What's Up Wednesday?! In Which Not Much Happens

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk as a way for writers to keep in touch by sharing what they've been up to. Be sure to link up on their site if you want to join in on the fun. 

What I'm Reading

Reading has slowed down a bit. I read two MS's for friends over the last week and a half. Started and finished ONE TWO THREE by Elodie Nowodazkij. I finishe We Were Liars yesterday. Wow. Just wow. If you haven't read it, do.

What I'm Writing

Still working on my WIP. I'm right around 45K. I've  signed up to participate in Ready? Set. Write! this summer. If you haven't heard of it, check out this blog post for more info.


What Inspires Me Right Now

That if I finish my daily word count early I can read on my lunch and relax at night.

What Else I've Been Up To

A whole lot of not much. And that suits me just fine after the craziness that was last month. Reading, writing and hanging out with the family. Kiddo had his last TBall game for the season (and ever, coach pitch next year) followed by the party/trophy ceremony.

So what have you been up to?

Ready? Set. Write! 2014 Goals

Ready? Set. Write! is a way for writers to keep in touch with each other and keep themselves accountable to the goals they set. This year it's hosted by Katy Upperman, Alison Miller, Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk. Check out their blogs for more details and be sure to link up each week.

Week one is dedicated to goal setting. Which...is not easy for me. I'm a huge procrastinator. But I'm going to give it a shot.

1. I'm sticking with the goal my CPs and I came up with last month and that's completing my current WIP, a YA contemporary titled When The Wind Blows, by June 30th. To do that I need roughly around 1000 words per day to finish on time. As of now I'm on track to finish. I'm at 42K and usually draft around 55K-60K words.

2. After that it'll be revising WTWB. I'm not 100% sure how much time that'll take and exactly how I'll go about it until I'm finished, so I'm playing that by ear. Everyone always says let the draft sit but I write so slow the first half basically is and by the time I get to the end it will have.

3. I also need to think about a query letter...and I'd rather not. I'll fit that in somewhere down the road.

4. I want to keep up with reading at least one to two books a week. I set my book goal for the year at 80 and am already around 66 or 67 books. Hoping I can make it to 100.

5. Get to the beach more often this summer and visit the Gulfarium again (of course taking kiddo along). Both are a huge inspiration to WTWBs.

What's Up Wednesday?! In Which I Catch Up On The Past Two Weeks

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk as a way for writers to keep in touch by sharing what they've been up to. Be sure to link up on their site if you want to join in on the fun. 

What I'm Reading

Finally finished Since You've Been Gone *insert sad face here*. I tried to drag it out as long as possible but I got to a point where I just had to know how it would end. And now I have to wait two more years until her next book *insert bigger sad face*. Also finished the audio book of The Program! Loved it. Not sure why I didn't finish it sooner. I'm part way through The Treatment and it's just as good. As for a book book, I'm rereading The Summer Series along with Ginger at GReads. It's been two years since my first read and now that summer is here, it seemed like the perfect time to revisit Cousins Beach.

What I'm Writing


I am now at 36K. I got a few days behind during all the family time but I have caught up. If I keep up with 1K a day I'll be finished by my deadline.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Proving to myself that I can. It's crazy what happens when you set your mind to something and really do it. And by the end of this month I should have a completed novel. Wasn't even close when I started last month. Just crazy.

What Else I've Been Up To

Well, it's been two weeks, so A LOT! Last week was a 4 day week work week so my Tuesday was crazy and I didn't get around to writing up a post. But the weekend before that (Memorial Day weekend) crazy day was a blast!

Thursday before Memorial Day my baby brother (on right, middle bro on left) surprised me at work! He kept asking all these weird questions Wednesday night and then the next morning about half an hour after we opened he walked into the lobby. I almost cried (he lives 8 hours away and I don't get to see him nearly enough). I met him and my other brother for lunch that day. We never get to hang out as just the three of us so it was awesome.

Saturday was a hang around my parents day in the morning before kiddos game. Kiddo went home with my mom after the game and my husband and I went to Blazefest! An all day rock concert put on by a local radio station. We had a blast. We saw 5 of the bands (we didn't get there until 5:00 but stayed until 11:00) and I found a new favorite, 10 years (top picture is the lead singer of 10 Years walking on the crowd and bottom is the final band, Chevelle.

