Good Morning and happy JULY. I’ll spare you the whining about the temperatures here in the desert of Phoenix and the typical shocked statement about how I can’t believe what month it is. If you’re a regular follower of the blog you already know June was supposed to be a busy month … I had a wedding OUT OF STATE and was turning the event into a sort of week long vacation with my family. While on vacation, I managed to sprain my ankle and landed myself in a walking boot for “awhile” until it healed. So, things were a little chaotic in June (to say the least).
So now that June is officially over, I’m hoping to get a little more focus going into July. That starts with taking stock of things and looking forward.
Let’s dive in.
If you’ve been following along with the blog then you already know that for 2023 I’ve left myself a big BLANK page of year long goals. The idea was to add to it as things took my focus and watch the page fill. I’m LOVING this strategy. What was a blank page on January 1 is now looking beautifully full. However, as I look at this one for June I notice that most of the boxes are checked off at this point. That tells me for the second half of 2023 I will need to pick another project and give that some love.
That’s not to say that I didn’t have deadlines or goals for the months. I absolutely did! Those appear at the top of the pages for each individual month as a sort of checklist. In June I had 4 things that needed my focus.
So what did I accomplish?
ARCs of the project previously known as the Hitman project (actual title: How to Schedule a Death) went out as planned on June 9th. This, of course, was due to having things automatically scheduled since I was in New Hampshire when they actually went out.
My amazing editor for How to Schedule a Death was someone I hadn’t worked with before. They turned out to be a bit more efficient than some of the editors I’d previously worked with. Meaning edits were already finalized before June 1st. I did take a gander at them to make sure it was still good to go, but I honestly didn’t do much other than check this box off.
Lastly, I finalized all the beautiful formatting and took one last look at it before the ARCs dropped. Note: If you’re an ARC reader, I’m aware of the weird spacing on the chapter headers. Hopefully it’ll be worked out soon!
The last thing for June on my checklist was to finalize my proofread of How to Schedule a Death. I started that in June, but it’s honestly not done. I went ahead and copied that to my July to-do list already.
I also managed to squeak two idea journal sessions in during the month of June. One of those was considerably longer than the other, but they were both important! Ideas can always lead to more later, so I enjoy writing them down.
155 words written per day (most of which were book reviews) and about 1 chapter edited/proofread every 3 days is the overall progress for June. For a month when I feel like I did absolutely nothing, that’s not awful.
On the reading front, June also felt like it moved a little slower than normal.
I read only 8 more books in June, bringing my 2023 total to 70. May accounted for 2885 pages (breaking down to about 96 pages per day). This is a little below where I’d like to be, but I’m not actually behind on the year long goal so I’ll take it. The oldest book I read this month was published in 1986 and the newest was an advanced reader copy of a title releasing in 2023.
- 4 Middle Grade
- 3 Young Adult
- 1 Adult
Well, that’s weird. Normally I trend toward older books. Maybe this month I was mood reading? I honestly have no explanation.
- 3 Fantasy
- 1 Science Fiction
- 3 Mystery/Thriller
- 1 Contemporary Fiction
- 1 Independently Published (that’s 12%)
YUCK, that’s low! This is what happens when I make a library run and have a month with traditional ARCs, I guess.
- 3 ebooks
- 3 audiobooks
- 2 paperback
- 1 hardcovers
Yes, I’m aware that doesn’t add up to 8 books … one book I happened to have both a hardcover AND the audiobook from the library of (it was for the plane ride).
No books received a 1 or 2-star ratings. 2 3-star (niche but good). 4 4-star (recommended if you read that genre). 2 5-star genre-crossing amazing reads.
So, in conclusion:
- Sent out the ARCs of How to Schedule a Death (and already started seeing reviews)
- Read another 8 books toward the 2023 goal
- Did a little work in the idea journal
- Let that ankle recover and enjoyed a family event!
It’s been another busy month in a row, which means my productivity is down a little, but now it’s time to take stock and see what’s up for the rest of 2023. I’ll try and be back soon with more updates on what I decide!
Leave a Reply