Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club (2 days late) :: DEC

I am definitely in holiday mode - I forgot to post on Friday for the book club. :)

I've read four books this month and that will probably be as many as I do read. Interestingly enough, these four books are all from writers I only know about through membership of this blogging community.

It's hard to pick a favourite, but I think I am going to have to go with ...

The Summer I Found You - Jolene Perry

I really loved this book, even if sometimes Kate was a teeny bit annoying. She had good reason to be a bit whiny. And I love how she acted around Aidan, always bluntly drawing attention to his lack of an arm and so on.

It was refreshing to read about two characters dealing with physical imperfections that you don't often find in fiction, particularly in romantic fiction. A girl with diabetes and a guy with one arm. Not your everyday 'fluffy romance' read. :)

I can't wait to read my next Jolene Perry book.

Reading goal = Writer Blogger novels

One of my goals for a while now has been to read as many of my blogger writer friends' books as I can. Sometimes these authors are people I don't really know but am still only aware of because of the writer blogger community I'm a part of. But often they're people I do consider to be friends.

I did make quite a bit of progress this year, with reading the following books:

• Breakthrough - Stephen Tremp
• That Fatal Kiss - Mina Lobo
• Healing Summer - Elizabeth Seckman
• Reborn - Cherie Reich
• CassaStar - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• CassaFire - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• CassaStorm - Alex J. Cavanaugh
• Motocross Me - Cheyanne Young
• Three Daves - Nicki Elson
• The Trouble With Flying - Rachel Morgan
• The Shadows Trilogy - Jolene Perry
• Not Your Fault - Cheyanne Young
• Nobody Knows - Kyra Lennon
• Dragonfly - Leigh Talbot Moore
• Strength - Carrie Butler

And I'm currently reading:

• The Summer I Found You - Jolene Perry

Obviously I still have heaps of books yet to read, that you guys have written. But I'm quite happy with the progress I made this year.

A goal in the new year is to use some of my "leftover at the end of pay period" dollars & cents to buy copies of your books that I haven't bought yet. But that will probably be a slow, gradual process. For now, I've got plenty of your books still on my Kindle not yet read. And I also have at least one or two print copies on my bookshelves to read, too. Wheeee!

Post-NaNo post! :) and IWSG #11!

First I want to say I need to catch up on visiting your blogs - I've got a bit behind but I'll get on it ASAP.

Second, I won NaNo, though my novel LOST & FOUND is not quite finished. I'm at 51,346 words and estimate I won't get beyond 55k, and will probably get to less. But whenever I get around to revisions, I can well imagine adding a good few extra words to this count, with the required fleshing-out.

I'm pretty happy with the story, even if the writing leaves a fair bit to be desired. I'm both glad and sad that it's over. I need to get back to my revision work, but that's hardly an appealing notion. ;)

Anyway ... the end of the year is nigh. How are you guys feeling about the year gone by?

I'm feeling all right this month, I guess, but as we near the end of another year, my Goals page looks quite intimidating. I'm relieved it's just a general goals page, and not a page for goals I wanted to achieve this year alone.

I can say I didn't achieve most of what's on there, but I still got some stuff done.

Could be worse. ;)

Of course, the year isn't quite over yet. Perhaps miracles will occur before we hit 2015.

Cephalopod Book Club & Goals :: NOV

Geeez, the days are flying by! It's almost December. Yikes!

I know you guys are celebrating Thanksgiving over there in the U.S., so maybe not as many people will be participating in these blog hops this month. But I'm posting anyway just 'cause it's a compulsion I generally don't ignore. ;)

So here we go ... !

I'd known for years that I should read this book, but only just got around to it this year. The first section was about Stephen King's life growing up, and his early development as a writer. A great read. When I got to the "on writing" section, I read a lot of things that I felt I already knew. Much of it seemed to be stuff I was already doing with my own writing. But later I got to sections that surprised me.

First off, I was shocked to learn Stephen King is a pantser, usually writing without a plan even if he has some general idea of where he's going. He doesn't necessarily know how his story will end when he starts it - in fact, he usually doesn't. A lot of people talk about the importance of having your plot all dot-pointed out. But Stephen King says this leads to certain doom, in the form of a stiff, boring story.

