2019 – November – What I Spend in a Month in Seattle

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

I only have three non-changeable living expenses per month: Rent at $700, car insurance at $145, and my phone bill that is usually around $150 but was discounted for this month. This comes out to $995/month or $248.75/week.

I have monthly discretionary expenses that could be reduced in the future: $393/month or $98.25/week

  1. Financial education at $150/month
  2. Massage from Hand & Stone at $69.95/month plus tip (I already canceled my membership and will only be getting occasional massages next year)
  3. Supplements at around $130/month
  4. Patreon support at $20/month
  5. Entertainment at $23.05/month for AMC A-list membership

After canceling my massage membership and finishing up my financial education, next year I will be spending $173.05/month or $43.26/week

I have monthly discretionary expenses that vary:

  1. Gas for the car (I budget $100/month and the range is $25 – $202 per month)
  2. Maintenance on the car (usually twice/year there is maintenance done on the car and I budget $100/month for those costs. The next car maintenance at 40k miles will cost $1500 so I will have to increase my budget to accommodate this expense.)
  3. Transportation (includes Good to Go, Uber/Lyft, etc that I budget $25/month)
  4. Food from the grocery store (varies from $220 to $595 per month and averaged $398/month or $94/week. I budgeted $250/month for next year or $62.50/week)
  5. Food from eating out (Ranged from $154 – $890 per month and averaged $350/month or $82/week. I budgeted $150/month for next year or $37.50/week)
  6. Gifts (I budget $100/month and this includes shipping costs, games, and gift cards)

I have expenses that come up every so often that aren’t always monthly

  1. Travel (I spent $2618 this year on travel related expenses, equal to $218/month or $51/week. I traveled to Florida and Disneyland in 2019. I budgeted $100/month in 2020 for this category of spending.
  2. Housing and consumables (I spent $371 this year on clothing and household items which is equal to $31/month or $7/week. I budgeted $25/month in 2020 for this category of spending)
  3. Writing (I spent $241 last year on writing-related expenses, which is equal to $20/month or $5/week. I budgeted $75/month in 2020 for this category of spending because I want to go to the Romance Writer’s Conference in the area next year).
  4. Dance and fitness (I spent $579.45 total this year, to equal $48.29/month or $11.14/week even though I budget $100/month. I budgeted only $75/month for this category of spending in 2020. )
  5. Taxes and tax prep (Since I have my own side business, I have to pay quarterly taxes and pay for additional tax preparation help every year)

Here is the breakdown of everything I spent in the month of November:

Date Purchase Category Amount Day
11/3/2019 Kitchen Istanbul restaurant Food – eating out -$52.00 Sunday
11/4/2019 Patreon: PSGR, Ksenia Anske, Katie Wismer Charity/Art Support -$15.00 Monday
11/6/2019 Imperfect Foods Grocery Delivery Food – groceries -$25.75 Wednesday
11/7/2019 Hand & Stone Massage Health -$69.95 Thursday
11/8/2019 BIBI Mediterranean restaurant Food – eating out -$41.15 Friday
11/8/2019 QFC Grocery Store Food – groceries -$38.27 Friday
11/8/2019 The UPS store Gifts -$48.13 Friday
11/12/2019 NaNoWriMo Donation Charity/Art Support -$30.00 Tuesday
11/12/2019 AMC movie theatre popcorn Food – eating out -$10.54 Tuesday
11/12/2019 Trader Joe’s Grocery Store Food – groceries -$5.99 Tuesday
11/12/2019 Supplements Health -$90.77 Tuesday
11/13/2019 Pizza week Seattle pizza slices Food – eating out -$10.00 Wednesday
11/13/2019 Grocery Outlet Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.94 Wednesday
11/15/2019 Gas from Costco Car Gas -$36.65 Friday
11/15/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -$30.99 Friday
11/19/2019 AMC movie theatre concessions Food – eating out -6.92 Tuesday
11/20/2019 Imperfect Foods Grocery Delivery Food – groceries -36.51 Wednesday
11/20/2019 GROCERY OUTLET Grocery Store Food – groceries -17.42 Wednesday
11/21/2019 IJ Sushi Burrito restaurant at the mall Food – eating out -27.7 Thursday
11/22/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -63.7 Friday
11/22/2019 TMOBILE*AUTO PAY 800-937-8997 WA Phone -18.68 Friday
11/24/2019 AMC movie theatre concessions Food – eating out -3.62 Sunday
11/25/2019 Safeway Grocery Store Food – groceries -$66.65 Monday
11/25/2019 Bartell Drug Grocery Store Food – groceries -$4.99 Monday
11/26/2019 Auto insurance Car Insurance -145.12 Tuesday
11/26/2019 Financial Coach Education -$150.00 Tuesday
11/26/2019 Pagliacci pizza restaurant Food – eating out -$28.61 Tuesday
11/27/2019 Gas from Costco Car Gas -$17.01 Wednesday
11/27/2019 AMC A-list Entertainment -$23.05 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Whole Foods Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.33 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Trader Joe’s Grocery Store Food – groceries -$8.97 Wednesday
11/27/2019 Wa Secretary Of State LLC application Side Hustle Expenses -$200.00 Wednesday
11/29/2019 Holly Jolly Market tacos food truck Food – eating out -$16.00 Friday
11/29/2019 Local Market: lip balm, candle, scrub Housing/Consumables -$28.00 Friday
11/29/2019 Amzn Digital book purchase for review Writing -$11.00 Friday
11/30/2019 Rent payment Rent -$700.00 Saturday

