Hi, it’s me, I’m the problem, its me …
So, long time no talk. How are all of you? The past couple of months has been hectic. I have spent my time working my full-time job, my part-time job, working on my master’s of elementary ed, and reading. As I mentioned in my January blog post (the one before this one) I said I wanted to read 23 books this year. Well, we do not have to worry about that. As of today, April 1st (April 3rd), I have read 26 books in 2023. So, between working, going to school, and reading, I haven't had much time to do anything else. I have not made any tiktoks, but I have a lot planned. All of them are reviews for the books I just read. The written reviews are published on my website under the “Book Reviews” tab. Lately, I have been into series, so rather than doing multiple reviews, I have grouped series together. Except for the latest series I’m reading, The Hundred Oaks series, because I read the first book months ago. The reviews I have posted are: The Dreamland Billionaires Series: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/dreamland-billionaire-series-by-lauren-asher The Did I Mention I Love You? Series (DIMILY): https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/dimily-series-by-estelle-maskame Icebreaker: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/icebreaker-by-hannah-grace And books 2 - 6 of the Hundred Oaks Series in individual reviews. However, I am planning on dialing back on reading for this month. Since I have far succeeded in my reading goal and it is only April, I am going to focus on other things. My main priorities are still going to be work and school for obvious reasons. In my free time, I want to write. I miss writing. It has been too long since I have done it. I have so many ideas, for my current work, and brand new ideas. My dilemma is deciding what I should work on. In my mind it makes sense to finish WILDER, I love the idea so much and it’s something I have been thinking about for the past five or so years. I also want to write new ideas, including writing a new adult book. Mainly because that’s all I have been reading lately, but I still have to flush out the ideas and details. Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say is I hope I have more chapters to write and share with you all. I am also planning on having more tiktoks out there for you all. I hope it doesn't take three months to see you all again. At least know that if you’re missing me, you can still see me on my “Book Review” tab. I'll see you all later, Madilyngracewriter
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Hello All!
It’s been a while! I forgot to make a blog post last month, but that was in the past. Let’s start fresh with a new year and a clean slate! I do have a bunch of updates to share with you all! First, I read two books in the month of December, and they were actually on my A-Z Reading Challenge that I made a while ago. Below are the links The QB Bad Boy and Me: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/the-qb-bad-boy-and-me-by-tay-marley My Life with the Walter Boys: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/my-life-with-the-walter-boys-by-ali-novak I made a reading jar of both my A-Z Reading Callenge and the Colleen Hoover books I Own (plus the ones to complete the series I have) to try and motivate myself to read. And in an ironic change of events, I willingly chose to read the two books on my own. Guess all we need is some pressure to make a decision on what to read. And telling ourselves that it is needed for research. I read these two books because they were placed in high school and I wanted to see how other authors mentioned it. I also wanted research on what makes a bad boy, a bad boy. WILDER is supposed to be a good girl bad boy book where he shows her how to live and enjoy life. But therea re some things that I don't want my bad boy to do, because I don't support things like fighting - school fist fights or boxing rings, mafia, drugs, underage drinking and smoking. From my reasearch, a bad boy is whatever I want it to be. I am in control of how my characters act, including what makes a bad boy a bad boy. That brings me to my big news, I did not complete NaNoWriMo. Life got too busy and I was not able to complete writing Wilder. HOWEVER, I did successfully write FIVE CHAPTERS!! I am so happy with that and think it’s amazing, especially since I hadn’t written anything since June when I finished The True Life of Chole Harris. The first three chapters are up on my Wattpad account. Here is a link to the book: https://www.wattpad.com/story/325273395-wilder I stopped writing WILDER and haven’t touched it in a bit. This was mainly because the first five chapters take place in one day. This is fine, but if this continues, then I’m afraid that the book might be around 100 chapters long, and that’s way too much for me. I’m intending on having WILDER be around 25 to 30 chapters. And there’s a lot I want to take place in that amount of time. So, I have to rethink and replan how I want the book to happen. It is my goal to finish writing WILDER this year. Well, now is a good time to share my goals for 2023 - for the writing and reading world.
I am sure I will be adding more goals or far succeeding them. I cannot wait to see what all happens in this new year! Alright you all, I believe that’s all I have for you. See you next month! -MadilynGraceWriter Hello All!
