April 2021 Wrap-Up
Writing
I wrote around 27k on The Masked Captain this month (a little over half what I was aiming for), plus several thousand words of a just-for-me project that I worked on when I was bored. I also did a bit of worldbuilding, and I’ve still been working on scheduling posts for this summer. Despite not getting done all that I’d intended to get done, it’s been a decent month. And I’m working on ironing out some of Calligraphy Guild based on sensitivity reader feedback (though so far I’ve gotten no negative feedback on the chronic illness rep! just some feedback on the overall story) so that I can send it to beta-readers tomorrow! I’m super excited to get more feedback and see what readers think of it. ^-^
Alsooooo, I made a Calligraphy Guild character quiz yesterday! Occasionally I do random CG-related things to keep myself from getting too antsy about not being able to share it yet, lol, and this was a super fun project! You can find the quiz on my Calligraphy Guild page, and I’d be curious to hear which character you get. ^-^
Blogging-wise, this month put a wrap on my Enneagram Authors interview series! So if you were following that series and haven’t finished yet, here are the links to types 7-9:
Reading
I only finished three books this month:
- The Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan
- A Time to Speak by Nadine Brandes
- Cloak of Night by Evelyn Skye
The Tropic of Serpents was good, but I didn’t enjoy it quite as much as the first Lady Trent book. I’m not quite sure why, it just didn’t resonate as much.
A Time to Speak was excellent. I love this series so much, and I highly recommend it. The relationships were handled beautifully, the faith elements were realistic, the character struggles were believable, and there were so many great lines! I never underline in my fiction books, but I underlined at least one line in this book and I want to go back and underline a couple more. There were so many lines that made me pause and think or agree or just otherwise appreciate the writing. So good. This is definitely one of my favorite books now.
Cloak of Night was also good, but not spectacular. I took a break after the first book in this duology because I was annoyed with the way a couple of character relationships had turned out and I wanted to cool down. The break was effective. I cooled off so much that I barely remembered the characters and didn’t really care. Which was… not the end result I’d been going for, lol. But I warmed up to the characters again eventually, and I was pleased with how they handled the relationships in the end. The worldbuilding was still one of the main selling points for me, and I found the mythos behind the magic systems to be especially fascinating.
Currently reading
- The Riven Realm by Deck Matthews
- That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
- J.R.R. Tolkien: Myth, Morality, and Religion by Richard L. Purtill
My reading motivation has still been all over the place, and I’m still having the most success with nonfiction. I’m making the most progress, lately, on a couple of books I haven’t listed here about sibling relationships and nouthetic counseling, respectively. I’m disappointed that fiction isn’t keeping my attention as much, but I’m trying not to force myself too often so that reading doesn’t start to feel like a chore.
Life
There’s nothing particularly out-of-the-ordinary to mention in this category for this past month, but in this coming month I’ll be spending a lot more time and energy prepping to leave for camp at the end of May. Making sure I have everything I need, making sure I get blog prep done (for both blogs), wrapping up anything I need to wrap up before I go, etc. I feel underprepared at the moment, but I’m hoping to turn that around… at least most of the way, lol.
Plans for May
- Continuing to prep blog posts
- Getting ready for camp
And that’s about it!
How was your April? Any wins to share? Do you have any big plans for May?
Wow! You got so many words written! Congrats!
Thank you!
Longtime reader, first time commenter :) I really enjoy your posts and Calligraphy Guild sounds great! I got Lai Duyên on the quiz. (And from the face claim, I look a *tad* like her–it’s awesome that the characters have Asian features!)
That’s great you wrote so much this month! This year I’ve made it a point to read more nonfiction. At first I thought it would be hard to make myself do it, but it actually hasn’t. I find I want to read nonfic after speeding through a really good novel. It keeps me out of reading slumps.
Thank you! I enjoyed learning about different Asian cultures and drawing inspiration from them to build the setting of this story. :)
I felt the same way last year! I used to dread reading nonfiction, but ever since reading a bunch last year it’s almost overtaken my fiction reading! The balance of my reading these days is pretty even between fiction and nonfiction, but I often enjoy the nonfiction better. My younger self would be shocked. XD
My May plans involve making the most of my two week spring break by writing as much as possible. I would also like to read some more, because I hardly made any progress on my TBR last month…
Good luck getting reading for camp!
Sounds like fun! What’s tops on your TBR?
Thank you!