Hey all, Sam here.
Am I finishing up this post on my phone because one of the cats took up residence on my lap before work so I couldn’t use my laptop to type up anything? Well, yes, because my cats are spoiled, and Luna doesn’t often ask for lap time, so I indulge her whenever ahe does want some cuddles.
But I actually really don’t like blogging from my phone. I can’t see much of the screen and I find it annoying to try and type quickly. Oh well. It’s only this intro section and then the writing section left to type up, so I’ll manage.
Overall I think March was a pretty decent month. I have at least a little update in each of the four areas I wrap up each month, which feels nice. I would have liked to have a little bit more to talk about in the wrap-ups, but there’s always the hope that my next wrap-up will be better.
All right, let’s get started.
Reading
To reach my goal of 100 books by the end of the year, I basically have to read eight books per month. In a decent/good reading year, I actually hit the 100 book mark by the end of June or possibly July.
This year has been an okay reading year so far. I mean, I’m reading some great books, but I am just not getting as much reading time as I would prefer, so my number of books finished is lower than I would like at this point.
Also really need to buckle down and get reviews written for many of these reads.
Heretical Fishing 1 by Haylock Jobson — 4 stars
Animorphs #1 The Invasion by K.A. Applegate — 3.5 stars (5 stars for nostalgia)
Witch of the Shadow Wood by Tori Anne Martin — 4.5 stars
Critical Role: The Whitestone Chronicles: Cassandra by Marieke Nijkamp, Travis Hymel, Diana Sousa, and Comicraft — 5 stars
Alcott Hall by Emily Rath — 5 stars
Write or Die: Break Through Writer’s Block, Enter Flow and Finish the Work That Found You by Breakthrough Co — 3 stars
The Dark Lord’s Guide to Dating (And Other War Crimes) by Tiffany Hunt — 4 stars
The Wren in the Holly Library by K.A. Linde — 4 stars
Writing
Okay, so in March I participated in the Pathfinders Writing Collective March Madness writing challenge. We kept track of hours spent working on a project, in any capacity, whether that was plotting, drafting, editing, whatever.
David and I have been talking about trying to write an Isekai story together. So we spent some time in March discussing characters and plot and world building.
All in all, we logged three and a half hours of plotting time….which isn’t technically a lot, but it’s at least some semblance of creative progress.
Blogging
I managed to blog a little more than the previous month. By that I mean that I had three posts instead of two. That’s still not really impressive, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
Trips/Conventions
We have several trips, both big and small, in the planning stages. So we have our tickets for Gen Con purchased, and our hotel is booked. We still have a little while to go before the event catalog opens up and we can get our tickets for certain games and panels.
David and I have our dating anniversary coming up in about a week, and we finally figured out what we’re going to do for that. We’re heading down to Hannibal, Missouri, to check out the boyhood home of Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain). We’ll visit a few different museums, visit the Mark Twain Caves, and have a nice overnight trip.
We’re also plotting a trip to Hocking Hills in Ohio this fall for our 5 year wedding anniversary. There will probably be a little bit more of an update on that next month. Oh, and we’re heading back to Ohio to visit my mom for a week in mid-May, so that’s going to be fun.
Finally, I have started researching and plotting a trip I’ve been wanting to take for a very long time. My mom wants to do a 10-14 day trip to Ireland with me in Fall 2027, so we’re starting to look into it a little bit. We’re trying to figure out what will work best for us, whether that is a coach group tour, or a self-drive tour, or a little bit of both. So there’s still a lot to figure out, but we’re both very excited for the research and planning portion of a trip.
All right, well that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
Free State of Geek 