2019 Reading And Blogging Goals IX: Mid Year Update

Wow…the year is half-way over. Like many of you I’ve hit this point in the year and I’m feeling like I’m behind on reading and reviews and life is just crazy busy. It seems like this happens to me every year. I set goals that may be too high, or over-commit to a few too many things, or life just gets busy, or all of the above. This year isn’t as bad as last year though thank goodness.

I haven’t done one of these updates since about April. This one will be be a little different though because I’m not discussing specific goals. Instead this post is going to touch on some big picture things for the remainder of the year including an Indie-Publishing Month, and a Read-Along.

Some Background

One reason I’ve held off for a while on posting a new Reading Goals post, and more specifically a Monthly Reading Goals post is because I really wasn’t sure what my schedule was going to look like. For a short-time I was going to be on a judging team for SPFBO5. I was hesitant to do much planning at that point because I wasn’t sure how that massive time commitment would impact everything else I had planned for the blog and for my reading schedule. I didn’t want to promise anything until I’d figured it all out. Well, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was the time commitment, I decided to back out of being on the judging team. I’m a little sad about it but I think it was for the best. Maybe I’ll be able to do it in a future year. But for now this opens up my schedule again and I can redo some plans.

Changing My Schedule

One thing I had over committed on at the beginning of the year (and last year if I’m honest) was how many books I could read in a month on average. I was hoping for four, or about one a week. I managed that for the first month or so but realistically I think three is a better goal with everything else I have going on. I’m envious of the rest of you who can read so many more every month, AND be able to review them, but I just have to admit I can’t. And that’s fine. So I’m adjusting my reading schedule accordingly.

Upcoming Reads/Reviews

Here’s a quick rundown on the books I’ll be reading and reviewing in the coming weeks and months. While I don’t want to lock myself into a specific reading order, these are what you can expect in the somewhat near future.

I just finished Velocity Weapon Saturday night. This should be the next review I post. Spoiler…I liked this one a lot. It has a plot with lots of twists and turns and it keeps you guessing. More to come on this exciting sci-fi read.

Now here’s all the books I plan to read over the next couple of months in no particular order. These are books I’ve received as ARCs from the publisher, or for which I’ve received a review request from the author. Notice how the list is a little indie heavy…that’s no accident. You may notice I read a lot of books from Orbit too. That’s no accident either…Orbit in my opinion consistently hits it out of the park and they are great to work with regarding ARC requests.

The Ten Thousand Doors Of January, by Alex E. Harrow

The Rage Of Dragons, by Evan Winter

Tales Of Kingshold, by D.P. Woolliscroft

Ioth, City Of Lights by D.P. Woolliscroft

Up To The Throne, by Toby Frost

The Devil’s Guide To Managing Difficult People, by Robyn Bennis

Fortune’s Fool, by Angela Boord

Self/Indie-Publishing Month

I’ve decided I want to move forward again with a Self/Indie-Publishing Month here on the blog in September. I tried this last year and was only partially successful because I had to start taking a class for work and it totally blew my reading and blogging schedule out of the water. I really, really, really, want to try this again. I hope to get a few books read and reviewed over the course of the month, maybe do an author interview, and who knows what else. I’d love for anyone else who’s interested to join me. I probably won’t be coordinating things on a large scale, just inviting anyone who wants to participate to do so and borrow the banner if they like. I’d love to know if anyone else is interested (some of you have already told me), and if you are I hope you’ll use use the hashtag or otherwise let me know of your posts so I can share. I’ll probably update the banner and come up with a new hashtag between now and then to reflect the preference many have for “indie” over “self.” More to come on this…

Dragons Of Autumn Twilight Read-Along

You’ve been seeing me hint about it since the beginning of the year. I’ve made the decision to host a Dragons Of Autumn Twilight read-along on the blog in November. For those of you who don’t know, it was this series that hooked me on fantasy way back when I was in Middle School in the early 90’s. I can’t express how much this book and this series impacted me as a kid and if I’m honest as an adult. Some of you have expressed the same love for this series to me when I’ve posted about it. The Dragonlance Chronicles as well as the Legends series were huge for so many of us and I want to take the time to return to them.

I’ve tried to keep up with everyone who has told me they are interested in joining the read-along, but please let me know again if you’d like to in case I’ve missed anyone. If this is your first time seeing me talk about this then definitely let me know if you’d like to join. I’ll probably create a goodreads group for it as well as post to the blog. More details to come on the read-along so be on the lookout.

Well that’s it for now. I’m just glad to finally be getting a better sense of where I’m going for the latter part of the year. I also hope you’ll join me for Self/Indie-Publishing Month, and for the Dragons Of Autumn Twilight read-along. Let me know below or message me on Twitter if you’re interested. Otherwise, happy reading!