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January 2019 Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on Leave a Comment

January is on its last legs, so it’s time for a wrap-up of the month to see what happened.

Books Read:

My reading this month absolutely rocked! I read ten novels and one short story. Some of these books were on the shorter side, so I guess that helped.

  • The Gilded Wolves – Roshani Chokshi
  • Empire of Stormes – Sarah J. Maas
  • The Wicked King – Holly Black
  • “The Midnight Heir” – Cassandra Clare (short story)
  • The Unbroken Hearts Club – Brooke Carter
  • Spectacle – Jodie Lynn Zdrock
  • The Light Between Worlds – Laura E. Weymouth
  • Twisted Roots – Shelly Goodman Wright
  • Pennies – Pepper Winters
  • Dollars – Pepper Winters
  • The Last Year of the War – Susan Meissner

Blog Stats:

  • I went over 1900 Twitter followers this month. 1500 was a milestone for me, and 2000 will be another one of those milestones I’m looking forward to.
  • Blog traffic seems to remain steady. I’m trying to visit more blogs, but it’s difficult when so many things are trying to get out attention.

Writing:

  • This is one area I’m super excited about. I finished the first draft of The Brightness of Shadow! I’ve been going through edits and the second draft is looking so much better. I’m not one of those writers that loathes their work in the early drafts, but there’s a lot I’m doing in this 2nd draft. I’m looking forward to getting feedback from beta readers and my critique partner… they get to see the 2nd draft, not the first.
  • I started Shadow’s Queen. I’m not officially working on it or anything, but if your characters are telling you to do something, you listen. I have about 2000 words on this one.
  • I’ve done some editing on Hero, but not too much. My efforts have been focused more on The Brightness of Shadow.
  • My boy and I have started doing the #AtticNotebook together. It’s something that Laini Taylor started where you get a prompt (or not) and you write for 15 minutes in a notebook. Once the notebook is done, you put it aside for at least a month before looking at it again. I’m amazed at how many ideas are coming to me. Some days I have more interesting things to write than others.

Life:

  • I had to go to court for October’s car accident. I guess in Colorado they try to contact the other party when there’s an accident, and they couldn’t contact them, so I get to go back to court in March. My dh and I are absolutely convinced that the other party was speeding (on a dark and snowy night) and when I go back I will be bringing up those points to hopefully mitigate the fine.
  • My dd is back in the hospital, maybe for a month or more. We’re praying she gets better. She had to drop out of school last semester, but when she gets out I think we’ll get her into a flexible online school that hopefully won’t cause too much anxiety. When you miss a lot of school it’s really hard!
  • I’ll be back to teaching Spanish next week, but I’ll take next year off. We’re going to Hawaii for two weeks in the middle of the school year and I don’t really want to deprive the kids of two weeks of teaching. It’ll give me more time to advance my writing too. My friend Shelly Wright (I read her book this month) is taking a semester off teaching writing this fall to work on her books too.

Goodreads Your Year in Books Meme

By Brookelorren on 8 Comments

There’s less than 2 weeks left in the year!  I found the Goodreads Your Year in books meme, hosted by Bite into Books, and I thought it would be fun.

I’ve said before this year, I only recently discovered how amazing Goodreads was.  I read so many more books this year than last year, and seeing my statistics was fun!  If you want to find out your Goodreads year in Books, follow the previous link and it’ll give you a link to your own book year.

My statistics: I read 32,320 pages across 83 books!  It adds up over time.

Yumi Cover

The shortest book I read was Yumi, at 8 pages…

Queen of Air and Darkness cover

…And the longest book that I read this year was Queen of Air and Darkness, at 912 pages.

The average length of the books I read overall was 389 pages.

City of Bones Cover
George Whitefield cover

The most popular book I read this year was City of Bones, which was read by 1,497,274 other people.  The least popular book that I read was George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire, which was read by 6 other people.

My average rating was 4.4 (I’ve read some amazing books this year!)

The highest rated book that I’ve rated was Friction, which averaged 4.6 from Goodreads readers.

This has been a great book year, and I can’t wait to read even more books in 2019!  And well, there’s probably enough time to squeeze another four books into the rest of 2018 as well.

How did your book year go?  I’m not going to tag anybody, but if you decide to do this meme, please leave a comment here so I can see what your book year looked like.

