Musing on February, Hailing March
11:53 PM
Do you know, this monthly wrap-up thing is actually growing on me? I quite like it - I wonder why it seemed such a bother before.
There is one minor change I made to the wrap-up from last month and that was it's "name" pattern. The last one was waayyyy too cliche and didn't seem to be as personalized as the motif that I used for Working by Candlelight (using the words "snuffed" and "light", in an obvious reference to candles).
The first part was easy (since musing always happens when you're reflecting) but that second part gave me quite a lot of trouble. I finally chose "hailing" since it seemed rather old-fashioned and fitting. What do you think, though? Could it be better?
Anyways, enough with the trivialities. Let us proceed....
🙞 In the Realms of Fiction 🙜
1. I've read some new books this month: The Obituary Society by Jessica Matthews, Cinder by Marissa Meyer, The Goose Girl by Harold MacGrath and Disowned by Sarah Addison-Fox. You can find reviews for all except The Goose Girl on my Goodreads page. I also started another futuristic dystopian story called The Uncanny Valley by C. Gray. Not sure if I'll finish that one or not.....
2. I got absolutely no writing done, but I have been playing with some plot points with SOI, and "Shattered Chandelier".
3. Speaking of SOI, I really should stop calling it SOI and call it by it's proper name, Hidden Seeds. Because I changed the name and made a new cover for it when I wrote it's Meet the Books segment this month.
4. I started using Duolingo! I did this for a few reasons: one, because I love languages, and two, I think it will be a great writing tool in the future....i.e. for use for those foreign phrases that make a book much more interesting.
Right now, I'm taking courses in French, Italian, Polish and Welsh.
I took French in high school and when I was doing some personal research, I had to navigate some French Canadian sites with no English translation. Even though I haven't actually studied it in over 6 years, it was astounding how much French I actually remembered but how little I remembered my vocabulary translations..... *shifts eyes*
I'm also taking Italian and Polish because of my family heritage and I may take German for the same reason. Also, it will give my brother someone to practice his German on, maybe. LOL.
And the Welsh? While I also have a family connection to Welsh, I'm taking it more for Hidden Seeds than anything else. If I gain a basic understanding of Welsh, it will make things a little more realistic and maybe help me further along the way.
5. Lia and I re-watched Letters to Juliet for our traditional Valentine's Day movie. Even the third time around, I still noticed details that I had missed before, especially in how Victor and Charlie treated Sophie. I can never stop studying things, apparently.
6. I watched Little Women (1994) for the first time in a while, because now I have my own copy! So excited to own this classic! It was interesting to see how the recent BBC version and this one stacked up against each other.
7. I sorta opened up a YouTube Channel. Meaning, I uploaded videos for the first time. I plan to use YouTube as an add-on platform to my blog, so at this time there are no plans for a regular channel to be set up at this time. Though I did take the trouble to personalize it a little bit so it looks somewhat professional....
8. I made another new writing playlist at the end of this month. It's one of instrumental music (piano, strings, etc.) Lia had sent me a song by an artist that I'd never heard of before, so I went searching into that artist, (whose name is Ola Gjeilo). I really like some of the other music by him and so went searching for similar. And now, I've found another artist named Thad Fischella that I also really like. It's a nice change from the fantasy music and will work great for my contemporary and historical fiction pieces.
2. I got absolutely no writing done, but I have been playing with some plot points with SOI, and "Shattered Chandelier".
3. Speaking of SOI, I really should stop calling it SOI and call it by it's proper name, Hidden Seeds. Because I changed the name and made a new cover for it when I wrote it's Meet the Books segment this month.
4. I started using Duolingo! I did this for a few reasons: one, because I love languages, and two, I think it will be a great writing tool in the future....i.e. for use for those foreign phrases that make a book much more interesting.
Right now, I'm taking courses in French, Italian, Polish and Welsh.
I took French in high school and when I was doing some personal research, I had to navigate some French Canadian sites with no English translation. Even though I haven't actually studied it in over 6 years, it was astounding how much French I actually remembered but how little I remembered my vocabulary translations..... *shifts eyes*
I'm also taking Italian and Polish because of my family heritage and I may take German for the same reason. Also, it will give my brother someone to practice his German on, maybe. LOL.
And the Welsh? While I also have a family connection to Welsh, I'm taking it more for Hidden Seeds than anything else. If I gain a basic understanding of Welsh, it will make things a little more realistic and maybe help me further along the way.
5. Lia and I re-watched Letters to Juliet for our traditional Valentine's Day movie. Even the third time around, I still noticed details that I had missed before, especially in how Victor and Charlie treated Sophie. I can never stop studying things, apparently.
6. I watched Little Women (1994) for the first time in a while, because now I have my own copy! So excited to own this classic! It was interesting to see how the recent BBC version and this one stacked up against each other.
7. I sorta opened up a YouTube Channel. Meaning, I uploaded videos for the first time. I plan to use YouTube as an add-on platform to my blog, so at this time there are no plans for a regular channel to be set up at this time. Though I did take the trouble to personalize it a little bit so it looks somewhat professional....
8. I made another new writing playlist at the end of this month. It's one of instrumental music (piano, strings, etc.) Lia had sent me a song by an artist that I'd never heard of before, so I went searching into that artist, (whose name is Ola Gjeilo). I really like some of the other music by him and so went searching for similar. And now, I've found another artist named Thad Fischella that I also really like. It's a nice change from the fantasy music and will work great for my contemporary and historical fiction pieces.
🙞 Blog Happenings 🙜
1. I had my 2 year blogoversary this month!! As part of a dual celebration with Lia @ The Singing Writer, we decided to publish the first part of our Ask Us Anything vlog, which you can view in the post or on YouTube.
