Y'ALL. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT DAY IT IS? IT IS OCTOBER FIRST. OCTOBER. FIRST.
THE RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS LIED. TIME DOES NOT GO BY "SO SLOWLY." TIME. FLIES. TEMPUS FUGIT, PEOPLE. IT HAS WINGS.
Anyway. Rant aside.
It is now October. Which means, once again, we must say goodbye to one month and greet the next with a holy kiss.
(Don't ask where that came from. Just...don't ask.)
(It's actually scripture...)
what i did last month
Let’s take a look-see at my list here…
Survive school—pretty much (I’m on my very last leg, wrapping up the class on the 12th!)
Get BAD ready to publish—check (for the most part...still have a couple things left to do before it’s TOTALLY ready, of course)
Finish beta-reading—er, no (I even messaged the author [the lovely Issabelle Perry] to let her know that I might not get much reading done)
Finish proofreading—nerp
Wrap up Tell Me You Love Me edits—YES! In fact, the cover reveal is happening on the 11th, so y’all make sure to SIGN UP HERE to join!!!
I didn’t quite complete everything I’d wanted to last month...especially in the reading department *hides*, but I did get a lot of, well, school done and launch Bound and Determined’s preorder campaign! Whoop whoop!
On a more personal level, I’ve been binge-watching the most wonderful show with la familia…Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Like. It is fantastic. SUCH good characterization and chemistry...the perfect blend of action and suspense and romance...*coughs* young Dean Cain. I mean, some of the plots could use some work, but the actors/characters and just the vibes more than make up for it! *sighs* I’m in love.
I’ve also gotten into baking bread. I’ve made breadsticks multiple times, a loaf of “bread” bread, and hoagie bread for sandwiches! It’s actually been...good...which is a surprise. Not because of my cooking skills, but because of how bad our bread has been in the past. We even had a bread machine several years ago, but it was just bleh.
this month’s goals
Complete absolutely everything I need to do with BAD
Read/review five books
Edit yet another novel for a client
Write several guest posts
Redo my Instagram theme
Wrap up this last class
TMYLM cover reveal
Finish beta-reading
*coughs* I am busy.
monthly progress
Naturally, I haven’t written much of anything apart from papers and blog posts. (I miss fiction writing soooooooooo much.) Maybe one more installment in The Captain (which is now a Patreon exclusive, so to read the serial, you’ll have to become a patron HERE).
I did get a couple hundred words in for my preorder-perk BAD companion story...
reading highlights
Ha. Ha ha ha. I had grand plans of reading a TON of books this month, but alas. I read, like, three.
Dìlseachd – A Stolen Crown by Cheyenne van Langevelde. I had the pleasure of reading this one for endorsement (although I will review it in full), and it was WONDERFUL! Such a rich historical novel!
Worthy of Legend by Roseanna M. White. Of course I adored this one. Y’all can read my review here!
Bring Her Home by Hannah Currie. Gah, I have so many mixed thoughts/emotions about this one...I’ll have to hold off until I’ve collected them all in an orderly manner before I share anything.
top blog posts
guest appearances
Here’s the fun part, y’all! In honor of BAD’s upcoming release, I was featured on Saraina Whitney’s blog with this post all about writing a story with a mind of its own! I also got to write a guest post for M.C. Kennedy about why I write Christian historical romance, which you can read here! And, lastly, the lovely Vanessa Hall posted part one of our two-part interview that was SO fun!!
follower updates
Don’t forget, the marketing Q&A form is still open! I’ve been a little slower on answering questions due to my lack of time, but new posts are on their way! Y’all can leave your questions HERE!
And, of course, you can finally preorder BAD!!! And when you do, you’ll receive a loooooong list of epic goodies! Y’all can check it out on Amazon HERE or click the button below to be taken to my special preorder page!
Now, before we part, I have something AH-MAY-ZING to share...
But, naturally, I'mma make y'all scroll.
.
.
.
.
.
.
No, don't you dare skip to the bottom.
.
.
.
Why?
.
.
.
.
.
Because the purpose of the long scroll is to...
.
.
.
.
.
Explain some stuff to you.
.
.
.
.
.
You see, back in...well, sometime last month...
.
.
.
.
I went to upload my mostly-edited manuscript to KDP.
.
.
.
.
Like I'm supposed to.
.
.
.
Well...it was too big.
.
.
.
I needed to make the margins wider to accommodate the large spine, BUT making the margins wider increased the amount of pages, until I actually had too many pages.
.
.
.
.
Cue me panicking at 9:30 at night.
.
.
.
.
Well, to combat this issue, I changed BAD from 5.5x8.5 to 6x9. Only a half-inch difference, but it made the pages long enough to (1) not need the wider margins and (2) stay within the page limit of 828 pages.
.
.
.
.
So, I finally had everything figured out and ordered a proof copy...
.
.
.
.
Which I just got in last Saturday!!!!
.
.
.
.
Cue everyone's shock over how outrageously HUGE my baby is.
.
.
.
Everyone, meet Bound and Determined.
SHE'S HUGE. LIKE, SHE HURTS WHEN YOU DROP HER ON YOUR TOES! SHE'S HEAVY. IT'S INSANE AND I CANNOT BELIEVE I WROTE THAT. MANY. WORDS. LIKE WHAT THE HECK?!
She's literally bigger than A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers. Seriously. Size-wise and word count, since BAD is 206k and AVitW is about 155k.
So. Whatcha think? How long do you think it would take you to read a book that big? Have you ever read a book that long? (Hint: if you've read Gone with the Wind, you have. That thang is huuuuuge. 418k words to be exact.) Have you ever made bread? What TV show are you watching now? Any great recent reads? I wanna hear ALLLLLLL about it in the comments!
yours in spirit and script,
Grace
#monthlygoals #monthlywrapup #monthlyupdates #monthlyprogress #readinghighlights #topblogpost #guestposts #welcometooctober #followerupdates #progressreport #boundanddetermined #heavythang #bigbaby #howdidiwritethatmuch #nowonderittookthreeyears #ineedtofindtheexactdateistartedwriting #goodbyenow #timetodosomedigging #andcalculating #alsowemissedkeatonsbirthdayandiamashamed #itwasaugust17 #hencewhythebookreleasesonnovember17