Weekly Goals 17-10-22

 It's a festival week so work is going to be crazy busy with shows every night from Wednesday and two a day over the weekend.  So I am not expecting to get a lot done outside of work.  Which is a shame because I got my first notes back from one of my readers and now want to dig back into my book and stand revisions.

But I'll wait until I get the notes back from the other two readers and I have some clear time to devote to the book before I do that.  November will be the time to do it.  Instead of writing something new during NaNo, I'll revise this, my 2020 NaNo book.

But my main goal for this week is to get through the Jazz Festival without getting sick.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 14-10-22

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!

It's been a long and busy week at work and I've been fighting off some kind of bug which hasn't made me sick enough to take a day off, but has certainly sapped my energy.  So this weekend is going to be about resting a lot because next week is going to be super busy with the Jazz Festival starting on Wednesday.

So I've stocked up on books to read and plan to do a lot of reading this weekend and not much else.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: The Whistleblower

 

NetGalley was kind enough to let me read this one, so thanks!

New Adult never really became the thing it as supposed to be which is kind of a shame because there is definitely space for books that go beyond YA, but aren't quite adult yet.  This is one of those books and feels especially relevant in the current climate of #metoo and the war on women's rights.

Laurel is a college student studying journalism and working on her school paper.  When she stumbles across a shocking and juicy story about the college's revered football coach, she knows she has to tell the story.

But as she digs deeper into what becomes an increasingly complex and terrifying pattern of fraud and sexual abuse going back years, the repercussions of exposing such an heroic public figure become clear.  Not just in her professional life, but in her personal life too.

Especially since one of her primary sources is the team's star quarterback, Bodie, and she just can't seem to stop running into him.  During the course of the investigation, Laurel realises that it's not just her career on the line, but Bodie's too.

And with her feelings for Bodie changing and growing, Laurel needs to decide how far she's willing to go to uncover the truth.

I enjoyed this one.  There was romance, but not as much as there tends to be in books professing to be New Adult.  For a while there I decided NA was basically YA with more graphic sex.  While Lauren's relationship with Bodie was important to the story, it wasn't the main focus of the book which was firmly centered on the investigation and the repercussions facing both Lauren and her editor if the story was made public.

I imagine there are stories like this everywhere, and the bravery it takes to expose someone as powerful and influential as a successful coach is immense.  I liked that Laurel was a fairly chaotic person in most of her life, and that she had doubts and fears about what she was doing.  Her relationship with Bodie grew naturally, and he genuinely seemed like a good guy, unlike so many sportsmen who get treated like gods because they have the ability to throw a ball or run fast or both.

So I'd recommend this one.  It does deal with sexual abuse and harassment, so if you find these things triggering, maybe give it a miss...

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

When Laurel Cates uncovers a shocking story about Garland’s football coach, it takes all of her courage to publish the story in the school’s paper. And when it reverberates around the country, the ramifications are both personal and professional. But nowhere are the repercussions stronger than in Laurel’s everyday life as she can’t seem to avoid Bodie St. James, the star quarterback, whose own career now hangs on the brink as a result of her article…

Weekly Goals 11-10-22

 I know.  I'm a day late with this post.  Somehow yesterday got away from me!

Not much in the way of goals this week.  We're a week out from the Jazz Festival, so work is pretty crazy.  And because I'll be working nights and the weekend next week, I want to relax as much as possible this week.  I'm fighting off some kind of bug, and I want to get 100% better before I head into the full on week of the festival.

Of course this is always the time I get inspired to write something and a new book idea has crawled into my brain.  I'm not 100% sure if this is a book I'll write just for myself, or if it might end up being something more, but it's something I would like to experiment with - it's a re-telling of a book I really loved as a kid from the POV of one of the other characters.  So we'll see if that idea still appeals to me in a couple of weeks when I have time to think more about it.

And that's me this week.  What are your goals?

Celebrate the Small Things 7-10-22

 

It's the end of the week, so it's time to Celebrate the Small things...

What am I celebrating this week?

It's the weekend!  And I don't have a whole lot to do!

The weather has been dreadful all week so I'm hoping the sun might make an appearance this weekend.  I've been fighting off a cold (successfully, I might add), but feel like some sun and warmth would do me the world of good.  Do you ever feel that way after a long, dreary winter?

Been super busy at work with the Jazz Festival only 2 weeks away, so nothing much else has had a chance to get brainspace - learning new systems and a new world at the same time is more challenging than I thought it would be - so I haven't had a chance to even look at my writing.  Good thing my book is out with readers at the moment and I don't need to!

Looking forward to doing some resting over the weekend.  I'm looking forward to doing some reading, if nothing else.

What are you celebrating this week?

IWSG - October

 It's the first Wednesday in October so it's time for the Insecure Writers Support Group!

The awesome co-hosts for the October 5 posting of the IWSG are Tonja Drecker, Victoria Marie Lees, Mary Aalgaard, and Sandra Cox!


This month's question:

What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

My genre of choice is YA contemporary and the best thing about it is how diverse it is as a genre.  There are no limits to the stories that can be told in this space, from sweet, fluffy romance to dark and dirty stories about abuse and addiction.  The characters can come from any culture, and sexual orientation and their problems can be as small or as large as a writer is willing to imagine.

And the books can be written in any style the writer wishes to write - first person present tense, third person past tense or even second person!  They can be books in verse or told through letters or even text messages!  

I like the way characters in this age group are doing things for the first time and that they are still trying to figure out who they are and what they want in life.  Often this changes through the course the book as the character learns things about the world and themselves.  I don't often see such big character arcs in adult novels I read because adults tend to be more settled into their beliefs about themselves and their world.

What is the best thing about your favorite genre?

Weekly Goals 3-10-22

 I can't quite believe it's already the first week of October.  This year seems to have flown by!  

With only a couple of weeks before the Jazz Festival, I'm going to be super busy at work until the end of the month, so I don't think I'll have much time or energy to write, unfortunately.  

I had a novel entered into a contest that was supposed to be informing the winner in September, and since I was not informed, I'm assuming I didn't win.  So over the next few weeks I'm going to start submitting it to other publishers.  Which means doing a bit of research into which publishers might be a good fit.

What are your goals this week?