Today is the first day of November, and you know what that means. Today is the first day of National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo! Once again, I am going to participate. And I am determined to complete an entire novel. Now, that leads me to my writing. Unfortunately, I have decided to put Dear Blue Lily back on the shelves. Indefinitely. Dear Blue Lily is not the kind of book I want to write right now, and probably never again. When I began writing Dear Blue Lily, I was not in a healthy place mentally. And because of this, the book was more of a dark and unhappy storyline. Recently, I discovered this is not the kind of book I want to write. I want to write happy, coming-of-age, romance, and everyday kinds of books. Ultimately, I want to write happily. No matter what way I can think of it, Dear Blue Lily isn't happy. I have ideas for a happy ending. But the bulk of the story, the main parts of it, is not happy. It doesn't make sense to have it happy. I have been trying to run from this fact, but I cannot. It has been months since I said it will be bringing it back and I have not written a single letter. And I do not see myself doing it at all. So, I came to the conclusion that Dear Blue Lily will be back on the shelves and probably will be there for who knows how long. But now that leaves space for me to write something. And conveniently NaNoWriMo starts today. I am excited to announce my new project. WILDER Elle Cassens had always had a simple, plain life. That's the way she likes it. Every day it is the same: wake up, go to school, and then go back home again. Once in a while, she will choose to spice it up a little and either go to the movie theater or the library. But even then, that is rare. One day a new boy, Dean Wilder, takes an interest in her. The only thing is, he's a bad boy and has one mission- to change the boring and uptight girl’s life and have her live a little. From midnight drives to pillow fights and motorcycle rides, Elle’s life was about to get a whole lot Wilder. A classic high school telling of a good girl and a bad boy who is trying to get her to open up and have some fun. I am so excited about this book! I have so much inspiration and am starting to plan the book out. Which is very interesting to me. I have never thought of myself as a planner. Every time I have tried to plan out a book in the past, it doesn't happen. The characters want something different to happen. They are in control after all. But when I was writing The True Life of Chloe Harris, I realized that I needed to figure out a plan to complete it. Once I had that done, I knew what I needed to do and it was easier to accomplish. So, now for WILDER and I am thinking of ideas for what I want to happen. I have the first two chapters planned out so far. And many more ideas. Now, on to the reading for the month. This month was a bit more relaxed. I read three books this month. And to no surprise, all the books were written by Colleen Hoover. I read: Confess, Reminds of Him, and It Starts With Us. This month has been nothing but a disappointment. I have come to the conclusion that all of Colleen’s books are the same. There is a problem, find a guy to do stuff with, they help with whatever problem is going on, and then it’s happy for the last chapter. Then book over. That's it. Therefore, I decided to take a break from reading Colleen’s books. For a deeper review of her books, head on over to the book reviews tab of my website, or check them out on Goodreads. In all honesty, I am probably not going to be reading this month. Especially not if I want to complete WILDER. I am determined to do so this year. You can check up on my progress on the NaNoWriMo website under my username: madilyngracewriter Also as a reminder, you can find me as madilyngracewriter on just about everything. Speaking of, I have only made one TikTok this month. It wasn't much, just a short review of the Colleen Hoover books that I deemed to have 5/5 stars. You can see that over on my TikTok! Alright, that's all I have to update! See you all next month! -madilyngracewriter Hello All!
