Today is my blogs 2 year anniversary, and it’s also Earth Day!
I’ve had a lot of fun using this space to talk about books, and to share updates on my personal projects.
Spring is absolutely wonderful. I love waking up to birds chirping in the morning, and feeling the suns rays coming through the blinds. It’s comforting, although sometimes it’s so peaceful I don’t want to get out of bed.
Here’s to the future! May we work together to make our world thrive, so that everyone who comes after us may enjoy waking up to singing, and sunny skies.
Sometimes I don’t feel very old…and then I feel SUPER OLD. Obviously, I’m still a youngish person, seeing as how my mom calls people my age “kids” but I pay taxes, and have life insurance and…like those were things I never had to think or care about when I was a teenager. I kind of miss not caring about my dental coverage.
Being an adult isn’t terrible. It’s not easy, but I know for a fact that I would never choose to be like 13 again. I absolutely hated being 13.
In other news, but still somewhat birthday related, today I got some really cute Vermin themed merch in the mail that I am so excited about. They’re adorable! I love them. I don’t know if my excitement is coming across as I type, but for the record my face hurts from smiling.
Speaking of books, I got another free ARC on Thursday that came with a letter from the author! I was like “WHAT? A LETTER? FOR ME?” and I read it aloud. It made me want to read the book even more. The cover is also beautiful. I’m already in love with the story, and can’t wait to share my review. I’m only on the 2nd chapter, but I already love this one character to pieces, and if anything happens to them I will cry and hug Mr. Buckwheat who, if you’ve ever seen my instagram is featured fairly often.
This is what he looks like! He’s from the show Goblin, which had a name change or something but it’s a K-Drama my sister and I were obsessed with. We have 3 of the plushies from the show. I added a bow his hair that I got from my Nana. He’s my nieces fave plushie to borrow and snuggle with when she visits me.
This month I’ve gotten a lot of great ARCs through work, so I’m totally set reading wise…although I always welcome book recommendations.
I was recently recommended the new Star Wars book series by my co-worker, and I am so excited to check them out. I haven’t read a Star Wars book since…I think it must’ve been 8th grade? I read it around the same time I was reading the Halo series books. All my buddies were super into Halo at the time, and I read the books because I didn’t have an Xbox. That…sounds so sad.
I’d like to get some work done on my manuscript before any festivities start, so I think I’ll stop my post here and get to work.
Yesterday after work my family and I went on a boat tour of the Muskoka on the Winonah II. It was really neat. I like learning new things, especially history. I find it interesting.
The folks that lived on the islands were an extremely friendly bunch, waving as we sailed along the lake. The tour was two hours, but it really didn’t feel that long, and the lemonade was lovely since I was siting in the sun. My one arm is more tanned than the other now, but I’ve been needing a tan all summer so at this point I could care less about the evenness of it.
Afterwards we popped in to see our folks, and got to see my cousins baby for the first time! I couldn’t believe how big her other child has gotten since I last saw them. We also dropped my friends birthday gift off and then met up online later to play games via social distance. I’ve always been a person who valued the time I spent with others but with the pandemic, and not seeing anyone for so long I’ve truly come to cherish it. I’m a family person, and it was hard enough for me not seeing my folks and friends while I was off at university…but this has been so different. Although I’m a person who can entertain myself for extended periods of time without interacting with people, I hate missing out on time with my family. It’s really sad that most of us haven’t seen one another since Thanksgiving 2019! Time has flown by so fast that these last few years feel more like one…big…mesh of time.
In conversations with co-workers I think that many of us have become nostalgic for the simple things like brunch and coffee dates with friends, going to the movies, conversations with the wonderful folks making your drink at Starbucks, seeing another persons smile, holding a new baby, giving piggyback rides and high fives and slaps on the back.