2. I restarted my Taggy Tuesday initiative last week with the 2018 "February Fantasy What If" tag. I hope to continue this at least every two weeks or so, as I have a lot of tags that I need to clear off again....
3. I also wrote 3 Meet The Books posts, detailing my works Fair Winds, Hidden Seeds and Plain and Simple Truth. Always pay your debts of honor, my dear friends.
4. I wrote two posts for Maidens for Mary: Off to Work We Go...In Modesty Clothing and Attributes of Well-Matched Couples. I must admit, the latter one ended up replacing a Valentine's post that I had intended to write here - but it worked out for the best and I'm quite happy with the results!
5. On my personal blog, I only wrote one post: A Prayer Request for Annalaura. This woman is very dear to me and so when she was admitted to the hospital last month with a life-threatening condition, I sent out a public request for prayers. I'm happy to report that those prayers were answered, Deo Gratias!
5. On my personal blog, I only wrote one post: A Prayer Request for Annalaura. This woman is very dear to me and so when she was admitted to the hospital last month with a life-threatening condition, I sent out a public request for prayers. I'm happy to report that those prayers were answered, Deo Gratias!
🙞 Goal Checklist 🙜
Similar to last month's wrap-up, I'm just concentrating on monthly goals here. The yearly goals still have either had too little progress or have not been worked on at all this month. Hopefully soon, I'll be able to report more progress, but in the meantime, what has been accomplished this month?
February Goals:
1. Finish Part 1 the Super Secret Project that I started with Lia
A resounding success, after a week's effort!
This may never have gotten done, if Lia and I hadn't gotten the brainstorm to complete this project for our blogoversaries. And that would have be a grave disappointment to everyone who asked questions! Now that it has been officially revealed, and I encourage everyone to check out the first installments, which you can find on my blogoversary post and stay tuned for next month's installments!
2. Write the February Fantasy What If Tag
I managed to squeeze this in at the last minute! I had almost forgotten it again....and that would have been frightfully embarrassing.
3. Write my regular M4M and RW posts.
This was a success, sort of. I had to push off my RW post due to complications with my blogoversary videos, but it will be going up this weekend!
4. Write 3k (or more) for The White Rose
Ahh, the only failure of this month. My guess is that since I had a full plate of blogging this month that I really didn't have the appetite to write more on The White Rose. Which is sad, because my story needs to grow some more!
Bonus: Do a better job on commenting on blogs again
Well, it may not have been as fast as it was a year ago, but I think I've been doing better? I've definitely commented more recently.....I mean, commenting within the week is much better than commenting within the month, right?
So now that February is gone into the past, what's March going to bring?
Well, hopefully these goals will be completed:
March Goals:
1. Re-plot Fair Winds
Since I'm going on a beach vacation at the end of the month, what better time to re-plot my pirate story?!
2. Upload 2nd part of Ask Us Anything before March 14
Lia's blogoversary is March 14, so in keeping with our dual 2 year blogoversary thing, I've got to get the second part of the AUA vlog created, edited and uploaded before then. I know I'm going to lose a week already, so I've got to get this thing underway really soon!
3. Prep for Camp NaNo
This one is extremely important. Frankly, even though I really should work on The White Rose, I cannot deny that there may be a switch in WIP for this one. Strong contestants are Fair Winds and Shattered Chandelier. A lot of development needs to go into both before they can be written much further (plus, this development could also count as part of Project Blueprint, even if I hold to writing TWR during Camp).
4. Write at least two more Taggy Tuesday posts.
I've got some really old tags hanging around that need to be released to the world, since I've been hinting their release for months. I know that I will be writing the Get to Know Me Tag Writers Edition this upcoming month (FINALLY), and maybe a few other old ones from MK will show up this month too. I'll be cranking out blog posts next week while I housesit for someone, so we'll see how it goes!
Bonus: Write M4M and RW posts.
Self-explanatory, right? I may take this off of the goals list later on this month, but it's good to keep these repetitive goals in mind, otherwise it's easy to forget....
And so ends this wrap-up!!
Gather round, my dear friends, and tell me your adventures in February! I'm sure you have better stories to share than these poor ones. Does anyone have any harrowing tales of near-freezing or comfortable tales of home-life they wish to share? I'm all ears!
Scribblingly yours,
Catherine
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6 comments
I didn't love Cinder, either, and from reading your review I really don't think that you'll like Scarlet, but if you ever decide to continue, Cress is pretty good! A little violent at parts, but, to me, it is the best of the series!
ReplyDeleteWow, you’re studying a lot of languages! Good luck! (Duolingo is AWESOME.)
ReplyDeleteHope you have a great March, Catherine!
YES CAMP NANO IS COMING!!! *screams*
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a good month! Duolingo sounds awesome; I LOVE foreign languages. <333 French is awesome!
Have an AWESOME March, Catherine!!! <3
Funny, I started Duolingo last month, too! Although I've fallen off the wagon. *coughs*
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Cinder, but I appreciate your dislike for it, if that makes any sense at all. :)
Good luck replotting Fair Winds! And my my, is Camp NaNo really that close??
That's awesome that you are learning new languages. :D
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's hard to believe that April is only a month away *eyes widen* then in a month that means we are all going to be in the Fellowship of the Keyboards again! *slightly crazed and excited laughter* only problem...I kind of need to decide which novel I will write for a month. ;)
Also, I wish the best of luck on replotting Fair winds. :D
-Quinley
AHH! I love the Lunar Chronicles!!! What a great wrap-up for February. It seems you had a busy month! I love the thought of learning all the languages, I think that's amazing that you're studying all of those! My sisters & I learned a song in Welsh---it's a beautiful language. How awesome! You go, girl. :]
ReplyDeleteEEE! I love Little Women, book & movie! And well done on your writing goals---keep on keeping on! Best wishes for March, dearie! <3