June Wrap-Up Incuding ALA Convention Highlights – Can You Believe 2018 is Halfway Over?

Posted July 2, 2018 by Lisa Mandina in / 30 Comments

You know, this year has been soooooooo busy!  I keep saying I’m going to slow down on signing up for tours, and then, I don’t.  That’s still a goal that I have for this year!  This June has been an exciting one.  And July is going to be as well I think.  But I’ll talk more about that later.  First off, let’s talk about stats for June:

# of books read June/year so far:  15/104 – I’ve dropped my Goodreads goal for the year to 200, so I’m now 5 books ahead.  Just didn’t see how I was going to get to my 265 as the number I was behind kept going up.
# of reviews posted in June/year so far:  12/99 – and actually, I have 9 reviews overdue!

Challenge updates:

My goal for the year was 4, and I at least have one done, Book Blogger Woes.  I still have some other ideas, just need time to do them!

My goal for the year is 6, and I am getting close, 5 done!

Everlife (Everlife Trilogy #3) by Gena Showalter
Chaser (Dive Bar #3) by Kylie Scott
True Storm (True Born Trilogy #3) by L.E.  Sterling
Down Shift (Driven #8) by K. Bromberg
Brave (A Wicked Trilogy #3) by Jennifer L. Armentrout

My goal was 12 books, in March I had 3, since then I’ve only read 2 more. 

Felony Ever After:  A Domino Anthology – 13 authors – 1 story
Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas #1) by Zoraida Cordova – no review written yet

1.  My first goal was to finish one of my works in progress, which I did finally finish my short story.  Then, I let a friend read it.  Well, she read just the introduction and kind of blasted it apart.  So, I’m going to go back and rework it.  Editing you know!  Guess that is important!  I did catch on to something that I do seem to always do with my beginnings, and I know that I need to make them more interesting, so I’m working on that.  Of course I haven’t had much writing time. And actually, for about a month after I got her comments on my story, I kind of was feeling like it was a waste of time. But since then, I’ve decided that I do still want to write.  Still, not much time it seems!

2.  My 2nd goal was to read books that have been suggested by friends.  Sad to say, I’ve not made any progress with this at all.

3.  Cutting back on blog tours.  Well, I keep thinking I’ve done it, but yeah, still not doing that great.  Lots to work on.  One thing that I think might help me is that I’ve started adding dates on my calendar for when I need to do a review for my ARCs.  So that might help since it will show less days open for tours.

Well, I signed up to do June, to comment 5+ times on my partner’s blog.  I failed this time.  I think I only did 3 times.  Not sure if my partner got over to mine more than 5 either, although we did communicate on Twitter as well a few times.  Since I did so bad, I decided not to join up for July.

I had a total blast!  Got to meet a lot of authors, got a lot of ARC unicorns and other cool books.  Enjoyed good food in New Orleans, and really am so glad I got to go.  I was bad about taking more books than I should have.  Let’s share some pictures below!

Books galore!

Authors everywhere!


Swag all around!

I borrowed the slide show idea to show all my pictures from another blog, It Starts at Midnight.  You can go check out their ALA wrap-up post HERE.

Of course, what I got at ALA is not at all a complete listing of all the books I got this past month.  But I don’t have the time to go through all of that. 

Coming up in July, I’ve got my trip to Book Bonanza, so stay tuned for pictures and posts about that.  Instead of bringing a ton of books, though, I’m working on creating a photo book with Shutterfly, to get signed.  I am still bringing a few books, but for the most part, just want pictures and my autograph book signed. 

Of course after that it will be getting close to back to school time.  My summer has been so busy working at my part time job at the bookstore to make money for my trips, I haven’t been able to do as much writing or other things I’d have liked to do.  We’ll see how this month goes.  I mean, it is just July 1st!

So, how was June for you?  Are you ready for the 2nd half of the year? 

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30 responses to “June Wrap-Up Incuding ALA Convention Highlights – Can You Believe 2018 is Halfway Over?

  1. Well done Lisa in being 5 books ahead of your 200 goal. I had an excellent April and May and had a shocking June. I hope to be able to pick it up in July.

    Amazing feat in writing your short stories…well done!

