General update: I’m about done writing Persuaded to Love (at least until it gets edited). This is my third Kendawyn book and will be novel length. I love writing in the Kendawyn world and Persuaded to Love sets up a companion novel Humbled by Love and the beginning of additional stories with Hugh and Alice from Compelled by Love. I would have been done by now, but life likes to keep me jumping.
Sometimes, when I tell people I write–they act like it’s this amazing thing. I could never do that, they say. Well, as I think about the last few years, I think differently. I think you *can* do it. If you want to, you can. A human being can do just about anything that they set their minds to. It just takes determination. I have written several things that I’ve published and several million words I’ve never published. I’m not the greatest of writers, but I am determined. I enjoy writing. I enjoy the hope of it. The fun of it. The discovery and the work. It’s fun. It’s hard. For me, it’s worth giving up television and most movies. It’s worth giving up vacation time and sleep. I love it. That is all.
As far as my reading has gone, I have continued to read a bunch of things I wouldn’t normally have read. And I have continued to be glad I did. In July, I read:
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K Le Guin
Wayward by Blake Crouch
The Last Town by Blake Crouch
Starship Grifters by Robert Kroess
The Girl with All the Gifts by M. R. Carey
Armada by Ernest Cline
Tiny Titans
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Currently, I am reading: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Of these books, unquestionably, The Girl with all the Gifts and The Girl on the Train were the best. And they are also unquestionably books that I wouldn’t have purchased if I had just been wandering a book store to find a book and not deliberately stretching myself as a reader.
Maybe you should try stretching yourself too. I don’t really care. Do what you want.
~Amanda
ps I still have 3 books to go with the Popsugar Book Challenge. Station Eleven is not one of those books. If you have thoughts about that, shut it.
Amanda A. Allen 