Another month of pandemic fun has come and gone… Don’t worry, I’m NOT going to spend this whole blog post talking about COVID, because I can pretty much guarantee that each and every one of you is sick and tired of hearing and talking about it. i know I am. So, I will shut up and talk about something slightly more uplifting; what I did during July.
I didn’t work TOO hard during July. (I hope my dad doesn’t read that) I re-launched The Sacrifice of One in June and just did a re-launch of The Bear Gap Rebels in early August, so I kind of needed some time in July to recover and prepare for the next launch.
For July 4th, my whole family went to the beach for a few days. Getting the entire family together for a trip like this hasn’t happened in years, so this was really exciting. The weather was wonderful, albeit very hot. We got to spend a couple of days at the beach, masks in tow. But the highlight was definitely the 4th of July feast and the fireworks that came later that night.
The house that we stay at is right on the bay in kind of an inlet, so we can see land on the other side. Many of the homes and businesses on this inlet set off fireworks at the same time, so for hours you can watch firework shows on all sides. It’s really beautiful and something to behold.
After our little mini-vacation, I was back to the grind. Truth is, I worked a bit while we were away too. I started the process of re-launching The Bear Gap Rebels and continued my work on The Dark Ruler.
Can I confess something to you? In July I realized that I had underestimated the amount of work that would go in to re-launching these 2 books. The books were already written. They just needed a little tweaking, new covers etc. This should be easy. Right??
I like to give my advanced reader team (AKA my Street Team) at least a month to read a book before it’s launched. So when July 1st came around, I had to hustle to get everything over to my Street Team that they needed. This seemed so soon since I had JUST re-launched The Sacrifice of One a week or so before. I didn’t leave myself a lot of breathing room. Regardless, I got it all done, and the re-launch of The Bear Gap Rebels went well. But I’ll talk about that in next month’s wrap up!
I also started working on some serious edits for The Dark Ruler in July. I went back through and read all of the critiques I had received from my critique partners over the past few months. I learned that I still had a lot to work on with this book. It was discouraging (but necessary) to read some of those critiques. I had to sit back and look at my book critically, which is hard to do…
If there was a theme for July, I think it would be overwhelm. I was overwhelmed by the launches and overwhelmed by all the work I have to do on The Dark Ruler. I still have quite a road ahead of me with this book, but I’m ready to get the work done. I’ll have a post coming really soon with a full blown update on The Dark Ruler and all the stuff that’s happening there.
Besides keeping myself knee deep in The Dark Ruler edits, I’ve been trying to enjoy the summer despite all of the COVID disruptions. (oops sorry, I said I wouldn’t mention that again!) I was able to get away for a few days in Philly to spend some time with some good friends of mine. I also had a WONDERFUL date night with my husband. We went to a restaurant that we haven’t been to since we were dating. They have THE. MOST. AMAZING. cheese fries!
I’ve also been somewhat unsuccessfully nursing a tomato plant. I’ve gotten a whopping 3 small tomatoes off of this guy for the whole summer. Is anyone else struggling with tomatoes this summer or is it just me?
Well, I’m going to keep plowing through my summer bucket list before fall hits. Go swimming. Eat more ice-cream. Grow tomatoes… Has anyone else seen Halloween costumes at the stores already? I say, let’s hold the reigns and enjoy this last bit of the blistering heat. What are your plans for the remainder of the summer? Comment below!
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Reading is one of the magicks groups. It can transport you from your world to another time, place, or even planet, and allow you to experience (vicariously) the adventures of other people or creatures. Authors are magicians who cast the spells that take you into those worlds. One good thing about this quarantining is that many of us are working on our TBR stacks and enjoying discovering new (to the reader) authors who captivate us and make us think and help us to form our future attitudes towards all kinds of things. Hooray for reading!!!
Hi Emily,
When summer started we had 6 tomato planted which, just prior to being able to enjoy fruits from them, one of the dogs ate all the tomatoes! I was able to get only the one yellow squash and one pepper also. With the heat index being well over 100, outside activities have been few and far between. Halloween costumes started coming into Costco last week so I’ve been told. Not trying to wish my life away, but truly hope the weather will start to cool down in September as I have lots of outdoor projects to do. The one thing that I have accomplished is getting my Christmas shopping done (almost). Everything purchased has been wrapped and placed in the appropriate boxes for shipping in October since, with Covid restrictions, I doubt I will be able to make family holiday celebrations in Chicago and Atlanta. With 18 people to buy for, it takes a while to get things done. Still working on my homeless mats. So far have two done and about a quarter through the third. Work would probably go faster if I would just knit away but I want to be giving away “art”. The first one was stripes of gray, brown and white. The second was a black background with random geometric shapes of green, brown, white and gray. The one I’m currently working on will hopefully look like a poster with a black border. Inside the border will be sand, a pyramid and a moon🤞. I might be able to weave a Palm tree in also. I’ve found dye to be able to add additional colors to the mix so we will see how well my plastic bags take to the mix. Did I mention that I am knitting these mats from plastic bag strips? Other than this have been taking care of the 11 senior dogs, reading and writing reviews. Last week was busy as I had 5 books to review (I had forgotten about one of them and had the wrong date one the other) so my eyes were tired to say the least.
Your two tomatoes look great! Mine haven’t done well either this year 🙁 keep plugging through! Can’t wait to read your next book!