New month, new beginnings. Reading about everybody’s August Recap made me take a trip down memory lane. August was a hectic month, where I had to do a lot of adjusting, and I am not simply talking about my blogging life. August was the month when I remembered my love for book photography, and decided to return to being a bookstagrammer. It was my second month with the members of Bookstagram BD–a book club made by book lovers from my own country–and to tell you that talking to these people late into the nights about books, be they YA or Stephen King or even classics, is my new favorite thing to do. Like most people in the bookish community, these guys are so open minded and friendly, that despite being anti-people I couldn’t help but warm up to them immediately. Here are some of these amazing people–do check out their blogs and say hi!
Muskan, Sharfin, Eshadi, Sanzida
Blogging Life
My return from hiatus was a rocky one–it’s hard to get back to doing something regularly when you have spent 8 months not doing it all–but thanks to you guys it felt really good to be back. There are some people I would love to thank specially for the warm welcome back:
CW from Read, Think and Ponder
Lydia Tewkesbury from 22 Is Still Young Adult
Marie from Drizzle and Hurricane Books
There are plenty of other book bloggers too who’s been super supportive and who has inspired me to keep doing this thing that I love. If I start naming you all, the list would never end so thank you, all of you, who’s been there for me via the internet throughout the past month and before. You know who you are.
Writing Life
This month I have been toying with an idea for a novel, and I pretty much spent the last month doing research and outlining. It’s going to be a fairytale retelling of some traditional Bengali fairytale, and I really hope I can pay tribute to these stories that I grew up listening to through my novel.
I also began a practice novel to keep my flow of writing going. It features a plus size protagonist, Asian culture, and a lot of stereotype myth busting, not because diversity is the new rage in the bookish community but because writing about an insecure overweight colored teenager is something very close to my heart, me being one myself, and I am really enjoying it! Writing about something I can relate with is a little less challenging than I like but it is also something fun and stress relieving. The story is called Glass Slipper and it is up on Wattpad for anyone who would like to read it (my Wattpad username is orbit_breath).
Reading Life
August was a terrible month for reading. I started so many books this month and never got around to finishing any of them except for Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Obviously, multi-reading is not for me.
Personal Life
SECOND SEMESTER STARTED!!! Here in Bangladesh, semesters in public universities are six months each, and they only take in new batches in January, so I am still a lowly, ever-confused, struggling freshman who have yet to experience the true horrors of college life. Or so the seniors tell me. So far, I like how second semester is going, though it feels incredibly long. I really cannot believe only one month has passed, it feels much longer to be honest, even though it has been quite eventful: I entered 3 competitions, participated as a delegate in Model United Nations, got to the final round of my fourth competition, got selected as an RJ for an online radio station run by college students, and most importantly, I met tons of new people from my batch who I didn’t even know existed before. That’s the weird thing about university: there’s always a bunch of new faces you’ll meet every day.
I also learned to accept a lot about myself this month. Emotionally, this month was a roller coaster ride: somewhere in the past few months I forgot that I am important too, and I forgot how to love myself and respect myself. I am being kinder to myself now, an uphill ride for someone who has spent months criticising everything about myself, but the past week has been a really good one: I focused on myself, on the things that made me happy and the things that I have always wanted to do, and it felt great. It felt great to love myself a bit. If any of you are being swept up by all the craziness in your life, and stop taking care of yourself, I hope you get to take some time to remember all the things you love about yourself and know that while it is important to show love to the people who matter to you, you should never forget to show love to yourself to.
And now, I am going to end this rather long post with new resolutions for this coming month:
- I hereby promise to be kinder to myself and focus on my own self more
- I hereby promise to be more active on the book blogosphere and on the bookstagram community
- I pledge to write 10,000 words in this 30 days
AWWW Tanaz, thank you for mentioning me! You know that I’m a super big fan of your blog, and am so happy to see you back again.
WOW, your story idea sounds AMAZING. I would instantly read your work. I’ve never ventured into Wattpad before, but it says I need to make an account??? BUT. I will, and I’ll read your work on the weekend! (fingers crossed I don’t have another busy weekend…)
As you mentioned — that’s something I miss about university, the meeting new people every day thing. Working is good, in its way, but I don’t meet a lot of people and I miss that a lot.
