April is Over

And now a third of the year is gone. This is ridiculous guys! It feels like I just did my wrap-up post for March last week! But, summer is just around the corner, so we have that to look forward to. :D  The weather has yet to make up its mind though. I don't know why it's having such a hard time, I mean, it's a simple decision really. *long pause* Anywho, let's get on with- what is this again? A monthly wrap-up post. Ah, yes, a... that thingy.

Writing

Writing went well this month. I participated in Camp NaNoWriMo for the first time, which was so much fun. I joined a couple Google Hangouts groups during that time and got to know some other bloggers. My goal was 10K, which I reached about a week ago. So the first 20K of the rough draft of RtO is written. About halfway into the month, I picked up Strangers again and started working on edits/second draft, because I would like to give that to my alpha readers by June 1st. If all goes well, I don't see any reason why that won't happen, but you never know. :P May looks like it's gonna be kinda crazy.

Reading

                                                                               

Well... we stopped the five books pattern. :P Only read four this month. I blame Camp NaNo I think I may have been in a reading slump (which lasted much longer than I would have liked). But, thankfully, I seem to be coming out of it. I've been reading a lot more recently, and I have about five books going, give or take. I also have a pile of books on my bedroom floor that I want read in May. Again, I loved all the books I read this month (all of them got five stars). My favorite was probably Bound, which I did a review on last week.

Blogging

My posts for the month:

Don't Worry

Homeschooling- Part 2

BOUND// A Review

Posts by other bloggers that I definitely recommend reading:

Marrok- Art, Writing, and Criticism part 2

Audrey- When You Have to Wait

Abi- Self-Publication Part 1 // What It Is and Why I Chose It

Jonathan- 4 Tips on Merging Fiction With Faith

Note: Marrok's and Abi's posts are parts of a series, which are totally worth reading.

Other

So you remember when I said in my last wrap-up that I was going to go on vacation and hopefully get my license? Yeah, well, neither of those happened. :( I couldn't send in my driving hours because I didn't know when I was going on vacation. And we needed to know that so we could make sure they didn't schedule my road test for a day that I wasn't going to be here. But, good news is, I have sent in my driving hours and I'm going on vacation for sure this month. Yay! :D Also, my birthday happened this month. But for some reason, I keep thinking that I'm still 18, not 19. :P


What about you? How was your April?

BOUND// A Review

My first book review ever! Well... on this blog, that is. I actually didn't think that I would be doing a book review this soon. Now, my reviews on Goodreads are never this extensive, so this is kinda new for me. You know that expression "sink or swim"? Yeah, well, I'm just hoping to at least stay above water here. :P

Rating: 5 stars

Overall

This is probably one of my all time favorites now. This book almost made me cry within the first chapter. I don't think I have ever read a story quite like this one. It's hard to explain the things this book did to my heart, and that's probably because this is the first time it's ever happened.

One of the things I really liked was how Victoria Lynn wrote about things that are real. Stuff that, unfortunately, happens every day, happens more than we realize or want to believe.

Plot

The plot was incredible, and well thought out. It definitely kept me wanting to read more, to know more. Because of the way Victoria Lynn ended each chapter, I always had more questions. And the plot twists were amazing! I didn't see any of those coming.

Characters

I loved Levi and Casey from the very start, the first few paragraphs! I felt for them, cared for them. Their lives were very similar, but, at the same time, it seemed as if they were so different. For kids their ages, they'd been through a lot. 

Some of the characters have PTSD. And at first, I was a little wary, because it's hard to write authentic characters with PTSD. But I think Victoria Lynn did a very good job. All the actions and reactions of each of the characters seemed normal considering their backgrounds. They didn't seem over the top or exaggerated to me.

Content Warning

Some of the minor characters, which you don't see very often, use drugs and drink alcohol. And there is a bit of violence, but it's not really descriptive.

So what about you? Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it?

 

Homeschooling- Part 2

Oh, look! Karyssa is finally doing part two. :P Yes, last month's homeschooling post was a part one (you can find that post here in case you missed it). Having multiple parts to this was pretty much a last minute decision. So there will be at least one more homeschooling post, which I will do next month.


Most of these pictures (which, again, are all from Pinterest) say "homeschool problem" on them, but it's possible that not all homeschoolers will consider these problems.

I feel like a lot of homeschoolers get asked this one (or maybe I only think that because I was asked this so. many. times):

After a while, I stopped giving them an answer and instead just looked at them. I let them figure it out for themselves, and, it never took them very long so... :P

And I probably did that because of this:

I don't even know why I continued asking for help. I mean, I already knew that this is what they would tell me, so what was the point? Maybe I thought that this time, I would be able to get them to help me.
I think there were a couple times they did help me. It wasn't very helpful though. ME: Thank you. You just made it even more confusing than it was before.

I think we can all relate to the next three, or at least the next two:

Just like there is no such thing as a snow day, there is really no such thing as a sick day. *on your deathbed* I gotta do my schoolwork.

