Writings, Wanderings

 2020 has been a year. My creativity took a major hit, but I do have one writing accomplishment that I am very excited about from this year. I wrote a short story titled Second Chance Run and it was accepted into an anthology with twenty-five other authors! It has been an amazing experience, and I have loved getting to know the other authors a little bit. I am also loving reading the stories in the anthology :) I want to get back into blogging in the new year, so I've decided to introduce each of the stories but not in a traditional "this is the synopsis" book review. More of me just pointing out a few pieces that stuck with me. So get ready to see some quick reviews from the love stories in Sweet Romance: An Anthology over the next few weeks!

December 2017. I sat at a booth in an Eat 'n' Park and caught up with a friend on our life over the last year. At the time I was still smarting from my two failed attempts to break the four-hour mark in a marathon. Although my friend encouraged me to look at the positive--I did run TWO marathons within five weeks after all--I couldn't shake the funk of having put in months of training and not being successful in my goal. February 2018. My sister informs me that the Marine Corps Marathon--one of the few races at that distance on my wish-list--is changing their registration. Every other year it had been lottery-style, but this year there would be a fifteen-minute window when anyone who registered (and paid the fee) would be an automatic entry. The only catch? That window was in the morning when I was supposed to be interacting with a classroom of Spanish students. Registration day arrived--and with it a school cancellation. I was amazed at this moment working out, but this wa...

Going on summer break from school has been good to me. Although I had a good school year, I had a lot going on and as my last month's blog entry stated, my reading suffered. For June I took the time to rejuvenate by focusing on reading what I felt like when I felt like it as well as writing in my next novella (maybe short novel?? it's turning out longer than I anticipated but I think editing will keep it under 40K). I finally read the Grisha trilogy ( Shadow & Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin & Rising ) by Leigh Bardugo. I have seen others gushing about on Instagram for months now! This fantasy series is definitely more young adult than adult, but I wanted to keep reading and plan on reading the other stories in the Grishaverse. I found her system of magic interesting and was invested in the characters. Loved Nikolai! Yes, there was the over-used love triangle (or was it a pyramid at one point?), but it did not overwhelm the other elements. Recommended read for tee...