Hello all, I just wanted to share what was going on in my personal life. My reading is going well, I only have 10 books to go till 100 which was my goal for the year, so I’m totally going to be able to get there. So that’s exciting. I also hit 500 posts for the blog so I’m feeling pretty accomplished with reading and blogging.
However remember how I shattered my ankle back in January? It’s now inflamed so I have to take a steroid. (Yuck!) and keep it elevated and rest it. The rest and elevation isn’t that hard. I’ve had to do a lot of that before when I was recovering. But this steroid is making me feel pretty gross. So I’m going to get lost in books and Christmas movies, if I miss a day of posting this is why.
The steroid so far has left me very tired a hot and cold, so kind of like having a cold. Then I got an injection of gel in my ankle to help my pain their but the injection itself is still making my foot hurt so I have to stay off of it for awhile. Maybe I’ll get more blog posts done while I have to be down.
I got myself an early Christmas present and pre-ordered Pokemon Legends: Arceus and got a copy of Wythwood for my indie collection. I’m also planning on ordering Horizon Forbidden West after I finish the original game.
I’m working on my own personal readathon as well as the Reindeer Readathon, and I’ve made it through several of the prompts each so I feel good there. So while I’m a little sick I’m doing the best I can with all the things I’ve wanted to do this month.
I hope everyone who celebrates had a good time. I had a quiet day with my family. I didn’t get any hardback books. However I was gifted a year of Scribd, which is great because it’s like a gift of lots of books. I already have several books picked out but if you guys have any suggestions just comment and let me know.
My other big gift was a Kitchen Aid mixer, which I’m over the moon about, we already found cute decals to put on it, and I’m saving books on Scribd, for things to cook in it once it arrives.
CatLadyFibers also gave me a great gift of some knitting needles and a Bath and Body Works coupon which I used during the wonderful BBW semi-annual sale.
Not to mention the fact I got a lovely upgraded tree, some great jewelry, new leggings, several video games, including Skyrim and Sayonara Wild Hearts.
So how did I do with my goals this month? From how I’m looking at this I think I did a pretty good job.
1) Start reading Unwanteds Quest books
So I’ve read 5/6 books Unwanteds Quests books that are currently released and will probably finish the last book before the month is over
2) Get to 30% on Dragon Age Inquisition
I’m at 24% getting close to 25% so while I’m not at 30% like I wanted I’m getting closer.
3) Hit my reading goal for the year.
I’m over my goal by like 4 books so I’m good there.
4) Get back into doing weekly reviews
I’ve done weekly reviews for the past 3 weeks so I’d say I’m doing pretty well.
Also my numbers are great for this month so thank you guys for all the views and likes! The blog hasn’t seen this much attention since before the summer!
So how’d I do for May? I hit some of my goals others were a bit more challenging. As I said at the end of April as a blogger and writer there is always room for more writing, well
1. Get 325 to 350 views in a month.
This just didn’t happen. The blog was slow this month. I barely got half of that. Hopefully, next month will be better.
2. Get another 10 followers for the blog.
I got another five at the time I’m writing this, so I’ll take that in this super slow month that I’ve had.
3. Get back to my normal 4 books a month.
Here is one area where I actually met my goal, I’ve already read four books this month and should be at 5 or six by the end of the month.
4. Try and do two blog posts a day.
Well, I finished up the month of May early and have started working on posts out into June. Sometimes it’s been one post a day, sometimes it’s been three. What matters is I’m getting ahead.
5. At least 500 words on one of my writing projects per day.
I’m one-third of the way through the WIP I’m focusing on. Now I just have to get back to it, also I want to spend more time working on my other WIP which is a murder mystery.
6. Try and finish up some of my tags.
I finished the main tag I was talking about here so that’s a win, now I just have to get started on some of my new tags.
Hello from Quarantine Week 8 or 9 I believe. My week was pretty unremarkable, I went shopping a few times for essentials since I’m the lowest risk person in my family. I found toilet paper on one trip and paper towels on another, so I was super happy about that. I also manage to find a good stock of meat one trip so my family is all set for awhile. Hope your family is all safe. Now to the books!