Obviously that's just his opinion, and many authors who rely heavily on plotting are still able to come up with great, gripping stories. But King's words really impacted with me, because I could relate to them. I distinctly remember becoming bored with my own story when I'd overplotted before starting.

Another section of ON WRITING that fascinated me was about editing. This section made me realise maybe I've been doing it wrong. I generally like to get stuck right into edits, but SK always reads through his entire manuscript before editing. I know I've done this before, and it worked quite well - but I stopped, for some reason. I'm considering starting again.

The book finishes up with a recount of the horrific accident that nearly took SK's life in 1999. And finally, he includes an excerpt of a rough draft, totally unedited, and ends with an edited copy. I found the comparison very useful, as I could see his wordiness needing to be whittled down, and this really reminded me of my own problems - my stories usually start out bloated before I get to trimming.

All in all, a fascinating read, and inspiring as well.

Reading

First off, I reached my annual reading goal:

2014 Reading Challenge

Trisha has completed her goal of reading 40 books in 2014!

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41 of 40 (100%)

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So that's one goal done & dusted for 2014!

Writing

Secondly, I am still working on reaching my NaNo goal, but wouldn't be surprised if I got to 50k tonight. But if I take it super easy, I will get there tomorrow, still a day ahead of November's end.

As mentioned, this has been a very slow NaNo year for me, but it's been necessary to not go at my usual breakneck speed.

Music

I should mention that my bandmate Billy is releasing his debut album, THE FALLING SOUND, under the artist name Rotting Apples (inspired by the song "Rotten Apples" by our favourite band the Smashing Pumpkins).

I sing vocals on most of the songs. I've already got my copies and have been distributing them to friends & family.

In General

It's getting to that time of year when we look back & reflect on what we've achieved since setting our goals. I think I may be disappointed when I get around to doing that, but I'll focus on the good things.

Reporting from Day 16 of NaNo

It's November 16th, so we're over halfway through NaNoWriMo 2014.

I'm currently at 32,833 words, which is a result of me writing the bare minimum some nights, and far less than the bare minimum other nights.

Early on I had some good nights where I wrote well above the bare minimum.

It's all averaged out to me being 6,216 words ahead of schedule, even without having completed today's word count.

I feel that I got over a big slow-going section and from here on in I should be able to speed up a bit, or at least find the writing more free-flowing.

But I guess only time will tell!

I hope you are all having great Novembers. :)

Now I have to go outside with my cat as he's meowing his head off demanding some attention. He likes me to go for walks down the driveway with him.

NaNoWriMo - 9 days in

I got a late start on my NaNoing on Saturday, but eventually I did get stuck into the writing - and only wrote about 3k for the whole day. Yesterday was even worse, with only 1.7k written.

My explanation is that on Saturday I was exhausted and also had a few things to do - like get my car's carpets shampooed after a beer bottle broke on the front passenger floor Friday night. On Sunday I had a visit from a friend who is in my cat rescue group, and we spent about 3 hours chatting. I also cleaned my house on Sunday. So, yeah, "stuff" got in the way. Still, I got the bare minimum done on Sunday, and more than that done on Saturday. It's all good!

So I'm sitting at 21,761 words after 9 days of writing. Some years I would be over 50k by now. Every year I participate in NaNoWriMo, things go differently for me. One year I'm pretty sure I was at 50k after 6 or 7 days. In 2011, I hit 50k by day 15, and then switched to my second novel of the month. Other times, I've taken until much later in November to hit that winning mark. It's interesting to look at the variation in stats. :)

November is a pretty quiet time of year for Australians, as compared with Americans with their Thanksgiving and so on. But I guess we still have those pesky lives to live, so that is bound to get in the way. :P

How are your Novembers going?

Cephalopod & Goals - OCTOBER!

Once again it's time for those "end of month" blog hops I like to participate in. I already posted for Write ... Edit ... Publish, and if you want to check that out, click HERE. But I also need to post for the Cephalopod Coffeehouse Book Club, and the monthly Do You Have Goals? hop.

So here goes.

This month I read more than one great book, and while I was tempted to choose If I Stay as my "book of the month", I opted for this one instead:

I can finally say, "I've read this book!" ... and it's about time! I first read an Isobelle Carmody book after my mum bought me book #1 of the Legendsong back in the late '90s. I LOVED it, and I know I'm not here to talk about Legendsong, but the point I'm making is that Legendsong #1 came out in 1998 or so, and yet it's taken until October 2014 for me to finally pick up my first Obernewtyn book. 