Participating in this meme is simple:

  1. Write your own year in books post.
  2. Link to the post on Bite into Books.
  3. Add your post to the linky at Bite into Books.  Leave a comment here if you’d like too.
  4. Tag your friends (if you like).
  5. Check the page at Bite into Books to see what other people’s years were like

November Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on 6 Comments

November is but a memory, which means that it’s time to take a few minutes to talk about what happened.

Books Read:

I only read eight books this month, but I was really busy winning NaNoWriMo.

  • Here and Now and Then – Mike Chen
  • The Cruel Prince – Holly Black
  • Crow Flight – Susan Cunningham
  • Clockwork Angel – Cassandra Clare
  • The Young Adult Writer’s Journey – Janet Schraeder-Post and Elizabeth Fortin-Hinds
  • Clockwork Prince – Cassandra Clare
  • Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi
  • Clockwork Princess – Cassandra Clare

That’s still an average of two books per week while writing over 50k words.  Not too bad.  Right now I’m trying to finish Lady Midnight and Lord of Shadows before Queen of Air and Darkness comes out on Tuesday.  A little insane, but I might actually do it.

Blog Stats:

  • I’m at 1,764 followers on Twitter.  NaNoWriMo has been really good to me there.
  • Unfortunately, on the actual blog I haven’t had time to visit other people’s sites as much as I’d like to.  Hopefully there will be more time in December.  I don’t even have next week’s Top Ten Tuesday post written yet.

Writing:

I wrote 53,675 words on The Brightness of Shadow this month, which means I won NaNoWriMo.  Yay!  I still have 13 chapters left, however.  I hope to finish them this month, because then I’ll need to spend January editing, because I have work with my critique partner to do at the beginning of February.  I already know a few things that I’m going to change to make this better in the second draft.

Life:

So, no car accidents this month.  We got our new car to replace the one I totalled.  The last two Saturdays have been really treacherous on the roads though.

My daughter spent another week in the hospital, but she’s out now.

So that’s what happened this month.  Lots of writing.  Next month hopefully I’ll get more reading done and I’ll finish the first draft of my book.

October Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on 2 Comments

Today is the last day of October, which means that… NaNoWriMo starts at midnight!  Eeek!  I said that last month too, but we’re so close now.  NaNo has been on my thoughts for quite a while already, but that’s not all that’s been going on.  Here’s what happened in October:

Books Read:

I finished twelve books this month.  Two were audiobooks.

  • City of Lost Souls – Cassandra Clare
  • Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell
  • Muse of Nightmares – Laini Tailor
  • Evenfall – Gaja J. Kos & Boris Kos
  • The Wren Hunt – Mary Watson
  • City of Heavenly Fire – Cassandra Clare
  • Into the Hollow – Lynn Vroman
  • Slasher Girls & Monster Boys – Various
  • Blitzball – Barton Ludwig
  • Fawkes – Nadine Brandes
  • Frost Blood – Elly Blake
  • Jack Jetstark’s Intergalactic Freakshow – Jennifer Lee Rossman

So about ten books per month plus audiobooks (Frost Blood and Fangirl were both audiobooks) is about what I can normally average.  I expect fewer books read next month since my focus will be on writing.

I’m currently reading an ARC for Here and Now and Then, and then I will be reading The Cruel Prince or an ARC.

Blog Stats:

  • I had a really good month on Twitter and am up to 1664 followers.  I’m hoping to get to 1666 today since that would be a little fitting, and then get over that on November 1st because I don’t really want 666 to be in my follower count for long, LOL.
  • Blog users have seemed to have leveled off.  I wish I could visit more sites, but I just haven’t had time.  Don’t expect that to change during NaNoWriMo though.
  • I have ten scheduled posts at the moment.  The only posts that I need to write during NaNoWriMo are ARC reviews, a review of Fawkes, tomorrow’s post on Amazon.com deals of the month, a Top Ten Tuesday post on Platonic Relationships in Books, and the Monthly Wrap-Up for November.  Other than that, I’m all set for NaNoWriMo.

