June Wrap Up: Busted Goals and A New Dog

This past month was good but full of stress and anxiety.

I did get some reading in, but got off track. I do plan/hope to get back to reading next week at some point.

Writing fiction was a total bust, but that’s ok. It happens. Writing here and my letters was so-so. I started out good but petered off when things got busy. I am looking forward to Camp Nano. Not sure how many of my 30 hour goal I will get in, but I will give it a good shot anyway.

When I said this month was full of stress, I meant good stress. Moving my salon was one of those things. We finished setting up shop and we will open for business come Monday. I am really looking forward to the next chapter in my career.

Hubby and I also welcomed a new addition into our home. We did something we had wanted to do for awhile.

We rescued a greyhound.

Meet our girl, Foxy.

Her race name was Foxberry so we decided to go with Foxy. She is shy, timid and a lil diva. But we love her to bits. Now we are on the road to getting her to adjust. With lots of love she will start to relax and come around. We see improvement in her every day. This is a huge change for her. Lucky for her she’s got a mom and dad who understand that.

This was taken the first day or two here. She loves her stuffed bear.

I could ramble on about her but I will save that for another day.

So, while my usual goals went bust (for the most part), I had 2 big things happen that I am over the moon about. My positivity journal has been getting extra notes in it each day.

How was your month?

Camp Nano Prep and Other Shenanigans

Like I said in my last post, June has been a hectic month. But I am focusing on July. Things should be a lot more settled by then. The new salon location will be up and running for the 2nd! And, the stress of greyhound adoption has been lifted since we found out we have been approved! We go on Saturday for an orientation and odds are we will be bringing home our new furbaby. (So, be prepared for a big greyhound post and pics of our new four legged kid 😉 )

With July coming means another month of Camp Nano! I have already signed up and am in a cabin one of my friends started. So I am looking forward to doing it again. My plan of action is what I did back in April. I am aiming for 30 hours of varied writing projects such as blogging, outlining a novel that has been peculating for awhile,  reading more writing related articles (maybe start re-reading Stephen King’s On Writing) and I am not sure what else.

Once July hits I will be finished the salon move and we will have our dog. So things *should* be a little less crazy. Work will be steady and we have a greyhound to help train and adjust, but that’s all good stuff. ❤

Are you doing camp Nano? What are your goals?

June Check In

I realize I haven’t been as active this month as I usually am. I admit this month has been very…busy.

And by busy I mean I have been a ball of stress and excitement.

My co-worker and I decided to look for a new place for our salon. We didn’t expect things to happen so quickly! We messaged someone on a Thursday, thinking “this is just to look”. Yeah, well, Friday we went to look. Saturday we said yes and Sunday the new landlords said great, it was ours. And Monday was the day to give our current landlords our notice. We move the end of this month. Ugh.

While I am very happy about this, it all happened pretty quick and I am not the best with change. I adapt but I usually need more time to mentally prep. However, the initial nauseous feeling has left and now we are just anxious to make the move.

On top of that, hubby and I have applied to adopt a dog. A Greyhound, in fact. We lost our boxer last year. I still cry over Hershey. The only time I didn’t feel sick about owning another dog was when Mr. C suggested a greyhound.

So, we started the process. We have an in-home visit this Saturday. We really hope we get approved. We are good people and we love dogs. Our boxer was our baby. We want to give a dog a good and loving home. Crossing fingers they will let us.

Oh, and then there was my fall. I pretty much had a pity party for a week when I fell down a flight of stairs. Nothing broken, thank God. However I had one hell of a bruise and lots of pain to go with it.

So, that’s my month so far. Big things happening, but all good things. Aside from falling. That kinda sucked.

How have you been this month?

Book Haul

In the last week or so I have had a mini book haul. Brand new beauties for my very crowded bookshelf.

I had read some e-books, but because I loved them so much I had to get the hard copy. If you have read earlier reviews, you know I am a big fan of Candace Osmond. I ordered the first 2 books in her Darktides series….book three may or may not have been ordered as of last night. 😉

 

I also bought Beyond The Sentinel Stars by Sherry D. Ramsey last week. It is the third book in her Nearspace series and I am looking forward to reading it soon.

 

My newest book in my collection was given to me just the other night. My husband knows me all too well. I guess he doesn’t tune me out all the time after all. 😉 As you may know, The Princess Bride is my all time favorite movie. So imagine my surprise- and joy!- when I got this lil gem.

I started reading this the other night. I am loving it so far! I got an awesome hubster.

So, any new books on your shelf these days? What are you reading?

Early Review: The Blackened Soul by Candace Osmond

OMG!!!!

Yes. Just yes.

I can honestly say that the third installment in the Darktides series is just as wonderfully well written as the first two. Like the others, there is something always happening, the characters develop  more as the series goes on and the story line keeps you on your toes! And wanna know one of my favorite things?

The books are consistent! That is so huge in a series! I have read books where the author has gone way off base with the plot/characters/etc… But Candace has written these in such a way that I feel like I am just reading one big book, not three.

Book Blurb:

 Dianna’s in over her head.

The Queen is her ship now. Hers to sail with a crew to keep safe as they voyage across the Atlantic to stop Maria’s evil plan of killing her mother. The stress of responsibility, her pregnancy, and helping Henry deal with his PTSD has become a nightmare from which she has nowhere to run. Henry is suffering, refusing to let her in, and Dianna is worried that their love won’t survive the tumultuous journey ahead.

Just when she thinks all hope is lost, a massive storm hits and threatens to sink The Queen. By some miracle of fate, Dianna survives and finds herself alone, stranded on an island to fend for herself. But she soon discovers that the isle may not be as deserted as she thought.