My typical monthly spending will not include a payment to the WA secretary of state as this was a one-time expense. Future monthly spending will not include the $69.95 for a massage. I might have more expenses related to transportation, fitness, and gifts. I am working to reduce my monthly spending on food. I combine the category for housing and consumables and this category includes clothing, personal hygiene, laundry soap, etc. I’m able to keep these expenses close to $0 because I earn gift cards throughout the year that I can use to purchase these items.

2019 November Goals – Accountability, Check in, and 2020 Budget

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Zero-Waste

I have a lot of household items to gift and sell and I’m slowly working through that pile. I was very happy to gift out half my jar collection so they can live another life before eventually being recycled. I went through all my remaining junk mail from the past two months and tried to get onto the do not mail lists for all of them. We receive so much junk mailing at this rental address!

Fitness

I’m ready to tackle another fitness challenge for the month of December after a very light November. I was thinking of adding in a daily focused workout that would be the same every Monday but different day-to-day. For instance I would do abs on Monday, squats on Tuesday, etc.

Here are my fitness stats for the month:

  1. Biking: 0 miles
  2. Pole classes: 3
  3. PSO volunteer: 1 shift as pole cleaner

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,480 Anki cards. I’ve done 6,698 reviews. I have spent 6:49:08 reviewing with an average of 53 reviews per day. My grade is 71% C (same as last month).

I’m almost finished with Rosetta Stone! Unit 12 is much more difficult than the other units and I still have 6/39 left to complete. Then I’m moving on to my Memrise subscription.

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’ve been tracking my spending and savings closely since November of 2018. I’m automating my money flow and prioritizing how I spend my money and where it goes. See this helpful post and chart from Reddit on how to prioritize spending your money:

How to prioritize spending your money – a flowchart (redesigned)
byu/atlasvoid inpersonalfinance

I created my monthly and yearly budget for 2020 this month which I will probably share in my year-end financial breakdown. I also wrote down my financial goals:

Daily financial goals:

  •  To love what I buy and buy what I love

1-year financial goals:

  • Max out my Roth IRA, 401k, and HSA
  • Save and invest at least 50% of my income
  • Have 6-months living expenses worth of emergency savings

10-year financial goals:

  • Be a millionaire in combined assets, cash, retirement funds

I read a really good step-by-step finances book that I recommend:

I absolutely love making, saving, organizing, and talking about finances. How is your budgeting and money tracking going?

Writing

I spent time every day until I hit 50k words this month writing for National Novel Writing Month. I even hosted write-ins on Mondays. I still have several chapters left to write in this draft and then I’ll probably switch gears and work on another project.

Don’t forget to come visit me this December at the following events:

12/07 at the Si View Holiday Bazaar in xx from 12PM – 4PM.

12/14 at the Artisan’s Holiday Faire at the Monroe Fairgrounds from 12:30PM – 4PM.

 

I made pies this year!

A pumpkin (both GF and regular flour) and an apple (both GF and regular flour).

I have seen more and more mushrooms out during my dog walks…

 

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Here is my June goal check in blog post!

Here is my July goal check in blog post!

Here is my August goal check in blog post!

Here is my September goal check in blog post!

Here is my October goal check in blog post!

Local Event Alert! Holly Jolly Holiday Market in Snohomish, WA 11/29/19

by in Local Authors, Local Events, Rachel Barnard and tagged , ,

My first event this winter! Come see me and over 100 other vendors at the Holly Jolly Holiday Market in Snohomish!

Come support your favorite local vendors, businesses and food trucks for this great FREE event on Black Friday, November 29th, 2019 and Small Business Saturday, November 30th, 2019.

Featuring more than 125 vendors! This is a great place to start your holiday shopping and support your local community by buying local instead at large national chain stores! Many vendors will be offering great sales!

We will have food and espresso trucks on site as well.

Santa will also be making an appearance on Saturday (more info!)

Book Review: Barbara and the Rage Brigade by Karen Eisenbrey

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors and tagged , ,

Barbara and the Rage Brigade by Karen Eisenbrey

A Young Adult novel published by Not a Pipe Publishing (11/19/2019)

Summary:

Barbara had it all at the end of high school: a band, a group of friends, and her super cool superpowers. Now, her friends have left town for college and the band can’t practice without all the members. Barbara still has her superpowers at least but she’ll have to find her confidence again to make new friends. She’ll need all the help she can get when facing a new adversary in town.