Writing:

  • I finished writing Hero, and now I’m editing the book.  I’ve edited 12 chapters so far of the first draft.  I already know that I’m going to rewrite chapter 1 when I do the third draft.  I want it to start off with a more impactful scene.  All of that will probably wait until next year though.
  • I finished publishing My New Best Friend to AO3.  I wanted to finish that this month so I won’t have to worry about it in November, or leave people wondering what happened in the story.
  • Total words published to AO3 in 2018: 96,948.  I’ve written about 120,000 words on other books that are currently unfinished/unpublished.  So that’s pretty good for a year.  I don’t expect to publish anything else this year, although I will be writing more words (obviously).
  • I have about 26 pages of notes for The Brightness of Shadow.  I’m ready to do this!

Life:

So let’s just say that I could really use an amazing 2019 to make up for the last couple of years.  Yesterday, on my way to visit my daughter in the hospital, I ended up in a car accident that totaled my car.  The airbag deployed and everything.  My dd will probably be in the hospital for a long-term stay, but the main thing is that she gets better.  I have a bunch of bruises all over, but that’s probably about it.

I was really hoping that school would be cancelled today on account of snow, but no such luck.  Somebody needs to teach kids Spanish and German, and that would be me.  And then I have work tonight when it hurts to walk.  Oh joy.  But I’ll be okay, and that’s what matters.

So that was October.  Went out with a bang.  Let’s hope that November is better and I come out of that with an amazing first draft of my new book.

 

August Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on 10 Comments

So today’s the last day of August, and it’s time for yet another monthly wrap-up post.  This is what happened in August:

Books Read:

This month I read ten books, and some of them were pretty long.  I had a lot of library books come in, and I’ve been trying to make sure that those get read first.  Normally I post an ARC/new release review at the beginning of the week on my blog, but because I’ve had so many library books to read, September 3rd’s review will be on an older book, City of Glass.  That’s just the way things worked out.

  • Crown of Midnight – Sarah J. Maas
  • My Mother.  Barack Obama.  Donald Trump.  And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man. – Kevin Powell
  • Glass Sword – Victoria Aveyard
  • George Whitefield: Evangelist for God and Empire – Peter Y. Choi
  • When Elephants Fly – Nancy Richardson Fischer
  • King’s Cage – Victoria Aveyard
  • Give the Dark My Love – Beth Revis
  • City of Ashes – Cassandra Clare
  • Heir of Fire – Sarah J. Maas
  • City of Glass – Cassandra Clare

Tower of Dawn was on sale for $2.99, so I picked that one up this week.  Now I don’t have to be in such a rush to read it when it becomes available at the library.  I’ve found that that is one of the biggest drawbacks to getting books from the library.  You have to be ready to drop everything and read them when they become available.  Right now, I think I really only have three books that are going to become available soon, and I’ll be able to handle that.

I have plenty of books that I’ve been getting off Amazon.com for $1.99.  Their monthly Kindle deals are just too good to pass up!  I thought about getting Warcross because it went on sale for $2.99, but I held myself back.  After all, I already have two copies.

Blog Stats:

  • I actually lost followers this month on Twitter, but there’s an explanation for that.  Twitter did some sort of purge, and I lost about 90 followers in one day.  I thought maybe it was something I had said, but it wasn’t.  So I’m at 1523 followers, but if there hadn’t been that Twitter purge I would have been over 1600.
  • I’m at about 300 monthly users on my blog.  For a while, I was higher than that, then I dropped lower.  I haven’t had as much time to visit other blogs, but 300 has been a goal of mine, so that’s good.
  • I have 12 posts written that haven’t been posted yet, which is more than last month. I’m trying to get ahead, because I’ll be really busy during NaNoWriMo.  You might find me doing a lot of graphic novel and short story reviews in December because of NaNoWriMo, LOL.

Writing:

  • I finished writing Like Normal People!  Yay!  I published my first chapter on January 7th, 2016, and published the last chapter on August 30th, 2018.  I had two long bouts of writer’s block with this one.  First, in 2016, I had to write about mountain climbing and had no clue how to do it; I was in the middle of a move, and then I just forgot about my story.  The second time was in February, where one of the chapters was completely boring me and I didn’t know how to make it interesting.  I wrote a bunch of other stuff while waiting for inspiration on that one, even though I only had three and a half chapters left.  Once I was able to write that chapter, the story was done in a week.
  • I already have over 10 pages of notes for my NaNoWriMo novel this year.  I have a good idea of what is going to happen in the story, and I’m pretty sure it’s going to have to be a duology, because towards the end it looks like a war is about to break out.  This started out in my head as a fanfic of a fanfic, but it has developed a lot so far, and although if you squint, you can see what inspired this story, it will look completely different.  I still have 2 more months to plan this before I write, too.
  • For September, my goal is to finish writing the first draft of Hero.  I’m in the wrapping-up phase of this story, so there probably won’t be too many chapters left to write, but I haven’t outlined this one, so I’m not sure how may are left.  I don’t know if I’ll get to Saving Adelinetta in October.  I want to make Hero look really good first.  I’ll probably be spending more time editing and revising my stories going forward, which will make them better, but it will also cause them to take more time.  I’m guessing that Saving Adelinetta needs at least 100 more pages to finish it, and that one is going to need a lot of revising (I literally wrote about 200 pages of that story in 10 days).