Can she charm her way to safety and find her crew? Or will she be forced to stay on the island forever? 

Dianna certainly has a lot on her plate. She is pregnant, learning how to be captain on her ship, The Queen, and  trying to help Henry, who is dealing with an inner darkness/PTSD. On top of that, she is trying to get to England and save her mother from her evil half sister, Maria.

Things are hard enough for her and she certainly doesn’t have it easy. During a massive storm, she is washed overboard. She survives but finds herself stranded on an island, alone and worried about the fate of Henry and her crew.

But the island is not as deserted as she thinks.

Enter Benjamin Cook. A pirate on his brother’s ship, The Black Soul. He takes her aboard the ship, and finds herself yet again trying to befriend its crew and trying to escape with her life. She learns some terrifying truths about the ship: it and the crew are cursed. Thanks to the greedy Captain Cook who stole a siren heart, his crew and ship are tethered to the island- and have been for a hundred years.

She faces horrid weather, evil pirates, magic, breaking a curse, a siren and even a Kraken. But she does it and survives it all with friends new and old at her side.

The title of the book works in a few ways, and I really like that. For starters, the first thing I thought of was Henry. He is having a really hard time with what happened on Kelly’s Island and what Maria had done to him. He has night terrors and has  attacked Dianna. The guilt makes him retreat further into his darkness.

Then there is the new ship, The Black Soul. Very fitting seeing as how it a) looks like it is charred and b) Captain Cook is insane. His soul is tainted from greed and evil.

I am very excited for the fourth and final book in the series, A Siren’s Call. I am anxious to see how Dianna’s story is going to play out and how everything will tie up. Will she save her mom? Will she kill her sister or grant her mercy? What about the siren who she owes a favor? And what of Benjamin? Did the curse really break and will she see him again? So many questions! Oh yes, I am very anxious already for this book!

The Blackened Soul is available on June 25th. However you can pre-order The Blackened Soul on Amazon as well as pick up the first two books if you haven’t already!

 

 

Book Review: Planet Fleep: A Science Twins Adventure by Sherry Ramsey

Last week I had the pleasure of reading an ARC of Planet Fleep: A Science Twins Adventure. 

About the book: 

Robots don’t always know best!

When a meteorite storm wreaks havoc on their family’s cargo ship, sort-of-twins Rudi and Trudy find themselves stranded on an alien planet. In their search for help, they uncover a fiendish plot against the friendly and mysterious alien critters the twins call “fleeps.” With only an overprotective robot for company, can they survive on their own, find their parents, and save the fleeps from a horrible fate?

Action-packed adventure science fiction for kids of all ages!

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it really is a book for kids of all ages-including the big ones! While this is for school children, I found myself engrossed in the story and I wished there were stories like this when I was a kid. While I enjoy sci-fi movies, they aren’t usually my first picks when it comes to reading. If I had read books like this when I was younger, I think my love for science fiction would be greater. I think of this story as “sci-fi jr”.

It has a great mix of adventure, science, humor and action.

Planet Fleep is well written and focuses on three unique characters: Rudi and Trudy are siblings and “sort of twins”, who both have a passion for science. They each have their own specialty. One is more for nature while they other is more for gadgets. Then there is BIFT, an over protective robot who is doing his best to do his job: protect the kids and teach them. He has a human-like personality, which gets on the kids nerves-especially when he is overprotective.

The kids might be ‘science nerds’ but they are typical kids. They get scared, annoyed, and stubborn. In the beginning Rudi is hiding away from his family in the cargo pod, to play his game alone and in peace. It isn’t long before his sister Trudy comes along. Their ship, The Starchaser,  enters a meteor shower and in the midst of it the cargo pod is disengaged from the ship, where it crashes on a nearby planet.

The kids have been separated from their parents, and need to find a way to contact them. While exploring, they find a gerbil-like creature, which Rudi immediately loves. They set out to explore and in the meantime discover that the creatures, which they have called Fleeps, are in danger.

This story is action-packed. The kids and BIFT don’t have it easy. They need to work together and use their smarts to save the Fleeps and find their parents.

As for kids reading this: I think not only will it help them love science fiction and get them reading, it teaches valuable lessons. Like the importance of team work, bravery, kindness and thinking about something beyond yourself.

This grown-up kid is really looking forward to what Rudi, Trudy and BIFT get into in their next adventure!

If you want to pre-order this little adventure, you can find it at: Amazon.

 

 

 

May Wrap-Up

Well, this month was busy and I accomplished a bit. But some of the things I did were boring adult stuff.  Paperwork, taxes and spring cleaning took up a good chunk of my time.

BUT, these were things on my to-do list that needed to be done and they are now checked off my list. That’s one of the best things: crossing stuff on the ol’ to-do list. I did have progress with other things as well. My business was also very busy this month. At the end of the work day I didn’t have much energy left.

Reading: I read the second book in the Dark Tides series by Candace Osmond. I also read a short story and gave feedback on a short story for a friend of mine. I also read an ARC and gave feedback of an upcoming children’s sci-fi chapter book, which I am looking forward to reviewing soon. I also started a novel by Nora Roberts so I hope to finish that soon.

Writing: I have been a bit slow on this front. I have slowly picked at and brainstormed for my newest story. I have also blogged a little, not as much as I wanted but I was still here. It was hard to get time to focus with the other work I had going on. But, I didn’t abandon it totally. So there’s that.

Other: I have been keeping up with my positivity journal. I am also up to date with my snailmail. I have a few letters to write but I have gotten those within the last week.

How was your May? What are your June goals?