Hey guys, welcome back! I’ve been real lapsed on getting the On the Bookshelf page updated for 2025 (yes, I know it’s almost July)…so with Summer now officially here, I thought I’d share this list and maybe give you some ideas for your Summer reading TBRs. This will also move to a new OtB page for this year so if you lose sight of this post, it will still be available.
This is what has been read and re-read so far this year. I have linked to the author’s Amazon pages (click their name) instead of each individual book. This way you can also check out their other works as well. Please note that I have linked to the paperback format pages, but you can easily switch to kindle, hardcover, etc. (I’m personally a paperback reader.)
This list is always a work in progress, so be sure to keep checking back. (And yes, I kept reading holiday books well through January to keep the spirit going!)
I tried to list in order of how they should be read, either series or those who are just in the same world. For example, the first three Kristan Higgins books listed all take place in the same town but are not necessarily a ‘series.’
Be sure to also check out the links on the side of the page…social, shops and more or you can visit my linktree which has them all in one happy place: linktr.ee/promosocially
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Thanks for being here, stay cool and happy reading!! 🙂
Hey all, welcome back! It’s been quite a week and while I meant to post on Friday, life happens. But here we are and happy to see you all!
A few things in case you are new here…first, welcome to the site. Hope you like your visit and that you’ll check out the ‘new posts’ tab to catch up to see what has been going on around here. Also, I don’t like to add links to the posts themselves, so be sure to check the bottom of the posts to find any relevant links. I was never one for inundating a post with external links. For me, they take away from what the post is about and is distracting, again this is just me. (If that makes any sense.) You can also find my social, shops and more on the right hand side of the page (or under the post if you scroll on the phone). Hope you will check them out while you’re here and be sure to hit the subscribe bar to the right or the pop up at the bottom to add your email so you can get updates on new posts. 🙂
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to it!
If you know me here, you know I read a lot. Like a lot. One of the things I have taken to doing is carrying a book with me a la Rory Gilmore. For those who may not know the reference, in the old show Gilmore Girls, the daughter Rory famously carried a book with her wherever she went, including her junior dance. While I’m not that over the top, (and way past my junior dance years), I do carry a book to all of my medical appointments. Today included. I knew I’d have a lot of wait time, so instead of playing on the phone, I pulled out my book. It’s always a stress reliever. Let’s face it, going to the doctor or going for medical tests can be stressful. Why not ease that stress by diving into a good story?
I’m not a kindle or ereader person, I’m strictly a paperback girl, well, woman. While I was at one of the medical buildings in town today, I went to a nice, quiet spot in their cafe that was closed at the time, made myself comfy and got back into the story. And then…
Please picture the scene: an open area with tables and chairs, where the staff and visitors there can eat, grab coffee, maybe have a little meeting. But the cafe closes right after lunch, yet they keep the seats available for anyone who would like to use them until the building closes. I found a nice spot near the windows where I’d be able to see when my ride showed up, let out a big contented sigh and thought about how nice it was to just be by myself with my book.
Just me and my book.
A gentleman walked in and out of all the empty tables in the place, he decides to sit one away from me. At first I thought he was just going to sit there. However, he seemed a little high strung, not being able to sit still and getting up and down and scraping his chair along the floor each time. Again, this was a medical building, all kinds of tests and procedures are done there so I can sympathize if the guy was nervous about something. Then a friend of his shows up. Turns out, they were just meeting there to catch up on some things. They were loud, they kept jumping up and walking around and very loud. In my head I’m thinking, ’I was there first and just keeping to myself.’ The old me? I would have sat there, too embarrassed to get up and end up reading the same sentence over and over again not being able to concentrate. Now? I grabbed my book and the rest of my stuff, got up and as I walked past them, thanked them for ruining a nice moment of my day.
I will never understand why people do such things. The speakerphone calls in the store so we can all hear them. (Heard all about someone’s hemorrhoid surgery in cvs one time.), coming up right next to you when standing in line (I miss the 6ft rule from the covid days) or sitting right next to a person when there are a hundred empty seats in a movie theater or a cafe. I wasn’t bothering anyone, just sitting and reading a rather moving scene in my book and honestly, trying not to tear up as I did so because I was in public and yet, I was the one who moved. I’m thinking of carrying an air horn with me so the next time this happens? I just hit it and make the others move along. Just something to think about.
Anywhoo, enough of that. Sorry for the vent but this therapy, sorry, blog, helps me work stuff out before I get to my writing sessions! 😬
Speaking of, I’ve finally gotten off the second edits of the chapters I’ve written so far. I’m now 32 chapters in and still going strong. As I said in my last post, some of these chapters are short and may end up being combined with others, so don’t let the number fool you just yet.
However, I hit the scenes I’ve been dying to get to for about two weeks. I knew they were coming up, knew the general way they were going to go and yet even I was surprised with how they’ve been writing themselves!
If you’ve ever heard the term ‘automatic writing’, when someone puts pen to paper (or fingers on a keyboard) and just lets the writing go where it will? That is how I tend to write. I know how I want to start the scene, I know the locations and then I just go. Last night in particular, I came up with something I wasn’t expecting and it fit so perfectly into the whole dynamic of the story that it invaded my dreams while I slept and has been on a constant replay in my head all day. I have no idea where this part of the story came from but I am so glad it did. It really helped me tie in a character that has been giving me a lot of trouble incorporating into the storyline.
I also came up with a plot twist that I’ve been trying to figure out and it has also been a problem trying to work into the whole book. All of a sudden it came to me and I was able to introduce the beginning of it last night and now it’s a matter of weaving into the rest of the story and seeing how it will work itself out. This, my friends, is the fun part for me.
