August seems to be the month when I wrote almost no blog posts and I’d like to say sorry for that. This was mostly due to getting sick with all kinds of colds as I returned to work and it left me feeling unable to write interesting blog posts. Feeling sick makes me feel mentally drained. It’s difficult to describe. Call me lazy if you wish but forcing myself to write blogs when I’m feeling bitter and ill doesn’t make me happy and I doubt it’d make the reader happy.
So I decided to wait until I felt better enough to write a brief run down on the literacy related things I did in the month of August.
I Entered A Competition
This month I entered XR Word Smiths Solarpunk Short Story competition.
It’s not often I enter free competitions but I thought it was for a good cause and Solarpunk is slowly becoming my favourite branching genre of science fiction.
Although I did write and submit this story BEFORE the latest report on Climate Change came out and I’ll be honest if I’d read those news headlines before submitting I probably wouldn’t have had the optimism I had to write this story.
At the moment the competition is still open so I’ll leave a link here if anyone wishes to enter:
I Finished Me, My Dad and The End of the Rainbow
Me, My Dad and The End of the Rainbow by Benjamin Dean is a children’s book I recently finished so I’ll give a brief explanation of my thoughts on it. The story is about a boy called Archie and how he learns his father’s secret that makes him worry if anything has changed between them.
I decided to check out this book to see how well LGBTQA+ is introduced to young readers, especially since I never grew up with books that featured characters that weren’t straight by default. The story doesn’t delve deep into all the orientation colours of the rainbow but it’s a good introduction for kids who probably see Pride Parades on TV and question what it’s all about. Still a bit bummed out asexual wasn’t touched on but I suppose you can’t explain everything about Pride in casual conversations between friends – as that’s how some of the characters learn about Pride.
Overall this book was a slow easy going read in the beginning and as it picks up in the later half I got invested in the characters struggles a whole lot more. The book does touch on the subject of divorce and the emotional turmoil a family feels when a break up happens but it manages to balance it with a lot of heart and humour woven into Archie’s narration.
It’s a wholesome book in my opinion and it did make me feel a little teary towards a certain moment.
Reading Webcomics
Something I don’t often talk about or share in general is that I read webcomics. Since I felt ill with sickness and cold I decided to try out Webtoon and Tapas to read comics that peaked my interest. Before platforms like these came around my only exposure to webcomics was reading Cucumber Quest in my spare time.
Also I hope to make my own little webcomic someday with a story that’s more visual than written so reading webcomics can help me understand how to structure the flow of them better.
But anyways what webcomics interest me just now?
Some of them take a while to update but right now ones that I’m reading is The Witch and The Bull by Moonsie a fantasy adventure about a witch trying to lift the curse off an advisor transformed into a bull and on Webtoon Canvas I’m reading Istrevelia by Katherine Ellis, a gothic fantasy about a society hunting vampires and werewolves.
The world of webcomics is vast and interesting to read with stuff you won’t find in the bookshop and I’m excited to find more when I can.
Receiving my edited novel
Nearing the end of the month my YA urban-fantasy novel, Headless, has returned to me from the editor and I’m reading over the edited version. My editor also pointed out some plot points that don’t make much sense so I’m going to rework those parts to make it a more coherent story.
Hopefully with some added changes my novel will be a complete and satisfying story.
And that is some of the literacy related things I did in August. There are other minor things I did like growing a sunflower but I’m trying to keep it focused on writing and reading.
Anyways that’s all for now. Next time I’ll try and create a consistent schedule as real life tends to hinder me in some way or another.
LD Writes 