I’m linking up to Kate’s thing because I WISH I were in bed with a book. Man oh man, I have no idea how it is August already! I’ve barely been around on the blog all summer, but I have a huge list of posts (including reviews!) that I need to sit down and write. Here’s an update though:
-I got my first teaching job. I know this coming year will be challenging, but I’m excited to meet those challenges. I’m getting ready as best I can, but I think it’s going to be one of those things that you can never fully prepare yourself for.
-Because of my new job, I’m moving! Lucky me, I get to live with my sister and her family next year. My sister is my best friend and I’m really close to her kids. Plus my brother in law (and his mom!) are awesome. I bought a family Wii U to celebrate. All our love will be destroyed by the new Mario Kart 8. I have been slowly getting ready to move, but it officially happens next weekend. Hopefully, I’ll be packed. (Fun fact, I’ll be super close to Kim and Kate, now!)
-I worked on my research for my Master’s degree. This was where almost all of my time went this summer. I studied literacy instruction in diverse classrooms, and, as part of my application, I created a website: Responsible Literacy (think responsibly). Even though my written portion of the research is all done, the website still needs some tweaks and I’m still animating my short film. I… honestly forgot how much work even simple animation is. I’ll tweet my finished film, but I already know that it is not going to look like how many hours it took to create.
-On top of all this… I decided to do fast draft again. Fast Draft is a method for writing that I learned through an online class taught by Candice Havens. Basically, you write 20 pages a day of your novel with no editing or revising. It’s just about getting your story on paper. It seriously works for me. I tried it for the first time two years ago and finished my novel in 10 days. I did it again last summer to finish a novel that I had about 5 or 10 thousand words of (seriously in love with this one). Some friends said they wanted to try it and I offered to do it with them. Of course, those friends dropped out, but I had some other friends join. This is definitely not the best time in my life to be fast drafting, but I don’t know how much time I’ll have to novel this year. Plus, there’s never a good time to fast draft. Right now, I’m going on week three, which means I have not been as faithful to the process as I should be, but I was also far less prepared this time around. This new story is really different for me and I’m having fun with it, even though I’m not sure I’ll show it to anybody.
-I also picked a winner for my Christmas In July giveaway. Mindy, I’ve e-mailed you! I hope you love this book as much as I did.
-Last night was demolition derby at the city fair! It is my favorite night of the year. This year was even better because my friend’s husband came with us. He used to be a mechanic, so he was very helpful in identifying loud noises and strange smells.
-I’m thinking of reviewing a video game. I’m a casual player, but it’s something that I’ve become more interested in lately and while this will always be a book blog, I also want it to reflect who I am and what I’m interested in beyond that. Let me know in the comments or on twitter if you love/hate this idea. And seriously, if you wrote the best post of your life this summer, let me know that I missed it!
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Kimberly says
Yay for being closer!
Also I can assure you that no matter how much you prepare… you will not be prepared. Everyone tells me that the first year is the hardest (I will be able to confirm that for you next year lol). I can already tell you that I feel infinitely more prepared for this coming school year than I did last year. Also, I’m sending you an email.
Have a good Sunday!