Life:

Like many people, school has started, and so things have gotten busier.  My daughter spent her first day of public school (ever) in the hospital.  She’s out now though.  It takes about 40 minutes to drive her to school.  So… now I get home from work at around midnight and get up at 6 AM to drive her to school.  My husband has agreed to drive her on Thursdays and Fridays though, so that is a big help.  The upside to that is that I can listen to audiobooks on the way.  Right now I’m listening to Everless.  That’s like free reading time.

My Spanish and German classes have restarted, and I actually have pretty good enrollment numbers.  The Duolingo people decided to change the Spanish tree on me the week before classes, and I had to rewrite the booklet I give to my students over a weekend (it’s 50 pages).  Class has been going well though.  I’m not as nervous this year, and planning is going a lot more smoothly.  I’m learning how to incorporate more speaking practice, which helps the class move forward.

So that’s it for August.  How was your month?

Books To Get You Out of a Reading Slump (Top Ten Tuesday)

By Brookelorren on 22 Comments

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday Topic (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is Books to Get You Out of a Reading Slump.  I don’t know if I’m the best person to write about this topic, since I don’t really think that I experience reading slumps, but I’ll try to take on this topic anyway.  More than specific books, I’ll recommend some ways to get out of reading slumps.

Caraval coverListen to an audiobook: most of your favorite books have been made into audiobooks, and a lot of them are available at your library (okay available might not be the right word for it, because there’s usually a waiting list for most popular YA books at my library, but you know what I mean).  Caraval is available in audiobook, as an example.

I’m not big into audiobooks myself, but I was thinking about checking one out from my library to listen to while I’m at the gym… but then I realized that there’s a waiting list for almost all the books, so maybe not today, at least.  Maybe in six months.

Legend Graphic Novel coverRead a graphic novel.  I’m not really a graphic novel person either, but if you’re in a reading slump, then maybe a graphic novel might help.  Doesn’t this Legend graphic novel look cute?  And can you believe that I don’t have these yet?  I might have to go out and buy them now… or maybe I’ll just ask for these as a Christmas present.  Otherwise they might have to excommunicate me from the Marie Lu fan club.

Wired magazine coverRead a magazine.  One magazine article might only take a few minutes to read, and doesn’t take a ton of your attention span.  There are tons of good magazines; Wired is one of the magazines I subscribe to via Zinio.

Summer Days and Summer Nights CoverRead Short Stories.  So I realize that summer is quickly fading away (where I am it feels like it’s been fall for weeks already) but I haven’t read too many short story books, so Summer Days and Summer Nights it is.  At least if you want a short story recommendation from me.  Short stories might be able to break you out of a reading slump because you don’t have to get too invested in any one particular storyline.

Read Something Useful.  Maybe you’re in a reading slump because you’ve just gotten bored by stories that are meant to entertain.  Perhaps you can read something useful instead.  A book like Friction can help you learn more about attracting customers (which is useful if you have a blog, run a small business, or are in some sort of management position).  If, perhaps, you don’t have a business, surely there’s something else you can learn that would be useful to your life.  You can keep on reading, yet not feel the expectation of being entertained.

Kiss Quotient coverRead Something Light.  A few months ago, I had just finished reading the first three books of the Ember Quartet, then I read a book about the Holocaust.  Those definitely weren’t light reads!  Plus, none of the couples were together at the end of the book!  So I needed to read something a little lighter.  That’s why I downloaded The Kiss Quotient.  So if you’re in a situation where everybody that you’re reading about seems to be dying or getting injured, perhaps you might want to try something a little lighter.

