The month of July, in its swirl of humidity and heat, seemed to orbit around the gravitational pull of the Realm Makers conference I attended. The first three weeks were full of preparation for the trip, then the conference actually took place, and then I spent the final week recovering!
Filmed and posted a vlog, because why not put off one’s blogoversary celebration until the busiest month of the year, right? (Here’s part one and part two.)
Put together my Cinder cosplay, which involved attacking a t-shirt with scissors and genuine mechanic grease and testing out silver face paint on my “cyborg” hand.
Also revamped my one sheet for The Brightest Thread in order to have material on hand for pitch appointments at the conference.
Most importantly, I stuffed myself with as many fresh strawberries and sugar snap peas as possible, because their growing season doesn’t last long.
You might be sick and tired of me and all the attendees raving by now, so I’ll spare you a regurgitation of the details and will instead point you back to the link in the first paragraph of this post, in case you missed my recap!
Because yes, an introvert needs to crash after two days of travel and three days of non-stop people. And a lover of words and worlds must somehow step back into real life after being to Narnia and back. Recovery involved sleeping . . . and more sleeping . . . and typing up all my Realm Makers notes* . . . and also watching The Fellowship of the Ring.
*Thirty typed pages of notes, people. THIRTY.
I also just enjoyed summer and played water balloon volleyball and took my siblings to the city for a ride on a surrey bike. It’s like a tandem bike, except built for four people and shaped like a golf cart with pedals. Lots of fun! Pedaling uphill is not for the faint of heart. Or faint of legs.
P.S. I had a blast participating in Nadine Brandes’s Instagram challenge for the month of July! If you’re on Insta, I’d love to connect with you there!
Avatar: The Last Airbender season 1
I actually watched five episodes of this with my sisters, which is more than we’ve seen in a while. We just got to some good backstory for Zuko!
Once Upon a Time season 6
Two episodes of this with my sisters. One of the episodes was deep and interesting and involved Prince Charming. It felt like the Once that I’ve always loved. But the other episode . . . blegh. A certain person acted very out of character, plus he was played by a different actor. This whole season has been a bit of a mixed bag.
The Fellowship of the Ring
Can you believe this was only my second time watching it? I still get emotional at . . . well, pretty much every part. The Shire, the little hobbits at the start of their adventure, the forming and the breaking of the fellowship, Gandalf and the Balrog, Boromir, Sam swimming after Frodo. MY HEART IS SO FULL. This was my sisters’ introduction to Middle Earth on the big screen, so that was even more fun!
My reading accomplishments were pretty pitiful this month, especially after devouring nine books in June. I read just one book in July. Sniffle. I did start a second, but it’s still not finished.
Last of the Nephilim // Bryan Davis
War is coming. In this, the seventh instalment in a story world that started with Raising Dragons, all the heroes gather in Second Eden to face the coming storm. Dragons, giants, prophets, oracles, warriors, healers, the old, the young–all are desperately needed.
What I loved:
What I didn’t like:
Overall, Last of the Nephilim is an epic book that sets the stage for my one of my favorite series conclusions ever: The Bones of Makaidos. 5 stars for this reread!
(Speaking of Bryan Davis, he has a fantastic discount on his books going on until August 5th!)
As I mentioned, I did rework my one sheet, so that kind of counts toward writing. Right?
I also edited chapters 3-5 of The Brightest Thread. It’s still slow going, but that’s all right with me. Some of the editing is dealing with deep-seated story elements, particularly around the beginning, and that always takes longer. This month, I hope to ease into the early/middle chunk of the story, which should be a bit easier to work on.
Almost forgot–I wrote and edited a super short flash fiction called Blackened Shell. I submitted it to Splickety for consideration in a live critique session they did at Realm Makers. While I wasn’t selected as one of the ten stories they critiqued, I did learn plenty of tips and tricks for improving my flash fic next time!
(You probably scrolled right to the bottom to see what this is all about, didn’t you? Come on, be honest now!)
Life is always busy. I’m not a fan of that term, busy, although I use it all the time. Truthfully, every day is composed of the exact same twenty-four hours, and we choose how they are filled. But they are always filled with something. Therefore, life is always busy full.
