August 2022 Doings!

Oof. Not going to lie; August has been a bit of a rough month. Not entirely bad, to be sure, but also far from ideal. Given that July was a high in a lot of ways, that's not entirely surprising — problems always hit harder when you're coming off something really fun and exciting — and I'm hopeful that September will swing back to a calm and cheerful equilibrium. Hopefully. It may just end up being more crazy. But before we get to that, let's take a look back at August.

Writing!

• This month was a little discouraging on the writing front. If you've been following my weekly goal posts on Facebook and Instagram or if you read my Taleweaver's Desk post a couple weeks ago, you know why: I ended up scrapping most of what I'd written and going back to scratch with an adjusted outline and a mostly-new draft. There were a few chapters that I could mostly salvage, but . . . not many. I think the new version is going to be better, but it's still frustrating. I'm currently working on the new Chapter 6, which is behind where I wanted to be, but . . . it is what it is.
• Edits on Through a Shattered Glass are also stalled because feedback from one person kept getting pushed back . . . I know she's super busy with her own writing, and the story is pretty strong already, so I'm not upset, nor am I super worried? But I would also like to get back to this so I'm not rushing at release time. (Also, I can't finish the cover design or work on formatting until I have at least one more round of edits done, and I want to work on those things!)
• On the upside, D&D writing is coming along reasonably well. Not quickly, by any means, but still well enough that I'm counting it as a win. And my group says they're enjoying it, even if it is more or less glorified communal fanfiction.

Reading!

• This month actually started really well on the reading front, as I devoured the rest of H.L. Burke's Supervillain Rehabilitation Project (excellent, particularly the last two), her Supervillain Romance Project duology (also delightful), and the first Supervillain Rescue Project book (every bit as good as the rest). I absolutely love these books, and I can't believe it took me so long to read them! I would say that Refined, Reunited, On the Run with a Supervillain, and Power On are my favorites, but they're all quite excellent.
• A couple other highlights of the month: Grave Peril and my Secrets of the Mountain reread. Grave Peril is the third Dresden Files book, and while I wasn't thrilled about a lot of the content (even more so than usual), I was pleased to meet Michael — I've heard quite a few people speak highly of him as a character, and he definitely lived up to what I've heard. And, of course, I love Secrets of the Mountain, and it was doubly fun because I know quite a few secrets behind the story now and because I got to read it in hard copy instead of on a computer.
• Then we got to about midway through the month, and I got distracted by a new book called How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler by Ryan North. The conceit is that it's a guide from an alternative future for stranded time travelers who get stuck in the distant past and need a shortcut to recreating a version of modern life; the actual content is a breakdown of different physical and cultural inventions and some degree of how they work and what goes into them. It's not exhaustive, but even with what it does cover . . . well, some of the chapters are fine, but there's one chapter that took me about half a week to get through because it's so. long. And while the voice is fun, and the author does a good job of not getting too technical, it still dragged a bit. I haven't finished yet, so we'll see what my final verdict is.

Watching!

• I didn't get to watch a lot this month, partially due to being busy and partially for other reasons.
• I did get to introduce my sister to Firefly, though, so that was exciting! Unfortunately, we only had time for the pilot, but she seemed interested in watching more at a later date.
• I also watched a couple episodes of The Librarians because . . . mostly because I wanted a change of pace, I guess? And because I didn't feel like watching something on a tablet/mobile device, and my other more active shows are limited in what devices I can easily watch them on.

Life!

