Update 27: Week of 29 Apr
Writing about gods, dragons, space mermaids, AIs, and more. Always with queer characters and with some art on the side.
I’m home!! Last month felt a bit like it was lost regarding things I wanted to do and it was focused more on things that I had to do. Not that I didn’t want to, but it caused a lot of my own things to fall to the background as I focused on family and work only - less fun stuff with writing and designing and no art at all!
But I did get some really good quality time with mom, and then with mom and grandma, and I even got to visit relatives I haven’t seen in 15+ years!!!
My April to-do list update:
✓ Trip with mom! - Came back safe and sound on the Monday :)
𐄂 Finish draft 3 of 3V3 book 1 - ha! must have been crazy to even think this
✓ Write 5 chapters of GoD and 2 chapters of OMD (interchangable) - no OMD, but I did get 4 nice chonky chapters down for GoD, so counting the win!
✓ Keep promoting the Soultaming Giveaway! - it happened! there were a total of 12 entrants and the winner was announced on Wednesday!!
𐄂 Get Last Sunset (yes, I renamed it) up as a reader magnet - nope, but I’ve been getting the feedback in and gonna implement some of it
✓ Update Ko-Fi with pre-mades and services - gonna mark this as a check even though I only put 3 pre-mades on there, but wanna get traffic before adding more
𐄂 Write at least one more short story for Fantastical Space Stories - didn’t happen and probably not gonna happen for a while yet 😅
My new May to-do list (simplified):
Write guest blog articles
Finish current indie reads and write reviews/feedbacks
Implement beta feedback and share Last Sunset with you all :)
Keep up with GoD posting and writing (and some promo images)
Sign Soultaming up for the SPFBOX (fingers crossed it gets in!!)
Do another giveaway for Soultaming
Try to get work done on 3V3 (it’s not a lack of motivation!!)
Consider offering direct sales of Soultaming from my Ko-Fi
Start posting reviews on my TikTok (not sure yet?)
Writing update
Even though there wasn’t a lot of writing done, I was able to get 4 chapters for GoD prepped - most of which passed the 4k word mark on drafting and then got edited down to… one was still over 4k 😅
The people voted and said they want longer chapters!!! I answer!!!
But yeah, God of Discovery Arc 4 is officially starting on Monday, so keep an eye out for that. I had the idea to do a new cover, but I haven’t had the attention span for that and I already have this one prepared. Maybe I’ll switch it out later.
If you want to get the GoD arc 4 chapters right into your inbox, go to your Account and turn on the God of Discovery section, and if you’re new to the serial, make sure to check out the God of Discovery Masterpost.
Reading recap
Webtoons, light novels, trads, advanced indies, and reviews!
Instead of doing a reading recommendation this week, I’m going to do a recap of my own reading for the month of April.
I’ve had the audiobook of The Poppy War Trilogy on my phone and though I was able to get a bit of listening in on a 3hr bus ride, I don’t have the attention span to just listen. I really need to get back into knitting (or drawing?) so I have something to do while I have this on.
I ended up reading a bunch of webtoons to help get me out of a funky mood and that included Murderous Lewellyn's Candlelit Dinner, Checkmate, The words in your snare (which I had DNFed on 3 separate occasions and finally finished!!) and My calypso. Not in love with any of them, but I needed something to get my mind off other things and they worked perfectly for that.
I also read Wedding Dragon by Liv Rider (which I realized was part of a series of stand alones only after finishing it) and again… not my favourite, but it was perfect for throwing me into a simple world with low stakes and dragons.
I also made a promise to my sister to read 3 Body Problem and even though slow and annoying at times, it was good and after finishing the first book I’ve decided I will be continuing the series to see where it goes. It’s exciting!!
Outside of that, I also started a few light novels and DNFed three of them: Stone Age Husband Raising Journal, Strategy to capture that scum gong, and My boyfriend is a dragon. The first one had MCs that annoyed me a few chapters in, the second one I couldn’t get into again because of the MC, and the last one I was about 20 chapters in and felt way too disconnected.
Due to those DNFs, it took me a bit to find one I liked but then I got sucked into PUBG Online Romance of the Century and devoured it within a week and that led me into starting a new one: FOG (e-sports). Only a few chapters in and a little weirded out by the timeline, but it’s not bad so far. We’ll see if I’ll DNF it or not.
I am also currently 2 chapters into The Astray Chosen - the coming-soon second book of the Thedre Trilogy by Laura Huie. I am already invested, even though it hasn’t even been sent to ARC readers yet, but I’ve got inside connections with the author 😉
Another 5 chapters into The Last Lunar Witch by SF Henne. I did read this back last year, but Henne decided to take it back for more edits and is re-publishing it SOON! This book is the reason why I had so many DNF urban fantasy books before - it got me back into the genre but the others didn’t stack up to it.
And I also got a sneak preview for a book I beta read earlier this year that may end up getting a huge plot change at the end. Trying to keep quiet on it though, so please don’t ask me anything about this 🤫
Lastly, I was able to get two reviews in at SFF Insiders (and make sure to check them out for more) including: A Betrayal of Storms by Ben Anderson and Evil Omega by S. Rodman.
Have any books you want to recommend? Drop them in the comments with their tagline or a short description and I’ll add them to this reading list. In the meantime, I’ll be dropping off my own TBR and to-buy lists on here.
Back to working together with my queen :)
5 chapters!! When are they coming out?!