February Wrap-Up

Well, there goes February and the first two months of the year. . . It's kinda hard to believe that we're this far into 2018 already. Not to mention, this is my first wrap-up since. . . August. *coughs* But here I am, wrapping up February. :)

Writing

I actually haven't been doing any writing recently. I took a much-needed break, and I'm currently working on a new outline for Lowlife (because the first one wasn't that great :P). And, just the other day, I got a potential novel idea. :D Although I don't know much about it yet, I'm interested as to where it'll go.

Also, I'm sure all of you (or at least most of you) know that Camp NaNoWriMo is next month! I know it's crazy!! And yes, I am going to be participating. ;D I decided awhile ago that I will be working on the second draft of Strangers. So this month, I'll be getting that ready. :)

Reading

I haven't done a whole lot of reading recently. Well, I kinda have, but it's been over several books at once. :P Since I missed last months wrap-up, I'm going to list all the books I've read so far this year. :)

       

So yeah, I've only read five books. My favorite (not including Dare because that was a reread ;) was definitely Scarlet by Marissa Meyer! <3 I loved that book so much, I could hardly put it down. :D
My least favorite was The Dark Prophecy by Rick Riordan. It was actually a DNF (my first). I was really disappointed with it. I may try and read the whole thing in the future though, we'll see.

Along with those, I also read nine books of the Bible! :D

       

                                                   

Other News

I went on a trip! :D I flew out to visit my older brother, his wife, and two kids. We had a blast, and it was definitely a trip of "firsts". ;D If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I flew in an airplane for the first time ever, and it was so. much. fun!

I also went to Starbucks and Barnes and Noble for the first time! I know, some of you are probably wondering how I've lived this long without going to those but I live in a small town okay? The nearest Starbucks is like an hour and a half away. And the nearest Barnes and Noble? I don't even know. I got six books there though, and they were:

The Kingkiller Chronicle: The Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

Star Wars: Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn

Ranger's Apprentice: The Burning Bridge by John Flanagan

Brotherband: The Outcasts by John Flanagan

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

The Lunar Chronicles: Winter by Marissa Meyer

I went to this coffee shop call Scooter's and, dare I say that I think their coffee was better than Starbucks? But then, I did only go to each of them once, so I haven't had enough of their coffee to confirm that. Although I did like the coffee I got at Scooter's a little more. After we went to Scooter's, we went to this ice cream place called Cold Stone. Absolutely. loved. their. ice. cream. <3 Guys, I love ice cream and that was probably the best I have ever had. 

The last first was that was the farthest from home I have ever been. :)


What about you? How was your February? :)

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August Wrap Up

Well. August was quite eventful. . . Okay, I'm really not very good at beginning wrap-ups. I feel like when you guys read this, you're all just like, "Someone put her out of her misery." So I'll just get this show on the road. :P

Writing

Um. . . I wrote next to nothing last month. :P It's horrible, I know. I did work on fixing some important details for Strangers though. I plan on finishing that within the next two months so it can go out to my alpha readers in November.

I've worked a little on the outlines for the two novels I'm going to write for NaNoWriMo this year. Yes, I've already started thinking and planning for NaNo. So far, I know that I'm going to write at least two novels. There have been a few times where I'm just like, "I am SO ready for NaNoWriMo!" And then I'm like, "Ha! Yeah, right. You're not even close to being ready." :P

Also, an idea for another novel hit me while I was on my walk this morning. It has me really excited. :D I should make a Pinterest board for it. I should probably add this one and my fantasy one to my writings page. But if I do that, I want to give them titles. I've noticed that some of you give some of your WIP titles before they're even in the outlining stage. How do you do it?

Reading

*nervous laughter* *awkward silence* Yeah, we're kind of failing in this department. :P Of the ten books I had with me at camp, I didn't finish one. Not a whole lot of reading time. The only book I finished this month was Tyra by Jaye L. Knight. Okay, it's technically a short story, but it counts towards my reading goal on Goodreads. And, speaking of my reading goal, I am currently sixteen books behind schedule. . . So we have some catching up to do. I'm hoping to get more reading done this month. :P 

Blogging

Besides my wrap up for July, this was my only post for the month of August:

Things Are Changing

Other bloggers posts for last month:

Marrok did his first wrap up.

