usual- this past week. This meant that, although I was present on twitter and getting writing done, I didn't get to post many reviews this week. This makes me all sad face but I was so busy I just couldn't fit it all in. This week things should go back to their regularly scheduled programming though. I've even got some reviews in the hopper to keep me on track.

In terms of reading and reviewing, here's what I did:

Book Review: Hard Evidence by Pamela Clare (I-Team, #2)

I also read the second book in J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series, Lover Eternal, on Goodreads. Oh my freaking goodness. Rhage. He is my new number 1 book boyfriend ever. EVER! So damn bad ass yet sweet. I cried. And cried. I will be getting the third book from the library in the next week or so, hopefully, so we will see what happens with Z. He's a scary MoFo, but I can't wait to read his story.

I feel like I am forgetting to mention a review or something else I've read but oh well. My head is scrambled today. Next week I will be much more organized and not sound like a crazy woman. I promise. (Well, I'll at least try! :D )

Okay, so now on to my ROW80 update. I don't have too much to say since things are moving forward at a good pace so I will just go through these quickly:

• Write every day: Done! I am a little bit ahead on my Camp NaNo project (yay!) and I am now halfway through the revisions of Wanted. I have added a few scenes towards the end to wrap things up and need to write those out, but all in all, it's looking good. Writing every day is a challenge  Some days the words just don't want to come, but I make sure that I sit down and do something. Even if it's on some other WiP, or notes in my outline. Just a little bit each day makes such a difference and seems to keep the creativity flowing. 
• Review min. 3 books per week on the blog and/or GR: So, I definitely hit two. But I swear I did another one on GR, I just can't find the thing. It's really driving me nuts. I will have to go through my Kindle archive and my Nook to find what I had read.
• Post a Sunday ROW80 Update: Done!
• Catch Up On Grading: Everything that the students handed in as of last Monday has been corrected. I have some worksheets to go over from Wednesday and their test from Friday, but other than that I am on track! YAY!!!
• Work out once per week: This is getting easier. I did a yoga workout (easy level) and took a short walk, keeping my inhaler handy, just in case. I am hoping that, after this week, I can up this to three again. Or maybe two per week, then three, and so on. I am just glad my breathing has improved a heckuva lot from when I was sick because I really miss working out. (Did I just say that?! Out loud?! OMG, someone check and see if I have a fever!)

Next week my goals will remain the same, cause why change something that isn't broken, right? I hope everyone has been having a productive round so far and I look forward to seeing how everyone has been doing when I check around the ROW tomorrow! Have a great week!

Writing, Reading & Reviewing, Oh My!

It's the first Sunday check in for the second round of ROW80 and time for my Week In Review post. I love these posts because I can look back and see that, yeah, I have gotten things done.  Sometimes I am so busy during the week I don't take stock of it all. So having a day to do that helps me see that I am moving forward, even if it is slowly. Of course there are still things to be done, but hopefully I can keep up the momentum next week.

So let's review what I've been up to this week. I reviewed two books this week on the blog:

Dirty by Megan Hart: This book took me by surprise. I mean, here I thought this would be just another romance with a HEA. Boy was I wrong. Sure there is a love story but talk about gut wrenching...holy hell. This threw me for a loop but it was so worth it.

Own The Wind (Chaos, #1) by Kristen Ashley: This was a fantastic book and totally lived up to my expectations. Loved it and Shy is seriously one of my favorite heroes ever!

I also reviewed three other books on Goodreads. One of those books was a real gem that I had on my kindle app. I reviewed Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid on Goodreads. If anyone is looking for a well-written, sweet, and hysterically funny book, this might be for you. I absolutely loved it.  I have been gushing about this book to fellow readers all week. Seriously, I don't think I have been this thrilled about a new author in a long time.

I also found via someone's tweet a post that anyone who is a writer and/or nearing the time to publish -however you choose to do it-, or even if you have already published something, may find very helpful. Cara McKenna wrote it over at Wonk-o-Mance and there is a lot of good advice there but most important, I think, is where she talks about balancing the author-stuff (my words) and the writing, and not letting the author stuff get in your way, or get you down.

