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I'm trying something new here - we'll see if it works. Here's looking back on January 2016, as we get ready to begin February (already!). Words written: 4,482 on one project (Paranormal Investigations) Things accomplished in fiction: Alison returns to work, She and Jonathan start the will-they won't-they dance, and something seems a bit...off about Shawn. Writer-ly things accomplished: Spent some time sorting through outline notes and updating my draft, figuring out which scenes need to be moved and what needs to be added; feel like I'm in a better spot for moving forward. New books read: The Scorpion Rules (started in December, YA dystopia, beginning of a potentially awesome trilogy/series); Heaps of Pearl (short story set in the October Daye universe, fun and a little sad); A History of Civilization in 50 Disasters (started in December, light, bordering on a listicle, but points out some unexpected consequences of natural and human-driven disasters); How the ...

I am pretty bad at social media, and I freely own up to this. The bulk of my tweets and Facebook posts are links back to this blog, and I go days at a time without even looking at either thread, much less updating them. Blogging here has been something I've been trying to do more often, if for no other reason than because it gives me more opportunities to write. But about what? My biggest issue with social media specifically, and writing in general, is that I don't feel like I have anything to say. Maybe it's the generation I grew up in - the idea of posting pictures of my food for every meal seems pointless to me. Telling everyone every thing that goes through my head seems like the quick path to having no friends. In general, I have a hard time believing that anyone actually cares about any of that, even when I know that posts are narrowed down to just my friends and family. I'm much more likely to post about my cats' health than my own, because let's face...

I've been a fan of  Seanan McGuire  for quite some time, and when I learned she was doing a new urban fantasy series, I was tremendously excited. I had already read and loved her October Daye series, but I admit that it does have its moments of being really flipping dark, so I was looking forward to a lighter series. Plus, there are monsters! The first book in the series,  Discount Armageddon , introduces the family of Prices, who are cryptozoologists that make it their mission to study and, when they need to, protect cryptids, which are essentially the stuff of myths and legends. Sasquatches, dragons, gorgons, etc. - all of them exist, and most of them have integrated into society, though in hiding. The main character of the books changes throughout the series - we start with Verity, then move on to her brother Alex. There are several short stories available for free on Seanan's website, and they give a better sense of background for the family as a whole, as well as...

So, anyone who is friends with me on  Goodreads  (incidentally, feel free to friend me!) will know that my Currently Reading shelf tends to get a little crowded. I know a lot of people prefer to read one book at a time, but that's never been my preferred method of reading. For me, I usually have at least three books going at any given time: some sort of anthology or other type of bite-sized reading (currently,  A History of Civilization in 50 Disasters  and  The Science of Discworld  fill this niche), some series that I'm re-reading (usually in anticipation of a new book coming out - right now, that's  Poison Study  and  Libriomancer ), and something new to me that was recommended ( City of Stairs  and  Knots and Crosses  fill this niche). There are also other random things that I've picked up along the way (that would be  Reflections ,  Prudence  and  Night Owls ), but that part varies. I read certain k...

Over the years, I've found that I enjoy books in various formats. I've been a member of  Audible  for many years (disclaimer: I work for Amazon.com, which is the parent company for Audible), and the eBook revolution has definitely made an impact in my reading habits. The more I like a book, the more different formats I'll end up buying it. Based on that alone, my all-time favorite book must be  A Wrinkle in Time  by Madeleine L'Engle. I grew up with parents who read, particularly my father. Everyone in our house tended to wander around with books in hand, which meant the question "Where's my book?" was asked on a regular basis. My dad was the one who was big on science fiction and fantasy, along with military fiction, and his enthusiasm spilled into my reading choices. A Wrinkle in Time  was the first science fiction book I remember reading, and it was pivotal for me. It wasn't until years later that I realized just how the book had affected me. It...

Every writer has a few things that they know they are good at, and a few things that they know could use improvement. I frequently have a hard time coming up with things that fit into the former category, but boy howdy, can I fill up the latter. They're the things that I know I need to improve upon in order to make my writing better, but they're also things that are almost painful to work on, because I know it's just not good. The biggest weakness I can think of in my own writing is dialogue. I've never been particularly gifted in the realm of conversation, even when I'm speaking in my own voice. To speak in the voices of my characters is even more difficult. I've noticed that they tend to start sounding the same (which is to say, like me, only more so), which makes distinguishing them difficult. I also have the problem that many people of my generation deal with - that dreaded word 'like.' People have had filler words and sounds, like um, uh, er, an...

I've recently been re-reading some of my favorite books, in part to get myself ready to read the most recent book in the series. It's one of my biggest habits as a reader, and one that I'm actually trying to work on - I'm trying to make sure that I'm reading more new books than re-reading old books in a year, and that can be difficult when all I want to do is curl up with an old favorite. At any rate, a series I recently finished was the Finishing School series (first book is  Etiquette & Espionage ) by Gail Carriger. I had previously read the Parasol Protectorate series by the same author, so when I found out that she was writing a prequel, young adult series, I was very excited. It was lovely to see how some of the characters in the Parasol Protectorate books started out, and getting a better sense of where they came from makes re-reading the later books take on a new meaning. The series are set in an alternate Victorian England, in which vampires and were...

Well, it's four days into the new year, and I've already written more than I did in the first three months of last year. I've been using  Habitica  to help me keep up with writing on a regular basis, and it's truly amazing how easy it is for me to get tricked into doing things, if it means keeping my character hale and hearty (and feeding my pets, of course). I'm hoping that the last couple of weeks will be indicative of how the next year will go. I try to avoid making resolutions, because I feel like I'm just setting myself up for failure. There's something about saying "I'm going to [X]" that makes me feel like it's not going to happen. And no, I don't understand it myself. Either way, I just try to figure out something I want to aim for. This year, I will try to: Write regularly Finish writing and editing something Continue doing things that will make me feel better It doesn't seem like much, I know, but just putting it...