    Angelica @ Paperback Princess

    • I was 16 or more books behind until I dropped my goal to 200. My June wasn't great for reading. I don't think this year has been great at all so far. Oh well. Thanks for visiting!

  2. Sounds like you got a lot done in June. I have a feeling I'm going to fall a bit behind this coming month. My second half of the year is going to be pretty stressful with our upcoming move next month. I hope you have fun at Book Bonanza. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • I feel like I didn't get as much writing done as I wanted, or reading, but still it was a crazy month with a lot that I did do! I have a feeling July will be even busier, already can't believe how fast it is going. Thanks for stopping by!

  3. I'm having mixed success with my goals as well. I'm a little behind on my discussion challenge goal but hopefully I can get caught up on that. I had slacked off on my backlist challenge but finally seem to be getting back on track with that the past couple of weeks.

    I'm glad you had a great time in New Orleans and I hope you have a fantastic time at Book Bonanza!

  4. I am loving all the ALA wrap-ups. Obviously, I would enjoy them more if I had been there, but it's great to see how much fun everyone had, and there are few books I would have loved to get my hands on. Enjoy all your new goodies!

    • It is more fun to look at them when you get to go. ๐Ÿ™‚ Of course I know I won't be able to afford it again next year, so that's how I'll feel next year. Thanks for stopping by!

  5. Ahhh Wicked Trilogy! I want to read that series so bad, I love JLA, but I'm so busy…

    Thanks for visiting my blog!

    Anne @ The Reading Life

    • I know! There are so many books and series, and then I look at the piles of books I got at ALA, and have no idea when I'll ever get them all read! Thanks for returning the visit!

    • As much as I want to do ALA again, next year it is in DC, and I don't need to spend the money to go there, no free place to stay. Maybe another time. I want to go to BEA again, but have to get my sister to let me stay at her place. Thanks for stopping by!

  6. Sorry your friend's feedback was discouraging. Hopefully she had some nice things to say about your short story as well! (If not, you might want to consider a different critiquer because one of the golden rules is that you always give both positive and negative feedback.) I'm glad you're not giving up on your writing!

    Love the ALA wrap-ups, and I think it was a great idea to do the slideshow. Yay to Shannon for coming up with that!

    Nicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction

    • She basically said that there was nothing that grabbed her attention and made her want to keep reading. ๐Ÿ™ So I'm working on redoing it. I've had other people that read it and liked it, so I feel like I got other positive feedback to help me as well. I'm very closely following you these days for your writing tips! Thanks for visiting!

  7. Looks like you are doing well on your goals, good for you! I should take better stock of the first half of the year. I'm a librarian as well but haven't gone to ALA in years. Did you see Michelle Obama? Glad you had a fun time! Good luck with the writing; if it brings you joy, I wouldn't give it up! All good things take time. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Somewhat good with them. Other than the reading goals, since I had to cut back the number of books. This was my first time at ALA, and I'd love to go again, but will have to probably save money for another time. I did get to see Michelle Obama. She was a great speaker, it was neat to hear about what it was like to be a family in the White House. Thanks for stopping by!

  8. I've read about 90-ish books so far this year out of my 100 goal. I always set it a little lower and then increase it by 25 or so each time I hit it.

    I had a great time at ALA and didn't do toooo bad about getting books. Always too many but I'm getting better at picking fewer and ones I'm actually interested in.

    I really learned my lesson after my first few BEA's.

    Karen @ For What It's Worth

    • I think it's been so long since I was at BEA that I forgot how easy it is to pick up books! Although I did do better than I could have. I just grabbed a few more than I should have. For the most part they were all ones I wanted. Thanks for visiting!

  9. I love seeing photos of authors and events like this. Thanks for sharing. I underestimated my reading this year, as I've accepted picture books and early readers for review, and will up my challenge for next year. Even picture book authors need a boost for sales.

    • I don't know if I've just done more writing, or not had as much time to read or what this year that has kept me so far behind. The smaller books do read much quicker! I have a friend who is way beyond his goal for the year, but he reads a lot of graphic novels, and to me those are shorter than other books as well. Nothing wrong with that! But I have to remember it when I start to beat myself up for being so far behind. Thanks for stopping by!

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