Twitter logoTake a Short Break.  Maybe you just need a break from reading in general.  It’s okay to take a short break, for an hour or two, at least.  I mean, let’s not go crazy and leave our collection of books at home when we go on vacation (or to the doctor’s office, or to work) or anything silly like that, but the books will still be there when you’re done taking a break.  Sometimes you need to do something other than reading for a while, right?

Learn Something New.  Maybe you’re just bored with fiction in general for the moment.  If you still want to read, you could always learn something new.  Like why the Apple logo was designed the way that it was.  Or what was Thomas Edison like?  Dreamers and Deceivers was a pretty interesting book that talks a little bit about those two subjects and more (I particularly found the story about Alan Turing to be interesting, but maybe that’s because I majored in computer science and love my Apple products).

Red Queen CoverRead Something Popular.  A few weeks ago, we had a Top Ten Tuesday post about books that were hyped up a lot.  I wrote about Popular YA Books That I Loved instead.  I found out that week that some people are afraid to read popular books because they’re afraid that they might not be as good as some people say they are.  A lot of times though, books might be popular because they’re good.  If you’ve been afraid of reading a popular book and you’re in a reading slump, maybe you should try one out instead.  The Red Queen series is pretty popular.

Unbroken coverTry a New Genre.  Maybe you just need to read something completely different for a change.  If you’re always reading young adult, or fantasy, or whatever you normally read, maybe you just need to try something different.  I really liked the story of Louie Zamporini, Unbroken.  Maybe I’m just biased because he went to the University of Southern California (I don’t think so, but I do like the fact that he’s a Trojan like I am) but this is a really good story about a runner who was captured during World War II and eventually ended up forgiving his captors that tormented him.

So these are my ten ideas of how you might break out of a reading slump.  Do you get into reading slumps?  What are your ideas of how to get out of them?  Next week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic is “Back to School”, so I’ll be posting ten of my favorite nonfiction books.

Favorite Bookish Websites and Blogs: Top Ten Tuesday

By Brookelorren on 30 Comments

It’s Top Ten Tuesday again, and today’s topic is “Favorite Book Blogs/Bookish Web Sites”.  For today, I’d like to take a journey back in time… back to some of my favorite bookish web sites to the present, with a few blogs.  While I can’t really say that I’ve developed a list of absolute favorite bookish blogs yet, I’ll randomly include some that I’ve seen and tend to visit regularly.  As always, Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Amazon logoIf I didn’t include Amazon.com, then I’d be leaving out one of my favorite bookish web sites.  They have some amazing Kindle deals… like the other day, I got One Thousand Perfect Notes for just $.99!  I still haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but I cannot pass up sales like that.  I love to pre-order books from my favorite authors and see them sitting in my mailbox on release day.

Archive of Our Own (AO3):  Several years ago, I had just finished the Divergent Series.  I read most of the three books in three days, and I went to bed devastated… but even that night, I refused to believe the ending.  The next morning, I started looking for alternative endings to Allegiant, and I stumbled upon AO3… and fanfiction in general.  Never mind that I had actually written two fanfic novellas in high school without realizing it.  But AO3 started me on a journey that has taken me on the path to where I am today.  At the moment, I keep two AO3 tabs open on my browser almost all of the time.

My local library:  While I’m sure that the Pikes Peak Library district is not of much interest to people outside of the Colorado Springs area, I would be dishonest if I made a list of my favorite bookish web sites without including it.  I’m here almost every day.  I currently have about a dozen books on hold, and check to see the progress of these holds regularly.  Plus, there’s so much that goes on at the library.

While theoretically, I could place Goodreads right after Amazon.com on my bookish journey back into time (I’ve been a member since April of 2013), I’m placing it here because I didn’t take advantage of its amazing goodness as much as I should have until earlier this year.  I had just finished reading The Fates Divide and was looking for another fun book to read, and I ran across their Listopia list of YA Novels of 2018.  You mean there’s 960 YA novels coming out in this year alone?  And they already know that Marie Lu is coming out with another book next year?  I was blown away.  So… I started clicking around, finding some of the popular books to read… but some of them are the third or sixth in a series, so I have to start with the first one (of course)… and I’m finding all of these new books to read… and I still haven’t recovered yet.  Like Amazon and AO3, I almost always have a Goodreads tab open now.

