Life Post: A Relaxing Yet Productive Sunday

I'm writing this post as soon as I've woken up, which is potentially not a good idea. I still don't feel entirely awake. In the past, I've mentioned waking up on the early side for most of this summer though, and today I actually slept in. Or at least I would consider it sleeping in. It might not be for other people.

Yesterday was the most relaxing Sunday I've actually had in such a long time. The strange thing is that I actually got a lot of work done. I'm beta reading for several people at the moment, and I beta read two chapters and got them back to people yesterday. On top of that, I finished a draft of my own story and sent it off to the first beta reader. I felt pretty accomplished getting through all of that, but somehow I still feel like I had a relaxing Sunday. It's probably because I finished most of that kind of early and then had the rest of the day. It was nice.

I also posted some stuff on my writing blog and on Youtube yesterday though. I wrote a really short thing called Escapism. I actually wrote that when something was on my mind, and when I look back at it, I'm not sure how I feel.  On Youtube I posted a video that's the story of how I got into fanfiction. I even admit that I wasn't always a Ron/Hermione shipper. Shocking, I know.

Book Review: I Have Something to Say by Kathryn Harper

ASIN: B012EUVA16
Published: July 23rd, 2015
Publisher: self-published
Read from July 27th to August 5th, 2015
Synopsis from Goodreads:

Kathryn Harper suffered from selective mutism as a child when very little was known about this frequently misunderstood condition. In her teens and early adult years she developed further complications as a result of her untreated anxiety.
Today, it is important to Kathryn to share her perspective, which she has been able to develop using the benefit of hindsight, and a willingness to explore her past. She hopes that this book will provide insights and a greater understanding for people whose lives are affected in some way by selective mutism.
"I have wanted to write this book since 1985. As a six year old girl I had no idea that selective mutism even existed, but my silence was palpable and inside of it I was developing all kinds of conversations, explanations, questions, and insights ..."

Review:

I'm just going to start off by saying that  I highly recommend this book to anyone who suffers from selective mutism or knows someone who does. It's something that you hear few personal stories on, and I think personal stories are such a key part of people who suffer from these sorts of conditions actually being able to come to terms with themselves. For that reason alone, this book is very valuable. Harper both writes about her own experiences and offers advice for others, and both parts of the book are excellent.

Personally, I don't suffer from selective mutism, and I don't know anyone who does either. But I do have social anxiety, and I found myself relating to quite a few of Harper's stories through that. They're not the same thing, but it definitely gave me an empathy that wouldn't have been there otherwise. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I was in situations strikingly similar to those that Harper describes. I really think the book would have been helpful to me too when I was younger and before I really got that social anxiety was the root of what I was experiencing. Like Harper with selective mutism, I never heard the term social anxiety until I was older, so I fully understand why it is so important to her to get out word about selective mutism.

Talking about these conditions is so beneficial for people, especially children, who suffer from them. I think Harper has managed to achieve her goal of writing a book that can be hugely important to those people with selective mutism.

I received this book for free from Storycartel in exchange for an honest review.

Life Post: Allergies Aren't Fun

There's been one thing bothering me all summer that I've tried not to talk about on the Internet: my allergies. I've talked about them in the past, and I knew I'd reached the point where my complaining was annoying. I didn't want to do that anymore. As I've gotten older, they seem to have gotten worse, and I've also begun to realize that they're worse when I'm at home than when I'm at school. This summer as been the worst ever for them, but like I said, I've been trying not to talk about it.

By now I've reached the point where that's getting difficult though. The day of the One Direction concert, they were really bad that morning. So bad that I would have stayed in bed if it weren't for One Direction. Luckily, we drove to Indianapolis, and as I said about them being worse in my hometown, they got better in Indy. I'm thankful for that because doing anything is really hard on the days when my allergies are at their worst. In church with my family today, I got really light-headed and had to grip onto something to stand. Remember how I vomited at the summer social this year? The heat definitely contributed to that, but considering that was a first for me and my allergies had been bad that day, I think it contributed.

I take over-the-counter allergy medicine, but how much that seems to work depends on the day. I'm really considering talking to a doctor, maybe getting allergy tested. I really want a better way to deal with this. I know it won't be quite as bad at school, but they were still on the terrible side last year. I really think I need some doctor's advice on how to deal with this. Because it's making a lot of things very difficult.

When my head hurts and is incredibly congested, it starts feeling difficult to think. It's like being perpetually tired while also having a headache. Plus my head feels heavier, and I can hardly breathe. In other words, I'm miserable, and I want to do something about it. We'll see if I actually manage to do that before school starts back and I'm hours away from my doctor. (My school has a nurse, but as I've heard stories that she isn't that great and tries to STD test every single person that walks in there as well as get the girls to take pregnancy tests, I've avoided going all three years so far. I mean, I get her motivations, but according to the stories, she's a little overzealous.)

We'll see what happens with my allergies, I suppose.

Life Post: The End of Summer

I'm ridiculously behind on my to do lists. It's actually insane. I think today is the day I finally catch up though. I have high hopes. My high hopes have a tendency to always be too high, but we'll see. I've managed to get quite a bit done today already, and it's still only the afternoon.

My sister moved back to school today, which is a huge reminder of how close the summer is to over. Soon, I'll be back too and having to get back into the swing of things. I'm excited for this semester, but there are always the things I dread too. Actually moving is a huge pain, and one that I dread with a passion. I'll be so happy when that bit is over with. But I do hope that my classes this semester are great and all of that.

School is still a little bit off though. I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm sure there will be plenty of posts about it once it's actually happening, so I'd better not drone on about it already.

As for what's currently happening, this weekend I'm finishing up the first revision of my new fanfiction. I've started looking for betas, and it'll go out to them as soon as I find them. Like I've mentioned before, I'm going to be working on this one until it's ready to go up, and I'm hoping that winds up being before school starts again. But that partially depends on being able to find a beta or two that I'm happy with.

Over on my writing blog, I did an experiment with second person if you're interested. I'm happy with how it turned out actually. It was pretty cool to do, and I'm surprised at how easy it was to write in second person, when I'd never done it with fiction before. I guess blogging and whatnot really helped hone that for me.

Life Post: Science Center With Family

As I write this, I'm pretty exhausted. Most of my day was spent in Louisville with my grandma, some cousins, and a sibling. We went to the Kentucky Science Center, and it was a lot of fun spending time with them. I hadn't seen my cousins who went in months. Honestly, I can't even remember exactly when the last time I saw them was. I think it was their older brother's high school graduation party, which I'm going to go ahead and assume was in May.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun. We ate lunch and then explored the science center for a few hours. With the drive on top of that though, I'm really tired. (Plus I woke up even earlier than necessary to get some stuff done before we went.) My eyes aren't too happy about still being open right now, but I'm hoping I can rest over the weekend. We'll see what happens.

I did the chocolate book tag over on Youtube if you're interested. I actually managed to have some answers that weren't my usual ones, although Harry Potter makes an appearance of course.