Bookish (and Other Stuff) Updates AKA Monthly Update!

So, it is a weird time to do “monthly” updates and I may just be failing at updates but life has been crazy!

Today’s combines April and May (AND JUNE’S) updates on bookishness, writing, and my life. 😉

April

I read thirty-three books with nine books (besides the Bible. 😉 ) that were 5 star worthy! (Which, btw, I need suggestions on how to figure out a rating system since I kinda don’t have one… Ideas?!)

I wrote 23,197 words in my WIP Oh, The Lamented. I went over Oh, The Fallen so many times to get the formatting, editing, and other things put together just right.

Also, I fell in love with a show THAT YOU NEED TO WATCH… Okay, I do not jump on bandwagons unless I’ve looked into whatever it is, be it a book, movie, show, anything bigger than an amusement, EVERYTHING. I tend not to get on bandwagons but my family watched the Chosen and I was hooked.

What’s not to love?! I am in love with how the actors play everyone on the show and make it so … REAL! It is just so beautiful.

May

I read forty-nine books…

Some of my favorite books in May were binge reads along with these…

I wrote, ummm, some? I don’t know how much since I had some days tracked in my notebook which is at home and I’m not so, yeah, no clue how much I wrote! My last count of how much I wrote was over 10,190 words by hand, on laptop, and in rewrites on Oh, The Lamented.

I PUBLISHED OH, THE FALLEN, but you likely already know that. 😉

I am being interviewed on The Diamond Mine of Christian Fiction on the May 26th followed by 1531 Entertainment sharing about Oh, The Fallen on May 27th, check them out here, if you haven’t already!

June

June… Okay, well, in May my laptop broke the week before release day of my novella. In June (or maybe May since brain fog is horrible and everything has been crazy lately so I don’t remember everything.) my family had to leave our house due to possible mold and that we were all sick, my sister and I even ended up needing to call an ambulance for both of us. We turned out “fine” and my sister was “having a panic attack because she was worried about me” or so the EMTs said. Well, now? We spent over two weeks at the home of a church family. We’ve been staying with my uncle and his family, and are waiting for the mold test. (I’m writing this update before I’m posting it just so I do remember to post it.) We had even tried going to the beach to help me get grounded, get the fresh air… But that triggered one of the worst reactions since there were too many things that bothered me and we came to my uncle’s so it was sad to find out how bad the beach was when we were hoping it would help me heal.

I am/was getting triggered by something about every day, I can’t drive as it makes me sick for 3-5 days and am not able to eat, and I react horribly when driving, but I did have to drive to get blood work done anyway since I thankfully found a doctor who is willing to listen and has knowledge of mold sickness, chronic illnesses, and other things that could be making me sick. Waiting is feeling like it is taking forever but it is progress. Having daily attacks however makes it somewhat hard to see hope but I am slowly making progress! And, it is a lot of fun getting to spend so much time with our cousins, aunt, and uncle, plus their dog is super sweet, and he’s been cuddling when I am sick, and watching movies at night with our cousins is fun.

As I’m writing this we’re still waiting on my test and the house test so I don’t know if our family is going to lose everything from our house or not but we’re not sure if it will be everything or not. It has been interesting not going home for over a month, yeah, we’re supposed to be moving but we still haven’t found a house yet so we’re praying, searching, and mostly waiting…

So the biggest blessings in this all are:

1. Our church was so good to us and helped us out so much
2. My uncle and his family are still as amazing as always
3. Writing is still a joy
4. God is so good and I’ve had ups and downs but I’ve been more at peace than I have in YEARS even with everything going on
5. The support I’ve gotten from my online friends has been incredible and the writers I regularly talk with are so sweet and precious
6. My mom is so wonderful even when I am triggered and have melt downs that come for no known reason
7. Sibling and doggie cuddles are the best
8. God is still here even when it’s hard
9. Kids movies are the silliest and best part of some days… so yeah, I may watch the carton Tarzan, or 101 Dalmatians, or some kids movie that just takes the harshness of a day away for a bit
10. The Chosen is nearly as good as going to church since I can’t leave right now
11. Enola Holmes was a super fun movie
12. Cover designing is even more fun when it is done for fun and not for work
13. Music makes everything better!
14. Watermelon is the best fruit in the world! (When you can barely eat 20 different things it is awesome to find one favorite you can eat!)
15. The Falcon and The Winter Soldier isn’t my normal kinda thing but it was a fun thing to spend a day binge watching with my bro
16. In The End by Natalie Grant is still one of the best songs in the world
17. A pool party at church was sooooo wonderful and it felt so good to get in a pool for the first time this year

Anyway, May and June were chaotic and yet I was still able to read and write some! Bad days are hard but I have been able to write, edit some, and format for Oh, The Lamented!

I read 32 books as of when I’m writing this blog post, I’m not sure if I will update this or do the rest of my updates for June next month.

My five favorites of the books are below but I was saddened to find out that the Scottish Crown series wasn’t as good as I expected. I still enjoyed it but there were things I warned of as to content.

I’ve written over 5,000 words this month even though I haven’t be able to figure out WHAT I’m doing and I restarted an old WIP and I designed the covers as mentioned above… These are the covers. What do you think?

This is the series I hope to publish after the Oh, The Brave stories are all published. It follows one family over 20 years and I love the characters and am really hoping I can finish the stories this time!

I started a play list with lots of awesome songs that were shared with me. And, the play list has kinda become the playlist for my WIP series, Ally’s Hope.

Books I AM Looking FORWARD TO READING!

Some of the top books on my summer to be read pile are so pretty and I’m wondering if you’ve read them yet or what is on your summer reading list?

And, last but not least… I have a fun profile picture for my social media! I won a giveaway of a digital drawing and it brightened my day so much to see how well it turned out!

Okay, so, thank you for reading ALL of that to the end (if you did!) and I hope to “see” you next week!

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