Now we’re almost to the present day, where I can talk about a few really nice blogs that I’ve found.  I found NetGalley shortly after I was blown away by how awesome Goodreads actually is.  You mean that I can actually read some books before they’re released to the public?  I don’t even have to pay for them?  It was around that time that I decided to once again start posting regularly to this blog and focus on book reviews.  After all, if my book blog is doing well enough, I’ll be able to read some of these really cool books early!

In the process, I’ve discovered that this book blog might also be able to help me as an author.  I’ve been a writer for nearly my entire life.  I went to the Young Author’s conference in my local area in both 3rd and 5th grade.  I won NaNoWriMo in 2014 with my fanfic, Dauntless.  But all of this reading and being around book bloggers and authors has inspired me.  Yes, my planned NaNoWriMo novel for this fall is technically a fanfic of a fanfic, but it’s really exciting me, and unlike Dauntless, which is basically an alternate history of Insurgent where Tris chose Abnegation instead of Dauntless, this is morphing into a brand new story.

All of the above web sites are leading me into dreams that I haven’t thought much about since high school (or perhaps before that, even).

Which leads me to the last five bookish web sites for Top Ten Tuesday.  These are some awesome blogs I’ve been reading.  There are so many more, but I can only pick a few… so please realize that I might love your web site as well, and not have room for it here.  These aren’t even a top five, they’re just some that I’m thinking about at the moment.

We Live and Breathe Books (WLABB) always has some great posts.  Plus, Sam (who I think tends to write most of the posts over there) has some pretty good taste in books.  I tend to see her Top Ten Tuesday posts almost every week, and I sometimes will run into some of her other posts at other times throughout the week.

I think I see AJ from Read All the Things all over the place.  She has excellent taste in books and is constantly updating her site with new content.  If you haven’t taken a look at her blog, you should.

It Starts at Midnight is another blog that I see all over the place.  Maybe it’s because I read a lot of the Top Ten Tuesday posts and she usually writes them, maybe it’s because I don’t get home from work until around midnight, so her blog opens up right about the time I get home (okay, probably not the last one).  At any rate, this is another blog that gets updated regularly that you might want to take a look at.

That Artsy Reader Girl LogoI’m always over at That Artsy Reader Girl‘s site.  She hosts Top Ten Tuesday, and it’s a great way to find other people’s blogs.  I usually keep this tab open all week long, because I’m always taking a look at what other people are posting and her TTT linkup is a great way to find other people’s blogs.

Candid Cover logoI visit The Candid Cover‘s web site regularly as well.  This summer, she’s been sponsoring a Summer TBR Wipe-Out; it’s pretty fun to link up with all of these other amazing readers to talk about the books that we’ve been reading over the past few weeks.  She also sponsors contests, various reviews, and keeps her web site regularly updated.

So, that’s a stroll through a little of my bookish history through the use of web sites!  Stay tuned for the next episode of Top Ten Tuesday, where I talk about books to get out of your reading slump (even though I’m not sure if I’ve ever had a reading slump… but I have some ideas anyway).

Wrap Up Post to the Summer TBR Wipeout

By Brookelorren on 10 Comments

Summer 2018 TBR Wipeout Challenge

It’s hard to believe, but today is the final day to the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge, hosted by The Candid Cover.  Although summer isn’t completely over, the TBR Wipeout is, and it makes me a little sad.  This is the first challenge that I’ve done as a book blogger, and so it will probably be a little special to me, and it’s sad to see it end.  I’m sure that there will be plenty of new challenges to come.

So without further adieu, I’d like to give my final report:

Since My Last Update:

Since my last update to the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge, I’ve read five books:

Glass Sword and Crown of Midnight were on my TBR when this challenge began.  The George Whitefield book was an ARC from Netgalley, and the other two books were ARCs that I won through various sweepstakes (my first two physical ARCs!).

Overall Challenge:

Overall, I read 15 books for the Summer TBR Wipeout Challenge.  My reading pace has slowed since I had to go back to work, but since my goal was 10 books, I can say that I reached the goal and that’s a good thing.

I plan on writing reviews for all of the books that I read for this challenge and haven’t been posted yet.  I plan for the weekend of September 13th to be Sarah J. Maas weekend, where I post my reviews for the first three of her books, and the weekend of September 27th will be Victoria Aveyard weekend, where I post the first three books of The Red Queen series.  Yes, I realize that I haven’t read the third book in either series, but since I’m first on the waiting list for both books, I doubt that that will be a problem.