Another busy but not busy month. First, I have not written anything. But I have been posting new chapters of Dear Blue Lily as I had a few stock piled. I’m about halfway through posting them, so I’ll have to start writing soon! I’m excited, but at the same time, I have to plan the rest of the book. I’ve discovered I’m turning a bit into a planner instead of a pantser like I used to be. I like to have an idea of the book at least, I don’t really have one for Dear Blue Lily. Well, I’ve got a few months left to plan. That’s all the news for writing I have. I have been very busy and have not had a chance to sit down and write. I am working 40 hours a week, and am working on my masters degree. In my free time I read. In the last month I have read about 8 books. And I have written a review for all of them! I have posters on my wall for my A-Z reading challenge and Colleen Hoover books where I can cover them up when I am done reading it with the star review and date I finished it. (In most cases, the date I read and finished it). And for the books I read that don’t fit in either category, I have a blank lined poster where I can right it down. The reviews for the books I read are attached below: (As well as posted to goodreads and my website, where I will be pulling the reviews from) Along for the Ride by Rachel Meinke: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/along-for-the-ride-by-rachel-meinke Beach Read by Emily Henry: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/beach-read-by-emily-henry Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/catching-jordan-by-miranda-kenneally Dear Martin by Nic Stone: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/dear-martin-by-nic-stone It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/it-ends-with-us-by-colleen-hoover Verity by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/verity-by-colleen-hoover I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/im-glad-my-mom-died-by-jennette-mccurdy Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/ugly-love-by-colleen-hoovre As you can see, I have not stuck to the A-Z reading challenge. My coworkers all pushed me to read Colleen Hoover and I can say I am so thankful they did. Colleen is slowly becoming my favorite author. And I kinda hate that. Only because I don’t like enjoying or liking popular things, lol. But Colleen deserves all the hype and love she is getting for her books. They are amazing. As you can see, I’ve stuck to my promise to myself about reading books and writing for reviews. Another promise I made was to be more active on social media. And one of those was to post weekly on tiktok. I haven’t stuck to one hundred percent, but I have made two this month! I think that’s pretty great! The first was a summarized review of the first three A-Z books. The second view was a book haul. Of course it was mostly Colleen Hoover. You can watch the videos here: https://www.tiktok.com/@madilyngracewriter?_t=8W9XNnRNSdn&_r=1 I have plans for a lot tiktoks, and still working on plans for more. Alright y’all, that’s about all I got for you. Hopefully next time I see you, I will have brand new chapters for Dear Blue Lily! And more tiktoks! And many more books read and reviews made! See you next month! -MadilynGraceWriter First, I have not written anything. But I have been posting new chapters of Dear Blue Lily as I had a few stock piled. I’m about halfway through posting them, so I’ll have to start writing soon! I’m excited, but at the same time, I have to plan the rest of the book. I’ve discovered I’m turning a bit into a planner instead of a pantser like I used to be. I like to have an idea of the book at least, I don’t really have one for Dear Blue Lily. Well, I’ve got a few months left to plan. That’s all the news for writing I have. I have been very busy and have not had a chance to sit down and write. I am working 40 hours a week, and am working on my masters degree. In my free time I read. In the last month I have read about 8 books. And I have written a review for all of them! I have posters on my wall for my A-Z reading challenge and Colleen Hoover books where I can cover them up when I am done reading it with the star review and date I finished it. (In most cases, the date I read and finished it). And for the books I read that don’t fit in either category, I have a blank lined poster where I can right it down. The reviews for the books I read are attached below: (As well as posted to goodreads and my website, where I will be pulling the reviews from) Along for the Ride by Rachel Meinke: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/along-for-the-ride-by-rachel-meinke Beach Read by Emily Henry: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/beach-read-by-emily-henry Catching Jordan by Miranda Kenneally: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/catching-jordan-by-miranda-kenneally Dear Martin by Nic Stone: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/dear-martin-by-nic-stone It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/it-ends-with-us-by-colleen-hoover Verity by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/verity-by-colleen-hoover I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/im-glad-my-mom-died-by-jennette-mccurdy Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/book-reviews/ugly-love-by-colleen-hoovre As you can see, I have not stuck to the A-Z reading challenge. My coworkers all pushed me to read Colleen Hoover and I can say I am so thankful they did. Colleen is slowly becoming my favorite author. And I kinda hate that. Only because I don’t like enjoying or liking popular things, lol. But Colleen deserves all the hype and love she is getting for her books. They are amazing. As you can see, I’ve stuck to my promise to myself about reading books and writing for reviews. Another promise I made was to be more active on social media. And one of those was to post weekly on tiktok. I haven’t stuck to one hundred percent, but I have made two this month! I think that’s pretty great! The first was a summarized review of the first three A-Z books. The second view was a book haul. Of course it was mostly Colleen Hoover. You can watch the videos here: https://www.tiktok.com/@madilyngracewriter?_t=8W9XNnRNSdn&_r=1 I have plans for a lot tiktoks, and still working on plans for more. Alright y’all, that’s about all I got for you. Hopefully next time I see you, I will have brand new chapters for Dear Blue Lily! And more tiktoks! And many more books read and reviews made! See you next month! -MadilynGraceWriter Hello All!
