Highlights Of August 2017

   August was one of the best months in 2017. That is all and everything that needs saying.

   Okay VERY BIGGEST NEWS first - this little guy was born!

   Little baby Jonah - DEFINITELY the biggest highlight of this month! The excitement levels are high at our house!  Jonah's absolutely adorable and I love him so much <3 <3 <3. He can be a little fussy (trust me, if he doesn't like something he lets you know about it xD), but his happy coos are so adorable <3. And now I'm a big sister six times over!

   Besides that ultra-exciting piece of news (trust me, I could have bombarded you with so many pictures of him - Jonah has already had about a two hundred pictures taken xD) - I also got to edit and alpha a lot of story-words this month! I love love love editing/alphaing/betaing so much, you guys have no idea (Yes I know I'm weird - who even happily volunteers to edit things?? *raises hand* apparently me.). I alpha-read It's Reality by Julia Ryan and edited Five Golden Apples by Clare Farrelly during August,  and they were both amazing stories.  

   And of course, there was the eclipse. We didn't end up getting glasses, but we spent a good portion of the morning watching the NASA livestream, and then decided last-minute (literally about half an hour before the eclipse would really hit us) to make pinhole viewers and see if they would work. They ... uh, didn't xD. But it was still super fun to hang out with our neighbor and watch as the world turned grey and all the little night-time critters came out for a bit. Literally, the yard was SWARMING with crickets, and these pretty little moths were fluttering around. So even if we didn't get to directly view the eclipse, it was still super fun! 

   Also I'm doing a (very) minor redesigning of my blog. You might have already seen some of the changes around here (- or not, they're pretty subtle), but if anything seems wonky or inconsistent on Scattered Scribblings in this next week or so, that's why xD. 

   Lots and lots of stuff happened in the writing world this month, you guys.

   First of all I WROTE 26K WORDS (roughly xD). I didn't really mean to write that many? It was halfway a surprise? It's even more than I wrote for Camp NaNoWriMo last month?? But I finally decided to buckle down and churn out a bunch of words for my Snow White retelling this month, so I guess it makes sense xD.

   Speaking of which, my Snow White retelling is coming along splendidly! I kind of ended up dropping my first novella (the one with the Saudi Arabian MC - maybe I'll pick it up again some other time), and I'm focusing solely on my second one. It's probably going to be the one I enter, and I'm hoping to be able to start looking for alphas + tell you guys more about it in mid-September!

   But as of now, I'm still working on putting the whole thing together. I'm in the middle of stitching my zero-draft into a first-draft, and it's kind of hard and complicated (maybe I should do a post on it sometime), but SO much fun.

   And maybe I'll show you a snippet or two from my Snow White novella next month. No promises whatsoever xD. 
   

+ Gregor The Overlander by Suzanne Collins

   The books (well, most of them - I did read a few that I didn't enjoy) were utterly amazing this month, I was so happy! And while I'd LOVE to talk about all of them, I'm only going to mention the best ones (that I haven't reviewed, like I did with Caraval and Unraveling), because otherwise we'd be here all day! (but if I read any of your favorite books this month, let us flail together in the comments!)

   - The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke. So, confession, I almost DNFed this book in the first couple chapters. I was thrown off because the voice didn't feel like Inkheart's (another Cornelia Funke book), and I kind of expected it to? But once I got over the fact that this book was going to be a little different that I thought it would be, I loved it to death. If it hadn't been for how I felt at the beginning, it probably would have gained five stars! THE CHARACTERS ARE THE BEST <3 <3. The Thief Lord is definitely high up on my list of favorites, and I'm giving it four and a half stars. 

   - Black by Ted Dekker. My dad told me that he really enjoyed Ted Dekker's Circle trilogy, and that I should try it, so I FINALLY buckled down this month and did it (of course it wasn't because this author was at Realm Makers. What are you thinking. Hush). And while it was a little hard to get into at first, it got so much better, and I really enjoyed it! I'm excited to finish the series, and I give Black four stars.

   - Airman by Eoin Colfer. I love Eoin Colfer books, but for some reason it took me forever to pick this one up? I think the cover was throwing me off - it didn't really look like something I'd enjoy. But then I picked it up and GOOD GRACIOUS. It immediately went on my list of favorites, I loved Airman so so much. The characters were incredible (and you guys know I'm picky about my characters), and Eoin Colfer's way of writing things is just the best. I should review this sometime so that I can flail over it properly, but for now I'll just say that I'm giving Airman an epic four and a half stars. 

   - The Girl Who Drank The Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Oh my good gracious - THIS BOOK. If you remember it from this book haul video, you'll remember that I picked it up on a whim without really knowing what it was about. And turns out that it was a very GOOD whim, because The Girl Who Drank The Moon was an incredible book! The writing style was absolutely gorgeous, and the storyline <3. I just loved the gorgeous thing so much, and it gets a solid four stars! 

   - Some Kind Of Happiness by Claire Legrand. Okay so this WAS a reread, so I wasn't sure what I was going to think of it the second time around, but turns out it only gets better! I love love loved revisiting this story and its characters, it's such a sweet book. Definitely a five star reread. (actually, I think this was the only five star book that I read this month - but some of the books that weren't five stars were so good that I don't care xD)

   *squints* okay so I didn't even talk about all of the books that I loved this month (*cough* Dreamtreaders and Gregor The Overlander *cough*), but ... well, those were some of them xD.

 Also I reorganized my bookshelves? I never thought I would have time to do this?? Admittedly, I don't have that much shelf space, but I'm wildly picky about how my bookshelves look and which books sit beside which books. So it took me while. I'm still not QUITE done, but I'm nearly there! Maybe I should do a bookshelf tour vlog/post for you guys when it's finished?

    - Recaps of Realm Makers have been popping up left, right, and center - including these ones by Victoria, Jonathan, Tracey and Audrey. I very much intend to make it to RM in 2018, but we'll see what happens!

   - Hannah White did an epic post about living first and writing second.

   - Aimee Meester told us all to please shut up about hating our own writing, so I suppose we should listen? xD

   - Nadine Brandes signed a contact with Thomas Nelson/Harpercollins and I might have been THIS FAR from having a heart attack when I heard the news! I'm on pins and needles to pre-order her next book!

   - Christine Smith did a beautiful post about why Cinderella is still a good heroine. 

   -  Abigayle Claire shared a first look at her future writings and I NEED THEM ALL.

   - Tracey Dyck did a epic post about God in fantasy fiction.

   Also, EXILES RELEASED! *all the confetti and celebratory pizza* I've been waiting so long for this book, and yet I still haven't read it for some reason? This needs to be fixed promptly.

   Well ... I can't exactly tell you because IT'S A SURPRISE. But what I CAN tell you is that there's going to be some pretty fun stuff going on at Scattered Scribblings next month.. Keep an eye out for a special post on the first of September! I'll see y'all then ;).

~ Savannah Grace

   how was your august, friends?