Farewell, August

It's been almost a year since my last wrap-up post.

Is it weird now?

Do I care?

All fantastic questions for another day.

Remember that whole ~ I'm going to post something once a week ~ speech I gave in April?  Well, basically life said "LOL" and threw me under the bus of busyness.  But!  At least for today, I'm alive, and God is good. (well, God's good every day, but you know what I mean)

August was a month of anxiety, but also one of music, family time, and lots of reading. and making breakthroughs in plotting my novel. which is always exciting.

- reading -

Indie August happened!! And brought with it a new favorite book, yay!

Dandelion Dust was so good it put me in a reading slump for the rest of the week.  I wish I could say I was kidding.  It was so PURE and so SAD and I teared up TWICE.  I finished on the first day of the readathon and nothing else felt like it would compare and so nothing else got read lolll.  But if you like contemporaries at all, you definitely need to read this book.


I FINALLY read Romanov and y'all?

I'M STILL SHOOK.  Nadine has done it again.  This book was stunning.  I read it in 4 hours in the middle of the night (oops) About halfway through, this was my face:

I gasped OUT LOUD at 2 AM because WOW.  I'm not going to spoil it if you haven't read it, but you should read it. *shoves it into your hands* GO FORTH AND ENJOY, FRIENDS.


And the last one I'm gonna shout-out (I read 10 books this month, y'all!!) is The Con Job.

If you've been around this blog for any length of time, you might know that Leverage is my favorite show.  My mom has had three Leverage novels for a long time, and recently when she purged her personal book collection, I snagged them for my own.  This month I finally picked up this one, and I loved it so much??  The crew were each perfectly in character, including lines like this one:

"That put Eliot right back to remember who she [Parker] was to him,

the crazy thief with the wild ways and the private heart.

The little sister he'd never had."

*cue my distant sobbing*

I love this little found family so much and seeing them in a new adventure was something I loved so, so much.  ((A little warning should you wish to pick this up for yourself, there is a good bit more profanity than the show, which makes me sad but oh well))

- writing -

Parker and Barrow is coming along swimmingly, thanks for asking. xD

No but really, I'm enjoying writing this book so much.  I really got to work on the magic system this month, which is always a fun part of writing fantasy.  I'm so ready to get to the part where the plot really gets going, and I'm almost there, but writing dialogue (particularly one-sided dialogue) is my nemesis, thus my characters always seem trapped in this limbo of half a conversation because I have social anxiety I don't know how to have a conversation like a normal human. *sigh*

But I can make pretty aesthetics so here, have one of those for my little traumatized beans.

- watching -

Dick van Dyke strikes again.  Diagnosis Murder has been playing on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, and having only seen a few episodes before, my sister and I started watching it and oh my gosh?  It's so good?  Mark Sloane is an ICON.

And let me say, it's very helpful that they're all doctors.  They can actually help people who have been hurt which is nice.  Also Jesse is my fave and also my son.

((I DIED reading this oh my gosh))

And of course, my good ol' tried and true, Murder, She Wrote was a staple this month.  It calms me down and makes me happy like no other can.

Jessica taking down the bad guys feels like I can do anything, and she's who I aspire to be in life, tbh.

((Also I'm forever sad that these two never had a crossover))

- listening -

 I rediscovered old-school Michael W. Smith this month and it's been a great ride.  "Rocketown" is my favorite song of the moment.

Here's an August playlist if you'd like to see what else I listened to obsessively this month.

- doing -

Dance started back full-force this month and I'm gonna be honest... my whole body HURTS.  Because let's be real, I'm old.  I'm creaky.  I need some oil in my joints, can I do that?  (but no really, I've loved going back, I missed it a lot.  especially tap.)

In other news, I can't WAIT for fall, y'all.  I'm sick and tired of 90+ degree weather and feeling like a steamed vegetable when I walk outside.

- blogging -

I put up 3 whole posts this month, be proud of me.  xD

- 5 indie books you should read (+ 5 on my tbr) -
- kees & colliers blog tour -
- midnight's curse blog tour -

Also, I randomly got a bunch of views in the past week from Canada and France, of all places.  So hi there, if you're new here.  Give me a follow if you wanna see me get a handle on my shenanigans, lol.

Will I get a more consistent schedule in the coming months?

(me, knowing I'm probably making more empty promises to myself)

We'll just have to see, won't we?

I really wanted to put together a wrap-up post this month, so here it is.  Did you like the layout?  Shall I do more like this in the future?  Let me know in a comment below!

(And yes, this month's regularly scheduled Psych gifs got highjacked in favor of Murder, She Wrote gifs instead, but let's face it, Jessica's always #relatable)

~ Abby