When you go to the store with your mom just to have all the other adults stare at you. Then they start walking into shelves and knocking things over because they are still watching you. Just kidding, that has never happened before. :P
What you should do is stand on one of the checkout conveyor belts and pull out a megaphone and say, "Don't worry! I'm not skipping school. I'm homeschooled."

I don't know about the rest of you, but this has actually happened to me. When asked this, just respond with, "Yes, I do. Do you still go to public school?"

When you forget that your friends aren't as fortunate as you:

There have been times when I wondered why my friends weren't online. And for a minute you wonder, "How long does it take them to do their schoolwork?" Then you remember. :P

And, again, here are a couple that I just thought were funny:

So, what about you? Can you relate? Is there one that you relate to more than the others?

Don't Worry

You know one of the things that I love about writing? It doesn't have an age limit. It doesn't matter how old you are or when you finally make the decision. If you want to write, you can.

It wasn't until May last year, that I started taking writing more seriously. (So it's almost been a year. Yay!) I was already 18 by the time I made that choice. And then there are those who've known that they wanted to write since they came into the world. You know who you are. Yeah, I'm talking about you.

No matter how long it took you, you may wonder why it took that long to realize that you want to write, you want to become an author, you want to get published. But, we have to remember that there is a reason. God has a reason, a plan. You probably don't know what that is yet, and that's okay. Don't waste time worrying or stressing over it.

It could be that you weren't ready yet. I know I wasn't. I told you in a previous post, that I didn't even really learn how to write until I was 13. Yeah, I had learned about grammar, how to form sentences, and stuff before that, but it didn't make sense until then. Yes, I started taking an interest in writing books/stories when I was 15, but I still had a lot to learn. And not only about writing.

What I'm talking about now is life. I still had a lot to learn about life, before I could even start writing about it. Only today, did I realize that if I had attempted to write the books I am now, when I was 15, it wouldn't have gone well because I knew nothing about that side of life.

God has things that He wants to teach us and show us, so that we can share it with others in a way that will greatly impact them. It may take longer for some of us. Everyone is different. We all live different lives.

And, there is the possibility that it took you as long as it did because God knows that, by the time you are ready to be published, the people He wants you to reach will finally be at the point in their lives where they are ready to read your book. So keep that in mind. ;)

March Wrap-Up

We've made it through the first quarter of the year! The first three months are gone. Actually, just yesterday, I was reading another blogger's wrap-up post and when they said "a quarter of the year" I thought, "I think you mean a third of the year. April hasn't happened yet." And I almost corrected them, because you know, three months = 1/3 and four months = 1/4. I used to think this when I was younger, and apparently, if you get me at the right time, I still do. :P But anyways.

Writing

Writing went very well last month. You may remember that I wanted to write 10K more of Strangers and the first 5K of that new idea I had, which now has the title Roping the Overcomer. Well, Strangers ended up getting the 5K and Roping the Overcomer the 10K. But I still wrote 15K total, so I'm happy with that. :) Also, I think Strangers might almost be ready for the second draft, which I may or may start this month.

Two more book ideas have started forming this last month. One is taking longer than the other, but they're still forming. I may at least start outlining them this month. It kinda all depends on how soon and how much the ideas want to share with me. :P

Reading

                                          

Found by Audrey Caylin

(Yes, I know, two of them don't have covers :P)

So once again, I have read five books. :P And two of those are books I beta read: Found and Dandelion Dust. Both of them were so good. I can't wait until they're published so all of you can read them to! :D

I'm not even going to try to pick a favorite for the month, because I loved them all. But there is one that I didn't like quite as much as the rest, and that was Elizabeth Gail and the Time for Love. This was probably my twentieth time reading it (I really liked this book when I was younger). But the whole series is more for children than an 18 year old. :P

I refuse to say that I'm going to try to read more this month, because each time I've said that, I end up reading the same amount as the previous month. We'll just see what happens.

Blogging

The Unsupportive

Homeschooling- Part 1

My Writing Process

Posts from other blogs that I recommend reading:

Jonathan's post Dear Writer, How's Your Heart?

Abi's post Banishing Plotting // What to Plot and What to Not

Audrey's post To My Fellow Dreamers

Marrok's post Hey Christian Let's Talk: Doctor Strange

Other News

So all in all, March was a great month. At the beginning of the month I thought that maybe I was putting to much on my plate, but I guess not. :P Everything went a lot better than I thought it would. And now I know that I can handle that much in a month.

I may be going for my license this month. A little nervous about that, but I just want to get it over with. Once I pass, I won't have to worry about it again. I'm going on vacation this month as well. I'm really excited about that, because I'll get to see family and friends that I don't get to see very often. And, I'll be able to go to some of my favorite book stores! How can you go on vacation and not come back with books? :D That's right, it's not possible.

So how was your February?