Saturday, June 25, 2016

Monthly Summary: June 2016







June has thankfully been a far less eventful month than May. It has been a time where I've tried to recenter myself and find a new normal after the chaos since April. I've been trying to pick up the pieces of myself and get my spiritual and mental health back. The entire car accident affair to my profound relief is finally over and I feel like I can breathe again. Now I can finally be excited about my big Northeast trip next month.





What I did:

1.) I got a lot of editing done in Subsapien: Biomech, not as much as I would have liked but I'm gaining speed again and I'm almost a third of the way finished! I'm planning on finishing by August 10th. Hopefully, I can make that. I've also started sending out chapters to my beta readers, so that's exciting.

Current status:
On Page: 103 of 350
On Chapter: 14 of 46
Word Count: 88,483

2.) Most of my offline life consisted of work and boring stuff. Though I did go blackberry picking around my neighborhood and discovered how amazing blackberries and French vanilla ice cream go together. 




3.) I finished reading Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs (review up on the 28th)! It was such a perfect ending to the series. ^ ^ Loved it! And I also finished the Hive by John W. Otte.




4.) I finished my shoulder-up drawing of Claes from Red Hood. I'm so happy with how this darling turned out. Check out his character interview to learn more about him! 



5.) I only got one outside article up: my review of X-Men: Apocalypse on Geeks Under Grace. Update my editor decided to post my Star Trek post on Geekdom House today! Yay! Check out You Are, and Always Will Be, My Friend.  ^ ^ A last minute guest post over on Summer Snowflakes about surviving microediting!

The Geeky Department:

1.) I've been catching up on Arrow and the Flash and I'm almost caught up! So much has happened in these seasons!

2.) I've also been replaying the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I hadn't played it since I got it in 2012 and though it pales in comparison to Twilight Princess, it's pretty fun. I need to replay Twilight Princess next. It's my favorite Legend of Zelda game. 

What I Learned:

1.) Daily Goals for Writing and Weekly Goals for Editing - Last year, I tried to have a daily goal for editing and that got really overwhelming. I stuck it out, but it wasn't very fun. This year I've decided to have weekly goals for editing and it's so much easier. I try to do 40 pages a week or more and it's much less stress and I feel productive at the same time. I'm definitely doing this from now on with editing. 

2.) Star Signs - Sara Letourneau let me know in one of her blogposts about how star signs can be helpful for developing your characters. I'm not into astrology, but I've found a very useful way to find out their birthdays. I really want to do a character birthday calendar one year. ^ ^

What I'm Going to Do:

1.) Edit more of Subsapien: Biomech, send off more chapters to betas, and actually crack down on Realm Makers prep.

2.) The highlight of next month will certainly be my big week-long trip to the north east. I'll be spending the first three and a half days in Philly for the Realm Makers writers conference, then the other half I'll be spending in New York City with my cousin Anne! I've never been to either of these cities, so I'm incredibly excited. 

I will be going here for Realm Makers
3.) I will be finishing Eye of Minds by James Dashner then I'll be reading the Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater and Eye of Minds' sequel Rule of Thoughts. I'm hoping at Realm Makers I will be hauling back a bunch of new books to read after I finish those. ^ ^
.

4.) I will be working on Claes' expression challenge and then six months late I will have finally finished my expressions challenge. XD

5.) I'm hoping a few of my Geekdom House posts will be up by next month. *crosses fingers*


Last Month on Stori Tori's Blog ...

This month's Writerly Bundles: 
Writerly Bundle #18: Amaranthine, The Carrionites Swarm, & Midsummer Night's Dream
Writerly Bundle #19: Celerity, Denkousekka (Lightning Speed), & Youthberry Wild Orange Blossom
Writerly Bundle #20: Telluric, The Hidden Valley, & Rivendell + Giveaway!
This month's books:
A Book Review of the Hive by John W. Otte
This month's writing tips:
So Your Character is From the Philippines ... Featuring Andrea Salvador
Writing Lessons from Movies: Star Trek Into Darkness

My stories stuff:

Questions for Ashlyn (Subsapien)!
Beautiful People Childhood Edition: Harlowe (Starbloods)
Other stuff:
The Creative Blogger Award: MegaCon Edition
Monthly Summary: May 2016

Coming Soon to Stori Tori's Blog ...

