Yes you read that right! A lot of stuff going on in this blog post. More than usual. But that’s because there’s just a lot of things to share with you!
First off the monthly review:
Music Favorites: gotta be honest here, I rediscovered my love for the movie Treasure Planet. If you haven’t seen it you really should its a Disney movie that never got enough hype and there was a sequel that would have been released for the movie but since the views weren’t up to par it was cancelled (booo!). But rediscovered the album and I loved it, played it on repeat. (yes a mostly instrumental album I played all month long! and I suggest you give it a listen or at least watch the movie cause its one of Disney’s unknown gems! and I’m definitely not going to just leave the first song on the playlist right here for you to listen to, its a banger!) To go along with music favorites, and this came of course at the end of the month but Fall Out Boy’s version of We Didn’t Start The Fire, I have to say is totally targeting an audience full of Millennials for sure. Another favorite of the month (yes an entire album again don’t judge me…ok maybe you can a little bit) is Drastic Symphonies by Def Leppard. Great album. Always love when bands incorporate classical orchestra instruments with their songs. And its also a great way to get introduced to the band too because alot of their most popular songs are on this album!
Non-fiction Books: Newsletter Ninja By Tammi Labrecque. Great for those like me that are trying to get more engagement with their audience through newsletters. (and yes I will be trying to use these tactics…as soon as I get more books under my belt. I’m working on it, on the whole more book writing. Y’all just have to be patient with me).
Fiction Books: Guilty pleasure has entered the chat but not really since it’s gotten really popular due to TikTok (thank you social media for blowing this up or I would’ve never discovered this writer at all!) Ruby Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarian series (it’s a reread ok. Discovered her through the pandemic in 2020 and immediately binged this series and her other series, Fireblood Dragon, chef’s kiss really). I reread books 1-3 and plan on basically trying to reread the series since it’s become a comfort read of mine.
Monthly Wordcount: like maybe 1500, hadn’t added it into my little word count spreadsheet. But I got a spurt of inspiration to start trying to re-outline or rework some of what I’ve already started for my Deal With A Demon book that will be released in 2024.
Misc? (Idk what else to call it since its random but it’s not a favorite….): wanted to remind everyone that there is a Smashwords sale that is happening tomorrow and throughout the month of July. My books are included you can pick them up for free this month here. (and other authors as well go check it out!) And speaking of sales, as I’m writing this the Stuff Your Kindle Day is today! (yes I’ve picked up a few books). Go check it out here there’s alot to go through but the blogpost is broken down into category for you!
Today is the last day of Q2 for HB90 goals. And I felt like I should do a little roundup on my goals. Which were #1: 10% more social media posts(which meant 2x weekly). This didn’t really happen. I tried to do it but I felt like I didn’t have enough to share 2x a week. Other than my daily habits (which are kind of a routine at most time so very repetitive). Definitely didn’t stick with it. #2: 3k writing habit (laughs sadly). Yeah, that um didn’t happen at all. I’ve been in perpetual writer’s block every since February. Didn’t help that my mental health kinda went in the crapper last month. #3: relaunch book series wide. Now I feel like this was a success. I broke up the steps in a manageable way to take my books from amazon exclusivity to a wider array of choices. (I would totally add in links for them but you know Smashwords sale is going on… ;D). The only problem that I felt like I did with shooting myself in the foot (figuratively of course) is that I also included draft writing for one of the books in the series here. I always do too much always. And I end up not following through. And that’s what I did. Cause I thought it was do-able but it didn’t help that I was already in writer’s block mindset for pretty much the entire quarter.
My plans for Q3 after some reflection on Q2?: #1: post on social media 1x week (and that is on lemon8, new little place that I’ve started to go on. It’s TikTok but like photos basically). On Instagram, yt shorts and also on TikTok. Still the same places but in a more realistic realm for me at least. #2: 1k writing habit. Again same kinda thing but I’m taking it down to a more reasonable and more realistic amount. Because when you make the goal smaller you are more likely to go over the goal and achieve it. (also helps that I’ll be starting camp nanowrimo for the entirety of July to work on drafting the Demon project. Should help me get out of the slump and get some progress on it, which the goal is 30k in the month of July). And goal #3: self care basically. Go on my spin bike and log that in my planner so I can see how frequently I exercise. As well as hydration check-ins daily to make sure I’m drinking my damn water (cause I’m really bad at that). And finally do a little selfceare day weekly, like face mask and relaxing for like 30 minutes or so.
That’s about it for this post. Hope you guys liked it and check out the links for my favorites if you are interested. What were some of your favorites this month? Comment them! I wanna know!
xoxo,
Jessica Danielle