It’s “Previously”, an end of month round-up for the end of August. I can’t believe we’re heading into Autumn already, that’s a bit nuts.

This months goals were:

FINISH DIVIDE
Keep on studying plot structure
Write 20k.
Make some art.
Keep on reading lots of books (minimum: 8).

Previously in Writing

Again this month, the goal was to finish DIVIDE, send it out to betas, and move on to my next WIP. But that didn’t end up happening.

It’s been a ridiculously complicated month. Our pet ferret Coffee took a very sudden turn for the worse, and last week was taken up with worrying over her and trying to pull her back from the brink — she was in a bad way for a long time, nearly comatose, and the vets didn’t really think she had a chance. But we all tried anyway, and thanks to hourly feedings and a lot of perseverance (…and a wallet-emptying amount of money) she’s back on her feet.

So, despite the stress of the month, I’m really happy. My wee princess is back, she’s stable and she’s happy. And that means the world to me. (And the vet, who fell utterly in love with her, are delighted too — she was texting her colleagues for updates whenever she couldn’t make it in to see Coffee’s progress.)

Mac’s had his own more minor problems — an allergy to something in the fields giving him itchy ears and itchy face and itchy chin and itchy eyes and itchy elbows. But his biggest problem by far is that he REALLY wants some of Coffee’s fancy recovery cat food, and he’s not getting any. Poor wee lamb, eh?

All in all, this month I got 10k words done. It’s not much, but it’s enough.

Previous in Reading

My quest to get the fearsome TBR pile down to a more reasonable amount continues. Let’s see how we’re looking…

Books Added this Month:
TOTAL: 10

Ms Marvel Vol 5 [Graphic Novel]
Saga Vol 6 [Graphic Novel]
Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, #1) [Audiobook]
A Local Habitation (October Daye, #2) [Audiobook]
This Savage Song [Paperback, Contest Prize]
The Horse Mistress [eBook, found via Twitter recommendation]
Empire of Ivory (Temeraire, #4) [Paperback, for reading challenge]
Dreamwalker by J.D. Oswald (Sir Benfro, #1) [Paperback]
Drake by Peter McLean (The Burned Man, #1) [Paperback]
Unfollowed [Graphic Novel]

Books Finished & Removed:
TOTAL: 9

Black Powder War (Temeraire, #3) [Library]
Ms Marvel Vol 5 [Graphic Novel]
Saga Vol 6 [Graphic Novel]
Rivers of London [Audiobook]
Rosemary and Rue (October Daye, #1) [Audiobook]
This Savage Song [Paperback, Contest Prize]
A Local Habitation (October Daye, #2) [Audiobook]
Unfollowed [Graphic Novel]
106k Manuscript [Beta Read]
1.5k Short Story [Beta Read]

With Rosemary and Rue, I met my 2015 reading challenge of 50 books. But I’m not stopping now!

Next Time In Goals

Play some video games
Watch some movies
Write some stuff

It’s been a rough month. For September, I’m putting my feet up a bit and taking time to chill out.

A Word of Advice

Kameron Hurley had a fantastic article this month about finding yourself as a writer: your internal ego, career path & confidence.

This month, in the middle of all the chaos, I’ve been keeping myself sane with the little things: finding reading time (even if it’s just audiobooks while up all night feeding Coffee), eating healthily, exercising more, keeping the house tidy. The little nice things really do help outweigh the bigger stresses.

And that’s it for me this month, see you very soon with an autumnal update.

Previously… August

Previously in Writing

Previous in Reading

Next Time In Goals

A Word of Advice

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