Thanks for reading my updates, thank you to The Candid Cover for hosting this challenge, and I hope that you’ll keep visiting my blog to see my future reviews and hopefully new challenges in the future!

Get To Know Me Tag (Writer’s Edition)

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

You may have seen this tag floating around the blogging sphere lately. I chose to accept the challenge from Rachel. The tag was started by Savannah and the rules are as follows-

• Link back to the person who created the tag.
• Thank the person who tagged you.
• Share the tag graphic
• Tag eleven bloggers (I’m actually just tagging anybody who wants to do it though)

Vital Stats and Appearance

  • Name: Brooke Lorren (well, that’s my pen name.  It’s my real first name and an alteration of the spelling of my middle name.  BTW, my real middle name comes from the Lord of the Rings.  Not only was I partially named after an elf, my kids were named after bookish elves as well; it’s a multi-generational thing already).
  • Nicknames: Brooke.  My boy calls me something that you would probably pronounce as Mamu (we have an oo language that we made up together, so sometimes I’ll tell him “I love oo”).
  • Birthday: June 22
  • Hair color and length: Light brown/Dark blonde.  Been dying it that color since college.  Goes halfway down my back.  The only time since 1st grade that it’s been short was in boot camp.  Hated it short both times.
  • Eye color: Blue
  • Braces/piercings/tattoos: Had braces for years, but got them off before I graduated high school.  I have one piercing in each ear.
  • Righty or lefty? Lefty
  • Ethnicity: Mostly European.  German (once when I was in Germany someone stopped me and asked me for directions auf Deutsch), English.  I have done a lot of ancestry work and the earliest non-northern European ancestry comes about in the 12th century.  My grandma said that we’re part Nez Pierce Indian, but I haven’t found that yet in my research.

Firsts

  • First novel written: It was a fanwork I wrote in the 11th grade about a girl who started a music group and got into a relationship with a guy from a particular band (who will be nameless).  My second book was called Save the Best for Last, which had a soundtrack to it.  I wrote that in 12th grade.
  • First novel completed: Same
  • Award for writing: Probably the Rising Star award given out by Associated Content (which has long been shut down).  Before that I was named a Featured Reviewer at Epinions.com, but I don’t know if that counts.  I probably got some sort of writing awards in school too.
  • First Publication: I did get a poem published in one of those books that are probably a scam, LOL.  Yahoo! did pick up one of my articles once.  Other than that, I publish electronically.  I write for Archive of Our Own (AO3) and worked as a content producer for Empirical Marketing for a little over a year (but they had a terrible business plan and I knew they wouldn’t be able to keep paying me for very long).
  • First Conference: Never been to one.  Maybe someday.
  • Query/Pitch: I don’t have anything to query at the moment.  I plan on making this year’s NaNoWriMo novel something that I can submit.

Favorites

  • Novel (that you wrote):  Hmm… it’s a novella, but so far I think I like Republican Phenoms the best.  Out of my unpublished works, Saving Adelinetta might have the most potential, but I have a lot of work to do on that one to make it good.  Hero will probably be really good once I can finish it and polish it up.  I’m in the “wrapping it up” stage of the first draft of that one and I think the story itself is pretty good.
  • Genre: Fantasy or dystopian.  Maybe a combination of both.
  • Author: Marie Lu.  Veronica Roth takes a close second, although there are many amazing authors out there.
  • Writing Music: Silence.  I also think about my writing in silence.  I often will not have music or podcasts on in my car just so I can think about my work.
  • Time to Write: Evenings.  Unless I work until 11, then I sometimes don’t have time.  Sometimes in the afternoons.
  • Writing Snack/Drink: tea and water.  I try to drink one kombucha a day (a kombucha a day keeps the doctor away).  I don’t usually eat snacks.
  • Movie: Probably Forrest Gump.  I don’t watch a lot of movies though.
  • Writing Memory: Nothing in particular comes to mind.
  • Childhood Book: I loved a lot of books as a kid, including Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables.  I don’t really think I had a favorite childhood book.
 

