Hello, lovelies! Welcome to another Bookish Breakdown post, my monthly wrap-up where I talk about last month’s reading, as well as life updates, blog hopping links and intention updates!
After a very stressful past couple of months, I’m almost thankful that June has been nothing but busy in my day job (though, I wouldn’t mind feeling less drained). While I’m very thankful that my life has settled, we’re only halfway through our busiest season and I am feeling it hard (especially since we’re down six staff members). It’s left me in a weird funk sometimes, unable to really do much else. But, we’re surviving!
What I did:
- Visited my family for Father’s Day
- Started going back into the office part-time
- Met with 60+ new students for orientation in four weeks
- Got a stomach bug that lasted for a week
- Watched E3 and was disappointed (check out my post next month for details!)
- Read and wrote and edited
- Replayed Mass Effect and was ruined in all the best ways
- Finally caved and bought Valhalla
- Got to see friends in person for the first time in over.a.year
SentSending out my second newsletter this week (since I’m behind on everything).
Let’s check in and see how I did creatively this month.
What I Read
Son of the Storm by Suyi Davies Okungbowa (finished)
We Do This Til We Free Us by Marime Kaba (finished)
Eden by Tim Lebbon
For the Wolf by Hannah Whitten
The Jasmine Throne (started)
What I Hauled
ARCS
Thank you to Orbit Books!!
Catalyst Gate by Megan O’Keefe
Purchased:
Touch of Iron by Timandra Whitecastle
What I Posted
In this section, I like to share posts that I personally wrote this past month that I either really enjoyed writing, am really proud of or wish might have gotten a little more attention.
🏹 Let’s Talk Bookish: Book Blogger Appreciation
🐉 Learning to Live with an Eating Disorder
🏹 Interview with Megan O’Keefe
Reading Challenges Update
2021 Discussion Challenge: 12/24
StoryGraph: 25/50
ARCs: 7/12
Backlist Books: 3/12
Monthly Diverse Reads: 4 versus 1 (Goal: Every month, read equal to or more diverse reads than those written by authors who (or feature characters that) match my identity, listing diverse books first.)
Intentions Update
Sharing where I’m at on my yearly intentions, all of which I detailed in this post.
Writing ✔️
Really excited with how edits are going with BLOOD PRICE! Still don’t have a writing routine developed, but I have made good progress and am really enjoying reading this story again. Excited to prepare it for querying in August!
Reading ✔️
Read a little bit more this month and some good books, to boot!
Freelance Editing ✔️
Worked on two novellas that were really awesome.
Blogging ✔️
Blogging continues to be one of my favorite passions. I wish I just could blog full-time. I fucking love it.
Self-Love ✖️
This was hard.
Allyship and Activism ✔️
Wrapped up my 1st quarter reads and excited to read So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo next!
Other ✖️✔️
While I still haven’t really focused on any of my smaller goals, I did start doing a new face care routine and bought some new products to hopefully help take care of my hair, so I’m excited about those!
Posts I Enjoyed
Curious what blog posts I really enjoyed around the blogsophere this month? Check them out here:
⚔️ Um, can everyone else freak out with me over Kat @ Novels and Waffles INCREDIBLE BLOG RELAUNCH! I am in awe.
🛡️ The Quiet Pond shares a list of 35 awesome Asian and Pasifika books to read all year round! Also check out Fadwa @ Word Wonders post highlighting specifically books by Pasifika authors!
⚔️ Sophie @ Love and Literature shares 10 tips to know before starting a book blog, providing A+ advice!
🛡️ Amber @ The Literary Phoenix shares an important post about publishing’s obsession with only publishing books by Black authors centering Black pain, inspired by Nic Stone’s Instagram post, that’s well worth a read and watch.
⚔️ Also from The Quiet Pond, don’t forget to check out the AMAZING work they did celebrating Pride Month at the Pond!
🛡️Kate @ Your Tita Kate share a wonderful resource in how to include your book blog on your resume!
⚔️ Kal @ Reader Voracious shares a wonder resource on earning extra cash through budgeting, opportunities, services and more!
🛡️ Sumedha @ The Wordy Habitat shares an INCREDIBLE, detailed guide on how to use Notion to write your blog posts! Also, her discussion on book reviews is top notch.
⚔️ I also really enjoyed Chana @ Paper Procrastinators post on the shitty aspects of Goodreads!
🛡️ Cande @ Cande Reads shares 10 books by Mexican-American authors to read during Pride!
⚔️ Elka @ Elka Scott shares a really vulnerable and really powerful post discussing the issues of OwnVoices and how it relates to publishing, Pride and bisexuality.
For July, my focus will be to survive the next four weeks of orientation, finish edits on BLOOD PRICE and prepare for a new semester, all while BUILDING A FUCKING ROUTINE, dammit.
I hope you all have a wonderful month! 🖤
![I'm so excited to share another client testimonial today! This one comes from V, a wonderful writer who I had the honor to proofread their upcoming release, THE BEAUTIFUL DECAY.
If you want to read a story about necromancers in a queernorm world, repairing relationships, unexpected love and fungi magic that will leave your skin crawling, you cannot miss this second book in the Tombtown series!
Thank you for trusting me with your work, V! It was so amazing to read and I'm so excited to work with you again in the future! 🖤
My link is in my bio, if you'd like to hire me to help elevate your own work! I am currently booking for the rest of 2023.
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How was your “return”? I’ve heard so many mixed experiences, I hope yours was minimally stressful! ❤️ Thank you for featuring my post… and actually thank you for pointing me to Elka’s as well because that’s fabulous. When you say you caved and bought Valhalla, do you mean the 2020 Assassin’s Creed game? I’ve been gaming a lot more lately and inquiring minds want to know. 😁
Honestly, I’m so in love with remote work that I’m quite bitter about it. HA! Though seeing my coworkers and reconnecting with them has been really, really nice. Yay, I’m so glad you enjoyed it (and of course!). <3 Yes, I do mean the game!! Oh, I definitely recommend it. It's vast and intricate, so if you're looking for something quick, this won't be it. I'm enjoying it, but not as much as I did Origins and Odyssey, honestly! But, still very happy I got it and excited to keep playing!
Thank you so much for mentioning me! I cried a little bit. I’m glad that, if nothing else, you were able to see other human beings this month. ❤️
Ohmygosh, Elka, of course!! That post was fantastic and I seriously appreciated it. <3
Oof on the time being busy but yay for mosty keeping up with your intentions! Hope uou have a great month ahead! Also, I saw the “sending the newsletter” point and my brain processed it as past tense because of the previous points and I was sad because I didn’t see your newsletter in my inbox haha. I even tried to register again and it told me I’m already registered so I was like ?? send me the newsletter then ?? and THEN I realized that you’ll send it soon 😂 random noob moment haha. point is: looking forward to the newsletter!
P. S. thank you for linking my posts! 🧡
Thank you so much, Sumedha!
And honestly, thank YOU so much for being so excited about the newsletter (I finally sent it TODAY, oof, but you should have it now). That seriously warmed my heart!
(Speaking of newsletters: I recently upgraded my Feedly so I could keep track of newsletters there, so if it says I unsubscribed from my personal email, it’s ONLY because I switched to the Feedly generated one so I can limit what’s in my personal inbox. I LOVE your newsletter, so I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t subscribed! <3)
No problem!
(totally ok! I didn’t notice actually lol, I stopped looking at unsubs)