October was a crazy month of trying to work three jobs at once, traveling and prepping for my second novel. Overall a very successful & fun month…But man, I am exhausted.

What I Read

GRAND TOTAL: 7

The Vanishing Year by Kate Moretti

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

Witch’s Pyre by Josephine Angelini
(technically this counts as three because I reread the entire trilogy…)

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

October Reads

What I Wrote

This was a month of preparation. Characters development, setting profiles, hero’s journeys and pages of research. But I am ready for November 1st. I’ll be launching my second novel later this week, but below is a quick excerpt from the very first page.

Time goes by in the blink of an eye. That’s what they tell you anyway.

Countless songs, movies, poems, and novels have been written surrounding the concept of time. Time is precious, time is fluid. Time can slip through your fingers, so pay attention. Don’t blink or you might just miss it.

But I can safely tell you that no matter how many times I blinked, it had been the longest year of my life. And God, I wish I’d missed it.

The courtroom was abuzz, but it just sounded like white noise in the back of head. Like that threat of a headache when you are hungover, looming, worsening as the day goes on.  

My palms were sweaty, my mouth dry – an interesting paradox, don’t you think? But I hardly noticed, my eyes trained on the door in the back corner where he would walk through at any minute.

“Don’t panic,” Dani said in my ear, permeating the hazy fog of sounds. “Just be yourself.”

That was easy for her to say. I don’t think Dani Anderson had ever needed to panic or to be anyone but herself.

I was a different story.

Coming up in November…

November is National Novel Writing Month, and I am diving into the above story headfirst. Stay tuned for word count and other updates!

Because of this, my reading time will be a little limited, so my goal is to read the following three books in November:

• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle (Film adaptation coming in 2018!)
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath (Film adaptation coming in 2017!)
• The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

P.S. I know I mandated that you all see The Girl on the Train when it came out on October 7th. I have a confession to make… I didn’t see it either. I heard some bad things, and I just couldn’t let Hollywood ruin another book for me.