Now that we've got that intro out of the way, I will say that the writing in Obernewtyn #1 did strike me as quite 'young', likely because Carmody was in high school when she wrote the book. I'm interested in finding out how her writing did or did not change across later books, as she grew into an adult. I already know they got increasingly fatter, because while book #1 is very slender, some of the later books are literal tomes.

Despite the 'young'ness of this first episode, I greatly enjoyed it. It's an intriguing world I've entered into, a post-apocalyptic world in which magic is feared, and those in charge try their very best to stamp it out. Those figures of authority are fighting a losing battle, though, because more and more people are being born as "mutant" magic users, rather than the population of freaks getting less as they'd hoped would happen. And some of those 'freaks' are getting sick of living under the oppression their kind has endured for centuries. 

I look forward to learning more about the world of Obernewtyn as I read on with this series.

Last month I shared a picture of my beautiful temp foster kitty George, who is still with me. He's still pretty naughty, and very exasperating, but he's just as cute as he was a month ago. So he's lucky about that. ;) Still, he's one of the reasons I'm still a slacker.

So, yeah, goals? Ummm, I've done a tiny bit of revision work since last month, but nothing much to write home about. And guess what? Tomorrow, NaNoWriMo starts!

In sort of related news that isn't really related, I've almost finished reading Stephen King's On Writing, which has made me realise that there's no need to entirely abandon my pantser ways. ;) Being a pantser is no crime, my friends. If it's good enough for Stephen King, it's good enough for me. Ha!

Seriously though, I suck at editing this year.

Better luck next year, perhaps!

(I think On Writing gave me some thoughts there as well about how better to approach my editing tasks in future. But I'll talk about that some other day)

For now, I'm going to sign off on this note:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN! :)

NaNoWriMo 2014 ... I'm in! Are you?

It's that time of year again when lots of us are gearing up for November, and NaNoWriMo. This year I'm writing yet again about rock stars, only not the same lot I've written 5 novels about in the past. This year's novel is tentatively titled "LOST & FOUND", and here is my little rough draft blurb as it stands:

Ginna and Benedict grew up together, best friends and confidants. As they enter high school, Ben finds his calling - writing & playing music - and forms his first band. Ginna, an opinionated music connoisseur, is his strongest supporter, but he rehearses in secret with his band, refusing to let her in. At their debut gig, Ben's band isn't very good, but Ginna is convinced this is the start of something huge, at least for Ben.

She's right. Ben is destined for stardom. And as his career takes off, he leaves Ginna far behind. Soon he is caught up in living the high life, travelling the world & hanging out with other famous people. But when disaster strikes his personal life, he realises he's made a series of huge mistakes. And it may be too late for him to go back & fix what he's broken.

As usual, I have that excited feeling in the lead-up to November. But I'm still trying hard to get as much editing of SQUEAKY done before November 1st begins. I'm currently on one of those pesky chapters that needed more actual story added to it, rather than to just be edited.

But back on point... Are you participating in NaNo this November?

P.S. I have now listed all my previous NaNo novels in there as well.

Hello, 600th post

I started this blog in December, 2010 after hearing, as many of us do before starting out blogging, that aspiring authors should probably have some sort of online "platform". I think the general idea is to establish your online presence and 'brand'. I definitely started out with the 'online presence' thing in mind, but I never had a particular brand in mind, and I still don't.

Now in October, 2014, I'm still putting up posts about whatever I feel like on a particular day. I do participate in blogfests, book launches, tours, etc., so when it comes to those, my posts are a little bit - or a lot - pre-determined. But the only rule I really try to stick to with blogging in general is to post at least once a week. Previously I aimed for every 3 days, but I find having a general goal of one post per week works better.

It's a little way off my 4-year blogiversary, but 600 posts is a fun milestone to celebrate anyway! I'm so glad to be part of this community. You guys are awesome and I love reading your blogs & seeing what you have to say. And I really enjoy reading your books, too. ;) Particularly when I get awesome print copies of them. GO PRINT BOOKS, GO!

P.S. I'm not far off achieving my (admittedly quite modest) annual reading goal:

2014 Reading Challenge

Trisha has read 37 books toward her goal of 40 books.

