Highlights of July and August 2018

   Well, both July AND August have flown past - so I'm combining both my highlights post to save myself time (*cough* and stress *cough*), because school is starting up again and if I'm not busy, I don't know who is.

   But ANYways, who wants to hear the crazy that went on for me in the last two months? (I may have thrown a couple extra Realm Makers pics into this post that you haven't seen yet ;))

Well, Realm Makers for one ...

(photo credit Mary Weber and Deborah O' Carroll) 

... but I've already talked your ear off about all of that, so ;D. If you haven't read my mile-long recap post yet, you can find it over here!

Other than RM, I've fallen headlong into art-ing! I'd kind of done it on and off just for fun before, but I've been slightly more serious about it lately ;D. I've finally quit using only gel pens for this, and decided to give mechanical pencils a shot. And I love them. But I still ban myself from using erasers while art-ing, because otherwise I would never get anywhere xD. And I've started tampering with digital art, too, and have found that it is quite fun!

Sassy little unicorn. I fully approve of it. xD 

 A book quote - comment if you know the book it's from!

Yup, so there are some of my recent attempts ;D. I also finally (FINALLY) reorganized my bookshelf, which I've been meaning to do for a long time. It still needs some tweaking, but my pretty-book-loving-heart is happy! I've been using the shelves in my bedroom for most all the blog pics, but I'm planning to switch to using this shelf after I get the nitty-gritty details smoothed out ;).

Also I started senior year. And I will be 18 in two weeks-ish. Whut even has the world come to O.O 

OH, my gracious - SO MUCH has happened here, y'all! Let's see if I can keep this section from growing to gigantic proportions. (this might actually not be a problem, because July and August flew by so fast that I've forgotten half of what happened ;D)

I'm now the creative writing columnist for Pursue Magazine! It's a position I've wanted for awhile, so I'm pretty excited about that. I'm also the new submissions manager for the publishing house Illuminate YA, which I'm also super stoked about.

I got my first email from an agent! It wasn't massive news or anything (you can message me in Google Hangouts or my Contact if you want to know what the email said, but I'd rather not post it here ;)), but as I didn't expect any reply AT ALL I was basically on cloud nine all the live-long week :D. If you haven't queried an agent out of fear, PUT THAT FEAR ASIDE AND DO IT. It'll be worth it for the experience alone...and you might get a good reply even if you don't expect one at all ;).

I also finished the first round of editing for Forgotten and sent if off to alphas, which was a huge stepping stone for me. I'm excited about this story, and I"m hoping to have the second round of edits done in a few weeks-ish so that I can ship it off to betas and then get it to the agents who've requested it. (so a beta call may be coming around the end of September)

I also wrote multiple pieces of flash fiction, and a couple short stories. Both the short stories need editing, but I already know where I'm going to submit them, so I'm trying to truck away at them ;D. OH, ALSO - one of my pieces of flash fiction is going to be illustrated by an incredible artist in just a couple of weeks here! The incredible Kerilynn Wilson is going to be posting the illustrated version of my flash fiction Uncharted on her blog on Sept. 7th. I'm beyond excited about it! <3

Alright, I KNOW I'm forgetting something...guess I'll just have to kick myself after this post goes up xD.

SO many good books, y'all! Many many gems were found and read this month <3.

- A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews. THIS *clap* BOOK *clap* YOU *clap* GUYS. So, so beautiful. I really wasn't sure what I was getting myself into when I picked up this book (because it's by our own beloved Cait who is UNPREDICTABLE and LOVES TO SURPRISE PEOPLE ;D), and it was STUNNING. I'm hoping to get a review up for this one, but for now I'll just say that if you have not grabbed this 5 star book (WHUT, 5 STARS), YOU MUST. Get thyself to a book store.

- Fawkes by Nadine Brandes. Oops look I'm talking about this book even though I told myself I wouldn't because I'm working on a review for it right now ;D. I had HIGH expectations for this book, and it fully met them all! Totally ADORED this story - I can't wait to get the review up and scream about it with y'all! But for now, I'm pinning 4.5 stars on this gorgeous thing and shoving y'all towards the nearest bookstore to buy it ;D.

- The Kneebone Boy. A very random book with a bad ending, but a great story up to the sub-par "the end"? Honestly, the prose was awesome and felt a teeny tiny bit like Stiefvater writing middle grade. It was a fun little gem to find at the library, and I definitely would have given it a higher rating except for the confusing ending. 4 stars.

- Wonder by R.J. Palacio. LOOK WHAT I FINALLY READ. If you guys haven't nabbed this book yet, you really, really should! I'd heard about it awhile back, but wasn't terribly interested. Then I decided that I might as well give it a shot, and OH MY. Loved it very much. Gobbled it up, and then read all the companion short stories for it (which were just as good). The writing style was different, but I really enjoyed it. 4 stars to this beauty.

 

Two posts. Literally two posts in the last two months ;D. I'm sorry, you guys! I promise September will be more full. Here's a couple more Realm Makers photos to make up for the smol amount of posts (can you tell I'm just finding excuses to share more pictures? ;D)...

photo credit: Deborah

(photo credit Deborah for the pic on the left)

Y'all, if you're considering coming next year JUST. DO. IT. I promise you won't regret it :D.

Oh, also - I posted a book review of The Story Peddler by Lindsay Franklin over on Pursue magazine's website, if you're itching to find more of my ramblings ;).

- Tricia Mingerink is now offering editing services! (and at insanely low prices, too) She's an incredible author, so if any of y'all are looking for an editor, you may want to go check her out ;).

- Realm Makers wrap-ups EVERYWHERE. Let's see if I can snag y'all some links ... Deborah O' Carroll, Madeline J. Rose, Christine Smith, Rosalie Valentine, Tracey Dyck, and Jenelle Schmidt. Go check 'em out ;).

- The amazing Faith did the amazing Comp Title challenge, which was a super fun post to read. This gal is a BEAST with her writing, y'all, just you wait until she's published <3. 

-  MICAIAH SALDANA'S DEAR JAMIE, LOVE RORY WAS PUBLISHED. I'm still on cloud nine, y'all, still on cloud nine. Go check it out! Go BUY it! Treat yoself! ;D

- Danielle at Snapper, Lisa at Inkwell, Victoria at Wanderer's Pen, Abigayle at The Left-Handed Typist, Jeneca at Jeneca Writes, and Rosalie at Penprints did my Get To Know Me Tag: Writer's Edition! Go give these epic girls some love <3 <3 <3. (if you've done the tag and I haven't linked to you yet, throw me a link in the comments! <3)

- Gray did an epic post that was her character's aesthetic in song lyrics, and it was SO AMAZING that I asked her if I could pirate it and call it tag ;D. So that might be coming in the next couple weeks/months depending on whether life plays nice or not ;D. 

- AAAALLL the excitement went down when Nadine announced what her next book is going to be! Romanov sounds absolutely fantastic and I'm already counting down the days until it releases ;D. 

- Rosalie wrote an epic post called Altars of Remembrance, and it was just <3

Well, September posts will all be for a very special event - The Silmaril Awards are coming! I'll be the host for the Most Faithful Friend award this year, and I'm super excited to see who y'all pick as your winner this year ;). It's going to be an absolute blast! (I'll also try to get a blogoversary post or two up, but since that conflicts with the Awards, y'all might have to wait until October)

The Silmaril Awards starts September 3rd - go check out the official website HERE! - so make sure you don't miss it! Until then, keep being epic, my frens <3.

~ Savannah Grace 

how was your month, my friends? how's school?

have any plans for September?

pull up a proverbial chair and let's chat!