I've been pretty good at getting this post up on the 1st so far this year, but I guess my disappointment with last month's achievements (or lack thereof) had me in no rush to tell you all about it.  Still, facts must be shared so here it goes.

Writing was hard this month. HARD. And I spent far more hours trying than my word count might suggest. My word count was built in 200 word increments this month and it sucked. It's not that the story isn't all there, it's not that I don't know the in's and out's or that my characters have vanished from my mind – the right words just wouldn't come out of me. I'm tempted to blame the weather since it's gotten exceedingly hotter here now and you probably know I hate the heat by now and that statistically I write less in the summer, but I'm really trying not to let hot weather win this year. I want to write all year dammit and I'm determined to push through whatever is holding me back at the moment. Anyway, final word count for May: 3,208 – so disappointing to not even hit my 5K min. goal.

Reading wasn't much better, which isn't usually the case when my writing is low. I spent the first two weekends reading the same, unimpressive book – essentially wasting time I could have been reading better books and in truth, only one of the books I read in May really shined. Reading too many 'just okay' books in a row didn't exactly make me too jazzed up about spending free time reading. Not to mention, I was so stressed about my word count that I spent a lot of the time I'd usually be reading trying to write and failing.

Hemlock Grove by Brian McGreevy
The Unquiet by Jeannine Garsee
The Dead & the Gone (The Last Survivors, Book 2) by Susan Beth Pfeffer
From Baghdad, With Love by Jay Kopelman
The New Language of Toys (3^rd Edition) by Sue Schwartz [not pictured, educational]

*Titles take you to my GoodReads reviews*