For the Love of Words: January 2018
This post contains affiliate links, which help support this indie author.
I know we’re already more than halfway through the first month of the new year, but I figure better late than never. Last year, I started doing quarterly updates on both my writing life and my reading life. Now that I’m reading more and more every month, I wanted to challenge myself to do these updates monthly. This month is a little bit different since it’s the new year, but first I’d like to recap the last quarter of 2017.
I had a list of six books that I wanted to read in the last quarter, and I think I actually read all but two of them – and then some.
–Settle for More by Megyn Kelly
–Poison and Prejudice by Chelsea Fields
–Who Killed These Girls? by Beverly Lowery
–All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
–The One with all the Writing Advice by Sean Platt and Johnny B. Truant
–Hardcore Twenty-Four by Janet Evanovich
–The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
I read all these books except The Stranger Beside Me and Who Killed These Girls? It was my intention to read both, but at the end of November, I actually got caught up in a new-to-me book series, which is what I’m currently in the middle of reading.
During Thanksgiving weekend, I picked up a book that I’d had on my bookshelf, Naked in Death. The book was written by Nora Roberts, using a pen name, J.D. Robb. Before this, I had never read a Nora Roberts book, but I loved it.
In December, I read the third and second books, Glory in Death and Immortal in Death. After that, I went to the library and checked out four books, but only read one of them because I wanted to come back to the In Death series.
So as a final recap, the books I read over quarter four:
- Settle for More
- Poison and Prejudice
- All the Missing Girls
- Hardcore Twenty-Four
- Naked in Death
- Glory in Death
- Immortal in Death
Given how busy it was at my day job, I’m pretty happy with that end list. I do most of my reading during down times at work, so the busier it is, the more my reading suffers. I’m trying to get back into the habit of reading right before bed. Call it one of my New Years’ Resolutions.
Now that we’re halfway through the month, my reading list for this month is a work in progress. I’m continuing with the In Death series. There are over forty books in this series, and I’m hoping to have them all read by 2019. I know, I’m crazy.
This month, I’m doing three of the books and then adding a different mystery novel to the mix.
I’m about halfway done with Ceremony in Death so I’m going to need to step it up a little bit if I want to finish all these books by February 1st.
Now that we’ve talked about my reading, I want to turn to my writing. This draft has been hard. There are a lot of parts to the book I’m writing and I’m struggling to just stay focused. Because writing is such a long process, I’m finding myself distracted. After I finish this draft of Hit List, I’m going to take a break from the book series. I want to work on something new, but I’m not sure what I want that to be.
I was thinking I could maybe do a short story series, but I’m not forcing myself to make any decisions until I hit the end of this book. So for now, I’m kind of in limbo, running toward the end of the road.
For now, I’m trying to stay flexible on my writing.
Tell me, though, what are you reading this month?