What have I been reading, lots of books about the end of the world, I’m going to do a post on that soon. Because I must not be the only one who end of the world fiction is calming down during all of this. I’ve also been re-read a few but the three main ones I’ve been focused on are.
Reading
The Last 8
Clover Martinez is a survivor, perhaps the only survivor after an alien attack on earth. She thinks she’s the only one left until randomly hears a voice through the radio, calling her to join their group in the former Area 51.
There she finds a band of misfits who call themselves the Last Teenagers on Earth. But instead of wanting to fight back, some of them don’t even have any idea what has happened in the world outside Area 51. And they seem pretty content to keep it that way, instead pretending the world never ended. This leaves Clover questioning if she was better off alone.
Until she finds a spaceship in the walls of the compound leaving her with questions if there is truly any one on Earth left that she can trust.
After surving the terrors of a virus gone mad on Achlys. Thea, Coen and Nova thought they had found safety.
But they are anything but safe Nova is coma, and Thea and Coen find themselves in cells treated more like experiments than people.
They soon realize the people on the ship have no idea what they are dealing with and plan to unleash the contagion in an act of political warfare. Will the trio with a little help from a new friend be able to stop them.
Or will the entire galaxy be at risk of catching the virus? They’ll have to use the only weapons they have on hand to stop it from happening: themselves.
This one is a re-read from last year. But I just wanted a good creepy ghost story to draw inspiration from for a story I’m writing so I’m re-rereading all the good middle grade ghost stories I know starting with Arden’s work.
Okay, so it would be a super fair assessment to say I really like a lot of things, but Animal Crossing is at the top now. Along with reading, writing, and blogging, if I can fit bread baking in there I think I can truly become the ultimate millennial.
But seriously I’m really enjoying Animal Crossing, it takes my mind off of quartine like nothing else. I’m currently working on trying to get hybrid flowers and relocating where I want my fruit trees. Also more seriously, I’m working on that bread baking as soon as I’m over some pulled muscles.
Cricut
I was a little wary about spending the amount of money I did on my Cricut. But now I’m totally over any uncertainty I might have had, it’s the ultimate crafting machine. Mostly I’ve just been working on getting cutting right and making gender netural bathroom signs for a non profit I volunteer with. Next I want to look into vinyl and infusible ink for clothes so I can start making my own shirts for myself and others.
Mental Health
I got into a fight with an associate of mine so that kind of got me down and clogged up some of the cognitive space I could have used for reading. So that was annoying, but other than that I’m in pretty good mental health, I got my tarot read by an awesome reader. It was a treat since I usually read myself, she was really good and her reading calmed me down a lot.
Overall except for a few bumps in the road it was a pretty good week, hope you had a good week as well! I’ll be back to you next week, with hopefully more books finished.
So wow, what an end to the month for the blog. My followers are sky high as are my views, I’m not doing anything different. I’m happy though, maybe it’s just my consistency finally coming through? I hope it continues. Hello, to all my new followers.
Read
Pumpkinheads
I haven’t read anything by Rainbow Rowell before. I know I’m an outlier. Anyway, I love fall and the premise of this sounded so sweet. I was right it was so sweet. A bit predictable, but the sweetness made up for it. A review should be up sometime this month.
An interesting book about a teen who survives the end of the world. She thinks she’s alone until she finds other survivors, but they may not be what they seem. Am I reading more apocalyptic literature because of the pandemic, probably. Especially since you’ll see my next book I’m reading is about pandemics.
Surviving a deadly planetary outbreak that turned people into monsters, three teens must find a way to escape government control before the virus can be used against the larger world.
Crafting
With some of my stimulus money, I bought myself a new Circut. I’m a huge fan of paper crafting so this will take me to a whole new level once I figure it all out. I’ve joined a few groups and have watched a few videos but I’ve still got a lot to learn. I look forward to learning about this cool new piece of technology though.