• Why have I spent so much of this month tired? July made sense — I was running around like mad getting ready for Realm Makers and then being at Realm Makers. But this month . . . I don't know.
• The month had a very exciting start when, on the very first day of August, my car started vibrating and shaking on my way to work. I pulled off, Googled things, and did a visual inspection of the wheels in case I had a flat, but because I was still pretty close, I decided to take the car home and have my sister drive instead . . . which was very much the right decision, because when I turned the car back on, it was shaking worse than before, and I had to floor the gas pedal to get above 10 or 15 miles an hour. So, you know, that's mildly problematic. Thankfully, it kept going until we could get home and quickly leave again, and some very helpful neighbors offered advice on what was probably wrong and where to go to get it fixed. It turned out to just be an issue with the spark plugs, and I'm grateful that it wasn't worse, but it was still . . . you know. Scary and stressful. (And then I had tire trouble at the end of the month . . . yeah.)
• The rest of the month hasn't had anything quite so stressful, but it's still been a bit not-ideal, as I spent two weeks dealing with some fairly significant ear pain — not debilitating, but I couldn't use earbuds and couldn't sleep on one side, and it eventually got bad enough that I went to the doctor over it. As with the car, the problem ended up not being a serious one — just painful and unpleasant in the moment — but it did not make for a great month.
• On the upside, I finally did something I've been wanting to do for a couple years now: upgrade from a desktop to a laptop! I've been struggling with my laptop for the last couple years due to the low amount of storage space — constantly having to pare down programs and files in order to get Photoshop to work or to upgrade things, keeping ninety percent of my files on an external drive (which meant my laptop was no longer particularly mobile), and trying to figure out why two-fifths of my drive was being taken up by OneDrive stuff that I knew I'd deleted. I knew that the easiest way to resolve the issue would just be to go up to a desktop, but didn't find one within my price range until this year's back-to-school sales. As a bonus, once I had everything transferred over to the new computer, I could start over with my laptop from scratch and get rid of the OneDrive error! So now I can actually use my laptop as a laptop without constantly running out of storage space and having to decide if I want to be able to write, work on graphics stuff, or play games (because there wasn't space for all three).
• What else . . . my sister left to go back to college midway through the month. I miss having her around, but she seems to be having a good start to her semester.
• At work, I had a couple very light weeks, and then everything got thrown into overdrive this week and last week. We're gearing up for several big events in September and October and trying to update various graphics, systems, and whatnot around the church, so . . . yeah. It's been a bit stressful. We did have an indoor picnic midway through the month, though, so that was fun.
• We also went to visit my grandpa towards the beginning of the month, and it was nice to get to see him again. It wasn't an especially eventful visit, but it was enjoyable. (Also, we were celebrating his birthday, so my mom made Almond Joy cake, which was delicious.)
• Oh, and I finally finished a crafting project I've been working on most of the summer! Not the scarf I've been working on for a couple years, but still a win.

September Plans

• Please, let September be quiet.
• Oh! But not too quiet, because September is the Silmaril Awards! The nomination posts go up Monday, and I am SUPER excited. I get to host one of my favorite categories this year; it's going to be fabulous. I also have a bunch of characters I'm excited to nominate in other categories.
• I need to make progress on Bastian Dennel, PI #4, but I also need to get at least one round of Through a Shattered Glass edits done, possibly two. And I need to get a preorder up.
• On a completely unrelated note, the cover reveal for the Arista Challenge Broken Mirrors collection is coming up on September 14! I hear there's a pretty shiny lineup of releases, so that's going to be exciting. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on that.
• I'll also be doing some traveling this month to attend a friend's wedding. I'm looking forward to celebrating with her and seeing my friend group in person again — plus, I'll probably get to visit my sister at her college during the same trip. (I may also try to hit a Ren Faire and/or one of my favorite non-VA coffee shops during said trip. We'll see how things work out.)
• I would really like to finish the scarf that I've been working on for ages this month. I don't know how successful I'll be, but . . . I'd like to get all my projects finished before I start anything new. (And I really want to start another embroidery project, but I can't decide what design I want to make — do I want to do something related to a favorite book? Something around song lyrics that I really like? Just something cute and neutral?)
• And, at work, the busy schedule will continue as those big events I've mentioned draw ever closer . . . oh well. At least this is a long weekend, so I can get a little bit of rest.

How was your August? Any exciting plans for September? Are you excited for the Silmaril Awards (and have you started thinking about who you're going to nominate)? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!