As I madly rush about on my last minute preparations for a week of holiday, I’m thinking of everything I have to be grateful for, and it’s a lot! But today I want to thank my blog readers, who make words worth it. Happy Holidays to everyone! May you find hot coffee, good books, and warm socks!
JEH
Use this image to begin a freewrite. Start with the description of the picture, and go wherever your mind wonders from there. Set your timer for ten minutes and write by hand.
It’s a grey, frigid day and I’m stuck in my office. I’ve been horrible at both writing and reading and I don’t even know where my time has gone this past week. I’m really hoping that December can be my reading month, but unless I find buried energy somewhere I may not get around to reading my last seven Goodreads Challenge books. The good news is that I did finish reading Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them this weekend before going to the movie. I was glad I did, since so many of the beast make an appearance. However, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is not a novel and is therefore nothing like the movie, which I found surprising and quite…dark. I really enjoyed reading the screenplay for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child this year, but I’m not sure reading the Fantastic Beasts screenplay is something I want to do. Especially since I’ve now seen the movie, and I’m pretty much a strictly book-before-movie kind of person.
My lunch today consisted of a takeout container of French Onion soup and an accompanying bun. It’s the kind of weather for soup. I will probably eat soup and only soup for the next four months…. at least at lunch time. 
It’s also that time of year for tea, so I better go make a cup of that right now, before the chill sets in. Tomorrow I will be posing a review of The Glittering Court, and I’m hoping to have two more up in the next week as well. Have you seen the FBWTFT movie yet?
JEH
Wow, the tenth update already! Things are going well, and have become consistent with the help of Nanowrimo. I’m behind in NaNoWriMo word count, which you can see on the chart pulled from my NaNo page last night. I’m hoping I can average 2,500 words a day until the end of the month in order to win this year. I know I can do it. I’ve been reminding myself of the new journal I’ve been coveting for a while, and that I get to buy it the minute I win. This has been my primary source of motivation all week.
By mid-December I should have a completed draft of a novel I’m calling Life. I’m planning on letting Life sit for a few months while I work on rewrites for UJ and still untitled project. Once I’m done drafting Life, I’m planning on using my 1,000 words a day to finish my long overdue WattPad project, Half-Moon Blood. I also plan on spending all my free time in December trying to catch up on GoodReads goal for 2016. I pledged to read 40 books, of which I’ve finished 31. I have a bunch of half-finished novels waiting for me to read them, so I’m hoping it won’t be too challenging to finish 9 books in the next 5 weeks. The good news is, you should see a lot of reviews next months!
Also, it will be great to finish reading a bunch of books before Christmas, since I hope to get more books for presents!
JEH
Obviously I’m going through my book journal from 2012. City of Bones is a young-adult classic. I read this back in it’s ‘hay-day’, before it got turned into a movie and then a Netflix TV show (neither of which performed well). Here’s what I thought of the book:
I gave City of Bones 3/5 stars. I went on to read the next two books in the series, but haven’t been interested enough to continue reading this world. I know some people absolutely love it, but I guess it just isn’t for me. I’ll be writing more about other books I’m currently reading this week.
J. E. Hunter is the author of the Black Depths Series. The books can be found on Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords.
Pick a boat. Make up a character who is looking at buying that boat. Why do they want to buy it? Are they buying it for themselves or someone else? Are they trying to run away, or are they trying to get somewhere? Write for ten minutes without stopping.
I have not been a good writer lately. I’ve written every day since NaNoWriMo began, but I’ve really been dragging my feet. Part of it is this cold that I just cannot kick, and the other is my complete addiction to catching up on Once Upon a Time on Netflix. I just can’t get enough right now!
Anyway, here’s the chart from the past week. As you can see, I’ve had a couple stellar days, and a couple really poor ones. I’m hoping I can use the long weekend to get better and get back on track. Hopefully I’ll have some more blog posts for your too!
JEH
What happens when you wish in this well?
I’ve been so busy getting ready for the next Black Depths Book release that I haven’t been posting. But I have good reason, and today I have something to share. Below is a preview of one corner of the Twisted Currents Cover, which my cover artist, Leah Keeler, is working away on. It’s going to be amazing, probably the best cover yet! Any guesses what the final will look like?
JEH
J. E. H U N T E R 