Note that I will be discontinuing Writerly Bundles after the end of next month. They're not very popular and I want to devote to articles that you guys like to read. What I may do is put a tea review with my book reviews since teas seem to be the thing that attracts people the most. What do you think?

Also this month is also going to be weird, because I have something going on at the end of the month again so I'm scooching Monthly Summary to the next month.

July 1 - Questions for Harlowe - Because of his popularity in this month's BP, I'm interviewing Harlowe. ^ ^




July 2 - Keeping Morality in Fiction: Are you sacrificing your role models for character conflict? - A discussion post about how we shouldn't forsake role models in fiction just to "keep things more realistic" or to add conflict.

July 3 - Writerly Bundle #22: Autoschediasm, The Cheshire Cat, & the Jabberwocky - An Alice in Wonderland-themed Writerly Bundle!

July 8 - My Bloggoversary Post - Which I almost totally forgot about. XD I'll think of something interesting to post about and probably have a giveaway.

July 9 - So Your Character is from Liberia ... - We have not one but two So Your Character is From Another Country posts this month. If you are writing a character from Africa, you don't want to miss these. I thought them well timed in this blistering summer heat. This one is featuring Lucy Buller! 

July 10 - Writerly Bundle: Golden Snail - I'm not sure what I'm going to theme it, but I'll think of something.

July 12 - A Book Review Eye of Minds by James Dashner - My thoughts and what we can learn on James Dashner's first book of his latest series and mine is a signed copy. ^ ^

July 15 - Beautiful People - The monthly link-up I participate in. I'm not sure who I'm doing. I'm just going to play it by ear.

July 16 - So Your Character is from Algeria ... - Featuring Amina Dahman!

July 17 - Writerly Bundle: North Winds - A King's Quest: VII-themed Writerly Bundle!



July 22 - Interview with Harlowe (Starbloods) - Harlowe's interview is up on this day!

July 23 - Writing Lessons from Movies: Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron - What we can learn from this 90s horse lover movie.

July 24 - Writerly Bundle: Imperial Gold Buds - Not sure what I'm theming it but I'll figure it out.

July 26 - A Book Review of the Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater - See other description of book review.

July 29 - The Sound of My Thinking Army and the Starlight Blogger Award - Participating in these tags (finally)!

July 30 - So Your Character Has Synesthesia ... - I'm really hoping this entry will be ready by then if not I'll have another alternative. 

July 31 - Writerly Bundle: Mirkwood - The last Writerly Bundle and it will be Hobbit-themed with a giveaway!

August 2 - So Your Character is Diabetic ... - A post where I interview Ely @ Teas and Titles about having Type One Diabetes for character research purposes.

August 5 - The Liebster Award: Philly/NYC Edition - I will be using this very common tag that I've been tagged in for the fourth time to tell you all about the trip. XD

August 6 - July Monthly Summary - Better late than never. 


Elsewhere ...

Elements of a Strong Sequel by Imogen Elvis @ Gossiping Dragons - So much yes. She basically listed all of my problems with many sequels. XD

Cosplay 101 by RJ Metcalf @ Faith and Fantasy Alliance - Do you want some cosplay tips? Here's a good place to start!

Which Zodiac Sign Fits Your Character Best? by Sara Letourneau @ Sara Letourneau's Website and Blog - This is so handy for character development!

WHO IS THE INTENDED AUDIENCE FOR YA BOOKS? (AND DOES IT EVEN MATTER?) by Cait Drews @ Paper Furty - I swear this is the best post Cait Drews has ever written. So much yes. 

The Redemption of the World by Jaime @ The Dancing Lawn - So much truth in this. 


June has been a recovery month and I hope it is the end of a hard period and the beginning of a fresh and bright one. Thanks for reading!



How was your month? What did you do? Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming posts? Do you like blackberries? What geeky shows have you been watching?


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