The optimist in me has learned to appreciate the sound of another persons voice, their eyes, decorative masks, someone’s outfit, waving wildly to great someone. Thinking this way has been a comfort to me…and I often try to on days when I get frustrated about the fact that I haven’t been able to spend Saturdays with my Dad and sister going to our favourite art store, and then going to Dairy Queen. It was something I always looked forward to and haven’t been able to do since 2019. I’ve watched some of my favourite places go out of business…and it’s so sad.
I’m glad I got to get out of town for a day and just relax on a big ship, and sit in the sun and watch the water. I also found a cute blue beetle looking thing. Not sure what it was and to be honest I’m not a huge fan of bugs but this bug was pretty.
The change was nice for a day.
If you haven’t heard yet, my debut novel Vermin is out! It’s been a long time coming and I’m so thankful for everyone who helped make this book possible.
I thought I would feature this drawing of my character Roland that my sister did for me, which features the cover as a backdrop. You can find her artwork @nuggiedraws on Instagram!
Apparently it’s my blogs anniversary. I hadn’t even realized it until just now. Traditionally, with my older blogs I would make a long post highlighting the years…but I didn’t plan anything. This will also probably be posted a day late because its 11:30pm…
So for starters…
My blog is officially a year old. Happy 1st Birthday kiddo!
I’ve been catching up on my reading lately, and I have a bunch of new reviews planned out. My TBR was shrinking last week, but now it’s growing again! Hooray!
I also have a bunch of exciting news that I can’t wait to share. I hope you’ll all be as excited about it as I am. All I can say for now is that I’m doing a super cool project, that I am pumped about! I’ll talk more about it before the premiere!
Today I had my favourite ice cream and watched 90 Day Fiancée with my sister which my Dad absolutely hates but put up with because we rarely get TLC on our station unless its like a monthly promo thing…we also didn’t let him change the channel. I’m not a huge fan of reality TV but I find this show addicting. I don’t know why. I think I can recall a YouTuber who discussed TLC (The Learning Channel) as a modern day Freak Show. I agree with her. After thinking off the top of my head, most of what airs on that station reminds me of the old “COME SEE THE MAN WITH THE SEVEN EARS!” type thing…only its on television. I wish I could remember the name of the YouTuber, because that video is seriously worth watching if you have the time. I want to say her name was Ada?
Anyways, that’s enough about television.
I had ice cream, finished compiling and organizing my research results and now that I’m finished with that I’ll be rewarding myself with a few more books to add to my shrinking TBR.
I’ve been low-key participating in a co-workers read-athon. I like read-athons, but I sometimes have a hard time filling all the prompt categories. Sometimes I try to knock out two categories with one book. I’ve found this helps. I love that her prompt allows us to read diversely and explore different mediums and genres but also gives us the freedom and flexibility to read whatever we like at our own pace! I also got a very lovely list of series recommendations from her, which I am extremely grateful for! I was starting to worry that I’d run out of novels to read. She’s such a fun person to work with, we literally just gush over YA novels and the majority of what she recommends me is 100% up my alley!
Working in a bookstore is the best. I miss my co-workers so much during lock down but every once in a while people send out emails or our managers call to check on us. It’s extremely thoughtful and I just…I feel so happy and safe with everyone at our store.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t complete 5 books in four days last week. My managers even asked if I was really reading that much…and to be honest I don’t even know how I accomplished that. I haven’t read like that since I was in my first year of university. I guess it happened because I was multitask reading a bunch of different books around my birthday and then when we went into lock down I was just reading with my niece…because this little girl who used to hate reading now adores it! We pretended to have a book club. I think we should try to continue it via social distance because it was so much fun. I actually have a post planned involving some of our reads and reviews of certain Middle Grade books. She gives fantastic reviews, so I’d love to get quotes from her on her recent reads for that post. Who knows, maybe I’ll interview her.
She’s also been making her own comic series! It’s really creative and I love how her personality shines through it. She’s got a great sense of humour so seeing that in her stories always makes me happy.
I hope that you’ve enjoyed reading my blog over this past year, and have found new books to add to your reading list…or perhaps one of my writing related posts has helped you. If you have a blog, feel free to share your link in the comments, I love checking out other bloggers!
