Adria Bailton, Author
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Musings from a Mountain

Reading Reflection 2021

1/7/2022

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Reflection

On New Year's Day 2021, I posted what I thought were reasonable goals for my reading. They turned out to be overly ambitious.
  • I lost my login to Storygraph.
  • My reading rate dropped drastically. The 2018 - 50 books, 2019 - 100 books, 2020 - 30-40 books trend did not hold and I did not read 36 books - a plan of a fun book, a writing craft book, and a third category book. 
  • I did not read enough to give a "favorite" book of the month after the first couple months.
  • The recorded books didn't count the reads of unpublished work.
  • I read a ton of short work this year. Some weeks I really do post everything I read. But most weeks I read 2-5 times as many stories as I post.
Picture says 2021 Reading Challenge You read 8 out of 36 books. Better luck in 2022!

I'm going to try again for 2022. Goodreads wants me to read just even one book a month. I might take them up on that. But my reading goals are going to be much more flexible this year.
I need to write. Unfortunately, my reading time and writing time heavily overlap.
Thankfully, I've found my login to The Storygraph, so I can try to make fun graphs for you in the future!
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2022 Goals

I will include unpublished work in my book counts but I need to figure out how to remember them. But I will aim to read at least one published book a month as well.
I will post a quarterly reading reflection. 
This wraps up my disappointing reading reflection for the year 2021 and my vague reading goals for 2022. 
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February 2021 Book Reads

3/5/2021

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I have two books I read in February. I'll admit that I am struggling to read at all and am not making my reading goals. 

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My writerly read this month was Business Essentials for Writers by Jim Nettles. This book will be helpful for anybody who plans to make a living writing stories and books. It tells you where traditional publishing falls short and where you will need to pick up the slack. It tells you what you need to invest in as a self-published author. It isn't a read-straight-through book, other than to glean what information it has. It is a reference book.

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My fun-read this month was The Unbroken by C.L. Clark. I was lucky enough to get an advanced reader e-copy. I haven't quite finished it yet as my fun-reading is slow lately. 
I have been reading unpublished work by several writers, and I can't wait until I can put them on my "what I read" posts for you to also enjoy.
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Reading Reflection January 2021

1/30/2021

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I read two books in January. My writing craft book was Save the Cat and my fun-read was The Demon's Pursuit of Mor.
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My Storygraph is a little odd, but the mix of the books I read follows the above Moods and Pace.
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Save the Cat by Blake Snyder was recommended to me when I had the opportunity to discuss my work with an author via the DragonCon Author track. She specifically emphasized the Screenwriting version rather than the one on novels. Why? Because I struggled to do any pitching of my book. 
I don't think a novel should be written the way Snyder outlines his screenplays. This is yet another throwback to when authors would never admit to pantsing or organic writing being a valid way to write a story. At no point does Snyder "allow" the potential writer to write their story until they've checked certain prep boxes. Sadly, this way of writing doesn't work for me. Thankfully, I didn't need any of that advice.
The advice I needed was within the first couple chapters of the book, which was basically the logline and pitch. I've since taken pitching workshops and read quite a bit on writing a query and pitch. I'm not as bad as I was when asked about my story. Prior to the practice writing my twitter pitches and query letters, I couldn't succinctly tell you about my book. 
I still need to write a logline for my books, but it's something I intend to do going forward. Like most things, it just takes practice.
My fun read for January was The Demon's Pursuit of Mor by Ahisha McGregory. Full disclosure: I interact with Ashisha on Twitter and when she said the book was on NetGalley, I checked it out.

The Demon's Pursuit of Mor is full of morally grey characters and action. It was a fun and fast read, although it ended on a cliff-hanger. The last time I checked, it was Amazon's Kindle Unlimited. You can read a preview here. If you are someone who enjoys urban fantasy, witches, demons, politics, intrigue, and action, this is a story for you! 
​As for the cliff-hanger, Ahisha says she's working on book 2 right now and I can't wait to read it!
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Question: I only have my monthly reading reflection planned for blogging right now. Eventually, I will be publishing some of my short fiction. What would you like to see in this space? What would you like to see from me?
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Reading Reflection on 2020

1/1/2021

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Blogging Goal: In 2021, I will try to do a monthly summary of books I read via Storygraph.
My reading goal for the year 2021 is 36 books. In 2018, I read 50, and in 2019, I read 100.

2020: In 2020, I read somewhere between 30 and 40 books. In general, the "adventure," "dark," "informative," and "emotional" labels are exactly what I read. I have fun reads that I pick up and read with a reading group. I have craft reads to improve my writing. I also read books to learn other things in life. In general, I will discuss some of my fun reads and the writing craft books.

My favorite book of 2020 was The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson (2020). Every time I try to describe the story, what I loved, all the words just do not encompass it. 

In terms of writing craft, I found Query Craft by Angie Hodapp (2020) to be helpful. If you are looking for information on querying agents for your novel, this is a good book to start your journey. Even if you have been querying, you might glean a new tip or two. This was one of the first books I read in decades on the topic of publishing novels, so I had a lot to learn.

What did you read in 2020? What was your favorite book? 

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    Author

    Writer of spec fic. 
    Flash published at Wyldblood Flash and Constelación Magazine.
    Currently querying a novel.

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