Alas! I have had two marvellous weeks off life, but it’s back to work this week for me. As the title of this post suggests, all good things must come to an end! Fortunately, I work with some pretty darn awesome people, so it’s not much of a hardship to get back to it with them, but still… *shrugs*… I wouldn’t be normal if I didn’t enjoy holidays! Everyone enjoys holidays! And I have certainly lazed the last two weeks of summer away, let me tell you!

So… What exactly have I done with my time, you ask? Well, I’m not at all ashamed to say that I’ve done pretty much nothing! (Like any good holiday, haha). But if you want just a few specifics… hmm… let’s see…

I’ve read a lot. As in a lot, lot, LOT. As in, I think I’ve devoured 12 books in 15 days. That’s kinda crazy, even for me! But it was amazing. I even managed to re-read The Juliette Chronicles by Tahereh Mafi that I only just read a few months ago and wrote an entire fangirling blog post about (here). I don’t even know why, but I just had to re-read them… They were calling to me. Probably because the current novel I’m working on has the same kind of “mood”, so re-reading them helped me get into my main character’s head, as weird as that sounds. And it was almost as good reading them the second time as it was the first!

In the smorgasbord of book-awesomeness I also managed to read the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. I actually read the first one when it was released in 2012 but I haven’t kept up with two newest additions, and soooo many people have been raving about the third book that recently came out so I thought I’d go back and get into them again. Turns out, I pretty much devoured all three of these books. In one word, this series is EPIC. I totally recommend it/them for anyone who likes anything remotely related to fantasy. Not even YA fantasy—just good, rich, saga-like fantasy. Get into these!

The other books I read were okay, but nothing standout worthy. That said, I also read the hugely “popular” The Coincidence of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen and, to be honest, I’m not sure what all the hoo-ha is about. To me, it was just pretty much like many of the other stock standard New Adult contemporary books out there. Don’t get me wrong—it wasn’t bad… But I just didn’t enjoy it enough (or connect with the main characters enough) that I’d read any more of the series.  I guess I was hoping for something with a little more… substance, especially given how much readers of the genre rave about it. But hey, I love how everyone has different tastes in reading! That’s what keeps things interesting!

Okay, I’ll move on, since I could probably go into all the books I’ve read over the last two weeks and while some of you may enjoy that, the rest of you are already dozing off… So, what else have I been up to?

Well… I may or may not have marathoned two seasons of The Vampire Diaries… *shifty eyes*… Sure, I’m all up to date with the newest season, but I had the craving to “hang with” Damon, Elena, Stefan and co. when they have their adventures with Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah—those seasons (3 and 4) were awesome! And while the offshoot show The Originals was okay in the first season, it hasn’t gripped me as much as TVD.

Speaking of televisions shows, I also got into a new show called Scandal. Those of you in the US may have already seen it (I think it’s up to the fourth season over there) but here in Australia the first season only begins showing on free TV next month. But the first and second seasons are available at the video store, and it was “cheap Tuesday” last week so I rented it—and devoured it! The first season only has eight episodes and at the end I was like, “Oh, come on! You can’t leave it there!” So I’m looking forward to getting my hands on the second season next time I have some free time (so, like, next Christmas holidays, haha).

To combat the laziness of soooo much reading and television watching, I made sure to get out and about in the sun every day, always finding time to exercise (even on Christmas day, though that was mostly so I could eat way too much yummy, yummy holiday food)—and even with the early mornings and SPF50+ sunscreen, I’ve still managed to turn even more golden tanned than I already was. I guess that comes from living in a paradise that’s pretty much directly below a hole in the ozone layer. I could probably get sunburned at midnight if I tried hard enough. (Okay, not really.) The only annoying thing about it is that I’ve ended up with a pretty nasty sock-tan… *awkward face*.

Ooo-oooh, one last really cool thing to note is that I spent a good chunk of time plotting out some of the key elements to my newest novel. I wasn’t going to spend “holiday time” writing or plotting, but in the end I couldn’t help it! I just enjoy it too much so when the urge came upon me, I had to succumb to it! And I’m so glad I did! I’m stoked with some of the foundational ideas that will now help me build the story. Mostly, I’m just happy that I finally figured out where (and when) it’s set—and also the motivations of some of my main characters. But I’ll get into that in another post, since I think character motivation is something I could talk about for ages. So I’ll chat about that soon!

Okay, that’s it then! I have one more official day of “holidays” and then it’s back to all the exciting stuff, especially given that my book is being released in FOUR WEEKS TODAY!!! (That’s February 1st, just FYI). And the book launch is coming up in a month too—which is soooooo beyond amazingly cool that I have no words.

… And with those “no words”, I’ll leave it at that for today! I hope everyone reading this has enjoyed their holidays as much as I have!

Oooh, and let me know if you read any cool books over the break, too!