Sunday kiddo and I went to the beach with the family. It was a nightmare trying to find a beach with parking. We finally did and stayed a little over three hours. I tried so hard not to, but in the end, I got burnt. But only on part of my back where I couldn't reach with sunscreen. :0/

Kindergarten field trip was last Wednesday to....dun dun dunnnnn....Build A Bear. Yes, very anticlimactic. Not what I pictured a school field trip being but kids had fun. They each got to name and stuff their own bear. Since I had the whole day off, we hung around after, bought an outfit for the bear (Superman), had lunch at Chili's, did a little shopping and ended the day out with ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery.

Then Friday was Water Day/End of year celebration. For some reason kiddo all of a sudden had a fear of heights. He wouldn't go on the slide...until his teacher volunteered to go down with him. I wonder if he had it planned out all along. I was only able to go on my lunch break, see him go down with the teacher, and sit with him while he had lunch. His teacher sent me a picture later saying he finally went down by himself and had been going all afternoon. Crazy kid. He's a mess.

So what have you been up to?

May Reads 2014

May came just shy of the past two months at eleven books. I was super excited about What I Thought Was True since I loved My Life Next Door. Don't get me wrong, it's a great book, but it wasn't as amazing as My Life Next Door. Wish You Were Italian was a super cute fun summer read. Makes me want to take a trip to Italy one day. But for now I'll just enjoy gelato from afar. Then there was Since You've Been Gone. I've been waiting for Morgan's latest book since I finished her last one. Well worth the wait. Sucks we have to wait two years for the next one. In the mean time I'll read the books under her pen name, Katie Finn. I finally got around to The Program (this month's audio book) and freaking loved it! Can't wait for the conclusions The Treatment.

What's Up Wednesday?!

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk as a way for writers to keep in touch by sharing what they've been up to. Be sure to link up on their site if you want to join in on the fun. 

What I'm Reading

I finished Wish You Were Italian and LOVED it. It was a sweet, fun, summertime read. I'm now 200 pages into Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson and just want to read all day until I finish. I've paused on the audio book of Days of Blood and Starlight. I'm not feeling it right now (which saddens me because I loved the first one so much). To stand in it's place I started The Program by Suzanne Young this morning.

What I'm Writing

Hit 25K today! I'm still on track to finish by June 30th. I really love where When the Wind Blows is going. It's taken a slightly different direction and that's okay. I plotted out some of the story and am letting the characters fill in the blanks. And it's fun! My CP/BFF Jessica assures me I haven't broken my book. She also decided to start giving me stickers through text each time I met a mini writing goal. I found it easier to spread out my word goal throughout the day rather than. At one point I said I'm going to write 200 words an hour for the next six hours. And I did. And then some! Who knew stickers were so motivating?

What Inspires Me Right Now

My dad. This weekend he graduated with his Bachelors in Science of Aeronautics. He was Summa Cum Laude, on the deans list AND in the Alpha Sigma Lambda National Honor Society. It's been a long road and an adjustment for him but so proud of him for finishing and doing so with honors.

What Else I've Been Up To

Busy week. Kiddo had a T-Ball game Friday. I had to leave work a little early for us to make it on time (which was okay with me).

Saturday was my dad's graduation. It was held at the Naval Air Museum on the Navy base about 45 minutes away. It was such an awesome setting for the graduation. It was nice since I haven't been there since I was in high school. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the museum. Kind of neat for the graduating class.

 My dad let me drive his 2012 Dodge Challenger after the ceremony and dinner. I was SHOCKED! I've wanted to drive this car since he got it a few months ago. It's a nice, smooth ride. I'm ready to go again!

Sunday we hung around my parents' house. My aunt and grandmother are in town for the week so we're getting as much family time in as possible.


Busy weekend and we'll have another next weekend. But YAY it's a 3 Day!

So what have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk as a way for writers to keep in touch by sharing what they've been up to. Be sure to link up on their site if you want to join in on the fun. 

What I'm Reading
I finally received my copy of WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN by Kristin Rae so I put To All The Boys aside (for now) and started this one. I'm almost a third of the way through and I love it. It's a sweet, cute read. Perfect for summer time (yes..we skip right over spring here in the south). And, yes, Gelato is a must while reading. I'm also reading Sweet Little Thing by Renee Carlino. It's okay, though I'm not as drawn in as I was with Sweet Thing, which I adored.

What I'm Writing

Hit the 20K mark on When The Wind Blows today! It feels good. I thought I'd never get there. I started this WIP late last year and got a good chunk. But then it needed a rewrite. And another one. But I finally think I have it where it should be and keep coming up with ideas to move it forward. I'm worried. It's usually not this easy. We'll see where it goes. I keep insisting I'm breaking it but my CP assures me I'm not. I think she's biased.