Boy, do I have a lot to share with you all. I am very happy to report that it has been a busy month - more like a busy week! This last week I have made a lot of decisions regarding reading, writing, and social media. I cannot wait to share them all with you! First off, I finally decided to make a tiktok account! I should say that I have had it for awhile, but I decided to have it come back around. I am going to make it a place where I post updates on my writing, what I am reading, and book reviews. Essentially I will be part of booktok and I am excited! I have posted two tik tok so far, the first one a recap of the stories I have written - omitting Lessons and Loves and Writing Rambings, as these aren't real stories and their ongoing. And I ended with a little surprise, which I will reveal later on in this post! The second tik tok ties into another thing that I have been doing. I am participating in the A-Z Reading Challenge - with only the books I own. As you know, I collect children’s books, specifically the ones from my childhood. I did have to use one of these to continue the alphabet, but hey! It works! All my tiktoks will be posted on instagram as well. This way people don't have to download and learn a new app. But if you would want to, that's awesome! And guess what! I already read one book! Letter A is done! In less than 24 hours, I completed reading Along for the Ride by Rachel Meinke. I loved this book! And one reason is because she is my all time favorite Wattpad author! So so happy to see that she finally had her debut as a published author. If you want to know my thoughts on the book, I posted a review on my website. It is posted under the ‘story review’ tab and I will include a link here: https://www.madilyngracewriter.com/story-reviews/along-for-the-ride-by-rachel-meinke To keep myself motivated and stick to this goal, I made a poster of all the books I plan to read, so I can cross them off and write down my star review on them. If you want to see what I will be reading, go check out my latest tiktok! I am currently about to start letter B, Beach Read by Emily Henry. I haven't decided if I am going to read in order or jump around. But I do know I want to read letter O by September 23rd, as it will be turned into a movie! On the Come Up by Angie Thomas! I am so excited! Angie is another one of my favorite authors. Let’s just hope I can stick to it and read halfway through the alphabet by then! Alright, as mentioned, I am on tiktok and hope to be posting weekly. I am debating if I want to do an individual tiktok for each book or a group of the alphabet. I think I might do both and have a more indepth review on the individual book. My Instagram will be posted weekly with a repost of my tiktok. But I do hope to be more active on posting new content there as well. I just don't know what I want to post. My website and Facebook page will still be updated monthly. I do see that changing and love that I have a monthly recap to share with you all. However, I hope to post story reviews whenever I finish a book. So, I'm not going to say it will be done at such and such times. Just keep a look out for those! Okay, I think it's time to reveal the secret I hinted at earlier! Today, September 1st, I will be bringing back my novel DEAR BLUE LILY With a few changes! Now the story will only be told through letters! It will be similar to MR. PICK-ME-UPPER, but without scene. It will be told only through letters. Like a good old-fashion epistolary novel! I read through the novel version and realized that even though there are 20 + chapters, it feels like the book barely started. I was trying to tell basically three stories at once: letters, the main character's point of view, and the love interests' point of view. And it was going nowhere. So, DEAR BLUE LILY is back and told through the letters only. Maybe I will bring back the full novel sometime, as I saved all my work. But we'll see, I am excited to keep going with the letters. I have seven chapters to share and will be posting them today and every Thursday after! I might post twice a week, but it has to work around my school schedule. If I do decide to post twice a week, I will let you know! Gahhh, I am so excited about all the new plans I have made! Hopefully I will see you around more! If not, I'll see you in a month! Be on the lookout for new stuff on my social media pages! Thank you all, Madilyngracewriter Well, welcome to a new month and another round of updates.
Unfortunately, I have nothing to report. I have not read anything or even thought about reading. However, I did buy a new book - so I guess that is something. Nor have I had a chance to write a book, much less anything. So, Summer on the Shore will be returned to the closet and brought out again next summer. I know there is another month until summer is officially over, but I highly predict I will not have any time to write an entire novella. Maybe I will start working on an old project in any spare time I have. Though I doubt that. This last month has been very busy. For starters, it was my birthday at the end of the month! I turned 22 and treated myself to a new computer setup. I now have a dual monitor setup running on a mac mini. I love it! It makes it so much easier for school. And that brings me to what has taken up most of my time this month. Although most of my undergrad has been online, I highly underestimated how difficult a Masters in Elementary Education is. Even if it is just one class at a time. But I guess that is what happens when you do an accredited program. Only having six weeks to do 3 credits worth does make for a busy week. The other week was my busiest. I had to do two discussion posts, three responses, one survey and video, a paper, and a quiz. It was crazy and I’m glad that week is over. No, I am in the last week of my first class and have already done my discussion posts and responses. The last thing I need to do is a short paper - thankfully not in APA format - about my intent as an educator. It is due on Wednesday and my next class starts on Thursday. That's right, back to back. I am in back-to-back classes until January of 2024. And then I will be in the classroom student teaching. Besides school, I have been busy at work. My boss is out on maternity leave and I get to do the behind-the-scenes stuff. This is very exciting and means I have a lot more responsibility and more computer work. The good news is I have more hours to work on all the extra stuff. Finally, that brings me to the last update for the month. Covid has hit me once more. And this time it took my partner as well. So this weekend has not been very fun or active here. Honestly, I'm not even sure if I'm making sense in this post or any of my school assignments. Well, that is all I got to share. I am going to lay down and rest again. See you next month, hopefully, I will actually have something to share in the world of books. See you then! -MadilynGraceWrier Hello All!