Jonathan tells us about Realm Makers and what he learned there.

I'm still working on catching up on everyone's blog posts.

Other

So. I'm back from camp. The last day for me was August 16th. This was a great summer at camp, and, of all nine summers I've spent there, it was by far my favorite. I learned a lot, and had so. much. fun. :)

Last Friday, my family and I went over to my grandparents where we met with my three older siblings, who are all married and live all over the place. It's been six and a half years since all five of us kids have been together. We had a ton of fun! The two nights that we were over there, the five of us stayed up late playing games, making a lot of jokes, and laughing nonstop. :D Then on Monday, we came back, and my older brother and one of my older sisters came too. They stayed here all week and left this morning.

If you follow me on Instagram, at some point you'll see some pictures from this past week.

And that was my month! :)


What about you? How was your month? Are you getting ready for NaNoWriMo?

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July Wrap-Up

Hey everyone! Wow, July went by really fast! So fast that I only ended up posting once last month. #oops :P (So I won't have a "blogging" section this time) It's been colder than previous summers, and I don't think I've gone a day without putting on a sweatshirt at least once. I don't really mind though because I love wearing hoodies. :) Anywho, let's get started.

Writing

I think writing went pretty well in July. I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo (this time I was in a cabin) and I started with a goal of 3k. I know, it's such a huge goal. :P But the reason it wasn't very high was because I knew that I would be here a camp, and wouldn't have a lot of time to write. And, not to mention, the writing would be by hand. I didn't even start though, until the 15th because I was soo busy. Unfortunately, as the end of camp nano approached, I realized that I wouldn't be able to reach my goal, so I had to lower it. My new goal was 2k, which I'm happy to say that I reached. :)

Also, I've shared the prologue of Strangers (which was what I worked on for camp nano) with a few campers. Now, I don't really like sharing my writing, especially rough drafts, but I gave in to one camper, which then led to more. Here's how it happened:

So, I'm really good friends with one of the guys on my day off, and his younger brother is a camper here. At one of my basketball periods, I mentioned that I write (I don't remember why I said this). Apparently, my friend's little brother didn't know this, so proceeded to ask me about the books that I'm writing. I told him, and he expressed great interest in them. Later, I started the rewrite of Strangers and asked his opinion on something. He asked to read the prologue since that's what drives the rest of the story. Thankfully, he really liked it, and his friend was standing right there so I let him read it too. Then, I was telling my co-counselor (in the bunk) and a couple of my girls overheard and asked to read it, which led to more of them reading it.

I'm pretty sure that almost all of my girls have read it now. But every one of them has said that they really liked it and asked me when it's going to be published. This is soo motivating! :D

Reading

I haven't gotten much reading in this month. I have yet to finish a book since I've been at camp, but I have three books that I've picked up in the last month, and those are Viper, The Ruins of Gorlan, and A Wrinkle in Time. Pretty much my only reading time is during rest time, which is right after lunch. As it turns out, it's kinda hard to read and shush girls, who are being louder than they should be, at the same time. :P I do have some bookworms in my cabin, and they have asked me multiple times what books I'm reading.

Apparently, I have a lot of books on my shelf because one of my girls thought that my shelf was a library. We all had a good laugh over that. :)

Other

So, as you know, I'm at summer camp, and have been all last month. :P (You're probably getting tired of hearing me say that.) This is my ninth summer in a row here at camp, my third year as a counselor, but my first year as a bunk counselor. Obviously, there are pros and cons to being in the bunk, but overall I really like it. :D My co-counselor is the best, and we work very well together. We all have a lot of fun and very much enjoy being, and doing, things together. Sometimes, strange things are said too. Here are a couple that I heard my girls say:

"Get your nose away from my dryer sheet."

"I hate Star Wars, it hurts my eyes."

I also have had a lot of fun teaching basketball and ultimate. It's so rewarding seeing campers learning and mastering new skills. :)

I know that I haven't been blogging as much as I had hoped (and probably even said), but I'm trying to do better. I'm also behind on reading other blogs, but don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you. I will read all the posts I've missed just as soon as I have enough time. I promise. ;)


How about you? How was your July?

