Tag: Books I Read

Around the House, Books, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, What I Love

April 2025 Writing Stats

In April, I wrote 5629 words, which was pretty decent, given that I was really very sick the first 2/3 of the month. Of those words,

  • 432 were for this blog (2 short posts),
  • 28 were for my journal,
  • 3528 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for the Open Door Writing Group and one for the Tyler Public Library’s Try It Tuesday Class),
  • 1342 were on various social media accounts,
  • 47 were poetry (1 poem),
  • and 0 were in short stories (0 pieces of flash fiction).

There were 18 days that I didn’t write anything, but this month included so much illness and then also Easter, spring Holy Days, my son’s birthday, and my birthday. I also haven’t heard back from any of the submissions I’ve sent out lately, but I should hear back any time now.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Sober on a Drunk Planet: Giving Up Alcohol by Sean Alexander (e-book; non-fiction)
  • The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts that Unlock the Creativity in Everyone by Joseph Fansano (e-book; non-fiction)
  • Like Literally Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English by Valerie Fridland (hardcover; non-fiction)
  • How to Read Poetry Like a Professor: A Quippy Guide to Sonorous Verse by Thomas C. Foster (e-book; non-fiction)
  • Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries by Kory Stamper (hardcover; non-fiction)
  • The Carrying: Poems by Ada Limon (e-book; poetry)
  • Anti-Slavery Poems, Volume 1 by John Greenleaf Whittier (e-book; poetry)
  • Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren (hardcover; non-fiction)

…and I finished reading:

  • The Mystery at Dunvegan Castle by T.L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
  • Legacy of Arniston House by T. L. Huchu (e-book; fantasy)
  • Dearly by Margaret Atwood (hardcover AND e-book; poetry)
  • Wizard of Most Wicked Ways by Charlie Holmberg (audiobook; fantasy)
  • The Right to Write by Julia Cameron (re-read trade paperback; non-fiction)
  • Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg (re-read trade paperback; non-fiction)
  • Knit-Fix: Problem Solving for Knitters by Lisa Karths (hardcover; non-fiction)
  • Japanese Knitting Stitches by Yoko Hatta (oversized paperback; non-fiction)
  • Sweet Romance by Carrie Cox (beta read it twice – romance)

So I have finished 26 books so far this year (and read parts of another 12, mostly for research, but also a couple of things I’ve had to mark DNF.).

Books, health, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, Writing

February 2025 Stats

In February, it felt like I had written practically nothing, so it was sort of a surprise to find out that I wrote 13,543 words. Of those words,

  • 353 were for this blog (three short posts),
  • 3536 were for my journal,
  • 7203 were for handouts, scripts, and slides for lessons (one for East Texas Writers Guild and one for the Open Door Writing Group),
  • 1629 were on various social media accounts,
  • 421 were poetry (one short poem and one long),
  • and 401 were in short stories (two pieces of flash fiction).

There were only four days that I didn’t write anything. I was sick for a lot of the month. So, I didn’t get any poems or short stories submitted anywhere.

As for reading, I read parts of:

  • Sound and Form in Modern Poetry by Harvey Gross (paperback; non-fiction)
  • Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
  • Storyteller: 100 Poem Letters by Moran Harper Nichols (e-book; poetry)
  • A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie (paperback; non-fiction)
  • If Women Rose Rooted: The Power of the Celtic Woman by Sharon Blackie (audiobook; non-fiction)
  • The Sounds of Poetry: A Brief Guide by Robert Pinsky (paperback; non-fiction)

I finished reading:

  • The Green Man: Tales from the Mythic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow (e-book; fiction short stories)
  • The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher (audiobook; fantasy)
  • Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes #1) by Travis Baldree (paperback; fantasy)
  • On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, and the Gifts of Neurodiversity by Daniel Bowman, Jr. (e-book; non-fiction)

PS. It is totally do-able to read Legends and Lattes #1 AFTER you’ve read Legends and Lattes #2 (Bookshelves and Bonedust) if, like me, you didn’t know it was a series.

Books, My Own Personal Weirdness, My Writing, Organizing, poetry, Short Stories, Speaking, What I Love, Writing

January 2025 Stats

In January 2025, I wrote 9,847 words. Of those words,

  • 830 were for this blog (six posts)
  • 3121 were journal entries
  • 3149 were lessons, scripts, and slides (for one ODWG lesson)
  • 2045 were on various social media accounts
  • 151 were poetry (one poem)
  • and 651 were short stories (three pieces of flash fiction)

I sent off three poems and three short stories for publication, but haven’t heard back from any of them.

I also read parts of these books:

  • A Poet’s Guide to Poetry by Mary Kinzie (paperback; non-fiction)
  • Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman (hardcover; poetry)
  • The Wonder Engine (Clocktaur War #2) by T. Kingfisher (audiobook; fantasy)
  • The Green Man: Tales from the Mystic Forest edited by Ellen Datlow (e-book; fiction short stories)

And finished these books:

  • The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flag (e-book; fiction)
  • Just Dying to Glamp by April Nunn Coker (e-book; mystery)
  • When She Returned by Lucinda Berry (e-book; thriller)
  • Peace is a Practice by Morgan Harper Nichols (e-book; non-fiction).

January is always a tricky month, I think. The first couple weeks are still half-way holidays and then there are a few random at-home days for my school-age kiddo as well. Which means that you don’t get a full month of writing days, but I managed to write at least a little something for 26 out of 31 days in any case. I think that’s pretty good. 🙂