May | How It Went

Hey! Hope y’all have had a great month, and I’m rooting for some slow but steady goal crushing having happened!

For me, May has been a busy month. For those that don’t know, I do cover design, typesetting, and first reads for my husband’s books. The end of May was the release of his most recent book, Sanctuary of Shrouds, eighth in Future’s Birth, a fantasy series (check that out here!). So in that vein there was prepping the typeset files and the final cover files for production. And, since we are planning to release the ninth and final book in the series in late August, I’ve been reading through that and giving the hubs some feedback. I've also been working on the art for the final cover. I’m very excited for it to make its way out into the world! It is an ending I’ve been hearing bits and pieces about for years and it’s been fun to finally read it! Here is a sneak peek at the cover art for book nine:

In the personal sphere, with spring having sprung in Oregon, there has been an uptick in social happenings. It’s been simultaneously wonderful and overwhelming. I love people, and people are exhausting. I’m still learning what boundaries, processes, and self care I need in place so that I can spend intentional time with those I love.

Novel Writing

Sadly, this went nowhere this month. I only have so much focus and have had to be honest with myself that the art and art business has been more my priority. I am feeling some better interest and potential ability for pursuing my novel brewing, though.

Also, there seems to be this necessary step of reconnecting with my inner child happening that is, in my mind, directly tied to my writing. Most specifically to my creative writing. I’ve been very reticent to allow myself the room to play with words. And, while I know that practice is such an integral step, this time to see, validate, and love my inner child so that I can begin to integrate her playful, free spirit into my writing is vitally important to me. The time it takes for me to do things is on my timeline and my schedule. It will take what it takes.

Artwork and Art Business

As some of you noticed, I did a poll on my Instagram recently. I have enough cute sticker ideas that I can’t make all of them right away so I wanted you to help me decide. And I’ve made an order this last week for the designs that won. There was a tie on one poll set so I decided to do both! There will be four sticker designs coming that I’ll announce hopefully soon. I’m so excited!

These are the winners, the first two were a tie, all ready for 3" stickers!

I’m not sure how I’ll list them yet, that debate is still on going in my brain. To use Etsy, to use my own website, to go rogue and do something else entirely. I do not know. Hopefully that will become clearer when I have stickers to sell!

I keep learning that it doesn’t have to be all figured out first. Honestly I will not get started if I’m stuck trying to figure it all out first so I’ve been pushing on ahead and pulling things together as I go. So far so good!

I finished my first official commission this month, while I cannot share yet since the entirety of the project it was a part of is still in progress, I can say that I’m happy to have made an awesome fantasy map. I’m excited to share with y’all soon! Hopefully next month.

If you are interested in working with me you can check out my commissions page here.

Blog

This, I think, has been my longest consistent blog posting endeavor since I started this. The blog is starting to find it’s deeper purpose and I’m quite happy to see how far I’ve come. Excited to see what comes in the future.

A piece I’d been missing, or likely simply hadn’t seen earlier on, is that you, dear reader, are just as important to my brand as I am. It is kind of hard to accept sometimes as someone who is trying to take better care of themselves after years of people pleasing. Yes, I want to support others and I have a large chip on my shoulder for all the care and love that I gave rather than received. Was told or intuited that I wasn’t supposed to receive. I’m learning how to receive as much as I am learning to give with better, whole-hearted intentions.

So, this last month was back burner percolating how to start striving more fully towards bringing whole-hearted, enthusiastic and, for me, most importantly, holistic creativity more fully to this blogging endeavor.

It is fun, loud, messy, and so much chaos. It is how I am trying to live and share that our creativity is more than doing something creative, it lives and breaths throughout our life, mind, body, and soul. It is all parts of us.

Reading

It was a muuuuch slower reading month for me in May, I finished 4 books, one being an audiobook. And that was it. In the past I’d be concerned that something was wrong. It has been an indication of my mental health in the past but these days I’m thriving a lot more and choosing to do more things that interest me so reading is not my number on priority, generally.

The books I finished this month:

Gamechanger, The Bounceback 1, by L. X. Beckett. I enjoyed the futuristic sci-fi aspect of the book and the threads of details and mysteries that were brought to light through out the book. The writing was somewhat jarring at times but mainly at the beginning when I was acclimating to the author’s style. It was a good story and I may read more in the series if I find them, though I may not go way out of my way for it.

Archangel Protocol, LINK Angel 1, by Lyda Morehouse. I wanted to like parts of this book but, no. I debated whether to include this in my list even. Though I finished the book, I skimmed the last quarter or so. I was hoping for the subject to be better handled and it was somewhat promising in the beginning but I agree with some of the other reviews that this wasn’t as well executed as it needed to be for the subject matter. And, full disclosure, being still in an often strange space about religious things in my ongoing deconstruction there was some definite huge personal issues that likely kept me from enjoying it as well.

Agatha H and the Airship City, Girl Genius 1, by Phil and Kaja Foglio. This was such a fun ride! I had some trouble with the point of view seeming to be a bit omnipresent at confusing times but that did not deter my enjoyment of this wonderful steampunk book. The world is rich and full of great details, giving you a good sense of things while leaving room for imagination. I will definitely be looking for more. I want to know what happens next!

Tracker, Rylee Adamson 6, by Shannon Mayer. I do love me some paranormal romance and this has been a fun series to listen to. It isn’t something that I’m super invested in following closely but the characters are interesting and the story engaging. I took a long break between the last book and this one but was able to pick this up and not have too much trouble.