Lastly, here's how I did on my ROW80 weekly goals:

• Write every day: Done!! I was surprised how easy it was to get back in swing of writing every day but I did it. At least this week I did. I am on track, so far, with my still untitled Camp NaNo project. But not only that, I've also worked about one-third of the way through my first round of revisions on Wanted.  As I've gone through both WiPs I have also added to my outlines where necessary and updated information. Now if only the plot bunnies would go hide in the forest until I am done with these WiPs everything would be perfect! 
• Review a minimum of three books per week (either posted here or on Goodreads): Done! 
• Post Sunday ROW80 Update: Also, done! 
• Catch up on all grading by the end of the week: I'm all caught up other than papers that students handed in on Friday. I will be working on those this afternoon so I can start Monday with a clean slate. Hopefully.
• Work out once per week:  I did get a short walk in. I am still not at 100% from my bout of pneumonia so I am still taking it slow. Doctor's orders and all that. 

At this rate my Round 2 goal of finishing revisions and edits of Wanted will be done in no time. I am not moving up my finish date though. Right now it's set for the end of the round and I will keep it there. This way I don't feel the pressure and I just do a little bit of revisions/edits each day.  Slow and steady wins the race, right?  As for next week's ROW80 goals, they will remain the same.

I hope everyone is having a successful ROW80 and for those participating in Camp NaNo, see you around the camp fire. I'll bring the s'mores! :D 

A New Round And New Goals (Sorta): ROW80, Round 2

Before delineating my goals I need to do a quick recap of my plan for 2013. When I posted my goals in January for Round 1 I set about making a year long plan and then broke down my goals from there for Round 1, and then ever further into weekly goals.  I plan on doing this same thing as I start Round 2: evaluating my 2013 plan, seeing what I've done and what still needs to be accomplished, and then outlining my goals from there into Round specific goals and then weekly goals. This, for me, was an effective strategy last round so why change what clearly isn't broken, right?

So let's review. In January I wrote that in 2013 I wanted to send out my first complete novel length book to publishers.  I used the first round to learn to write query letters and synopses that don't totally suck (though I still hate them. I loathe them even. Abhor! Well, you get the idea...) and well, I hit send about a week ago, sending off my MS to a few publishers  I think I would rather be in a cage with a very hungry and pissed off zombie than go through that again, but well, hopefully it gets easier the more I do this.

One of my other goals for 2013 dealt with sending off Wanted to publishers by mid year 2013.  I am on track to have it ready sometime in June or July but I am obviously going to wait to see what happens with my first book and then adjust if necessary. Either way, part of Round 2 will be focused on this book and getting it ready for query or self-publishing. My other 2013 goal was to finish my GR reading challenge and well, I'm moving right along on that so need to talk about that as of now. The last of my 2013 goals was to organize my billion and a half unfinished WiPs and outlines and make a WiP plan. Well, this is a work in progress itself. I'll get there. Eventually. *grumbles and sulks*

Overall it looks as if my 2013 plan is working out well. So given the progress I've made so far here is what I want to accomplish by the end of this specific ROW80 Round:

• Complete Camp NaNo in April: My goal is a minimum of 30K words on my WiP for the month. I hope to have a title soon but til then, well, it's my Camp NaNo project. (Note: This isn't a from scratch project for NaNo. I had about 30K words written on it already. By the end of April hopefully this book will be complete, or at least close to it.)
• Finish revisions and edits of Wanted:  This is the one I finished in November for NaNoWriMo but then put aside. I had hoped to finish revisions in Round 1 but evil queries and synopses got in my way. EVIL I SAY!  So now it's time to finally dig into the revisions and finish this. 

My last set of goals are those outlined each week and are more micro in nature as I work towards accomplishing the larger Round 2 and year long goals. These may change from week to week depending on work projects and other things going on.  This week my goals are as follows:

• Write every day: whether this is revisions of Wanted, writing on my Camp NaNo project, notes for my outlines, or on some other WiP, I am committing to writing every day. *nods for emphasis*
• Review a minimum of three books per week: I slacked off last week from being so sick. Pneumonia will do that to a person apparently. But this week, well it's time to get back on the horse. 
• Post Sunday ROW80 Update
• Catch up on all grading by the end of the week
• Exercise: I am going to start out slow and try for once a week. It's not a lot I know, but the doctors want me to take it easy while my lungs heal up and since I'm still not 100% I need to be really careful here. I'm thinking some relaxing yoga to start might help and then hopefully I can move to more active cardio in the next couple weeks.

