February Ishness
We are a little ways into March now, but it's not too terribly late for an Ishness post... right? I mean, February clearly deserves one!
(Ishness is a monthly blogging meme created by the amazing and talented Deborah O'Carroll over at Road of a Writer)
Writing
I wrote 11,847 words on Turrim Archive book 2 in the month of February (and I think I'm zeroing in on a potential title for this book... more on that later). Plus all the blog posts for February is Fantasy month (I have no idea how many words that was, but it was many). I feel like the climax of the story is drawing nigh, and that is very exciting. I tend to write books straight through from start to finish, partially because that's just the way it works for me, and partially because I need to muscle through the set up and description and character-development and plot development... otherwise I would just write beginnings, climaxes, and endings. But stories need more than that, and writing the stories in order helps motivate me, because there's always something to look forward to.
I also wrote a 400-word rough draft for an Easter skit for my church, which has been a truly enjoyable experience. I have to do a little editing on it, but I am liking the way it is turning out.
Had a pretty good sale of all three of my books at the end of February/beginning of March, so that was nice.
Reading
Despite my lonely Nightstand Books picture... I actually read more than just one book last month, much to my surprise.
I read and finished Resistance by Jaye L. Knight (Book 1 of the Ilyon Chronicles) and absolutely loved it to pieces. It's one of those books that's been so hyped up, I wasn't sure it would live up to the hubub, but it definitely did. I will have to do a full review later, but suffice to say, I am already halfway through The King's Scrolls, which is book #2 of the same series.
I also read The Firethorn Crown by Lea Doue and just adored it. I got to read it with the Fellowship of Fantasy book club and participated in the "Meet the Author" event on facebook at the end of the month. If you love fantasy and enjoy online book clubs... definitely go check this one out. We've just started the book for March, and while I'm not sure I'm going to be able to participate this time around, it was quite a lot of fun. And the reads they choose are always clean, so that makes it even more fun.
We finished Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham, which was quite enjoyable all around. Loved getting to learn about sailing ships and navigation in the late 1700s, as well as follow the MC throughout his life. Beautiful, poignant, tragic, humorous, and powerful are all words I could use of this story.
We also finished The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, and the kids seemed to like it. L especially enjoyed it, and they are looking forward to reading book 2.
I read "My Father's Dragon" out loud to my kids and good times were had by all.
In addition, I read the following countless times: "Put Me in the Zoo," "Paw Patrol: The Great Robo Dog Rescue," The Lego Catalogue (which isn't strictly a story, so I get to make it up each time I read it), "Dear Zoo," "How Do Dinosaurs Count to Ten," "How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms," and "How Do Dinosaurs Play With Their Friends."
Reading is sort of a staple in our home.
Watching
Didn't really watch much in the month of February. Been continuing to watch Grimm - Season 5 and we are enjoying it immensely. Started watching Season 1 of Little House on the Prairie with the kids and that has been a lot of fun. We rented Jack Reacher: Never Look Back and basically MST3K'd the snot out of it... SUCH a disappointing movie (almost ridiculously humorous in how disappointing it was).
Listening
Been listening to Sarah Brightman's "A Winter Symphony" a lot lately, as the music inspires me and helps me when I'm writing.
Life-ing
Had a pretty great month of February. The kids had a couple of weekend playdates and a sleep-over that went pretty well. We joined a small group at our church and are enjoying getting plugged in more. My husband's parents came to visit (from FL to WI... in the middle of Winter... they must love us an awful lot!) Homeschooling has been going quite well and we're even getting a little bit ahead, which is good, because I'm sure we'll get behind again once we hit April and have a new baby in the house!
We went and took a short tour of the hospital where little buddy will (hopefully) be born. My children tend to come fast, so my enormous prayer request for the next 5 weeks is going to be, "Please, Lord, do not let me have a baby in my car. Please."
I was diagnosed a couple of weeks ago with gestational diabetes, which was sort of a major blow to this girl with a serious phobia of needles and an aversion to blood... having to jab myself in the finger with a needle 4 times a day has taken rather a lot of prayer to get through... but thankfully my blood sugar numbers have been fantastic and the doctor even told me last week that I could reduce the number of finger-pricks from 4 to 3, so that has been a relief and a much-rejoiced answer to prayer. It's still a trial, but it's one we're getting through without so many tears now that I'm getting used to it. I keep reminding myself that I put my characters through far worse... thankfully this is the sort of thing that disappears once the baby comes, so I am doubly looking forward to Little Guy's arrival!
March Plans
My lofty and probably unattainable goal is to finish the first draft of Turrim 2 before baby boy gets here. So, I'm targeting the end of March (more realistically, probably the end of April). We shall see... if the book is going to be near the word count I think it is I'm going to have to more than double my writing output from the months of Jan and Feb to make that end-of-March goal... which may mean the blog is a little silent for the next two months.
How about you, dear Reader? What endeavors filled your February? Is it Spring yet where you are? I'd love to hear from you!