Weekly Check-in #37

What I've Been Writing:

I have returned to working on Defectors and Queens, the second book in my True Heir Duology. Not a lot of progress has been made. I only have 35,000 words written. But I have a few lines that make me smile. Kind of like this little sample: 

“How do you feel?”

How do I feel?

One of the hottest men in the kingdom just had his mouth on me? He licked my fucking flesh. How does he think I feel? I’m a little lightheaded, definitely short of breath, and incredibly shaky all over. There’s a peculiar heaviness in the pit of my stomach and tingles racing up the insides of my thighs as well as out the front of my chest. 

I really don’t think I’m supposed to be turned on quite this much by what he just did. But I am. I really, embarrassingly am.

Amusement lines his features before he reiterates, “Can you use your powers more easily now?”

“Oh!” Oh hell, that’s what he’s asking about.

 

What I've Been Reading: 

I'm a reading slacker this week. Haven't read a thing. I started a new book last week, but haven't even gotten past chapter one, so I may put that one aside and try something else next week.

What I've Been Buying:

I got two new releases this week: Fallen Gods and The Dark is Descending. 

Then, I started collecting the Royal Artifactual Guild books by Ruby Dixon. But I couldn't find the special edition of Bull Moon Rising available anymore, so I ordered a used copy, and they "forgot" to mention it was an old library book. There were call numbers and library barcode stickers all over it. I had to do a lot of magic to get them off, and there's still a sticky spot where two stickers were that doesn't please me, but still...I got my sprayed edges, so I guess I'll stop whining.

And I got an early copy of We Who Will Die from Book of the Month Club. It was available through my Allurial monthly choices, so I almost picked it there, except I ended up going with The Wolf King instead, so I was all tickled to see a limited edition version through Book of the Month when I went to pick my choices there next. And that's been my week!

Weekly Check-in #36

 What I've Been Writing:

I'm still tinkering around with Impostors and Thieves, thinking I'll just read through it one more time to make sure it's clean. But then I find stuff to polish and just start going through it again. I need to stop and work on its next book or get started on Book 6 of The Seven because people keep asking about that. But nope, I've been all about the I and T lately. It's word count is at: 139,193. Maybe I'll set it aside next week and write new stuff. We'll see!

What I've Been Reading: 

Nothing this week. I did finish Alchemised last week. It was good. I liked it. I see why the big hype. 

What I've Been Buying:

Oh boy!! My bookstore tour of Kansas City with the girls last Saturday was epic. We went to Ink and Page Book Boutique (lots of romance and popular stuff, all new books), Under the Cover Romance Bookshop (only romance books, yay), Pospero's Book and Media (only used books), Rainy Day Books (only new books), and Smitten Booktique (only romance books, nice).  From this wild book spending spree, I got:

• The Princess Bride 
• Once Upon a Broken Heart
• Your Knife, My Heart
• The Fine Print
• Between Two Kings
• Rose in Chains
• House of Rayne
• Nightweaver 
• Evermore

Then, from the mail last week, I got:

• The Book of Azrael
• This Vicious Dream
• Rain of Shadows and Endings
• Starchaser

And then this week in the mail, I received: 

• Till Death
• The Wolf King
• The Irresistible Urge to Fall For Your Enemy
• Kiss of the Basilisk

I didn't update last week because we were busy decorating for Christmas...and Stranger Things. We got a Christmas Book Tree created and a Stranger Things alphabet wall hung. Check 'em out!

Weekly Check-in #35

 What I've Been Writing:

Impostors and Thieves: My second reader finished this story, and oh, I loved all her guesses and theories. She's made me all energized and excited about it. It's been sent off somewhere else since, and now...we wait. 

Defectors and Queens: I spent most of this week writing out a timeline and plot summary of how I want this one to go. So 3,600 words of my time went to that.  I've only added maybe 2,000 words to the actual manuscript. But it's my top priority now!

What I've Been Reading:

I've been doing lots of reading (for me). I finished A Fate Inked in Blood and hopped right into A Curse Carved in Bone by Daniella Jensen. Loved them both. Lots of surprising twists. 

After finishing those over the weekend, I started Alchemised. And hmm... Now this book. It's not just reading; it's a whole experience. Probably the longest book I've ever attempted. I spent all my free time reading on it this week, and I'm not even halfway through.  And it's just...Well. On TikTok, I described it as "It's just bad things happening, piled upon bad things upon more bad things--so many awful things--that you just can't stop reading about this terrible, terrible world. It's a masterpiece of traumatizing proportions."  And that's all I have to say about that.

What I've been Buying: 

I got Brimstone by Callie Hart, I, Medusa by Ayana Gray, Daydream by Hannah Grace, and The Bond That Burns by Briar Boleyn this week.  But this weekend, I'm going on a girl trip to Kansas City to partake in a bookstore crawl...or tour...or whatever it's called (we're gonna visit a lot of bookstores), so I'm hoping--fingers crossed--that I have some good stuff to show you next week.