For the Love of Words: January Recap + February Look

Another month has come and gone and we are fully into 2018 now. My fingers have finally adjusted to reaching for the “8” instead of the “7” on the keyboard and I’ll admit, I’m rather impressed by how well the new year started out. In terms of writing and reading, I did better than I expected going into the month, so I’m hoping that momentum carries through to February.

For the Love of Words: February

Books I’m Reading

As always though, I want to start with a recap of January. During the month of January, I had four books that I wanted to read.

I read all of these, finishing The Woman in Cabin 10 over this past weekend. Knowing that I was still going to keep reading, I picked up the next book in the In Death series, Holiday in Death. I’m about a third of the way done with that book, so I’m including it in my February list.

The first three books were all in a series, but Vengeance in Death was my favorite. The main character and her husband were pitted against each other and there were a lot of scenes that broke my heart in a strange way.

The Woman in Cabin 10 left me with mixed feelings. It picked up in the end, but I wasn’t a fan of the main character. Part of my distaste for her was definitely because she has the same first name as me. So, when I didn’t like the main character to begin with, discovering we had the same name made me like her less because I don’t want to be associated with the character. She became better in the end, but I felt like there were options the author could have taken to expand upon things in the story.

I will say, with The Woman in Cabin 10, despite the weary beginning, I finished this book in about three days, so that’s always a good sign.

In February, I’m actually upping the book goal to five. I’m already a third of the way done with the first book, so I’m feeling like if I keep reading at the rate I’m going, I can read more. Yes, I realize that at five books, that’s more than a book a week. So what’s on my reading list this month?

The last two books are ones I picked up with The Book of the Month, which is a subscription box for books (you can get $5 off your first box by signing up with this link).

I think my reading goal was to read 25 books this year before I found the In Death series. If I read that whole series just by itself, I’ll have easily passed that 25 book threshold.

Now, let’s talk about my writing so far.

Books I’m Writing

I’m almost done with Hit List’s current draft. As in I’m planning to finish it today or tomorrow. After that, I have no intention of going back to the Cassie Morgan Series until April, at the very minimum. I need a creative refresh, something to shake it up.

So over the next two months, I want to write a series of novellas, I’m thinking closer to 20,000-30,000 words instead of the 70,000 words that I’m doing for Cassie Morgan. Most of February will be spent developing a plot and really taking my time before I jump in and start writing. When I first started working with Cassie Morgan, I was thirteen, so the idea of plot didn’t quite sit in my mind. That was 11 years ago and this is my first attempt to plan a series all the way through.

I’m hoping to do three short stories, but with the option to keep going if I want to do so later on in a few years.

There’s so much going on in my head and in my bookshelf, I really do hope that the rest of this year continues in the same direction. The next 28 days are going to fly by and I hope your month is full of fantastic reads, too.