As you can see, for me, staying organized is key. And I have found that separating my goals into a year plan, then smaller chunks accomplished via ROW80 Rounds and within that, goals outlined every week, I am able to stay on track and not get overwhelmed.  At least, that is the hope! And speaking of writing, I am off to write a bit more as I have a few more scenes I'd like to finish tonight.  I wish everyone a happy start to the second round and good luck with your goals! 

Top Of The Mornin' To Ya!!

And Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I love this day for a few reasons, food, beer and my proud Irish heritage being just a few. But another reason that I love this day is that it usually precedes the coming of spring. I mean, it's the 17th of March so the snow has to stop eventually, right?! The good news is that today there is no snow. The bad news is that it's only 20 degrees. I am still going to hope that spring is just around the corner though. *hopes really really hard*

And while I keep on hoping, here's one of the songs of the week I've had replaying over and over. Wait. That's a lie. It's not just a song of the week. For me this is the song of the YEAR. The band is called What Now (you can follow them on twitter at @whatnowband ) and their new album dropped on March 11th. Their song, "Move Like A Sinner", not only rocks in the musical sense, but it is also seriously hot. Here's the video (and as usual, be aware of who is around while watching this. It may not be appropriate for kids and it may also be NSFW depending on who is looking over your shoulder!):

Did I not tell you it was hot?! Now, while that is playing in the background, these are the book reviews that I was able to post this week:

Tempted by Megan Hart: I had a hard time rating this book. It was stuck in my head for weeks. I kept waffling between a 3 and 4 and after awhile, decided on 4 stars because the book just wouldn't let me go. I think that in itself is one of the marks of a good, or at least intriguing, book.

Serendipity by Carly Phillips: this was a 5 out of 5 star read for me. It's a contemporary romance that's sweet yet sexy but not over the top. I can't wait to dive into the rest of this series.

Here are some things to check out from the interwebs that caught my eye this week:

Carina Press Self Editing Chat: Angela James, the executive editor of Carina Press, held a self editing twitter chat with other Carina Press editors on Thursday. There are a ton of great tips and some links to great sources/book that every writer should know/be aware of as they go through and edit their MS for submission or self-publishing.

The #50tips Collection from @smartbitches, all storyfied for everyone's enjoyment! She started the conversation and it morphed into one of the best hashtags I have ever seen. It kept me laughing (actually cackling) for days. Trust me, it is all sorts of awesome!

The Veronica Mars Movie Project: What else is there to say other than I am going on a hunt to redeem all the soda pop and beer cans/bottles I can find so I can pledge, pledge, PLEDGE!  It made 2 million bucks via kickstarter in less than 12 hours on the first day! How cool is that!! I can't wait for more LoVe!!!!

DABWAHA Tournement:  This is from Dear Author's @Jane_l and Smart Bitches Trashy Books @smartbitches and it's modeled after the NCAA tourney. 64 books are nominated and then each person whittles it down until you have one winner chosen. So get over tehre, fill out your brackets and check out the awesome prizes that are up for grabs!

And last, my ROW80 update.  Here's how I did this week:

• Synopsis: Done. I need to actually send this stuff out now to the places I've selected. I can do this. I can. *runs off and freaks the hell out for real* 
• Writing: I didn't get too much done here other than reading through some old WiPs and a bit of outlining. I have so many half-finished WiPs and figuring out which one I want to focus on for Camp NaNo is easier said than done. 
• Minimum of 3 book reviews posted: I only was able to post 2. I had done three, but yesterday I was out of the house all day and didn't get back in time to post it. I will have to put this into next week's rotation! :) As for the 2 reviews I did do, see above for links.
• Blog comments: I dropped the ball on this and only got a few comments in. I will be going around the ROW today and tomorrow to check on everyone. After all, only 10 days left of the round so we all need to cheer each other on as we get close to the finishing line! WOOT!!
• Class Prep: I am all caught up on grading except for the midterms that were handed in on Friday. And with next week being spring break I have a whole week to get them done. Yay!
• Workout three times: I got a few in. Two to be specific. Not perfect, but getting there.

Next week my goals remain the same except for the class prep. That will be modified to be grading and prepping the poetry section of the class so when break is over I am good to go.   I hope everyone has had a great week! We are coming to the end of the Round and soon Camp NaNo will be here (along with the second ROW80 round). Gah! So much is happening all at once! Have a great week!