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37 of 40 (92%)

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P.P.S. I am starting to think about what I want to write for NaNo, 2014. I have two ideas that are way ahead of all the rest. Haven't picked one yet, though.

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Sep.]

Wow, it's that time again! What have I even read during September? I'll have to go and check my GoodReads list...

*runs off to check GR*

Oohhhkay, here I am, back again, and I've read (or at least finished) 3 books this month. The one I'm going to feature is Anita Shreve's Testimony.


I thought this was a really good book, but it left me feeling pretty sad.

Very near the start, we find out that because of the scandal that occurs in the book, somebody dies. So for most of the book I was trying to figure out who it was. Reading the story, there were a few characters, and 2 in particular, that I got a sick feeling about, wondering if it would be them.

I was intrigued by the fact that Shreve got away with writing in so many different POVs, even 2nd person. Obviously most of the story wasn't in 2nd person, but still, it was interesting.

Shreve is a great writer, I already knew that. But after reading this book, I immediately wanted to read some mushy love story with a happy ending, to get past this one. I'm sure you have all read a book like that - one that was very good, but that you sort of wanted to forget with some follow-up fluff. ;)

I'm not even going to go back to last month & check where I was at then. Because, for the most part, it's where I still am this month. I have actually done some minimal revision work, but you'd laugh if I told you what I actually did, as it was very small. Then again, some famous guy mentioned in Stephen King's On Writing (yes, I'm fiiiinally reading this) apparently had a "good day" if he managed to write 7 words. So I know I did better than that. ;)

But yeah ... On Writing. It's making me feel so very ashamed of how LITTLE I am doing. The good thing is that it's also making me desperately hungry to GET BACK TO IT! I really want to be working on my novels right now. But I'm not.

Here's my latest excuse.

I am currently utterly consumed (not literally! phew!) by foster cats. At one stage I actually had 7 cats in my 1-bedroom villa. Thankfully that number went down to 6 the day after it hit 7. Then I got the 6th kitty new foster care, so now I'm at 5. One of those 5 is another temp foster who hasn't yet found new care. Then I have my own 2 foster kittens, and my own 2 adult cats. And I will be temp caring for a 6th cat until early October, as her carer is going away. So yeah, my life is basically foster kitteh-dominated right now.

My current temp foster, George, or as I call
him, "Jorje" (said with Spanish accent)

Particularly because I spent much of the last 2 days helping to organise saving 10 cats from euthanasia (one of whom was pregnant, so really it was more than 10 cats!). And now I am drinking a lot of champagne.

That's all I have to say for this month. ;)

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? [Aug.]

This month for Cephalopod, I've chosen a book that I've wanted to read for a long time now, but because I bought book #2 long before I bought book #1, it was an experience long delayed. I've read it now, and it's definitely book of the month for me. It's Confessions of an Angry Girl by Louise Rozett. My full Goodreads review is here, but I will try to summarise for the purposes of this blog hop below.

I seem to be going against the trend in giving this book 5 out of 5 stars. But I did stay up late a few nights to get it read, and on the last night I just HAD to finish it, or I would have been awake all night. For me, that's the mark of a 5-star read.

I've read some reviews on GR by people who hated Rose and wanted to punch her (the way she wants to punch many of the people she encounters in her life ;)).  But I didn't hate Rose, even if sometimes she was very far from perfect. She's one of those flawed characters, and I don't mean in the stereotypical "deep, dark, mysterious & damaged" way. I mean that she can be annoying, immature, and even outright mean, but she also comes to regret it. She's also not always physically perfect, like when she has a "zit crop" throbbing on her face. ;)

Even though I'm 34 and Rose is 14, going on 15, I could relate to her character in many ways. In high school, you could definitely say I was very "straight" and maybe a bit of a stick in the mud sometimes. I found it very hard to apologise when I had done something wrong, because it upset me so much to know I had hurt someone else. I also happened to have a friend just like Rose's bff Tracy. It was odd for me to read about the thoughtless things Tracy did, because THOSE THINGS HAPPENED TO ME! Right down to how Tracy makes Rose take one of her handbags out because her own bag is way too lame.

Anyway, those are some reasons why I loved this book. Another is that it has a totally hot dude in it. Which always helps me give a book at least one extra star. ;)

Last time I posted for this hop, I was finishing up a very productive July, but only musically productive. Since August began, I've been trying to get back into revision for SQUEAKY. And while I am experiencing another of those seriously pesky chapters that needs to be edited about a million times before I'm happy with it, I am getting those edits done.

