Laura Bowers

Wow, I’ve gotten behind with these monthly recaps, with my last one being in April! Our May was crazy. And June is now just a blur. It’s now 8:50 am on July 31st and my to-do list has grown to epic proportions, but I need some chat-time before getting back to work. Setting the timer now for 30 minutes, let’s do this.

Btw, can I say how much I’m loving Grammarly? It’s already found and corrected two errors thus far. Anyway, moving on to:

It’s been on my wish list to purchase a MasterClass All Access Pass for a long time. I mean, come on, the amount of courses they offer for writers is amazing! Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, David Mamet, R.L. Stine, Dan Brown, Malcolm Gladwell, and of course … the one and only Judy Blume? So worth the $180.00 to me … and yet, I hesitated to make the purchase.

Then in December, I saw how Neil Gaiman’s MasterClass would be available in early 2019. What??? Hesitation gone, SOLD! Considering the average cost for a one-day writing conference can be around $150.00, this is a great price for what you’re getting. Plus there are many classes under the Film & TV category that could be wonderful for writers, such as ones by Ron Howard, Shonda Rhimes, Steve Martin, etc.

Cross posted on Joyful Miles.

Wow, April ended up being a huge month for me. First off, I TURNED 50, woo-HOO!!!!! I’m so blessed and thankful for reaching this milestone. #50isfabulous baby!! April is also Camp NaNoWriMo, a huge event for many writers. Unlike November’s National Novel Writing Month where you have thirty days to write a 50,000-word novel, there’s more flexibility for April and July’s Camp NaNo. You get to pick your project and/or word count, whether it’s to edit a novel, do plotting work. For me, my main goal was simple:

To fall in love with writing again.

It’s time once again to chat about the stories I’ve consumed recently and oh boy, I have lots to talk about!

If you’ve been following along, then you already know these monthly posts are a way to keep me accountable with my goal to live with intention this year. Knowing you’re going to find out how I’ve been spending my spare time encourages me to make better choices, so thank you! And in turn, I hope this helps you discover awesome books to read or things to watch. So on with the list!

February has just flown by, hasn’t it? It feels like I just wrote my January post and now it’s time to once again chat about the stories I enjoyed last month! This list is short since I spent a lot of time prepping for the Princess Half Marathon, doing business and rental tax work, and spending many evenings working on 2018’s Princess video recaps in a last-ditch effort. ( I knocked out the Expo, Princess 5k, and Enchanted 10k but I ran out of time for the half marathon. Drat.)

So rather than reading more, I ended up watching TV and a movie I’ve already seen as a way to relax while packing or doing costume work. Starting with…