Weekly Recap

 

It's officially the start of Novel November! I'm not sure if I mentioned it here before, but I have been saying for a few years now that I wanted to write a book. Earlier this year, my friends convinced me to enter a short story contest to at least get feedback on the idea. My short story didn't make it past the first round of judging, but I got really good feedback that basically said I needed to explore this story and turn it into a novel. (Apparently they expected a full blown story in 2000 words, whereas mine left you on a cliff hanger and didn't really get too descriptive.)

I've been targeted by these different writing groups about Novel November, guaranteed to hold you accountable to write an entire novel in the month of November. My goal is not to write an entire novel this month, because who has the time between a full time job, a kid with all the activities, my own social life, and my sanity ... but I am using this month to really force myself to get words on the page every day with a goal of hitting 20k words by the end of the month. 

Current word count: 6,371

To help me hit that goal, I've decided to write scenes as they come to me instead of trying to put the whole book together from start to finish. I have a collective of friends who are chomping at the bits to help me brainstorm and then read my rough draft. My goal to complete that first super rough draft is by December 31, 2026. 🤞

CHASE THE FUN

Halloween edition! The 6th floor of our office goes all out for Halloween, and my friends in the business office did an arcade theme that was brilliant. Every door was a different arcade game, the wall outside of their offices was Super Mario all the way to Bowser's castle, they had a Nintendo 64 so you could play games, and everyone was dressed to the Super Mario theme. So fun!

COOL EATS

Not much to really talk about this week on the food front. We had our work book club meeting at Lit, and I love being able to just load my pizza how I like it - shredded and fresh mozzarella, pepperoni, all the peppers, a ranch drizzle and topped with some hot honey. 😋

This malted cookie dough shake ice cream from Van Leewuin may very well be my favorite ice cream ever! I've only seen this flavor at Fresh Market and may be going back to stock up because it was SO good. 

BOOKS READ

We are back in the season where I've got a lot of ARCs that I need to knock out, so I've got to get to cranking! I also have some books that are being released that I have been waiting for, so there will be lots of time spent reading in November! (* designates an ARC read)

Elusive Alpha - The Omegas Inn Love series is one of my favorites! Each book follows a different couple on their trip to the Bear Claw Inn, where the owner (Franklin) is known for having a knack of matching alphas with their omega. These two knew each other prior to one of them joining service and then lost touch. It's a second chance with all the feels. 

Finding You This Christmas* - The next installment in the Letters to Mrs. Claus series that releases tomorrow! More on this one at the end of the week. 

Lighting Up My Christmas* - Another installment in the Letters to Mrs. Claus series that releases Thursday! More on this one at the end of the week. 

Under Sparkling Lights* - This one was just ok for me. Gigi works at Wonderland Amusement Park and thinks that it's perfect. Theodore is hired by the park's owner to offer advice on how to make the park more profitable year round. It's a cute story, but I found Gigi to be very annoying and immature. Releases tomorrow.

Sweet Caroline* - This one was SO good! Hop on snagging this one on November 10th. Caroline and Miles are 🌶🌶🌶! The author did a great job of handling sensitive issues and portrayed Miles journey to sobriety in such a heart wrenching, honest way. On the flip side, she also did a great job of portraying Caroline's people pleasing tendencies and showed exactly what happens when someone stops pleasing other people and starts looking out for themselves. 

Pass Interference - Not going to lie, this is a multiple re-read for me. This is one of the books I go to for a palette cleanser. I love Marcus and Aiden's story and their second chance is long overdue. Marcus is also hilarious so reading this one always puts a smile on my face.