Right now I am at the point where I want to edit the current chapter on the screen, and then print it out for one last proofing. The screen edit is key, because if I just print it out without doing that, I am pretty sure I'll end up with a printed chapter scribbled nearly to death once again. So that is my plan for this weekend - get the screen edit done, print it out, and hopefully after one last read-through, shove this chapter in the DONE file.

I already have the next chapter printed out (admittedly I've had it printed out for a long while now, gathering dust), so I want to get this one done so I can finally get to that.

P.S. On the topic of music, I created a bandcamp page for

my band Woody's A Girl, and you can check it out HERE.

The usual 4 songs (singles we released) are downloadable

for free, as the minimum cost is $0.00. They are

"Yes, New Loving", "Fall on Death", "Adventures" and "Song".

I paid off my student loans!

I'm going to post about my creative goals later this month, for the Do You Have Goals? monthly hop. So I won't go into too much detail today. I will say that while I haven't done nothing in terms of editing this month, I do hope to achieve a bit more before August 29th.

Today, though, I want to talk about another goal I've achieved this month ... a goal that I've been striving for since around about October 2007!

I fiiiiinally paid off my student loans!

In Australia, you can study for "free", but of course you do have to pay for it eventually. You get a discount if you can pay up front, but those who can't possibly afford that will have to pay the full amount, plus indexation each year.

You only have to start paying your loans back after you earn a certain amount of money per annum. In October 2007, I got a promotion at work, and this bumped me into the next tax bracket. A student loan-paying bracket!

I was more than happy to get started on paying off my loans - and I wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. I probably could have done it quicker, if not for various travels and other things I spent money on (like chocolate and wine!). But as it is, I'm quite proud of this achievement.

So now I am student loan free, and I look forward to moving onto achieving my next "life" goal!

IWSG #7 - To quit or not to quit

It's the first Wednesday of the month, and so it's time to post for the IWSG again. I didn't forget this time, see?!

Now that July is over, and I've finished all my vocal work for the album, it's time to get back to my other creative stuff. Namely, the editing I dumped prior to July in order to work on music. But you may notice that it's already August 6th. Since August began, I haven't yet picked the editing work back up.

Well, that's not quite true - I did literally pick up the chapter I was previously editing. It's in paper format, and has my scribbles all over it. It was on my coffee table for the entire month of July, gathering dust. I'm pretty sure the foster kittens trampled on it a bit, but thankfully nothing too damaging happened to it.

So anyway, I did pick it up off the coffee table, and I carried it over to my "workstation" (in case you missed it back in June, I was featured on Nutschell's blog for Wednesday Writer's Workspace). This is progress, in my opinion. But in the last few days I have to admit I've considered giving up on this particular edit job. So many times, it has just felt like such a struggle.

I'm not going to give up on it, though. I just can't bring myself to cave. ;) I won't be doing any work on this tonight, as I have to go out. I probably won't do any tomorrow night either, as I will be home from work late. But I definitely hope this week to get back into the swing of things.

Happy August, everyone! :)

Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? - a day late

I did miss this post yesterday, but for once I have a fair excuse, or I think I do. Yesterday was my birthday!! So I was busy doing other things, like going to work for the whole day, and then going out to dinner and drinking a lot of champagne. Anyway, it's Saturday now and I am here to post ... at last!

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse

I read multiple books that I enjoyed during July (so far), but the one book I want to talk about is Rachel Morgan's The Trouble With Flying. The review will possibly sound vague, to avoid spoilers. ;)

The characters in this book were great - I loved seeing Sarah's transformation from a bit of a doormat to a strong-minded individual determined to follow her own path. It was a slow journey for the reader, becoming privy to the reality of Sarah's relationship with her partner. But I think this slow revelation echoed Sarah's own slow awakening - because as we all know, sometimes in relationships it takes a long time to realise something that, after you've realised it, seems obvious.

I was glad when Sarah finally stood up for herself and asserted her own will. It had been a long time coming. I was very proud of her in that moment, for not backing down. I think any book that makes the reader go, "Yeah! You go girl!" has a lot going for it.

