Goodbye Cruel Summer - Hallo(ween) Sweet October

...This summer has been the pits, my friends. THE PITS 😓 😫.

I know it's customary for me to annoy you with my severe case of summer allergy every year, not to mention, to write posts where I'm embracing the fall with all my might. But every year it feels like the "happy season" is harder and harder for me to endure. It might be part old age creeping in, part summers getting more and more heated and humid and all things EEEEEW and AAAAARGH. Because, if summer of '18 was unrelenting and unforgiving, summer of '19 sure stepped up its game. In between June and July, we had a huge heatwave that lasted around 3 weeks (!!!) - then it rained, so we got a brief respite. But the second heatwave was just around the corner, and the third a few days later. It was hard to sleep properly (especially given my muscular problems - my legs always get crampy and/or achy in the heat) without air conditioning - we and the hubs usually put a big fan at the foot of the bed and make it rotate, but of course it's not much. Lunches and dinners have, more often than not, consisted of cold cuts, canned tuna/spam salads, the quickest things to cook we could come up with...and a few times, even ice cream (and I don't even have a sweet tooth. The hubs does, though...). I couldn't bear the very thought of eating hot meals, let alone COOKING them. And the house, it goes without saying, was a mess. So, basically...it's been a drag 😵.

This would be a live footage of me this summer, if I only were a man and owned a cat...

To top it all, remember my friend and her partner I sometimes mentioned in my tweets? the ones we used to spend the occasional night out and celebrate New Year's Eve with...and the only friends we have left (because we suck at friending, plus my hubs' health problems get in the way)? Well, he's been diagnosed with a brain tumor - and a bad one at that (which also means it's inoperable). He lost his short-term memory on top of that, so...you get the picture. The doctors are treating him with chemo, and he might get better for a while, but whatever they do, I'm afraid he won't last long. It was all so sudden - and he's a kind and considerate guy who doesn't deserve this 😢.

Blog-wise, things have gone well - because of course not having a life + heat + tiredness = staying home and churning out posts. I already had most of September and October scheduled at the beginning of August...plus I enjoyed a buddy read with my friend Carrie during the same month...plus the two of us got Erin Callahan's WIP for beta-read (you remember Erin - the author of The Art of Escaping...and the one I've been collaborating with for a while as a beta-reader. She's working on a killer contemporary-horror NA - pun intended 😁 - with queer characters, including an ace lead!). I also finally joined NetGalley and downloaded my first novel (a Read Now one, of course, since with my small, small following, I didn't dare to request anything yet, though I did wish for a few books. Can't hurt). I hate the fact that you can't keep your ebooks...that's the main reason why I didn't join NG until this summer. But I had to face the fact that I hadn't reviewed a new book (let alone an ARC) since Curiosity Quills Press went out of business at the end of last year...plus I'm too broken to take a gamble on all the books I'd like to read (as in, by buying them)...plus I reasoned that I can always buy the NG books later if I end up liking them enough. So, my first NG review will go live on Sep. 29th! Plus, lo and behold...a few weeks after, I finally mustered the courage to actually REQUEST a book from there, and to my astonishment, I got approved the day after! And I found another Read Now book from an author I was familiar with, so I snatched that one too LOL. Then I went wild and requested another book that I was sure I would be denied (the publisher's approval requirements were intimidating to say the least, plus remember I still had ZERO ratio) and...I got approved for that one too?! 😮 More of that soon!

On a side note, I started reaching out to more bloggers and making new friends. Most of those things were made easier by my boss going on holiday for three weeks in August as usual (and from Aug 12th to 18th, I got a holiday week too). I would just crank up the A/C at work and blog/read/interact like there was no tomorrow! It serves my boss well for all the crap he puts me through...and for not paying me enough 😠. [Note: I have a job update as well, but this thing is getting long, so...later].

Sorry, I usually try to keep the place clean, so to speak - but I couldn't help myself. Here's to you, boss.

Oh, and...remember that adult sci-fi book that I tried to order twice for my Christmas hauls, and my webseller was never able to locate? Man in the Empty Suit by Sean Ferrell? Well, I won a giveaway (my second this year!) offered by one of the most recent additions to my blogroll, The Orangutan Librarian. So I decided to claim that book as a prize, and I finally got to read it! It even was as great as I hoped, go figure. Thank you again Rivka!

Finally, my friend and fellow David Tennant adorer Fanni asked me for help with deciding which of her works-in-progress she should submit to a literary contest. It was like beta-reading at a different level, and I hope I was able to counsel her wisely! I also hope she wins of course, so she can dedicate her first published book to yours truly 😂.

...So, that's it for the time being. Right now I'm just relieved that I put the summer behind me, and I'm looking forward to breathing/sleeping/eating properly again (which has been happening already since the first days of the month, to be honest...though I already caught the first throat-ache of the season, which is the only real downfall of not-summer for me, and a BIG one). Plus I already have my Halloween post series scheduled, 2018-style (that is, I'm reviewing a dark/creepy book a week just like I did last year). I can't wait for you to meet my monsters! 😂

How has this summer treated you? Are you looking forward to the fall (and Halloween)?