Can you believe we’ve arrived at the last day of January already? Boy, the time sure goes by fast!
I decided I would do a wrap up blog post each month on a few topics. So here we go for January 2014:
Books:
- My reading year has started off with a bang. I’ve completed ten books this month. (Not counting five novels I read for a contest which were of the type I refuse to even list on Goodreads as having read them. Poor prose. Objectionable language and gratuitous scenes. No thanks.) I don’t expect I will keep reading at this pace. It is unusual for me. Several of the books I read were novellas, so that certainly helped increase my numbers, but my, they were such good novellas.
- Under this category, I will note that I’m using A Woman’s Guide to Reading Through the Bible in a Year and the daily devotional, Believing God Day by Day. Both of these, naturally, will take me a full year to finish. They won’t be counted in my “books read” column until the end of December 2014.
Bible:
- My reading plan (using the aforementioned A Woman’s Guide to Reading Through the Bible in a Year) took me through Genesis, Matthew, and into Exodus. I’m using the Voice Bible translation for this year’s reading.
- I am also reading John as part of my church’s weekly study.
Movies/TV:
- I went to see Philomena this month, my first movie of this year. I enjoyed much of it, laughed often, felt a little angry, got a bit teary-eyed. But I could have gone without f-bombs, etc. I am not easily offended by language. The world is going to talk the way the world talks, and I understand that. But I do get so weary of it. It’s lazy for people to talk that way. Lazy for writers to have characters talk that way.
- As for TV, well, can I just say Downton Abbey, Season 4!!!! I watched the show when the episodes aired all four Sunday nights this month. Then on Tuesday of this week, my Season 4 DVDs arrived via UPS. I have since watched all episodes twice and loved every moment of them. Will be watching again soon.
Miles Walked:
- I covered nearly 85 miles this month. The total isn’t as high as it should be if I were achieving my goal of 10,000 steps per day, but it isn’t a complete disaster either.
Writing:
- First and foremost, A Promise Kept released, and I’ve been kept busy doing telephone interviews and such. I usually avoid reading reviews, but I confess that this book is rather dear to me so I’ve been reading most of them. A Christian television program has expressed interest in a possible appearance about the personal story behind the story. And this week, the audio version came out, so I am now listening to the book. I love the reader they chose, and the reader is so very important when it comes to listening pleasure.
- I finished writing the first book in the new Kings Meadow contemporary romance series. This novel will release in November 2014, and I have a couple of weeks still to wait before I get the revision letter from my editor and learn if she liked it or not. I’ll be holding my breath until then. The designer is at work on the cover, so as soon as I have the final version, I will share both the cover and the title of the book. (The photo at left is one I used for inspiration while writing this book, although my story doesn’t take place in winter.)
- I finished doing an edit to a novella that I wrote a long, long, long while ago. A Wish & a Prayer will be released as an ebook only (Kindle, Nook, Kobo) in February.
- And finally, I’ve begun writing the second book in the Kings Meadow series. It’s starting off in a fun way. At least I think so. My hero would probably disagree with me since he’s the “victim” of my plotting.
Well, there you go. My January wrap-up. How was your month?
~robin