I choose to fill several hours each week with blogging because I love it. I love writing new posts to share with you here, whether they’re life updates like this or book reviews or jolts of inspiration to wake your heart. I love reading all of your comments and having conversations with you.
But there are also other things I love, and on top of that, there are some “have-to’s” filling my hours–just like your life, I imagine. Balance is key, and different seasons demand we shift our balance from time to time. So I’m shifting some things around right now.
Not to worry! I am not quitting the blog! I REPEAT: ADVENTURE AWAITS IS STILL ALIVE. Neither am I leaving on hiatus. Rather, I am adjusting my posting schedule for a while. With college beginning in less than four weeks, I have a few boring affairs to get in order. I’d like to edit more of TBT before classes start too, and it’d be nice to read a few novels before the textbooks come down in a landslide. So here’s how it’s going to be.
This means that instead of four or five posts a month, you’ll be getting two or three. It may feel weird to keep such frequent S&S posts with the new schedule, so I may slow those down too. We’ll see! This new schedule will go into effect starting now (so don’t be alarmed when there’s no new post next Saturday) and it will run until I graduate college at the end of April 2019.
See, I’ve been ruminating on ways to make Adventure Awaits an even better place to visit, and I know that pushing out sub-par content simply for the sake of a schedule would have the opposite effect. I’d rather give you better posts, even if they come less frequently.
Guys, I’m so excited! Why? Well, two reasons. The first is that I’m beginning to crawl out from the maw of the Great Beast of Homework. And the second reason for the excitement should be faaaaaiiiiirrrly obvious. Y’know, if you read blog post titles at all. Or happen to glance upon title banners. Ahem.
So that means I get to share the shiny new cover with all of you today! But before you scroll down to see it, let me entice you with what the book is actually about:
Doesn’t that sound thrilling? I mean–DRAGONS. YES PLEASE. And also royalty and high stakes and mystery and political intrigue and dragons and war and darkness and dragons . . . It sounds like exactly my kind of book. Just sayin’.
Now, I feel a bit sheepish because I’ve yet to read the first three books of the Minstrel’s Song series. But I did have the great pleasure of reading Jenelle’s Beauty and the Beast novella in the Five Enchanted Roses collection a few years ago, and her lovely story was one of my favorites. I also thoroughly enjoy her blog, and you may recognize her as one of the co-hosts of the great Silmarillion Awards from the past two years. So I’m convinced that she’s basically a genius and her newest release is going to be amazing! With her capable grasp on fantasy and her eagle editing eye (of which I’ve been on the receiving end), Minstrel’s Call promises to be a work of art. Speaking of art, you’re all anxious to see the actual cover, right? Well, here it is . . .
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Isn’t it beautiful? Ships are another thing I love to read about, especially in fantasy. I may not be the most even-keeled sailor out on the water in real life, but for some reason I’m drawn to those massive, billowing sails and proud bows slicing through the waves.
So like I mentioned, Minstrel’s Call is releasing in just two weeks–mark your calendars for February 28th. You can pre-order the e-book on Amazon right HERE for only 99 cents!
And in the meantime, feel free to go stalk Jenelle and follow her blog and congratulate her on her book’s release. I promise she’s nice.
Jenelle Schmidt grew up in the northern-Midwest. She now resides with her husband and their four adorable children in the wilds of Wisconsin. Jenelle fell in love with reading at a young age during family story-times when her father would read out loud to her and her siblings each night before bed. Her imagination was captured by authors such as Madeleine L’Engle, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and Lloyd Alexander. It wasn’t long before she began making up her own stories and sharing them with her family. To this day she enjoys creating exciting adventure tales filled with poignant themes and compelling characters in the fantasy and sci-fi genres.The time has come once again, my friends, to announce the theme of this year’s fairy tale retelling contest hosted by Rooglewood Press, and I couldn’t be more excited! The previous three contests have inspired such creativity and talent as writers rise to the challenge of spinning beloved fairy tales into reimagined stories of beauty, pain, humor, and wonder.
And there’s much to inspire us again this year. Because the theme of Rooglewood’s fourth and final fairy tale collection is . . .
hold your breath
wait for it
scroll down
ignore the fact that you read the title already
keep going
bet you haven’t guessed . . .
