July Update: What I've been up to!

I'm trying out a new blog feature! I always post about what I've been reading at the end of each month, but I've decided to turn it into a more general update.

What I've been reading

I finally read Fairest, the prequel to the Lunar Chronicles series. I didn't enjoy this one as much as the others, but it was interesting to get into the villain's twisted perspective!

Updraft by Fran Wilde has some of the most innovative worldbuilding I've read in a while. I loved the world, and the characters and plot were top-notch. Recommended for fantasy fans!

I've loved this series since the first book, so I just had to find out how it ended! Frail Human Heart is the riveting conclusion to the Japanese mythology-inspired YA urban fantasy Name of the Blade trilogy. The third book was the best of all three, and one of the best modern YA fantasy series I've read!

I'm trying to read more epic fantasy, and I've been seeing this one around for a while! Half a King is a gripping, intense YA fantasy, one I couldn't stop reading.

I also picked up Wesley Chu's The Lives of Tao, a really cool sci-fi thriller about two alien races waging war on one another through human hosts on Earth. I ended up buying the whole trilogy!

I've been seeing a lot of hype around Uprooted by Naomi Novik, whose first Temeraire book I read a while ago and enjoyed. Uprooted is fabulous - like a cross between Howl's Moving Castle and a fairy tale. I couldn't stop reading it!

I picked up some awesome books at YALC! I read The Narrows, a wonderfully inventive urban fantasy by James Brogden that reminded me a lot of Neverwhere, but set in Birmingham. This is literally the first time I've read a fantasy novel set in the city I grew up in - almost all UK urban fantasy is set in London (including mine :P). London's awesome, but it was cool reading a fantasy version of my own city!

I also picked up Susan Kaye Quinn's Mindjack trilogy. I read the first book a while ago (and it's free!), but I never got around to buying the rest. So I bought the box set and read it in a couple of days. This is fast-paced, thought-provoking YA sci-fi!

What else I've been up to

I survived the British Heatwave in an attic room with no air conditioning. ;)

I also took part in the Pitch to Publication contest as an editor! I'm so thrilled I got to take part, even though it was hard to narrow the 110+ queries I received down to 10 to request partials from, and downright impossible to pick just one manuscript to mentor.

Other than that, I worked on some great freelance projects - I've taken on quite a bit of extra work this month! I'm now offering query and partial critique services, because weirdly enough, I actually really enjoy critiquing other writer's queries (even though I hate writing my own. :P). I'm privileged to know so many talented writers! :)

I also met up with Cole and Laura for book shopping in London. And then: YALC! :D

As I said on Wednesday, I finished my fantasy draft this month! I also wrote outlines for my new YA SF trilogy. And I proofread and formatted Delinquent: An Alliance Novella, and put it up for pre-order. It's out in exactly a week! :)

Total words written in July = 43K (+5K added in edits).

Plan for August:

7th - Delinquent: An Alliance Novella releases
11th-14th - I'll be in Italy with the family and boyfriend. :)

Because my schedule's all over the place (and I'll be away from home throughout August), I'm not setting strict writing goals this month. However, I'd like to...

Complete final edits on Indestructible (YA post-apocalyptic fantasy). Send Book 2 to editor.
Do another editing pass on Collision (Alliance, #3).
Start properly drafting YA SF Book 1, finish the outlines for Books 2 and 3, and think of titles(!!!).
Either at the end of August or the beginning of September: write publishing schedule for 2016.