ROLL ON SEPTEMBER -

Goodbye, August! You sure did your best to throw spanners in our wheels, so truth be told I’m rather glad to close the books on you. The heat was unlike anything we’ve ever experienced here in London, and the sun can be lethal here. But not for weeks on end.

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I must admit that most of August is a blur to me. My room turned into a sauna and, as it turns out, you can get heat exhaustion from staying out of the sun. I felt a shadow come over my eyes and then the room began to spin. It was only the curtain initially, but very soon everything was spinning. No word of a lie – it was scary. Like really, really scary.

My marvellous PA got me extra fans, sprayed me with water and filled my bed with ice packs, and after the first 24 hours, the room was only spinning when I tried to lift my head from the pillow. Now it’s more like being on a ship and dealing with light motion sickness. Which makes sense, given that we are on my imaginary pirate ship.

But heat and war and virus and other horrible things aside, we’ve gathered here today to tally up this month’s achievements, and to bid the new month welcome, so let’s get to it, shall we?

I used to do this as a monthly recap where I tallied up the numbers and tried to measure how far I’d come on this creative writing journey. But I was sailing alone back then, and the format I used doesn’t quite work now that we’re a full ship. The question that’s had me stumped for a while is what kind of “template” I’d like to replace it with.

The answer came to me the other day as my non-fiction writing alter ego was working on an article about resets. Monthly resets, to be precise. There’s a little guide in there, a kind of step-by-step procedure you can follow if you don’t have a method of your own. And since I don’t I guess I should take my own advice. For this particular purpose, at this particular point in time, we only need the first three steps. We’ve just covered the first one here. so let’s jump straight into Step 2.

AUGUST ACCOMPLISHMENTS

MY AUGUST GOALS:

My main goal for August was the same as it has been for every month this year since April. To prepare a new book for release. I also had a lot of other goals, like making some videos, finishing an audiobook edit and working on my own stories lined up. The book, FK Marlowe’s Buried did see the light of day, even if it was released later than I had hoped. The rest of my list, however, was a sad sight for someone who likes to tick things off.

AUGUST MILESTONES:

The most significant milestone reached in August was the one-year anniversary of my public declaration. It was in August 2021 that I decided to shout into the void that I would release a book in late 2023, and that I would be publishing snippets and WIP chapters on this blog. I did it on the new twitter account I had set up for this particular adventure thinking that no one would pay much attention to it. I like flying under the radar.

BIGGEST CHALLENGE:

The heatwave. It was by far the toughest challenge I’ve faced so far this year. For about 48 hours, when the temperature in my room shot past 33 degrees Celcius and the humidity was through the roof, it very nearly had me beaten. But you know what? You can’t toast a dragon to death, so we’re still good.

PROUDEST MOMENTS:

The fact that one of my kiddoes, no longer a kid, was accepted by the prestigious Uppsala University in Sweden. He’s already got a degree from London Metropolitan, but you can never get too much knowledge. For me, personally, it’s a tie between the 1-year milestone and managing to midwife another book into existence even though it felt hopeless at times.

DOMINANT FEELING:

Truthfully? Exhaustion and sadness. I feel like I made it through August by the skin of my teeth, and I’m glad to be closing the door on her. Hence the sadness. I want to treasure the time I have left, but it’s hard to do when you’re too knackered to function and the whole world keeps spinning. There were precious moments, and for those I am grateful, but overall August? You sucked. And not in a good way.

GOALS, IDEAS AND VISIONS FOR SEPTEMBER

PRIMARY GOALS:

Again, the primary goal for September is to midwife another book into existence. This month it is Leto Armitage’s next short, working title F*CK, that’s waiting for its final touches and a fresh cover. I also want to finish and schedule eight new blog posts and get our first newsletter ready to be sent out by the end of the month. Last but not least, there is a secret project in the pipeline that means a lot to me for deeply personal reasons. What it is? I promise I’ll tell you more about it towards the end of the month. I may even show you…

STRETCH GOALS:

Because of how bad August was, I have a long backlog and that means most of the items have been put on the stretch goals list. I’m drained, so I know September will be a slow month too. I will keep working on optimisation of this site to make it faster and cut down on response times. There are also audio and video edits waiting for me and a number of graphical elements I need to create. Oh, and another website. And a shop window. It’s a lot, but it will be done. At some point.

BONUS POINTS:

I have two bonus projects I hope to give at least a little bit of love to. One is a New Year’s special set in my old home town, and the other a spicy Viking romance that is a slow burn and a slow grow thing, but if all goes well it will be in a bookstore near you by this time next year. A girl can dream, right?

Right, now I’ve got it all down on paper and I need a nap. It’s exhausting to look at a long list of things that need to be done, even if it’s full of things you like and really look forward to. And I do.

So, here’s what’s going to happen. I’m going to curl up and get some much-needed sleep, and then I’m going to drag my sleepy backside back to the drawing board so we can crack on with this. We have a whole world to explore, and loads of dreams to fulfil. And we will. Baby step by baby step. Together.

– What did you achieve in August?

– And what are your goals for September?

Hop into the comments below, or hit me up through one of the options in my linktree and Let’s Talk.

Puss & Kram,

Linnea 🖤🏴‍☠️

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LINNEA LUCIFER
Amateur Liar

Linnea Lucifer is the Captain of an imaginary pirate ship, a weaver of stories, and a certified pain in the arse. She spends most of her days daydreaming and writing fantasy, smut and painfully crappy poems.

Named after a delicate little flower that grows in mossy, Swedish pine forests, and a fiery fallen angel, she takes great pleasure in everything that tickles the senses and adds a sprinkle of magic and spice to our world.

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