For tonight’s special we have roast beef served with a broccoli salad, Yorkshire pudding, potatoes and of course peas. Remember, you must eat the same amount of vegetables for how old you are. If you don’t, you won’t be able to enjoy the lovely dessert. Served in a pretty little dish, Blanc Mange! A delicious treat, especially as the months grow colder.
Haha! I had fun with this one. It was hard picking the right photos though. It’s also made me a tad hungry…but alas I’m off to bed.
Here’s my latest drawing. It’s for an earlier prompt that I decided to redo. I like it much better.
Today I was supposed to write a song about one of my character’s, which I did haha and am debating on sharing it today. I’m thinking that I’ll probably redo the recording of the song and post that later this weekend.
I suppose in the meantime I’ll share the rough version I did today. I warn it is very rough! It’s also in two languages…English and the language some of my character’s speak in the series. I will be sure not to sing and record while half awake next time haha.
Okay so apparently I can’t upload it on here right now…so I’ll be posting it to Soundcloud temporarily! I’ll replace it with a better version on YouTube.
Oh…so I have no more space on Soundcloud. Uh…
Well um…this isn’t going as planned. I was supposed to post this at 10 am to begin with but I was at work. Err…Um…change of plan.
I will post the song tomorrow once I get everything sorted. Sorry about that! In the meantime I’ll be completing my drawing for the day, which you can watch on my Instagram @ardinpatterson. I’ll also save it to my story.
My tea is currently too hot to drink so I decided to see how many books are on my TBR list right now. Somehow the list has grown to 103, which is definitely not what I expected. I underestimated.
I ended up buying another book yesterday…while looking for something completely different. I actually had a video on it auto-play on YouTube the night before and then there it was on the shelf. Next thing I knew it was in my hand and I was paying for it.
I need to show a little more will power when it comes to books though. I think its because I’d been trying to keep my spending budget so tight during this pandemic, that I end up having a few days where I buy 1 or 2 things.
Books make me happy. I love anticipating what will happen next and flipping through the pages. I think during 2020, a little thing like that can do your mental health some good. It’s nice to just jump into a book and escape reality for a little while.
I know with this book that I got, it’ll probably be far from the stories I’m used to reading. I don’t mind horror films. I actually enjoy them (although I prefer horror shows because the suspense builds more and they raise the stakes for characters). Still, I don’t usually read horror. I can’t think of the last time I did. I know of one Webtoon that only updates in October. It was a bunch of ghost stories and things. I thought that was a good. I think I must’ve read it three years ago? That might be the last horror type book I read.
Regardless, it’s fun to genre jump every once in a while. I find when I stick to one genre too much, I end up reading the same types of stories over and over again. This isn’t a critique on the writers, but more an observation. It’s more of “this is what I like and where I feel safe” so that’s what I read. These are stories where I can usually tell if the ending will be happily ever after or happy for now.
I’m definitely going to review the books I’ve bought over the last two days. I have high hopes for them.
I decided to review book previews from books on Amazon to help promote authors who released books during the early half of this chaotic year. My goal with this is to share these works with potential readers, who may enjoy these stories and also help these authors get more reviews on Goodreads and on Amazon.
If you, or anyone else you know has released a book this year, feel free to leave a link to it in the comments with a brief description (perhaps a single sentence pitch) for myself and others to check out. Please be sure to include the genre and other links that you feel would be beneficial (social media, where to purchase the book etc).
Alright, the first book is…
Sloane by Nick Kurch
Sloane is a scandalous force of nature! From the first page, this blonde is weaving tales of mobsters, monks and love affairs in a hotel lobby. This somehow landing her a room, free of charge.
The way in which she prays on the sweet clerk, Mary, and pulls her into her story is astounding. Even when she slips up, she finds a way to draw Mary back into her lie. As the promotional tagline for the book reads, she’ll make you want to believe!
