July Monthly Wrap Up

 Happy Wednesday! 

How did your July go? I feel like this was the longest month of the year. It just seemed to drag on for me, which I am Ok with cus I feel like Summer is already flying by as is. It's crazy to think about where I was and where a lot of us were last July compared to this July. I was talking to a friend about last year and we were talking about how we had conversations last year where we were like I don't know if this will ever end. Will things ever get better again? By July last year we were pretty discouraged and it felt like there was no end in sight. And now here we are. Things have gotten better. There's still a lot of issues and stuff, things to be concerned about, but I feel like life has gotten back to semi-normal. It's just... nice. It's nice to reflect back and see where I was last year and see where I am now and see how far I've come in a lot of different ways. 

Writing: 

This month has been a rough writing month. I started out the month by writing the first draft of the sequel to The Runaway. The story started out alright but then I hit a block and burn out and lost all motivation and any sort of joy for writing that book. Last Monday I was writing with a friend and when I got home, I realized my writing this book felt like a waste of time. Like it felt empty and pointless. Which is not a good sign at all haha So, I decided to put it aside for now and take a break from those characters and that series. I would like to go back to it maybe in a month or two, but for now it's going to stay on the sidelines until I can figure out this zero motivation thing. 

But I am still editing Emerald Phantom and it's going really well! I am super excited about that and I always look forward to editing it because I love it so much! I'm adding some new elements that wasn't in the series before into this book and it's all come together so perfectly. Plus, I just love my characters so much. I keep fangirling over Darren and Amaya cus they are so cute in this whole book haha I ship my own characters so hard haha 

I also had a major break through with Sterling Silver. If you've been around awhile you might remember I published that book back in 2019 I think it was and then ended up taking it down and unpublishing it a few months later just because I felt like the story wasn't ready to be out yet. I rushed it a little too much and wasn't happy with it at all. But while I was writing at the library this week (I haven't been able to do that in over a year :o) I had a major break through and it reignited my excitement for writing. I've been working on this book on and off since 2016 and I think I finally cracked the code and have the story really figured out. So, I'm working on pretty much rewriting that book from scratch/editing a lot of parts. 

Reading: 

Alright, time for me to rant about The Saltwater Heir.

I've already mentioned it numerous times over on my Instagram, but hey, I loved it a lot. Like unless Once Upon a Broken Heart knocks it out of the park (which I think it will) or a happen across another super amazing read, The Saltwater Heir will be in my top three favorite books of this year. I could not put that book down. Everything about it was right up my alley and I just loved it so much. The best friends to lovers is top notch. The sibling relationships between the Atlas siblings is perfection. The MC is kidnapped and brought to her enemy kingdom where she has to be undercover trope was amazingly done. Plus there's magic and necromancy and the bad guy was so good! 

The only thing I would say about the book is if you don't like any swearing or zombies maybe be cautious about this book because the characters do swear quite a bit (though there's no use of the F word or anything like that). 

Other than that though, the whole thing was amazing. Go read it cus it was so good haha 

I think that may have been the only book I read this month. I might have read Finale at the start of the month, but I'm not sure... My reading has slowed down a lot which is fine but I'm trying to find something else to read soon. I'm really waiting for is Vampires, Hearts and Other Dead Things by Margie Fuston that comes out in August.

Ever since Stephanie Garber shared about that book on her Insta-stories I've been eagerly waiting for this book to come out cus it sounds so good... plus vampires. Who doesn't love vampire? I also pre-ordered Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber this month and I can't wait for it to get here in September!! 

Over the weekend I got The Inheritance Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and I am very invested in this story haha The first ten chapters are so floored me with some of the reveals and the audacity of one of these characters. In other words, I'm really enjoying this book and so far I recommend it! 

Life Stuff: 

Life stuff... what life stuff even happened this month? Oh, well, I did release Golden Touch this month! That's a big thing! I'm so, so thankful for everyone who made that day so special and bought or shared about Golden Touch on that day and since then. It means so much to me. I got to be on my very first podcast called The Reading Sparrow. That was super fun and I had a great time talking with Sarina about Golden Touch. I finished reading through Isaiah and Lamentations (Isaiah was really hard for me to get through haha) and now I'm onto Ezekiel. I feel so close and yet so far to getting through the rest of the Old Testament. My low key goal is to get to the New Testament by September so I can do Hannah Brencher's four gospels reading challenge while also continuing my read through of the Bible. But we'll see what happens. 

My brother and I went to see Black Widow. That movie was amazing! Like I loved it so much! I don't know why, but I was super emotional like the entire time I watched that movie.

That opening credit scene did me in from the very beginning and maybe I was just having an emotional day, but I was holding back tears throughout so much of that movie haha But in a good way. Like I love when a movie makes me emotional because it means it's done well and it's moving and full of real emotion and you care about the characters. Speaking of characters, Yelena is my new favorite Marvel character. I love her so much haha

And the fact that they touched on real themes like human trafficking and abuse and even infertility and found family was really cool. You don't see that a lot - if ever - in a Marvel movie. 

This week I also start as a co-leader at my church's youth group! I've thought about wanting to do this on and off for a long time, but it never felt like the right time until now. It feels right and I'm really excited cus I love the youth group vibe and I get to co-lead with a super good friend! 

We also went to my grandparents and to the beach. It wasn't my favorite beach experience, but my younger siblings and cousin had a fun time so that's what matters haha It was just too hot and too sandy for my taste. 

This isn't really life stuff but season two of Outerbanks comes on Netflix in just a few days and I am so excited!! I love that show so much and can't wait for this next season. It's going to be so good!! 

Oh! Again, this isn't life stuff, but I am on TikTok now and Vero now. If you have either of those apps you can find me at @mel_author. 

Looking Forward to August: 

The thing I'm looking forward to the most in August is getting to see my friend Keturah!! We haven't seen each other since Summer 2019 and she's coming over to where I live to visit family, so I can't wait to spend time with her and have a meet up! 

My brother is also turning eleven in August, so that'll be fun to celebrate too. :) 

Also, again, very excited for that book Vampires, Hearts and Other Dead Things that comes out on the twenty-fourth. I think Keturah and I are planning to reread the Percy Jackson series too. I haven't reread those book in so long! So I'm excited to get to see Percy and the whole crew again. 

My Oceanography class ends in August, thank goodness! This has been a hard class with a pretty heavy workload and I am so ready to be done. I'm ready for a little bit of a break before I start a fun Fall semester with lots of historical/classical studies classes that I'm excited about. There's one class in particular I've wanted to take for a long time but it's never been an online class option until this semester, so I'm super excited. 

I'm going to be adding a few scenes to Emerald Phantom and implementing comments/edits I left for myself during my read through and then will be sending it to some readers too. Hopefully my mom will be able to start working on the cover too and I may give a release date for Emerald Phantom next month in my newsletter as well. 

Other than that... I don't really have anything crazy for August planned. 

What about you? Have any fun plans for August? Did you do anything fun in July?