June Update

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I've got to say, the end of June snuck up on me. The months keep doing that more and more lately. Don't know what that's all about. But, I don't mind.

Today is Canada Day (Happy birthday, Canada!), it's summer time, and I've got some great plans in the works for July. Namely, a trip to Europe - 1 week in France, 1 week in Ireland -  mid-month.

Anyway, remember my Writing Goals and Reading Challenges? Yes, it's that time again.

WRITING GOAL PROGRESS:

- Heart of the Wastelands (post-apocalyptic steampunky romance) -  wrote 7,034 words in June. Not bad, though I was hoping for a bit more. A midterm paper for my Victimology night course really affected my count. Current word count: 52,125.
      I should be able to finish the first draft by the end of July, even with my trip, if "finished first draft" means the 60,000 words I foresee now. However, since I want my final draft to be 80,000 words, I might try to get more plot into the end piece NOW, rather than later. I'll give myself to the end of August to get a longer first draft out. Wish me luck!

- Travel Articles: Nothing newly written, nothing newly published. And because of that, I'm still only at 1/12 of my goal. Eesh. Crazy July goal: 1 article pre-Europe, 1 article in France, 1 article in Ireland, 1 article post-Europe. (All rough drafts). Wish me luck again!

- Short Stories: I'm reading the proofs E-pocalypse: Emails from the End from Pill Hill Press, where my only short story written so far this year will be published (as mentioned last week, it's a collaboration piece with two other talented writers from the Online Writer's Group called Animal Kingdoom ;)).   Yeah, but that still puts me at 1/6 of my yearly goal. I struggle with shorts, even though I do honestly want to write them. No crazy goal for this category in July though - I can only handle so many crazy goals in a month! ;)

READING CHALLENGE PROGRESS

Forget my challenges? Here they are.

- 0 new urban fantasy/horror books (hm, I wonder why) , meaning my total for Book Chick City's Horror/Urban Fantasy Challenge remains at 13/24

- 6 new library books, so my total for The Book Junkie's Bookshelf Support Your Local Library Challenge is now 39/51

- 0 new specifically titled books for the What's in a Name Challenge, meaning I'm still at 5/6. I still haven't captured that elusive "Book with a Life Stage in its Title"  (I did read  4 books this month with titles in their titles - Viscountess, Countess, Duchess, and Lady. . . but I guess they don't count. After all, not every girl grows up to be a Countess)
 
- 2 new letters for my new A-Z Reading Challenge that I started in May and forgot to mention. From January to May I had 15 of the letters, and I added 'C' and 'I' this month for a total of 17/26. Remaining letters: J, K, O, Q, U, V, X, Y, and Z. Yikes. If you want to see my list, you can again go to my Reading Challenges post.