After all of the research I’ve been doing for this and all of the build up to get to this point, now is when it gets interesting. I can’t wait to see how this story will develop further and where this automatic writing will take me tonight. Of course all this being said, when I go into what I wrote last night to edit and refresh my memory to get me back into it so I can write the next chapter, it may turn out to be pure crap. It’s happened before it will happen again. I get excited that the story flowed effortlessly and then when I reread it the next night, I wonder if I was on to something to come up with such nonsense. What I love though are the days when I go back in and find that I’ve actually written something that is worth reading. Worth the time it took. Worth the pain of typing as my fingers fly across my beloved keyboard. (For those new here, I have a strange attachment to my keyboard.)
Sometimes the blocks disappear. Sometimes the words come when you least expect it. And sometimes you have to hold your tone when someone invades your personal space. But you know what it can add up to? A new blog post! Ha!
And that is where I will leave you for today. Thanks so much for joining me along for this crazy ride and again, I’m going to throw some links below for you to check out.
Until next time my friends…
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Click on my linktree to follow me on social, shop my linktree shop and find gifts designed by me for readers and writers alike: linktr.ee/promosocially
(you’ll find my keyboard linked in the shop as well)
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Current book: On Second Thought by Kristan Higgins (click on the title to see)
If you don’t know her books, you can start out with If You Only Knew and Good Luck With That. While not technically a series, these books take place in the same town and involve characters from all of them. I found this out by accident and love when I discover that a new find is related to this town. (They are also based in an area near where I grew up so makes them that much more special to me.) Again, click on the titles to check them out.
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If you’ve made it this far, I thank you and will see you next time. 🙂
Hey guys, happy Friday! It’s been a busy one this week and for those of us who like to read during a good rain storm, it’s been another good couple of days for that. I was excited by the number of folks who came to read my post the other day as well as the likes and I can’t thank you guys enough for coming back each time. And to those of you who are new here? Welcome!
I mentioned the other day that I’ve been quite productive lately and it’s been great. I’m actually about to start writing chapter 20 after I finish this post and just last week at this time, I was happy I had just passed the ‘dirty dozen’ mark. So that has been a bonus for this week. What has been driving me crazy though is that I hit a chapter that caused me to have a little lull. A little lack of, I don’t know, excitement maybe? For lack of a better word.
Let me be clear, I’m not writing an action adventure thing that will turn into a Summer blockbuster down the line (and who I will never champion Tom Cruise for). Rather, mine is but a romcom with some deeper stuff in it as well. Or at least, that is what I’m going for. However, every book that you read or write has those couple of chapters that are just there to bridge the story from one place to another and that is where I am now. I’m not saying they are boring. (Hoping they are not.) What I am saying is that I’m excited for the next chapter and wanted to skip over these last two to get to the next one. There is still a lot going on, a lot of information dolled out and even more character development of course, but as I am living vicariously through these people, I’m just excited for their next adventure.
Last night I even had trouble sitting down to write. I didn’t know where the words were going to take me and I still have yet to reread and edit them before I continue writing tonight. What I do know is this, much like I do with this blog, I just sit down and start writing. That’s it.
This is how I wrote my last two chapters. I had blocks, I had worries, I had “well now what do I do now that I wrote them into this issue” and yet, I just kept writing.
I ended up liking one chapter a lot. It turned out better than I thought it did and when I read/edited it, I actually laughed in some places. (Yes in the spots that were meant to be funny.) So somewhere in my mind, the story is still there guiding me. Yesterday was a bit tougher. I had a vision of where it was going to go, how to get past the lull a little bit more and make it not so, I don’t know, day-to-day? Yet after a bit of writing the first scene, the typing continued. I once again did an almost automatic writing session and because I did, I came up with a new twist I hadn’t even thought of before. A way to tie some pieces together that honestly, never crossed my mind once and again, this is at chapter 19! I was able to add some more depth, some more emotion and some more backstory to characters that deserve to have their stories told.
I hope I’m not building myself up here. This is by no means the next ‘great American novel’ and I’m hoping that if you are reading this now, I’m not ruining anything for you if you decide to read what is finally published. I’m just trying to share part of my process here. I sometimes start off blind. No clue where the story will take me. I just know that if I take more than a day off, I feel like I’m failing myself. That if I miss more than a day of working on this story, the story will leave me.
As much as I like to keep my schedule going, there are times when it isn’t meant to happen. I encourage listening to yourself and how you feel. This goes for anything, not just writing. Case in point, the other night, I had an idea for the next chapter and wanted to get it down, but I hadn’t been feeling good at all the entire night. When I sat down to write, it felt more like a chore, more like homework, more like I had some deadline I was supposed to meet when in reality, I have none. I read and edited the chapter from the night before, but when it came time to write the next one, I got three sentences in and stopped. My eyes and head were pounding looking at the screen. It was pouring outside and I decided to shut off the devices and dive further into the book that I’m currently reading, which, btw, I’m loving. There is nothing like reading during a good storm and once I got off the glare of my iPad, I started to feel a lot better.
What I’m saying is this…there are times the story needs to come out but the body isn’t willing. There are times when the story is stuck, but the mindset is to keep going. Just start writing. You may be surprised. It will either flow or you will get the clear sign that it’s just not going to happen in the moment. But you’ll never know unless you just start writing.
And that’s where I’ll leave you today! Thanks for joining me today, be sure to check out the links below and I wish you guys a great weekend!!!
Until next time…Cheers!
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New Chapter Cove 