Since I have never visited South Africa, or any part of Africa before, I really enjoyed the descriptions of the landscape. It definitely made me want to visit the place and see it for myself. But the main thing that makes me hesitate is the weather ;) I really, really hate hot weather. But if, as the story suggests, South Africans usually get a magnificent storm after each revoltingly hot moment, I guess I could tolerate the gross hot moments ... for a while anyway.

All in all, I really enjoyed this read, and look forward to reading more of Rachel's work in future.

Do I Have Goals? Yes, I do!

July has probably been my best month this year for achieving goals. Sadly, the goals I achieved weren't anything to do with my writing, but they were still goals related to creative stuff. So I count that as a major win!

I guess I can thank my bandmate Billy for spurring me on this month, since I actually did have a deadline not set by me - heeyyy, maybe I do work well under someone else's pressure after all? Not that he actually pressured me - not at all. But knowing he was counting on me, after we both agreed to an end-of-July deadline, certainly did get me moving faster than I have all year.

Following on from my last goal update, I can say that I have now sent copies of all the songs that were due to Billy, and now I'm waiting on his word that the last song is good to go. Then I can send him the raw files. But obviously if it's not ready to go, I will do whatever vocal adjustments are necessary, and then send the new version to him in .mp3 format for assessment.

But July is nearly at an end, so now the pressure's on Billy to let me know what I need to do, if anything. ;)

P.S. I turned 34. ;)

How I'm tracking in July

I figured it's time for a goal update! Last time I updated, I was approximately halfway through July's goals, or possibly less than halfway. Now here is where I'm at:

So far in July, I've:

• reviewed three songs with previously completed vox and sent them to Billy in raw format for him to mix for the album - one of them I added some harmonies to;
• recorded vocals for one of the new songs, titled "The Shade of My Day", and sent an .mp3 version to Billy for approval or ... disapproval ;) - update - Billy approved it and I sent the raw files through;
• got halfway through recording rough vocals for an 8-minute track, then later finished it off and sent it in .mp3 format to Billy for dis/approval - update - after recording some additional vocal harmonies at Billy's request, I then sent the file back ... and it's now approved! :).

So now all I have left to do in July is:

• send the raw files for "Your Love Won't Change" to Billy ;
• go back to the song I've been avoiding for months now, which I have to record new vocals (to new lyrics and, I believe, an entirely new melody) for, and ... do it!!

There are in fact two options for melodies for that last song, so I have to figure out which one I should go with. I hope to get some of this done today, but I had a family event on earlier, and later on a friend is visiting. So, we'll see how I go ...

How are your Julys coming along?

July's goals ~ an update

So far in July, I've:

• reviewed three songs with previously completed vox and sent them to Billy in raw format for him to mix for the album - one of them I added some harmonies to ;
• recorded vocals for one of the new songs, titled "The Shade of My Day", and sent an .mp3 version to Billy for approval or ... disapproval ;) ;
• got halfway through recording rough vocals for an 8-minute track.

For the rest of July, I need to:

• finish off the 8-minute track and send in .mp3 format to Billy for dis/approval ;
• go back to the song I've been avoiding for months now, which I have to record new vocals (to new lyrics and, I believe, an entirely new melody) for, and ... do it!!

I hope you are having a great July so far.

Happy belated 4th of July to all my American friends out there! :)

Oh, oh, oh - a P.S. is in order.

This Friday is the Songs of Summer blog hop:

You can sign up here!

IWSG #6 - I am so forgetful!

I've ever so slightly lost the plot lately, when it comes to posting for things I've committed to posting for.

The Insecure Writer's Support Group is just one commitment I've been shaky with sticking to. The last time I posted for it was Wednesday, 2 April, 2014. Other times I've forgotten to post until the day after (like I am right now).

It's not just IWSG, though. I've missed a few Write ... Edit ... Publish posts here and there, and it's usually been a mad scramble to get a post up for Big Goals and Cephalopod on the last Friday of each month.

In other news, I am going at a snail's pace with editing, and I have taken months and months to try to get just one song's vocals finished for my bandmate.

This is a far cry from where I was at in 2011, achieving a ridiculous amount with my creative goals while working full time (which I still am).

It's enough to give a girl an insecurity complex!! ;)

Sorry I'm posting late, dudes. But I figure it's still July 2nd somewhere in the world.

BuNoWriMo report card ...