Animal Crossing
I’m enjoying working on customizing my island and finding more custom clothing designs, this one is from Mia @ MA-0190-3505-4239. Go check them out! I’m upgrading my Nook Shop today.
Mental Health
I’m doing pretty well mentally, just trying to keep busy during the quartine. I’m also trying to focus on the importance of rest, I’ve been taking naps which have really helped my productivity.
So I think for the blog and writing I did pretty well in April. I just need to get back to reading and do more writing. Because I’m a blogger and writer so there is always more writing lol. Anyway, here are some of my goals for May
1. Get 325 to 350 views in a month.
Originally I was only shooting for 300 but I already passed that at the end of April, so I clearly needed a new more ambitious goal.
2. Get another 10 followers for the blog.
Okay so I was writing this in late April and I just kept getting followers. Not complaining at all, but I decided to make my goal to hit 125 followers for May. I’ll take more of course. I also got a TON last month not sure if it can be done but again these are always just things to shoot for.
3. Get back to my normal 4 books a month.
I was in a bit of a reading slump last month so I’d like to try to get out of that. I bought a few Kindle books, so I’m looking forward to finishing those. I have a few debuts like The Winter Duke, as well as a few backlisted titles I haven’t gotten the chance to enjoy.
4. Try and do two blog posts a day.
I’d like to get ahead for the month of May and potentially into June. But I’m flexible with this. I’m going to give myself at least one day of rest and be okay with one post a day sometimes.
5. At least 500 words on one of my writing projects per day.
I’m going to be flexible here too. Some days I’m just going to want to play Animal Crossing, some days I’m going to get more done. I’m also giving myself at least one day of rest for this too.
6. Try and finish up some of my tags.
I’m going to try and tackle some of the tougher ones and even if I don’t have a lot of information or books go ahead and get them shared and get them done with.
So March has been quite the month, it seemed like it lasted forever. But I got lots of books read, more than I have since November. A lot has changed from the beginning of the month, when I could go out bowling with my friends, to now. We have a shelter in place order enacted in my state so I’ll be home, reading and working on crafts and the blog.
Books
Finished this month
The Science of Breakable Things
Dealing with depression as a family can be tough, but a little hope can be a powerful thing.
Seven books! I’m way ahead on my goal for the year, plus all of them were fun reads, plus I got three YARC picks in there. One doesn’t count because I started it in 2019 but I’m still glad I finished it.
One of the best things to happen this month was,
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Now I just got this picture off Polygon but they are way further along in the game than I am. I’m still working on building my store. But I also got Nintendo Online for three months so I can visit other islands so I’m looking forward to chilling out with friends.
I’m also still playing Pokemon some to catch Pokemon in the wild areas, I’ve made a few good catches so that makes me happy as well.
Finally, I figured out one of the flight mechanics in Breath of the Wild, so I’m also trying to play that occasionally since I want to start working on the boss fights.
Posts
I’ve got all of April covered Post wise so I’m going to start on blog posts for May and maybe add a few extra posts to April. I’m glad I’m a month ahead it gives me more time for reading and promoting the blog. I was also super happy to have a very popular for this blog post this month and a spotlight on Twitter by Katie Zhao! Eee!
Mental Health
So if you’ve been reading along with me, back during the first part of the month before the virus really hit, I was worried since I couldn’t take part in my favorite volunteer activity, well it looks like there isn’t even going to be a volunteer activity to go to, so there is the universe for providing you with perspective.
Overall though my mental health is pretty good. I’m getting a little cabin fever, but honestly watching horror movies and reading thrillers is helping, you would think it would be the opposite in a situation like this but what can I say, my brain is weird.
Twitter and IG are still helping a lot with socialization, I feel like I’m more in touch with people through these platforms that I actually have been in person in a while. So there is that.
I know a lot of you are in the same position. But I know I’m lucky I’m healthy and my family is healthy and we don’t have to go out except to get essentials. I hope all of my readers are safe and able to do the same.