It’s another round of monthly updates and I have big news to share!! As of June 22nd, The True Life of Chloe Harris is complete! That’s right! Not only did I complete the last goal I gave myself, I finished more than a month early! The True Life of Chloe Harris clocks in at just over 70,000 words, making it the longest novel I have ever written. It sits at the goal chapter length of 32 chapters, which I realized is a chapter longer than my other legitimate novel, Café Aurora. That one is 30 chapters, plus a little bonus chapter. The True Life of Chloe Harris is about 5,000 words longer than Café Aurora, and I know it needs more editing and I could expand more on details, so who knows how long it will be! Granted all my stories need editing. I have only wrote a first draft, and haven’t even read them. I find it awkward to read my own work. I know I’m going to have to eventually, but that can wait until I feel confident enough to publish. Right now, I’m happy to publish the rough drafts to wattpad for others to enjoy. I did do some edits for The True Life of Chloe Harris. The big thing I did was change Ava’s name to Ana. I did this because I really like the name Ava and may name future children that name. I would hate for them to come across this book and see their name was used as an antagonist. There are a few other reasons why I wanted to finish The True Life of Chloe Harris earlier than what I had first said. The first of which, is I really want to write a summer novella. And I also decided I want to participate in Camp NaNoWriMo. This takes place in the month of July. I am going to try to write the entire novella in July. However, it that doesn’t happen, I am okay with writing it in August as well. Ultimately I would love to finish it this summer, but we all know my track record with finishing things when I want to. Especially with NaNoWriMo. The True Life of Chloe Harris was supposed to be a NaNoWriMo 2018 story. And while I did manage to write 32,000 + words, that ended up being only about half way complete. I took some much needed time off from this one to work on other projects. And eventually had to come up with a outline for the rest of the book. Which to my surprise, worked out really nicely. I got see what I all needed to put in the rest of the book. I rearranged it quite a bit, but it was still nice to have all the ideas laid out in front of me. Out of my entire writing career, there was only one other time where I made an outline of what I want in the book. Usually I just like to wing it. As I came to figure out, that doesn’t really work well with trying to have a good plot. I’m not too sure if Café Aurora has a good plot to it. It’s not the plot I originally planned to have. It ended up being a little summer love story without all the classic fun summer things to do. Which is why I am going to write a classic summer novella. It’s going to be jammed with all the fun things to do, including a local bad boy. I am so excited to announce this novella. It will be up on wattpad today, the first chapter pending. I am not sure if I will have enough time to write the first chapter, but I will for sure write part of it. And when it’s finished it will be up on wattpad. The summer novella I’m planning to write is called Summer on the Shore. The starting description is as follows: Charlotte has always lived in Iowa, where the most fun thing to do is watch the corn grow. There's nothing exciting around her, nor is there anything she wants to do. So, when her sister is getting married in California, and invites her out to stay for the summer, she knows she's in for new experiences. But she didn't think they would be because of the curly-haired, local bad boy, persistent at helping her experience all the fun things of summer she never got to have. I am so excited to start this novella! I have been telling myself not to write it all week because I want to begin it with camp NaNoWriMo. And thankfully, but sadly, it has been pretty easy to not find time to write it. Because, as of June 23rd, I am enrolled at Grand Canyon University (GCU) in the Masters of Elementary Wducation program! I am so excited and cannot wait until January 2024 to have chance to be in the classroom as a student teacher! Right now I am just doing the classic first week of class assignment where we talk about policies and the way school works. Yesterday was the first day of actual class as weeks run Thursday to Wednesday. And it’s been great so far! My only complaint is how frequently I have to log on. Almost my entire undergrad experience had been online - maybe like 1.5 combined in the classroom - and never had discussion posts been set up in this way. Usually online class means you can do the assignments when you want to. Or there would be set days to have class over zoom. But now I have to log on three times a week to post one discussion response. It used to be where I could do it all in a day and move on. I liked that better. Who knows, maybe as class progresses, I will enjoy doing it a day at a time. I do like that I only have one quiz for this class and only one paper. There are other weekly assignments but nothing compared to my undergrad at UWRF where I had to write at least one story a week for multiple classes. Another difference to my undergrad, I’m hoping to actually learn something with my masters! I truly don’t think I learned anything other than how to reuse my writings for other classes and read other students work and critique it. I know I will actually be learning about education because there are specific things a teacher needs to know. Including math, which I haven’t done since like 2017. So not only will I be learning math, I’ll be learning how to teach it. So that will be fun. I am so excited to have a classroom and decorate it with what and how I want, that I already started slowly pieceing together a Amazon wishlist of things. Don’t worry, I’m not going to send it out