About the Author:
Nick Kurch is a Hawaiian author and self-proclaimed, boring man with not much going on. He lives vicariously through his ridiculous characters and their misadventures.
Nick dabbles in writing books in both fiction and non-fiction and has written for publications such as ClutchPoints, The Manifold Magazine and Love Knot Books.
For this one I will be covering two novels, both apart of the author’s Flawed Attraction series.
The first few pages of Final Year are intense. This thriller romance follows Beth and Jeremy, two complete opposites who find themselves on campus during a lock down, hunting Jeremy’s not-so theoretical chem project.
In this first chapter we follow Beth as she gives into her gut and runs back to help Jeremy as the other students on campus make their way to the stadium. Alarms are blaring and she continues to tell herself to go with the group, but instead heads back to help him. Her gut knowing that something is very wrong. When she finds Jeremy he’s on the floor, barely able to stand. His insulin is low and it is clear that he needs to see a medic stat.
Jeremy on the other hand is more concerned about his work.
MJ Moores novel Final Year received a 5 star review on Favourite Readers.
Vice Ride is MJ Moores newest addition to this romance series, which follows Amber and her ex-boyfriend Josh across the Kawartha Lakes region in Ontario (yay Canada!).
In the introductory chapter, titled Venus Fly Trap, we meet Amber, who is moving back home after being away for eighteen months at school in London.
It isn’t going as she planned.
For starters, she gets stuck moving her luggage on her own and to make matters worse someone is watching her from across the street: her ex-boyfriend Josh, who she tries her best not to give the finger.
It’s very clear in this chapter as Amber’s frustration grows that she wanted nothing more than to move back in without Josh catching a glimpse of her. To her the entire relationship was a mistake and being near him and back in the Kawartha makes her uneasy.
About the Author:
MJ Moores has had a passion for storytelling since she was nine years old. Starting her career as an English teacher in Ontario, she writes and has an adoration for multiple genres. MJ has written for Authors Publish Magazine and Indyfest Magazine. Her work can also be found in many anthologies, such as Unbound II, Brave New Girls and more. She has also written and published several works including a steampunk serial, available on Amazon.
Her Flawed Attraction series follows characters in their early 20s, going beyond the initial stages of a crush and getting to the deeper roots of what draws people together. In this case, two people who are polar opposites and how each moment in the novel brings them closer together as they learn to see past each others initial impressions, their personal prejudices and also the realization of their feelings for one another.
In the opening chapter of The Dawn Thief the reader is met with a scene of a young man chained up in a cell, known to the town of Cresvy as Evil Incarnate, a cell that he’s been in for seventeen years of his life. This mysterious man, has silver sewn into his clothing and has memorized each and every sound both within and outside his cell. His only friend, a cat named Whiskey, who he is drawn to for their similarities…that being, his other form, a wolf.
The young man (and wolf) Silas believes his entire existence could put those he loves in jeopardy. Spending his life, he has always been an outcast feared by the people of Crevsy. Doomed to a lonely existence.
After suffering from a back injury in their youth, Amelia was forced to bed rest, where among her limiting activities–homework, watching television and reading–she discovered her love of writing.
She claims the book she wrote during this period was gobshite, but the passion for writing remained with her ever since.
I finally finished writing out my potential scene replacements! I’m so happy. I got very busy working on other projects and thought it would be a long while before I completed them.
Today’s plan is to take a bit of time to read over what I’ve written, maybe get a second opinion from my sister if she’s not too busy (she’s an artist, she’s always busy) and then send it off to my editor for her thoughts.
Currently I think that this scene fits within the narrative but I am worried about it’s length. The scene its replacing was 2 pages shorter. I also struggled with making it a scene that didn’t have any loose ends that would need tying up later.
The more I edit, the more excited I am to have others read this book. It’s my first time publishing anything…and I’ll be honest I’m a bit nervous. I’ve spent years working on this book and my hope is to have others love it as much as I do.
Ardin Patterson 