Rochelle L. Sharpe

I cannot believe that half the year is gone already!

Six months and I have only blogged three times this year!

I was planning on blogging a lot more frequently, but I let life get in the way. To be honest, the first half of this year has not gone smoothly. I started the year feeling burnt out and in desperate need of a break. I got a mini break in January but then life was going non-stop after that. I was carrying a heavy mental load from some things that had happened the year before.

I needed rest and lots of it. For life to slow down. There never seemed to be time to do the things I needed to do and no time for the things I enjoyed doing.

Something needed to change. That something turned out to be my job. Things lined up and I was able to let it go at the end of April. It was a bittersweet time. For the past thirteen years I had spent seven hours a week cleaning my church. It was the perfect part-time job. I could work the days I needed, and I could work alone. It might have only been seven hours a week, but when your week is over full, seven hours is a lot.

Seven more hours in my week to write – if I don’t let other things swallow that time.

I may not have blogged much so far this year, but I want to do better during the next half of the year. There are so many books I want to review and share with you. My goal will be to blog at least twice a week.

I want to read 100 books this year. I haven’t been able to read that many in the last few years, but I used to be able to and I am determined to do it again. Besides, there are more than 100 books on my shelf and Kindle that need to be read and I want to get through them.

I have been really bad at updating my Goodreads, which I need to do. I have read 30 books this year so far. I was hoping to be at 50. I will need to read 3 books a week for the rest of the year if I am to catch up. It can be done if I prioritize reading. Reading helps me to relax so it is something I want to do more of.

I have been writing. Editing really. Last year I started focusing on my YA dragon novel. I entered it into a competition to get feedback on it. I ended up being one of 3 finalist and got feedback from 3 judges on my manuscript. It was invaluable. I have spent the last 6 months editing it and I think one more proofread and I will be ready to start querying it.

I love this story. I got the first idea for it back in 2014, so I have been working on it for ten years -though in that time I had put it aside to work on other things. It is set in an academy, involves twins (A girl and boy), and has dragons. It’s a clean read. There is romance, but not in the first book. I wrote a first draft of book two in the series while waiting for the competition results.

I have been resting my YA dragon story before jumping into the proofread. While resting it, I came across a novella I had written from 2014. It is an adult romantasy but also clean. I really liked it and have started editing it. I want to extend it into something longer. At this stage, it will be a standalone. It involves a princess. I do love a good princess story.

I am also working on a few short stories. If they get published, I will let you know.

That’s it for me.

How has your year been so far? Are you on track to reach your blogging goals? What about your reading goals?

If you are a writer, how is your writing going?

I’d love to hear from you.