yet. Nor will I force people to get me things from it. I am and will be grateful if anybody decides to donate. I already have a large selection of elementary level books because they were my favorite childhood books. Now I have to decide if I want to bring them into a classroom or keep at home for my own enjoyment and inspiration. I’ll probably let my future children them too. But I don’t know how I feel about lending books to a full classroom of elementary kids. I don’t like my stuff to be destroyed, so I’ll probably get them their own copies. Besides, I know where to get cheap books - and at a discount - thanks Half Price Books. Too bad the teachers discount is barely anything compared to an employee discount. Either way, I am so excited to be an elementary teacher and have a classroom full of books and other fun things. And the students of course! Alright, that’s about all. Thank you all for stopping by and reading this big message. I hope to see you around my summer novella - Summer on the Shore. Wish me luck with Camp NaNoWriMo! See you all next month! -MadilynGraceWriter Hello All!
I am back again with the monthly updates. And wow, would you look at that! I have not missed a single update and it is now June. That means I have successfully stuck to posting for six months now! That is awesome! And the most consistent I have ever been in regards to updating my website. Even better, I have a lot to share with you. Both good stuff and bad stuff. And, even surprising stuff (but it's good). First, let's talk about the bad stuff. Well, it's not too bad. I have once again not read a book. I have not even touched or opened a book this month. I have looked at them as they are all over my living room, but other than that, nothing. Hopefully I pick up a book this coming month. But I can't really see myself doing that. Nor am I going to put pressure on myself to read. Mainly because I have been spending my time well in other ways. Such as, writing. I am very happy to report that I have successfully written two chapters this month. And, I am almost done with another! That is incredible! It may not seem like a lot, but compared to the last couple of months - heck the past couple years - it's a lot. As promised, here is a new chapter of The True Life of Chloe Harris to read: www.wattpad.com/1231532236-the-true-life-of-chloe-harris-chapter-twenty-five And because of that, I am sticking to, if not ahead, of my goal of finishing by my birthday of July 26th. I only have six more chapters to go and there are eight more weeks until then. Meaning I have six weeks to finish and still have two weeks of filler time. Ultimately, I would love to finish it earlier, however, my track record isn't too good. Especially with this book. I started writing this book, The True Life of Chloe Harris, in November of 2018 for NaNoWriMo and here I am June 2022, still writing it. But hey, at least I have a plan and know how I want to finish the book. I just have to convince myself to write. And that's something I am not too good at doing. I do want to finish True Life earlier than my established goal for other reasons than just wanting to be done with it. I really want to write a summer novella. As you may know, I wrote a winter novella - 12 Days of Bennett. And now I am craving to write a summer story as summer is approaching quickly. Who knows, maybe I will write a novella for all the seasons. Wait a minute there, let's slow down and write the summer one first. Or better yet, let's figure out a plan for it. I have a handful of ideas I want to write about, but no actual plot or plan. I want to make it one of those cliche summer teen fiction books that take place on a beach doing all the fun summer stuff. Other than that, I have no plans. I do know, however, I would like to finish it this summer season. Unlike how 12 Days took three winter seasons to finish. I also like to only work on one project at a time. So doing this one and True Life at the same time is out of the question. I feel like I get storylines crossed and forget what things are supposed to go where. So, why not just do one? Just got to write six more chapters of True Life, and then I can plan my summer novella more. I am very excited! Speaking about excitement, I have surprising but good exciting news to share. I have decided I want to go back to school and get a Masters in Elementary Education! I am looking at a couple of different schools - sent in applications to both and now am just waiting for a response. Turns out, I messed up one application and applied to one that furthers an existing teachers education, and not for new teachers. But after talking to the chair of grad students, we are working on switching my application over to the correct one. The problem being the correct program’s title is a little different than I would prefer it would be. It would do all the same abilities and allow me to be an elementary teacher, but seems weird to me. It's a Masters in Elementary Teaching. Another problem with that, is that it's offered in Spring of 2023. I was hoping to start in the fall of this year. So, I found another school that has the program title I like, leads to a teaching license, and allows me to start even earlier than the fall of this year. And the application was free. I really don't know which school I would like to go to, so I am just going to sit and wait. See what they have to say to me. Though after reading what I just wrote, I think it's clear which one I prefer. Ultimately, it's up to the schools. But it would be great to have the summers to focus solely on writing. That way I’d have dedicated time to write without feeling overwhelmed from working all day. Well, that's all I have to share with you this month. Maybe the next time I'll see you I will have read a book, finished The True Life of Chloe Harris, started my summer novella, and am a Masters / grad student. Talk to you later, MadilynGraceWriter Hello All!
