Five years ago I (mostly) stopped posting on my original book blog, I Write, I Read, I Review. I have early onset osteoarthritis and keeping up with the schedule I had been doing there was not working for me. Yet as a soon-to-be self published author, I know it's important to have an active web presence so that I can connect with my future fans.
So now that I have my author website, I'm going to try to do some blogging on here. But I'm going to set some ground rules for myself which will hopefully keep me happy, healthy, and able to avoid another massive round of burn out:
1) I will only review books I actually want to read.
Does this mean I'm only going to be posting five star reviews? Of course not. But it does mean that I'm not aiming to get back into reviewing to the point where I'm aiming to get ARCs from big publishing houses so that I can be the first to get the 'scoop' or give my opinion. I will, on the other hand, try to make sure I spotlight lots of fellow indie authors since this community works best when we strive to raise each other up.
2) I will not force myself to finish books I'm not enjoying.
Life's too short to keep reading a book if I am not having fun. I will likely do a quarterly blog post called The DNF Files (Did Not Finish) to give my brief thoughts on what I was reading along with how far I got.
3) Book reviews will not be my only major content.
I probably seem like I'm really going after books in this post and that's no accident: I really am. I burnt out on book blogging hard in 2014 and it has taken a lot of time, effort, and patience to get to a point where reading is something I do out of joy, rather than because I need to review a book. Reading, for a writer, is crucial. Essentially, it's no reading = no writing.
But the big thing I have to remember is that just because I'm reading something, that does not mean I am obligated to review it. I don't want to return to a point where I'm looking at the percent read marker on my Kindle and worrying that I'm not reading fast enough, rather than just enjoying the book.
NaNoWriMo is Just Around The Corner...
It's the start of June! That means I've got 30 days to get ready for July's Camp National Novel Writing Month (Camp NaNoWriMo). For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is a writing event where novelists around the world strive to write 50,000 words toward a fresh story during the month of November. Camp NaNoWriMo, on the other hand, is a more relaxed environment where you can pick your own word count. I'm hoping for 40k / completed rough draft on the novella I'm planning to work on.
My project for July's Camp NaNo is SEALER'S KEY, the third book in my Sealer Saga. It's the story of Zakariah, the Lord of Judgement, and Amy, a gifted healer from a temple of Earth. When the Earth Lord, Duncan, decides to start attacking Ruby's wind temples and the cities that surround them, Amy fleas to warn the citizens of those nations that they are in peril. But when disaster strikes and she is knocked unconscious during an earthquake, her spirit journeys to the Underworld where Zakariah mistakes her for one of the priestesses responsible for the destruction raining down on the various cities of Zynedia. Will he realize his mistake, or will Amy lose herself to the perils of Tartarus before things can be set right?
Can you tell I'm still working on a blurb? I sure as hell can. :D Wow, that needs work. *laughs*
So, here is June's to-do list:
1. Finish the final chapter and epilogue of SEALER'S QUEEN. Seriously, enough with the damn procrastinating. Someone tie my ass to this chair and withhold pizza until the last 7k or so is finished. I can edit it later! Rough draft, you don't need to be perfect, but you do need to get written so I can edit SEALER'S GAME.
2. Finish creating my outline and character profiles for SEALER'S KEY. This is going far better than doing the ending for SQ. Probably because outlining and editing are my favorite parts, and rough drafts are like rolling a pair of dice and seeing whether I get a 1, a 6, or something in the middle.
3. Release four new videos in my Writing On Wednesday series. I have one done. I need to plan and record three more. There is no reason I can't do this.
4. Read four new books. I'm counting WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI by Sandhya Menon as one since I'm part through it and enjoying it.
5. Make any minor needed changes to SEALER'S GAME before I prepare to put it through line edits. Now that SEALER'S QUEEN is almost done I'll be able to make sure everything between the two books lines up properly since they are connected.
And... that's it for any major projects. I do want to keep up with my social media and I will be doing a bunch of E3 related things with The Angry Toads, but SM doesn't really stress me out, and E3 is something I've been following and actively engaging with since 2007, so that was already a given.
Do you guys have anything you're working on or excited for this June? Feel free to share in the comments below. I'm always happy to have a discussion with people who visit my site. :)
Kat