June 2024 Doings!

Hello, everyone! June has, thankfully, been pretty peaceful. That's not to say that nothing happened — in fact, one or two quite exciting things occurred! — but mostly it's been very routine. One of the most exciting bits of the month was in the world of writing, though, so let's jump in there.

Writing!

• Let's start with some excellent news: the first draft of Daughters of Atirse #2 is finished! We wrapped up with 34 chapters and just shy of 174K words, which is pretty substantial and a little longer than I expected, but not much longer. It might have been longer still had my characters not decided to go slightly off-script in the climax — I know, normally that makes stories longer, but there's an exception to everything. I also got to have a nice writing day and some treats at a cafe on Juneteenth (which I had off from work), so that helped the process along.
• I finished that last Sunday, June 23. I then took a couple days off from writing as a break before jumping back in to do some light edits (mostly fixing some details that shifted between the first half of the book and the second and rewriting a scene or two), which are going well; I'm about a third of the way through those. Once I finish edits, I'll send it off to beta-readers.
• In other exciting news, the DOSA Files anthology that includes my short story "Save{Point}" just released this past week! Even if you missed the Kickstarter, you can now order it in ebook or paperback form. There's also a blog tour that just wrapped up, but I think you can still enter the giveaways — click here to visit the tour masterpost and find out where to find all the things.
• All my writing energy has been directed towards Daughters of Atirse #2, so I don't have much to report on other projects. I haven't written more D&D, but we did have a couple sessions that were pretty fun, and some of what I read this month inspired some more noodling on the Secret Star Project. And speaking of what I've been reading . . .

Reading!

• I spent most of June rereading the Murderbot series (and first-time reading the latest book, System Collapse). I was happy to find that these books were just as good or better on the reread, and I very much enjoyed the latest installment as well. It's very much an affirmation of the power of stories and storytelling while also being tense and exciting and having all the good things one would hope for from this series. The series is available in Kindle Unlimited, if you're interested in checking it out. (Obligatory content warning: there's a good bit of strong language, some violence (though not graphically described), and a fair number of secondary characters who are some flavor of not-straight (though the fact that the POV character is extremely not interested in any of that helps downplay it enough that it doesn't bother me)).
• Outside of Murderbot, my month was also mostly rereads: I finished rereading Howl's Moving Castle (delightful as ever), revisited the graphic novel of The Adventure Zone: The Crystal Kingdom (in preparation for reading the next installment in that series), and am continuing to enjoy Dracula via Dracula Daily.
• I did have some other new-to-me reads, though. When a Dragon Comes Courting was a fun little fantasy romance novellette; I enjoyed it, though the narration emphasized physical attraction a little more than I would've liked. I've also been reading Beka Gremikova's Unexpected Encounters of a Draconic Kind anthology (not pictured, as I'm still reading it as of the writing of this post), which I've meant to get around to for a while. Like in most anthologies, some stories are better than others, but on the whole, it's a good collection.

 Watching & Playing!

• Not much to report here — the only things I've watched this month were a couple episodes of Hogan's Heroes while at my grandpa's house, and as far as podcasts go, I've mostly been listening to Dracula Daily and Lateral. I did try some of Myths & Legends at the recommendation of several friends, but didn't vibe with it the way I hoped I would (alas). Why do I like Overly Sarcastic Productions videos and not Myths & Legends podcasts when they're very similar? No clue, but that's how it is.
• On the gaming front, I spent most of June playing through the Xianghou questline in Honkai Star Rail (which I started back in May, and which was the reason I got into the game in the first place). That was undeniably awesome — I'd heard a lot about how good it was from my friends, and I knew I'd like it on some level because it involved characters I really wanted to meet (and was predisposed to like), but I was not fully prepared for how epic the climax was. Or the pre-climax. Or several of the character quests. It was probably a good thing that I was home alone on the nights that I played the pre-climax and climax because I legitimately screamed at points; it was just that good. Of course, it helped that these particular plotlines focused a lot on two of my favorite characters . . .
• (I will say that I was very grateful to have friends who've already played this arc and could make sure I didn't skip anything important. There are a few pretty important sidequests that I definitely would've missed had people not let me know "Hey, you need to do this thing now, not later," and the storyline would not have been as fun if I'd messed that up.)
• Also related to Star Rail, I ended up starting a group chat with two of my friends who are also into the game so we could talk about the game and I could send them updates on my playthrough and reactions to stuff that's happening (since the Xianghou arc is also their favorite), and that was a fabulous choice. It turns a single-player game into a social activity, and getting to chat and share my experience with them while I play makes the game so much better.