June is over, and so is BuNoWriMo. This year I was a BuNoRebel (hence the image above), and edited instead of writing fresh new words never written before.

I didn't do the best during June - but I did something, at least. I started out the month still working on the very pesky Chapter 13 from SQUEAKY. I ended the month still stalled on an equally pesky Chapter 16. That's progress, sure, but it's the usual hard slog.

This month I am going to be concentrating on music as my number one priority. I sort of have a deadline of July's end to get a bunch of vocals done for my bandmate Billy's debut album (we are in my band together, and I contribute a lot to his band's songs as well).

There is one song that I've been wrestling with for months now, trying to get the vocals right. I really can't wait to get that one done. There are three songs I need to revisit one last time to add any last-minute vocal harmonies if I feel like it. And there are still more songs I haven't even started on yet.

I haven't really had much inspiration this year for any of my creative projects, music included. So everything has been a bit of a struggle. But I am getting things done, still, and that's what matters.

Now I just have to speed things up and get things done ... faster!

Sometimes it helps to have someone else's expectations pushing you along. ;)

The Cephalopod Coffeehouse & Do You Have Goals? ... JUNE

For my Write ... Edit ... Publish ~ ROMANCE post, click HERE.

Cephalopod Ramblings

Some things of note occurred this month, in terms of reading:

1. I finished Alex J. Cavanaugh's CASSA series, and found the third book to be my favourite of the series, even if I thought they were all great.
2. I read my first Sarah Dessen novel, Dreamland. I thought it was very good, but I couldn't relate to the main character at all - just kept yelling at her to GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HIM, DUDETTE.
3. I read my bloggy friend Cheyanne Young's Motocross Me, and really enjoyed it. I liked that main character Hana was far from perfect. This book reminded me of the movie Rush, just a little bit.
4. And finally, I read Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, which is my pick of the month:

This book left me feeling rather depressed. As soon as I'd finished it, I put it aside and said, "Ohhh that's saaaad!" and gave my kitty a big hug for comfort.

This is a great book, though the story is terribly tragic. I feel like a bit of a psycho saying this, but learning the truth about what happened in the last moments of the massacre made me just a tiny bit ... happy. But I certainly didn't finish this book feeling happy in any way. The thing that haunts me most is Peter's story.

This book is so important - it's relevant to the past, but also to the future. America is inevitably going to continue to suffer more of these horrible tragedies, until some very drastic changes occur. I sincerely hope those changes are nigh, but I can't help but doubt that they are.

Goals

Ummm, so yeah, another month has passed, and what have I achieved since last time? Let's recap the last few months for just a second here.

At the end of April I was up to Chapter 13 in my revision project. At the end of May, I was still stuck on Chapter 13.

At least I can say now that I've made it to Chapter 16. But it's been the usual hard slog. And I believe I have edited Chapter 16 already about 5 times. The most recent edit is still confined to paper, because it was rather disheartening to realise I'd have to transcribe edits and print out yet another copy of the chapter to edit ... again!

Anyway, I hope to actually be done with Chapter 16 by the time June is out. But my days for achieving that little goal are numbered!! But at least I can say June was better than May, by along shot!

Hope you guys have had a great June!

At least I'm over halfway!

During times when the editing is chugging along pretty slowly, I like to focus on positives like the fact that I am over halfway through. The chapter I have edited on paper, but not yet in Scrivener, starts on page 99, and there are only 180 pages in the book. So there. I'm over halfway!

Another positive is that I'm saving a lot of time on future edits by doing things "properly" this time around. This is definitely the most intensive edit I ever remember doing, because I'm rolling multiple edit rounds into just one round. So there you go - those are some positives.

I don't really have anything "negative" to say, but I will say things are still going pretty slowly.

Just for something else to talk about this post, I thought I'd mention where I'm at with my reading.

2014 Reading Challenge

Trisha has read 0 books toward her goal of 40 books.

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0 of 40 (0%)

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I'm 5 books ahead of schedule for the year. In future this year I want to continue to read more of my blogger friends' books. I'm thinking already about next year's reading, as well. I might get stuck into a few epic fantasy series, or just series that I need to re-read, so that I can read for the first time more recent books in those series.

But I know it's a bit early to be worrying about 2015's reads. ;)

What are you reading?
... or writing?
...... or editing?