Scribes & Archers

Writing

I have two more chapters to go with this round of Calligraphy Guild edits, which I’m hoping to get done today so I can switch my whole focus to The Half-Elves in October and November. For some reason, while working more emotion and description into others’ books is a strong suit of mine, it’s an area in which I’m quite weak when it comes to my own work, which has been frustrating through this part of the process. :P But I’m hoping to strengthen that skill as I go through further rounds of editing, and hopefully that will not only benefit this project, but also those that come along down the line. :)

A lot of my focus this month, though, has been on non-fiction. I wrote out my entire Christian fiction series and planned something cool to close that out, and I’ve also been working on getting things together for a series I’ll be doing early next year. Plus, preparing for Preptober Prompts! I’ve had a lot of fun with all of these projects, and I’m super excited to see them come to completion. :)

Reading

• Women of Kern: Book Two by Maris McKay
• None of the Above by Joseph Farah
• The Youth Builder by Jim Burns
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

All of this months reads were 4-5 stars, so I’d say this month’s reading went pretty well.

Women of Kern was more evidently adult fiction than its predecessor, unfortunately, but the worldbuilding and characters were as rich and engaging as in Book One, so with some skimming I was still able to enjoy it.

None of the Above is a political book written around the time of the 2008 election that discusses why neither candidate is worth voting for and why voting third party is worthwhile. While many of the specifics are obviously outdated, the principles still stand and I’d definitely recommend this book.

Children of Blood and Bone wasn’t really my thing, between a magic system I just didn’t click with and a romance thread that irked me, but the craft was fantastic and it was definitely a “me, not you” situation.

It’s so sad finishing The Lord of the Rings. I love this conclusion to the trilogy (who knew the Scouring of the Shire could be so relevant?) and I’m hoping not to leave so much time between rereads moving forward. There’s so much to love about RotK, but I’ll spare the fangirl ramble. XD

Other

I got my driver’s license! :D I’m super, super excited and I’ve already been out more in the past week than I’d probably been for the whole month prior. XD So this has been a huge blessing and my mental health has been quite thankful. XD

I also started my self-led classes, although I didn’t gain any real consistency until this past week or so. I’m hoping that consistency carries through and I’m able to get more done in the coming months. :)

Plans for next month

Preptober Prompts! That’s the big thing next month. Or… one big thing. But the other one I can’t talk about yet. Anywho, Preptober Prompts is going to be awesome, and I have a good feeling about its consistency this year. (I know I haven’t been the best at keeping up in years prior… it’s something I’m working on ;P) So I’m super excited!

I’ll also be posting the second half of my Christian fiction series, which I’m even more excited about. I’m super passionate about this topic, and I love hearing y’all’s thoughts, and I pray that God works through these posts to encourage other Christian authors and prompt some thought. :)

And I plan on driving more. ;)

I don’t have any solid TBR for October, since I’ve been mood reading a lot more lately, but I’ve started A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan (which is awesome so far) and I might give in to the spooky aesthetic (thanks, Jill) and read The Quick by Lauren Owen this month. Beyond that (and books on history), I guess we’ll find out when we get there!

How about you? How was your September? What are you looking forward to in October? Will you be plotting a writing project for November? Do you have any books you’re dying to read?