Currently

  • Reading: My Mother.  Barack Obama.  Donald Trump.  And the Last Stand of the Angry White Man by Kevin Powell (as I write this on Monday).  I’ll be starting another fiction book shortly; perhaps before I finish this one.
  • Writing: I’m currently polishing up (and publishing on AO3) My New Best Friend.  I have four other WIPs, Like Normal People (2 1/2 chapters to go; I started that 2 1/2 years ago), Hero, Saving Adelinetta, and Gamers (which is on hiatus, more than likely, until 2019).  I’m making plans for my untitled NaNoWriMo novel.  I know a couple of the characters, have got an inkling of the magic system, am doing a little worldbuilding, etc.  I won’t write a sentence on that one until November.
  • Listening to: Nothing  If I’m not thinking about my stories, I’ll listen to podcasts or one of my playlists in the car (with a wide variety of music).
  • Watching: I don’t really watch much TV.  I used to watch Survivor and The Amazing Race, but I haven’t in a while.  I’ve seen the first season of The Americans.  When I go to my Russian meetup group we sometimes watch movies and TV shows in Russian.
  • Learning: I’m a polyglot, so when I’m not focusing on writing, I’m learning languages.

Future

  • Want to Be Published: Sure!  I have a goal to get 1500 rejections, unless I get published first.  But first I have to write something that isn’t fanfiction.  I always stumble there.  But my latest fanworks have had a lot more original characters and plots, so I am getting better at it.
  • Indie or Traditional: I will try for traditional, but I’m not the kind of person who lets my work sit in a drawer forever.  If I write something and it doesn’t look like it will ever get a chance with a traditional publisher, then I’ll self-publish it.
  • Wildest Goal: I don’t think I’ve thought that far.  I’ll take whatever comes.

Nominees

  • Anybody who wants to write this!  I’m really not a tagging kind of person.

July Monthly Wrap-Up

By Brookelorren on 4 Comments

So it’s already the last day of July, and another time to do a monthly wrap-up.  Here is what happened for the month of July:

Books Read:

I finished 10 books this month, plus I also reread Like Normal People, since it’s a goal of mine to finish it in August.  When I was reading through it, I discovered a minor error that persists through the book, so I’ll probably go through the published copy on AO3 and fix them.

  • Origin – Dan Brown
  • Ever the Hunted – Erin Summerill
  • Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas
  • The House of One Thousand Eyes – Michelle Barker
  • Batman: Nightwalker – Marie Lu
  • Summer Days and Summer Nights – Various Authors
  • 1,000 Years, 1,000 People – Various Authors
  • Red Queen – Victoria Aveyard
  • Harbor Me – Jacqueline Woodson

Blog Stats

  • I gained 41 Twitter followers this month, up to 1570.  My goal was 1550; a few days ago I was three away from that goal, but I got a boost at the end of the month for some reason.
  • I have 7k monthly views per month on Pinterest.
  • I have about 250 monthly users on my blog.  Tuesdays are generally my best day (Top Ten Tuesdays).
  • I have 9 posts written that haven’t been posted yet.  I have generally been able to keep up with my scheduled posts (I have a calendar that tells me what posts I want to publish when) even though I now have to work again.

Writing

  • I won Camp NaNoWriMo this month with a challenge that I got on Facebook.  I was challenged to write a Gen Fusion fic… or a fanfict without a love relationship that combined two different fandoms.  I wrote My New Best Friend with those parameters, and I think it turned out well.
  • I realized that we only have three more months before NaNoWriMo this year, and I have four works in progress.  Not going to be able to finish them all.  So… I have decided to put Gamers on hiatus until 2019.  I’m not sure where I’m going with that anyway; I just have the characters and an inkling of what’s going to happen, but I don’t know for sure.  The other fics are all at least 2/3 complete, and I know how I want to end them all.  So I’m going to try to finish the first drafts at least.

Life

This month I had to go back to work after taking a leave of absence for a month.  Life has been pretty busy as a result, but I still was able to get a lot done.

We have decided to let my daughter go to public school this year… ugh.  She’s been homeschooled since she was 3 1/2.  I don’t know if she’ll like it, having to get up early every day like that, doing her homework, etc.  We told her that she can’t fake being sick and she has to do her homework, but this is what she wants… so… she’ll have to live with it.  We’re trying to get her either into an art-focused charter school or a school in another district, because her default school is evidently not that good.

In August, I start teaching Spanish and German again.  It will be my third year teaching these classes.  I still get nervous teaching them, even though I’ve done this twice.

So that’s all for this month.  Hopefully I’ll be able to report that I FINALLY finished writing Like Normal People in August!