Welcome back to another month of website updates and accountability check with me, Madilyn Grace. I don’t have a whole lot to report this month. I haven’t done much of anything, unfortunately. That is with writing, reading, and all that fun stuff. However, I do have two things - one of each - that I can share! First one, while I have not read any books this month - I started one but didn’t finish it - I decided to display all of the childhood middle grade books I own. I put some away - the more younger ones like, - Magic Tree House and Junie B Jones. But now I have the Candy Apple, Poison Apple, and Rotten Apple Books displayed. I still have the Dork Diaries series displayed as well. I currently own all the Rotten Apple ones, I only need one more Poison Apple book, and a handful more of the Candy Apple. I’d say that’s pretty good. I am looking around for the rest of these books, but that can be hard to do, as they are old and newer versions have appeared. I want all mine to match, and I want to have the versions of ones I read growing up. That proves to be a bigger problem with another series I am collecting, the My Sister the Vampire. Not only are there newer versions of this, it happened mid series. So, the later half of the series is only in the new version. And on top of that, some of them have a different title. I am using a website to help me out with the series’s list, so its a bit easier to keep track of them all. Also, while doing this, I realized that there is a spin off series by this author. I am sure you have an idea on what that title is. It’s My Brother the Werewolf. Apparently werewolf’s are not as cool as vampires - Twilight proved that - because there are only four books in this series, as opposed to the ten plus that is in My Sister the Vampire. Despite owning all the currently published Dork Diaries series - there is one more, however I do not know the publication date. I have not finished a new one this month. I started reading a bit, but then stopped. So, I am sad to report I have not read a new book this month. I have realized that its hard to want to read when majority of my books are packed up in boxes at my parents house. Or when there are new books I am excited about, but they are only published in the UK with no signs of being published in the US. Looking at you Estelle Maskame. I really want to read her new series, Trusting Mila, but since I already own the US versions of the Did I Mention I Love You? Series, I want to keep them all the same. Well, that is about all I have to say about reading - or the lack thereof. I hope to have a better reading report in the June monthly update. So be on the lookout for that! As for reading, I am overjoyed to report that I finished writing chapter 24 of The True Life of Chloe Harris. I have not yet posted it to Wattpad, mainly because I have forgotten about that. Once this blog post goes live, head on over to my Wattpad account where the new chapter will be posted! More exciting news of The True Life of Chloe Harris, I decided to scratch the plan of cutting chapters and returned it back to the original 32 chapters. I have too much that I want to write about to end it early. I don’t think I can full give it the justice it deserves if I were to have it at the short version. As you know, I have a goal to finish this book by my birthday of July 26th. That date is slowly creeping up. And now that I added more chapters, I really have to get writing it. I did the math. In order to finish this book by the deadline I have set for myself, I need to publish a new chapter every other week. It gives me two weeks to write a chapter. Let’s see if that sticks. According to that math, I should have about two chapters to share with you all in the June monthly update. Then again, I am not good at math. As I always say, I got my bachelors in words, not numbers. Which by the way, was one year ago! Crazy how fast time flies. Alright, well that’s all I have for you this month, and I will see you next month with new chapters to share and books I have read. Remember to head over to my Wattpad to read the new chapter of The True Life of Chloe Harris! See you in June! -MadilynGraceWriter Hello All!
