July Monthly Wrap Up

Another month is over! To be honest, I was kind of ready for July to be over during the first week of the month. I'm not sure why... I guess I'm just ready for the heat to die down a little and for August to come. With August comes one more month till September when the cool weather rolls around. For some reason this year, July seemed to crawl by for me. All the other months went by super fast but this one... it sort of felt like it went on forever to me haha


July Writing: July was a great writing month! I am happy I had to July so I had time to work on Wayward. The cover was finished this month (which I am beyond excited about!) and I started working on book 2. I'm also contemplating making some changes in my future plans for Dragon Hearted... Honestly, I feel like I've hit a bit of a snag in writing the episodes. They just aren't flowing as well and I think that has something to do with the fact that I veered wildly off course from what I had originally started the story as. Now I'm having to do some major course correction and the characters just feel all over the place and messy... I appreciate those who are still enjoying the story and going on this journey with me but I just want to make the episodes as good as they can possibly be. I don't want to disappoint people or turn them off from my writing because the last few episodes may be a little messy... That's my biggest concern and I know it doesn't directly have to do with my writing for July but it also kind of does because Dragon Hearted has been on my mind a lot in July. Trying to think up ways to smooth things over, what I want to do with it in the future. I think I have an idea (which will need a new cover) but I'm still thinking over things. I'm really loving writing St. Croix Falls 2 and I don't want to take time away from that, but I'm also kind of excited about this idea for Dragon Hearted.

Anyways, July was a good writing month. Lots of Wayward editing, lots of St. Croix Falls 2 writing and lots of contemplating the future and what's going to happen next.

Also, I just have to do a quick shout out. If you're an indie author or a writer who wants to publish you should check out Kiersten Oliphant's podcast Create if Writing. Listening to her episodes every week for the past few months has completely changed my outlook on what it is to be an indie author. She gives some super practical advice and tips on there and her podcast has been beyond helpful to me. Her Create if Writing podcast is what has gotten me through this month and made me think about things and plan things out a little more. It's just amazing and she's so sweet and so helpful too! I love listening to her episodes every Friday!

July Reading: *cringe* Can I just skip over this section?? I barely read anything this month! I think like the one of the only things I've really read is Keen by Laura Zimmerman and I haven't even finished it yet!

Not because it's not amazing (because it totally is) but because I've been so busy with other stuff. Plus, the book has some similar elements as Wayward and I didn't want it to impact my writing or make me compare the two books so I've kind of been putting off reading it until I had a good grip on Wayward and the story.

I did read If Wishes Were Curses by Janeen Ippolito. That was a great book I enjoyed a lot and I still have to get around to reading the sequel. It's on my huge TBR!

I also reread the entire Renegade X series by Chelsea M. Campbell. I love that series so much. Damian is the best and Chelsea really knows how to write a great, funny superhero story. I can't wait for the novella that's coming out soon and the next book in the series!

July Life Stuff: Hmmm... not a lot of life stuff happened this month. OK, well a lot has happened, I've been busy with stuff but nothing huge happened. Just been getting through classwork, writing papers and all that good stuff. The Fourth of July was super fun as always. I love the Fourth. I've realized that though I love the holidays where I get to spend time with family, but I also love getting to spend time with friends too. Like I love them both equally, I wouldn't rather spend time with family over friends and vice versa. But... I just have a lot of fun memories on the Fourth of July and Halloween because those are our two holiday or whatever where we get to stay home and just hang out with friends. So, I always look forward to the Fourth of July. We had dinner with friends and then a fun water fight (where I, of course, got a bucket of water thrown over my head haha) and then went over to our neighbor's and did fireworks. So that was a really good time.

 Oh! We did go to another concert. The second this year! I'm pretty sure that's my record haha My mom, some friends and I went to a Breaking Benjamin concert! Their not my favorite band or my favorite genre of music but I actually did end up enjoying it. I mean it's a concert. There's just this energy and vibe that's so addicting when you go to concerts. It's exciting and fun! Especially at a rock concert. I had listened to a few of their songs a week or two before we went so I knew some of the lyrics to their songs. Overall, it was just a really fun night and I had fun spending time with my mom and friends.

It was a beautiful evening which we were super thankful for. It ended up being chilly enough to wear light jackets by the time the sun had set and it was just a really great time.

So yeah, that was my July! A cover reveal, a concert, writing a sequel. Some awesome stuff. :b

How was your July??