UPDATE: 8/4/15

My TBR is cleaned up, the awards readalongs have begun, and I have posted reviews for Whispers of the World that Was (4), Sinking (4), The Hunger Games (5), and Catching Fire (5).

It seems like I will be running off of a monthly reading schedule after all since I am participating in the BookTubeSFF Awards readalongs and have a goal of reading two of the books from each month (August, September, and October). This will have a lot of influence on what it is I read from now until the end of October so things will be a little different from the update post I made in June.

So here's what is going on for me in the month of August:

I'm currently reading:
  • The Martian by Andy Weir
    •  Up for the Best Novel award in the BookTubeSFF Awards. This is my primary read in the month of August and one that I have greatly anticipated due to all the great things I've heard about it. I'm only about sixty pages in, but I like what I see so far!
  • Unstable Prototypes (Big Sigma Book 2) by Joseph R. Lallo
    • This is a carry-over from last month. I think it's a worthy enough follow-up to Bypass Gemini, but it is a bit longer and there is a tonal/narrative shift here that is perfectly enjoyable yet doesn't really rouse me to rush to the finish line. I'm using this one as sort of a slow burner to just read if I need to kill a half hour or so here and there. 
  • Rat Queens Volume One: Sass and Sorcery by 
    • An irreverently funny series that I am in love with already! I've finished three out of five issues in the volume and will likely have  a review up very quickly. It's great fun, has gorgeous art and is the only SFF graphic work that I will be reading so I'm trying to make it last, but that's probably just not going to happen. 
I'm planning on reading:

  • Sung In Blood by Glen Cook
    • This is a shorter book that I randomly picked up at a bookstore near where  I work. It's short enough where I will probably just pick it up and kill it on one weekend if I finish my SFF readings earlier than expected. 
  • Mockingjay (The Hunger Games # 3) by Suzanne Collins
    • I WILL read this before seeing the movie. With the SFF readings, it will be tough to fit it in, but I blasted through Catching Fire really quickly so maybe I can just cram it into a week.  
Then there are the September SFF reads that I will be looking into and most likely picking up. Both of these are nominated for the Best Short Fiction category so this might be a good place to slip in one of the books above.
  • The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
  • The Meeker and the All-Seeing Eye by Matthew Kressel

But what about the other books I had as "To Read?" Well, let me tell you: 

Kinslayer (The Lotus War Book 2) and Endsinger (The Lotus War Book 3) by Jay Kristoff are absolutely still on my TBR for this year. I picutre these as being like an early Christmas Present to myself or something (or perhaps a real Christmas Present - who knows!) I aim to at least read Kinslayer by the end of the year.

Artificial Evolution (Big Sigma Book 3) by Joseph R. Lallo is one that I will certainly read eventually, but since I'm neither done with Unstable Prototypes nor overly ambitious to rip through this trilogy, I will just pick it up whenever feels good so I think this one is on hold for now. 
    I'm currently writing:
    • The next big project of mine is finally underway! I'm still not yet at a point where I feel comfortable announcing the concept or even the title, but there has been some good progress made and I'm excited to keep working at it until I have something worthy of publication. 
    • Visions of: The Future is still in the works. I haven't heard about the project's status just yet, but we indie authors lead busy lives so as soon as there is some more news on it, I'll definitely be posting it here. 
    • I keep promising more Writing Insight Posts and I kind of delivered with one on giveaways. There will definitely be more, but my TBR Cleanup got me a little side-tracked and it can be hard deciding what to write about since I'm no expert at any of this myself.  The main plan is to just keep it honest and keep it real and I'll see where that gets me. 

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