So this post should have been up yesterday, but I had an awful headache, the pollen here is intense. So I decided to rest a do my new favorite thing, which I will get into later in the post, play Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The first thing is first though,
Books
Finished
Seafire
I finished this long fantasy like it was nothing this week, so expect a review soonish. I’m really on a summer books kick, maybe because it’s getting warmer because I was also reading.
About a Puerto Rican girl who moves to the US and finds herself at a summer camp, she finds a friend but her fancy cousin doesn’t like her and she’s stuck between trying fit in and following her heart and doing things her way.
The sequel to Seafire, I actually bought this one, and I almost never buy books but I couldn’t wait for my library to get it on an e-book. The story is great. I’m also thinking of reading These Rebel Waves because apparently, I’m on a pirate kick.
The sequel to Newsprints, I’m really liking it actually a lot better than Newsprints, I should finish it this week, so expect a review in April or May.
I’m doing pretty well being stuck at home, actually, it’s not that different from what I was doing waiting for disability, only with a little less going out. I’m baking some, I’m hoping to bake from scratch some this week but I also have some press on sheet cookies in case I’m feeling lazy.
Twitter has honestly been super helpful, it’s been great for connecting with friends and good for the blog too.
I’m also enjoying planning too. I like using things like the Happy Planner and the associated stickers, I know there isn’t a lot to plan for right now but it makes me feel more in control.
Blogging
Honestly, I was a bit lazy this week, I wasn’t feeling well, due to having a Botox procedure for my headaches canceled so I didn’t get ahead or do any extra posts but I’ll try to remedy that this coming week. I have a special post coming up, to highlight Asian authors, especially Chinese authors, I want to do my small part to combat the racism that is prevalent in the US at the moment.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Let’s be honest about what I was doing yesterday. I had a headache, yes, but this game got me. I’m really enjoying it, it’s the perfect quarantine game. It’s so cute and relaxing and just aww. It was exactly what I needed at this moment in time.
It has been a not so great week. But I’m trying to focus on the positives. For example, I’m working on blog posts for April, so I feel ahead of the game, also I found a way to revamp the Pokemon reads tag to give me more material, I’m adding in a little YA and children’s literature as well. So I’ve had good ideas this week I’ve just felt down.
Books
I spent a lot of the week reading but I’ve mostly been focused on these three books, I should have them finished and have review posts up for April soonish.
I’m still working on friendship bracelets and want to get back to doing crochet soon. I stopped because I mentally wasn’t feeling well but now even with a bit of depression I’m feeling well enough to start again.
TV/Movies
I’m continuing to watch She-Ra and I started Steven Universe, I know I’m behind the curve on that one, but I’m way behind the curve on a lot, I have a hard time watching TV by myself so I’m just proud of being able to finally watch things.
Instagram
I want to get back to a regular schedule on bookstagram and start trying to gain more followers there. I feel like I’ve stagnated, so I think a boost of energy there would help my account. I just have a small account and it’s not fancy but I think I can get more followers if I try.
Mental Health
As I said my mental health isn’t that good this week, but I’ve still managed to get posts up, read, play Pokemon, and try to promote the blog. The blog is doing well by the way which I’m super happy about.
I just got told because of disability proceeding I can’t do my favorite volunteer activity this year. I know there is always next year but it really gets me down. I’m going to try to stay positive and put that energy into readathons and working on the blog. But it still hurts my heart and it’s going to take a while to be okay with, so bear with me.
Hopefully, I’ll have more to report next week! How have you all been this week?
![The Last 8 by [Laura Pohl]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61orHnsqAJL.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
![Immunity (Contagion Book 2) by [Erin Bowman]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41b9jfNgkNL.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
![Dead Voices by [Katherine Arden]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cQEej46zL.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
![Pumpkinheads by [Rainbow Rowell, Faith Erin Hicks, Sarah Stern]](https://i0.wp.com/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61aM-kW30cL.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
![Lizzy and the Good Luck Girl by [Lubner, Susan]](https://i0.wp.com/images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/511YXH5yK4L.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/19811785/2020031615363000_02CB906EA538A35643C1E1484C4B947D.jpg?w=840&ssl=1)