It is April 1st and no, its not an April Fool's Joke! Welcome to another month of updates! I have gotta say, I think monthly updates are the best thing for me! I haven't missed an update since I started them at the beginning of the year. I love these updates because it allows me to not feel pressured about reading and writing. I can just go at my own pace and not feel like I have to keep working and overwhelm myself. With that being said, I don't have a whole lot to share with you all for this monthly update. I do have some job updates! First, I am still not involved in an internship, nor have I really been looking too much. Mainly because I got a new full-time job! I am doing the same thing as I was doing - working in activities in a retirement community. The differences are - better hours, and schedule - and I am working in new places. I am primarily in memory care still, but I am also working in independent and assisted living. I am loving it! I never knew that I would enjoy working in a retirement community. Nor did I ever think about it. I enjoy it a lot! Plus I spend the day playing dice games, leading the exercise, doing crafts, and hosting social hours. Not too bad of a job, lol! My new job switches up my life schedule and routine, so I am still working on figuring out the best times for me to write. My mornings - the usual times for me to write - are no longer available. Unless I want to wake up very early before work, and I am not too keen on doing that. I do, however, allow myself at least an hour in the mornings to write if I want to, but that time is spent mainly scrolling through my phone and spending a lot of time setting up a variety of fruit to eat for breakfast. I hope to use my mornings for writing, but we will see. Another time for me to write is in the evenings. I am slowly getting back into that. I haven't been able to write too much lately. Heck, I haven't been able to do much of anything or even bend my finger. I was stupid and got in the middle of my cat and dog. They both are fine - my cat just doesn't like my dog staring at him and my dog wanted to play - none of them got any injuries or hurt. I, however, did. I picked up my cat trying to get him away from the dog. That was the last thing he wanted to do. He decided to prove it. He gave me a handful of scratches across my arms and a nice and hard bit on my index finger. There were three puncture wounds all around my knuckle. The swelling started fast and eventually took over my entire finger and half of my palm. We are all good now! I went to the doctors and got put on two antibiotics and within three days, the swelling was gone. It took a few extra days to be able to bend my knuckle again. But I am completely back to normal! My finger feels a lot better and I can move it! Moments before the fight, ironically, I was working on a new chapter of The True Life of Chloe Harris. Because, a few days before that, I finally finished chapter twenty-three! That chapter only took me about four or so months to do! Probably the longest time it took me to write. I was stuck for a long time. I had to write out a conflict scene and conflict is something I struggle with. Even in fiction, apparently. But it's all done and over with. At least in that scene. I foresee a lot more conflict and hopefully resolutions very soon. I am planning on four more chapters. And I have the goal to finish by my birthday - July 26th. So we have a little over three months to go! Let’s see how it goes! Speaking of goals, I have another one! You might remember that I said I want to read 12 books this year. Which factors down to one book this month. I started great! I finished reading a book in January that I started in December. In February, I started a book but didn't finish one. March started and I felt bad and sad that I didn't finish a book in the last month and didn't have any motivation to read a “real” book. I have been wanting to read books since my childhood and when I worked at a bookstore, I made it my mission to buy close to all the books I read or owned when I was younger. I also bought books that I wanted to have but thought I was “too old” to read them. Haha, younger me. Look at you now. At almost 22 years old, you are reading through the Dork Diaries series. Yes, I am! I am reading the Dork Diaries series. If you don't know what this is, it's the equivalent of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but aimed at girls. It is full of drama, being a dork, and crushes. I love this series! I have made it to book five now. The last three books I have read in a day. Since they are in middle grade and aimed at a lot younger than my reading level, I can zoom my way through. And besides, I am not reading to comprehend anything. I just want to shut off my mind and read. Since I am about halfway through this series - though it is still being written - I am planning on reading the rest of this series. After that, I might read other Middle-Grade stories. Or I might read Young Adult. Or New Adult. Who knows? But to be honest with you, reading Middle Grade makes me really want to write Middle Grade. When I first started writing - back when I was fourteen - that is what I wrote. Heck, the book that inspired me to begin writing was Middle Grade. The only problem is, that I have no idea what I would want to write. The first book I wrote - well it was only half of a chapter - was a Middle-Grade fantasy story where the main character turned into a zombie. Interesting, I know. There is a problem though, I don't really like writing fantasy. I don't like having to create a world, rules, and everything else. But a Middle-Grade fantasy book could be easy. And sounds pretty funny. Who knows, maybe I will have a new story to share with you in next month's update. Ultimately, I hope to have at least a new chapter of True Life of Chloe Harris to share in the next month's update. See you then! -MadilynGraceWriter |