Tag: november 2023

new blog post: november 2023 wrap-up post November 2023 Wrap-Up Post
Monthly Review

November 2023 Wrap-Up Post

Kara Jorgensen1 Comment

This month I decided to be kind to myself and take it easy. November tends to be a month I struggle mentally due to the time change and the amount of grading I get in throughout the month. I also don’t do so well seeing everyone’s astronomical NaNoWriMo numbers. For once, I focused on grading and said f-it to writing. It helped as I have entered December feeling more refreshed than I have felt in a while. Before we get into what I did this month, let’s get a little refresher on November’s goals.

  • Less chaos overall (not quite within my control, but one can hope)
  • Write most, if not all, of The Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story
  • Start brainstorming more of The Reanimator Mysteries #3
  • Maintain my mental health during November to avoid No-Words-November
  • Grade all the papers I receive in a timely manner (I have been bad about this lately)
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my November newsletter

Books

My goal was to read 8 books, and I read 9.

  1. The Most Wonderful Time of the Year by Joanna Chambers- 4 stars, a slightly oblivious computer programmer has a bad day but realizes perhaps he overlooked his officemate
  2. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram H. Kendi- 5 stars, an introduction to how racism colors numerous aspects of life and how to challenge our biases to continually work on being antiracist
  3. A Nobleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel (#2) by KJ Charles- 4 stars, a newly inherited nobleman deals with his horrid extended family and teams up with a local secretary who has plenty of secrets of his own
  4. Medicinal Cannibalism by Louise Noble- 4 stars, an academic book on medicinal cannibalism in culture and literature from the Early Modern period on
  5. Over My Dead Body by Greg Melville- 5 stars, a fascinating read about how cemeteries reflect societal values (and problems/prejudices) and how they have influenced amusement parks and suburban planning
  6. Under the Smokestrewn Sky (#4) by A. Deborah Baker- 4 stars, the conclusion of a Wizard of Oz-like series featuring two children who enter an elemental world, meet some friends and enemies on their way home
  7. “A Heart Between Teeth” (#2.5) by Kerstin Hall- 4 stars, a side story for a series set in a world where people go after death filled with gods, demons, monsters, and humans struggling to survive their second deaths
  8. Sky Breaker (#2) by Addie Thorley- 3 stars, a YA fantasy that didn’t work too well for me due to the world-building and the way the characters were aged down to make it YA
  9. Monstress (#8) by Majorie Liu and Sana Takeda- 4 stars, a fantastic volume where we find our characters transported to a strange new world they have to fight their way back from

Admin/Behind-the-Scenes Stuff

  • Finished plotting The Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 short story, “An Unexpected Question” (coming in January, probably, December if I’m very lucky)
  • Did more brainstorming on TRM #3
  • Was interviewed by Geeks Out
  • Finished buying and wrapping Christmas presents for my family
  • Hit my yearly reading goal of finishing 100 books/stories/graphic novels
  • Got my car back from the mechanic (finally) and got it inspected
  • Got my car inspected AGAIN because, apparently, you can’t go directly from the mechanic to the inspection station if they pulled the battery
  • Graded so many papers… so many ;—;
  • Contacted my reps repeatedly to demand a ceasefire and to end US funding of Israel’s genocide against Palestine

Blogs Posted

Writing

As I mentioned in the opening of this blog, I decided that I would write what I could, when I could and that I would try not to sweat it. I don’t know whether it’s the early darkness or people constantly posting their large daily word counts during NaNoWriMo, but I never write much during November. This month was no different. I wrote about 3k of “An Unexpected Question,” the Reanimator Mysteries #2.5 story that will go out to newsletter subscribers as a freebie. I am hoping to write the rest of it in December and get it out by January (or December, though I’m not counting on that happening). Instead of writing, I managed to plan out the major beats of the story and am guestimating that it will end up about 20,000 words, which is pretty beefy for a freebie story. I’m really enjoying writing this story and hope my readers will as well. You can sign up for my newsletter ahead of the release or check out the Pinterest board for the story.

Hopes for December

  • Finish the semester/my grading
  • Finish writing “An Unexpected Question”
  • Start editing “An Unexpected Question”
  • Finish all remaining Christmas stuff/prep
  • Prep for Q1 and get my new goals together
  • RELAX with my partner
  • Read 8 books
  • Blog weekly
  • Send out my December Newsletter