May has been a busy month full of ups and downs. My car battery died in carline one day and I had to get a jump from another parent. It died again when I was supposed to hang out with a friend, so I got it replaced and it has worked perfectly since. I got the house cleaned as a Mother’s Day present and then hosted five family members (and occasionally my in-laws) for a week and a half while we celebrated a variety of events including my daughter’s final musical theater performance in her after-school program. I showed off Asheville, taking family to the Biltmore, Mt. Mitchell, Craggy Gardens, downtown, Triple Falls, Hooker Falls, Looking Glass Falls, the Green River Cove Trail, Rainbow Falls, Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center, and River Arts District. The kids took their EOG tests, and we said goodbye to our cat of fifteen years, Maui. After all of that, I’m very much looking forward to the end of school and our family going on vacation next month. We all need it!
Now it’s time to get to the monthly prompts. Keep reading to see what else we packed into the month. You can read other’s Somethings or add your own over at HeatherGerwing.com.
Something Loved
There was so much to love about this month. I received two books signed by favorite authors (birthday gifts to myself). I turned 40 (!) with family in town and celebrated with sushi and a delicious strawberry cheesecake from 3 Eggs Cakery. I selected a picture from my favorite local artist Jeff Pittman as a birthday present and saw my daughter get baptized and join the church. A lot of great things happened this month.
What’s something you’ve loved about this month?
Something Gleaned
I’m trying to read books whose title starts with each letter of the alphabet. It’s one of my 2022 reading challenges. I had a few options for Z because there are several books about Zen. Ray Bradbury’s Zen in the Art of Writing was my choice. I knew nothing about him other than he wrote Fahrenheit 451. It turns out he’s written tons of essays and this book was a collection of them about creativity. It was educational and encouraging. Below, I will share a few quotes.
What is the greatest reward a writer can have? Isn’t it that day when someone rushes up to you, his face bursting with honesty, his eyes afire with admiration and cries, “That new story of yours was fine, really wonderful!” Then and only then is writing worthwhile.
Quantity gives experience. From experience alone can quality come.
How does one get lost? Through incorrect aims, as I have said. Through wanting literary fame too quickly. From wanting money too soon. If only we could remember, fame and money are gifts given us only after we have gifted the world with our best, our lonely, our individual truths.
Something Saved
This is a fun new category about something I’ve saved on my phone via screenshot. I use this feature all the time. This month I’m working on getting my novella out into the world and have been studying how other people have done it for best practices. I’ve taken photos of BookFunnel promotions (my chosen book distribution method), and e-book front and back matter formatting. Having the photos on my phone makes for easy reference. Hopefully, next month I can put “published novella” into Something Achieved.
Something Achieved
I struggled for a bit with this category. This month was unusual in that my routine was interrupted while we had visitors. Pleasantly interrupted, of course. However, I wanted to post on Instagram every day this month and have succeeded in that, thanks to a lot of planning and prep. I created content on Canva and then drafted and scheduled posts using Buffer so that I didn’t have to think about it while my family was in town. I did post some about our adventures, but that was bonus content.
What’s something you achieved this month?
Busy, but beautiful month, Megan! And a BIG Happy Birthday to you!!!! I love the idea of reading books with the letters of the alphabet-Ray Bradbury’s book intrigues me.
Wishing you the best in getting your novella out in the reading world!!
Thank you, Donna. I enjoy doing book challenges to help me have a focus with what I read.
Glad you had a very happy birthday in a delightfully busy month! It’s interesting you mentioned Bradbury’s book because I’ve found quotes from it looking for little nuggets to share with the high school students I teach. So far I hadn’t really considered reading it. But I’ll also need a book starting with Z, and I think that might be the one.
I think it’s a worthwhile read. Let me know if you end up reading it.
Happy 40th Birthday, Megan! I’m glad you had a delightful time with family and hope you have a wonderful vacation next month. My husband and I visited your beautiful city and saw Biltmore and Looking Glass Falls, but I’ll have to make a list of the other places you mentioned for the next time we visit. I’m sorry for the loss of your cat, Maui. Great job researching and trying different things online, and I hope everything comes together for your book.
Thank you for the encouragement and sympathy. It’s been tough not having our cat around. I keep looking for her around the house.
Signed books are the best! I’m going to be more intentional in posting reels on IG in June…they are deprioritizing static posts.
I dislike how frequently things change. I haven’t done a reel in awhile, but guess I should get back to it. After vacation. 🙂
Glad Buffer worked for you Megan! Looking forward to hearing how you like Book Funnel.
So far it has been fairly easy to use. Still don’t know about the Integration feature – I hope to see how that works next month.
Enjoy the rest of spring & summer. I pray there are fun things around every corner.
Thank you!
It does sound like a super busy month. Definitely some lows (saying goodbye to your kitty) but also some beautiful moments! Happy birthday wishes – here’s to a beautiful year ahead!!
Thank you for the warm wishes. 🙂
Happy 40th birthday!! Book gifts are the best gifts (especially autographed copies)!! Wedding Belles sounds super cute. I just finished So Not My Thing by Melanie Jacobson and LOVED it! I really struggle with the something achieved category as well. I hope you have a great month!
So Not My Thing is on my kindle to read at some point. After your endorsement, I’ll have to move it up the list. 🙂
Drafting and scheduling posts is a great achievement – one I hope to get to at some point. I know May held both grief and joy for you, and I pray your family time away will be refreshing for you all.
Thanks friend!
Also, I love the floppy disk in the image!! Classic!
I thought so. 🙂