What Inspires Me Right Now

Meeting a deadline. The more I think about the deadline my CPs and I made for each other the more I want to push myself to make it.

What Else I've Been Up To

Where to start? It's been a busy week. I was off work last Friday for kiddos Kindergarten field day. It was a lot of fun. He competed in five events and did great in each one. I'd like to say they won them all...but that wasn't the case. But he did have fun!

Saturday was a normal game day for us. Game mid day with shopping and cleaning around it. Sunday was Mother's Day and it was a lot of reading and relaxing and movie watching. Just what I needed. My husband was working (he's a restaurant manager so he's always working that day since it's one of their busiest days) so kiddo and I had lunch at my parents and then dinner together back home.

 Monday was a lot of fun jammed into one day. That morning I went to kiddos school for "Muffins with Mom". The kids read what they loved about us and shared the pictures they drew of us and we had delicious muffins after.

Then, after school and work that night, kiddo and I met my mom for the Of Neptune book signing. It was a lot of fun. Kiddo even spent some time signing bookmarks with his Aunt Anna (Anna Banks is my sister-in-law. I wouldn't normally allow him to go up and annoy the author like that. But, it's okay when it's family because that's what they're for). I wish I could have stayed longer and hung out through the entire event but it was a school night and kiddo had state testing the next morning (which he aced!).

I am so sad to see this series come to an end. Of Poseidon was the first book I've seen from the very first "I have an idea for a book" to the published copy. I'm excited to read Of Neptune to see how it ends. This is the one book in the series that I didn't get to read before it was printed. But at the same time I don't want it to end...so I'm holding out for a little bit.

So what have you been up to?

What's Up Wednesday

What's Up Wednesday is a weekly blog hop created by Jamie Morrow and Erin Funk as a way for writers to keep in touch by sharing what they've been up to. Be sure to link up on their site if you want to join in on the fun. 

What I'm Reading

Haven't made much progress on Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor BUT I have read. A ton. I finished What I Thought was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick. It was okay, not my favorite. I much prefer My Life Next Door. I also started and finished Motocross Me by Cheyanne Young and My Life After Now by Jessica Verdi. I really enjoyed My Life After Now. I flew through this book in less than 3 hours Sunday night. I want to read her next book ASAP. But, at the moment I'm reading To All The Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. I adore her Summer series and have high hopes for this one.

What I'm Writing

It's been a busy week so I haven't added a ton of new words to my WIP When The Wind Blows but I did come up with a plan to finish. I suck at making myself finish something by a certain date so I enlisted the help of my CPs Jessica and Jamie. I told them I needed a deadline for my first draft because I never meet my own. They came up with June 30th. And, on a super awesome note, they also decided to finish their first drafts by the same time. Between the three of us we have two YA contemporaries and a historical romance. I can't wait until were all done!

What Inspires Me Right Now






Pub day. Seeing authors and how excited they are to see their book out in the world. What was once their WIP is now available for all to read. It really is an incredible experience to watch unfold around you.

What Else I've Been Up To

Last week I mentioned the crazy storm that was going on as I wrote my post. Crazy doesn't begin to cover it. Record breaking is more like it. The town I live in received 19 inches of rain in twenty-four hours. That's a lot of water!

These are from our neighborhood. The houses behind ours have a lake across the street. By the end of it all the water completely covered the road. This is actually a few days after.

 

It flooded the front yard and driveway (and I'm pretty sure inside the home). 

And this was just our neighborhood. Numerous roads collapsed or were found completely under water. Dealership and supermarket parking lots flooded with cars still parked in them. Lakes (like this one) swelled far beyond their banks. Schools were closed for two days as many of them flooded. Water had to be boiled. I can't even describe what it's like, seeing this up close. Waters are slowly receding but many are left with damage to their belongings and without flood insurance. It's not something you think about when you're not technically in a flood zone.

And now that I've bummed you out, how about I try to pick you back up. Saturday was a fun family day. Kiddo had a T-Ball game and we followed it by having lunch with my husband and parents at one of our favorite restaurants that finally reopened. It has new owners, a new look and an amazing menu. My husband isn't a huge super hero fan so Sunday kiddo and I went to see The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 3D. It was incredible. Better than the first, in my opinion.

 

So what have you been up to?