I’m so glad that you are remembering to self-care! Lately I’ve been swept up in my busy life – I’ve been catching up with a lot of friends because I had this sudden burst of social energy, but now I feel like I’ve neglected to do things that kept me grounded because it disrupted my normal life. :c So next week, I’m going to take a step back and look after myself better.
BAH I’ve written you an essay! It sounds like you’ve had a good month. I hope September will be even better! <3
I have had a very interesting month and it made me a lot more positive than I was before! And awww CW I can always email you my story if you are interested 😊 I got inspired by all the retellings going around these days and wanted to write a story where I can represent my culture and add some spin to it too. And the fairytales I want to do a retelling of are some of my childhood favorites so yeah there is a lot of heart going into this 🙈
I do hope you indulge in some self-care too. As people we tend to give priority to everyone but ourselves even though we deserve to feel loved by ourselves.
YES PLEASE, EMAIL ME!! I’m very slow at reading, but I get there!! And of course! I completely support and admire what you are doing. I can imagine a lot of heart going in – but that’ll make it all the more special for you and your readers!! I can’t wait to read what you’ve written! <3
I’ll send it to you then 😄
Thanks for the shoutout, Tanaz, and I am SO glad to see you around again! I can really relate with how hard it is to get back to a routine after another routine of NOT doing that routine (OMG what am I saying) but I’m just really excited to have you back.
Also the novel that you’re writing sounds really great, even if it’s for ‘practice’. That sounds like something I’d absolutely pick up as soon as it was released. I hope I get the chance to check it out on Wattpad soon. 🙂
I’m glad that you are being kinder to yourself. That’s a lesson that I’ve had to learn as well myself, and it’s definitely a battle at times! But it’s a very good battle to have, and it sounds like that you’ve got it in the bag. I love your resolutions and I wish you all the best of luck with them. <3
Thanks Reg! I wonder why it is easy to be nice to complete strangers but so hard to be good to yourself 😂 I would love to hear your response too! Do you have a Wattpad account as well?
Yeah, I wonder that too! But I think with ourselves we very easily see our flaws and weaknesses and areas of improvement, whereas perhaps with other people we get to see just the surface since we’re not them? That’s my theory, anyway. 😛
I don’t! I’ll have to check out the whole website.
Ohhh its okay! If you are really interested I can email you whenever you have the time to read it 😊
Yay! Maybe give me the link if you have it up? 🙂
Sure thing! 😄
Thank you for the shoutout, it’s such a pleasure to see you back in this community, I missed you and reading your posts a lot! 🙂
I absolutely LOVE your story’s idea, it sounds so original and I am not too familiar with BEngali fairytales, but I’d definitely read that. And that other story, well… I guess I need to go on wattpad right away to read that!
It is so, so important to take care of yourself, I tend to forget it as well. I hope you’ll have a wonderful September! <3
Same to you Marie! Not many people are familiar with Bengali fairytales, it’s only one of the reasons why I want to do a retelling. There’s so much about my roots and my culture that I would love to share with the world, and I think this is a good way to start.
YOU ARE DEFINITELY IMPORTANT! Love reading your posts and glad you’re back, though how you are and keeping up with school and life is beyond me. Awesome that you’re writing, and a fairytale retelling like me, though mine was Peter Pan. Good luck in your 10,000 word writing goal! I made a goal to write 1,000 words every day this month…in which I’m already failing. I’m rooting for you!
1k words each day is HARD! Best of luck with that. Dont’t give up–you can do it!
I have been toying with this idea a lot but didnt have enough planned out to actually decide whether I should write. These fairytales hold a lot of memories for me, as I pretty much grew up on them! 😜
Oh and whats up with your story? Any updates?
Sent out the fairytale retelling MS to agents, but haven’t had any luck with yet. I’m still waiting to hear back from a few of them. I think I’ll have better luck with the current WIP…well once it’s done of course 🙂
Okies! I’ll read it as soon as I can tonight 😆
Woops. Wrong comment. Idk why it came here 😨. I think you should keep trying. All published writers say it is impossibly hard to get an agent so hang in there!
I’m not giving up just yet 🙂