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June Just Happened

Hello from camp! Yes, I am at camp as I write this (the actual camp I told you about last week, not Camp NaNo).

This month has gone by soo fast, guys! Definitely the craziest month so far this year. For me, anyway. :P So this past week has been staff training week here at camp, and it feels so weird when I have free time because I'm so used to having a ton and a half things to do.

Writing

Yeah, I don't think I wrote anything this month, but I did manage to prepare for Camp NaNo some. Unfortunately, not as much as I would have liked. I think I have enough to make it through NaNo though.

All of June I've been getting bombarded with new ideas for Strangers. *evil smile* It is going to be so much better after this rewrite. And, I think I've said it before, but I'm going to say it again. I am really excited to rewrite Strangers. :)

Reading

                       

Yes, I know. I read soo much this month. :P No, I'm actually disappointed with how much reading I did in June. I tried to fit in more reading time, but it was really really hard. But I have started two other books: Samara's Peril and Rose of the Night. I'm almost finished with the latter.

Blogging

My posts in June:

Stay Strong and Trust

"The Reluctant Godfather" Blog Tour

Summer TBR + Update

"The Sorceress and the Squid" Blog Tour

Other bloggers posts that you definitely need to read:

Gray- #RebelliousWriting

Marrok- Dinosuars and Dragons

Audrey- {WHEN YOU FEEL LIKE YOU'RE GETTING WORSE} Let's Talk Perfectionism

Other

So, like I said, June was a crazy month. But a lot of fun stuff happened! As you may have seen, I participated in my first two blog tours ever. :) Those were really fun, and actually weren't as hard as I thought they'd be.

Staff training week here at camp was the last week of June. It's been great to reconnect with my friends that I really only get to see here. We've had a ton of fun doing things together and getting ready for our campers, who are coming today! :D For those of you who don't know, I'm going to be a bunk counselor for 9-ll year old girls. :) I'm also the basketball and ultimate frisbee counselor. I'm super excited for camp! :D

Camp NaNo starts today! :D I'm also really excited for that, because I'm actually in a cabin this time! They've all been very welcoming and I'm looking forward to getting to know all of them in this next month. :) My goal is to write the first 3k of Strangers. I know, that's a low goal, but it's pretty much impossible to gauge how much writing time I'll have. Who knows, maybe I'll end up writing twice as much? That would be great. :)

The other thing that happened this month was Father's Day. For that, my family took a little trip. We hiked a mountain, which we actually haven't done in a while. Here are a couple short interchanges that took place on the hike.

(For this first one, there was a really rocky place, and the rocks were kinda big)

ME: *runs past dad up these rocks*

DAD: Show off!

ME: No, I think I'm just part mountain goat.

DAD: When you go back down a mountain, you always want a controlled decent.

LITTLE BROTHER: Hey Karyssa, you see that cliff over there? It will be a controlled decent if you hit that rock at the bottom.

ME: *laughs*

ME: *trips*

LITTLE BROTHER: Did you just trip?

ME: . . .yeah. Why?

LITTLE BROTHER: On what?! There's nothing there, the ground is flat!

After we finished the hike, I tried to figure out how many times I tripped. And, in two miles, I tripped about 20 times. I now refer to myself as "the clumsiest outdoorsy person you'll ever meet". :P

I also wrote a poem for Father's Day, and I was going to post it, but it would have been on a day that I don't normally post. I remember some of you saying that you wanted to see more poetry so I decided to share it now. Here it is:

This Man

There is this man

I really love.

He is always there

When I need him.

When I am excited

Or happy that

Something went right,

He smiles

And rejoices with me.

He holds me

When I cry,

When I am down,

Or if I just need

Someone

To lean on.

This man, is always there.

He has taught me a lot.

He is one of

The reasons

I am who I am

Today.

This man is

My role model,

Someone

I look up to.

And even though

He may have

A lot of nicknames

For me.

I will always know him

As Dad.

What about you? How was your June?

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