Life!

• June was, thankfully, pretty quiet on the whole — the "big event" of the month was visiting my grandpa over Father's Day weekend. I haven't seen him since Christmas, so it was nice to go out and visit. This trip was a little different than most, though, as my parents went on a retreat the week before we went to my grandpa's, and they drove straight to his house from the retreat center. That meant two things: first, that I was responsible for bringing dessert for the weekend, and second, that I was driving up by myself (not a problem, but long solo drives are always a big of an Event for me). Both things went well, thankfully. I made German Chocolate earthquake cake (an upside-down cake with a cream cheese layer baked in), which everyone said was good, and I only missed one turn on the drive (near the end, and it was extremely poorly labeled).
• Also related to baking: my Baking Yesteryear recipe for the month was chocolate mayonnaise cake, which turned out really well! It was my first time making a full-size Bundt cake, and I was absolutely thrilled when it didn't stick at all to the pan. The cake itself tasted pretty good too, though I can't recommend the icing method included with the recipe — it had an odd flavor to it that I didn't really enjoy. But, again, the cake was good, and I'd definitely make that again.
• Work has been going well. It's been a quiet month, for which I am grateful. There were a few days when there were only two or three people in the office, but I'm not complaining about that.
• And on the crafting front, I'm still working on my Cosmere pin hoop. It's been kind of slow going, since stitching through felt and fabric together is difficult, plus Bible study was cancelled a couple times, and I normally get a lot of embroidery done there (since I use it to keep my hands occupied during discussions).
• I think that about covers it — like I said, June was a quiet month, and I'm grateful for it.

July Plans

• Once Daughters of Atirse #2 is with beta readers (which should be soon), I plan to give myself a few weeks' break from writing. That's not to say that I won't write anything, especially since I do need to work on my D&D stuff — I'll just mostly be doing it as I feel inspired, and I won't stress if I don't make my day's wordcount (because I mostly won't have a set wordcount to make). I'll definitely prep my next D&D adventure, and I may do some noodling on side projects. I'll also work on some writing adjacent projects, like the cover for Daughters of Atirse #2 and commissioning character art.
• Of course, most of my writing break will be taken up by one very exciting thing: Realm Makers! I'm so excited to be back at the conference for a third year, especially since I'm hoping to visit some family and friends on the way out to St. Louis. I'm looking forward to seeing my author friends and writing buddies (and meeting some of them in person for the first time), hearing what the speakers have to say, and, of course, finding out the Realm Awards winners. I've been hyped for this trip for months, and now it's almost here! (And I'm praying very hard that nothing goes wrong at the last minute.)
• For those attending and curious about buying my books or getting them signed: I'll be consigning some of my titles through the Realm Makers store, and a lot of those will be pre-signed. However, I'm happy to sign (or personalize) books if you catch me during the conference, and I think that I should have a stable signing spot during the Book Fair on Saturday night.
• My blogging semi-hiatus will continue for most of July, though I do plan to post my mid-year book roundups next week, and I may end up doing one review post midway through the month. We'll see.
• As for work, the new associate pastor is starting this month, so hopefully that will go well! Between that and the fact that my trip will mess with bulletin schedules, things may be a little more exciting than they have been . . . but I'm not terribly stressed about it. It'll still be less crazy than some other seasons.
• I think that covers all my big plans. I'll continue with my reading, crafting, and baking goals as I have been doing. The only other semi-significant thing happening is that I need to make some decisions about the fall semester of grad school (namely, which classes I'm taking next, and when I'm taking them), which is . . . a little stressful, but it'll be fine.

How was your June? Any plans for July? Will I be seeing you at Realm Makers? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!