Keywords:

Music, Band, Girl Band, Punk, Rock, Teenagers, High School, Superpowers, Garage Band, Invisible, Bully, Introverted, Church, Singing, Costume, Anxiety Driving School, Relationships, Friendships, Holidays

My Review:

Like the first book in this series, I read Barbara and the Rage Brigade from start to finish in almost one sitting. It is a very engaging story with interesting characters that is written in a mesmerizing writing style. This book is, in one word, polished.

This second book was more predictable than the first, but in the best of ways. The author even managed to pull off a complete happy ending, which is hard to do when some of the characters are villainous and even downright evil. I really, really enjoy reading about positive transformations, even when it appears hopeless.

I liked how the magic of book one expanded into a larger world of magic in this second book. More people had more powers and they were very interesting and imaginative powers. I would love to see how this magic develops even further and spreads out into the world even more with the next book.

Barbara is the sole narrator in this book and she grows into her superpowers even more. I really liked Barbara as the narrator. I especially loved everything to do with the anxiety driving school. Even though Barbara is often anxious around others, she seems to meet quite a few of them in the course of this novel. Each person she meets is unique and well developed.

My only critique is for the formatting. I’m not sure what is typical for formatting texts in a novel, but I am a very fast reader and was confused and had to slow down to read the message tags so that I knew who was texting. I wish the initials had been full first names instead, akin to dialogue tags.

This novel was published by Not a Pipe Publishing 11/19/2019 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 5.0

 

Links for more information:

Karen Eisenbrey’s Website

2019 October Goals – Accountability, Check in, and $$$

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Zero-Waste

I’m going to table this goal for now as I haven’t made many changes in the last several months. I continue to reduce my waste and be more conscious of my purchases, my buying power, and footprint.

Fitness

October has been a cold month. Every year I forget how cold I get during fall/winter season. I still walk dogs every Monday – Thursday for 30 minutes/day and get quite a few steps in during the week in addition.

Here are my fitness stats for the month:

  1. Biking: 5 miles
  2. Pole classes: 5
  3. Thriller dress rehearsal: 1

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,437 Anki cards. I’ve done 6,647 reviews. I have spent 6:46:56 reviewing with an average of 53 reviews per day. My grade is 71% C (same as last month). I have definitely been slacking on my daily reviews and will have to figure out a way to review them at the same time every day so I can make it a habit again. The good news is that I finished Unit 11 in my Rosetta Stone on time! Woot woot! I now have one unit left in my Rosetta Stone before I switch to using Memrise. Potentially I had this idea that I could have my partner (who is from Turkey and fluent in Turkish) only use simple Turkish in January or to speak in Turklish to me. He may not agree to this or remember to do it though…

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I’ve been tracking my spending and savings closely since November of 2018. Recently I’ve tried out a couple of budgeting methods/trackers and have found one that is similar to my spreadsheet style – Tiller. It links your banks and credit cards that push data to your budget tracking spreadsheet. You can input categories of spending and delete what you don’t want and add what you do want. My categories for bills include the following:

  1. Rent
  2. Phone (including my actual phone bill and any ‘itunes’ money spent for apps). I recently purchased a $50 gift card for itunes from my credit card rewards points to put toward these expenses, especially my monthly cloud storage bill of $2.99/month)
  3. Car gas
  4. Car insurance
  5. Car maintenance and legal
  6. Car – transport – misc (such as parking, tolls, ride shares and anything transportation related -not including travel- that doesn’t fit into the other car categories)

I have deemed my other monthly ‘bills’ as living expenses

  1. Health (some of which can be reimbursed through HSA) and I made the decision to cancel my monthly massage membership at $69.99 + $15 tip each month as it wasn’t making me as happy as it used to and now I can save that money and occasionally get massages without the pressure to get them monthly.
  2. Food – eating out
  3. Food – groceries
  4. subscriptions/memberships not covered under other categories such as my Costco membership (but I may collapse this category as AAA membership falls into car misc. and my WordPress hosting falls under writing. Perhaps my Costco membership falls under food – groceries?

I have labeled all my other expenses as Discretionary (if I needed to cut spending this is the category I would go to first and then reduce my spending in the living categories)

  1. Travel
  2. Housing/consumables (this is where I put spending like toilet paper, laundry detergent, toothpaste, as well as clothing)
  3. Dance and fitness
  4. Writing
  5. Charity/art support
  6. Entertainment
  7. Education
  8. Gifts (giving money directly and buying useful and loved gifts for others makes me happy and I decided that I would put it into my budget)
  9. Misc. (there are always items that cannot be categorized adequately like raffle tickets)

I have several categories for work that are both income and expenses

  1. Primary income from my day job
  2. Mystery shopping reimbursement that usually has additional money as payment
  3. Work-related reimbursements
  4. Other income (from side hustles)
  5. Mystery shopping (expense)
  6. Work-related expenses (expense)

I’ve opened a high-yield savings account and placed my emergency funds as well as my short term savings goals (Travel, New Car, New Computer, and New Phone, stock options that expire within 3 years) into that account and plan to automatically transfer certain amounts into each goal every month. I’m still working on the automation part but I have all my goals (between Betterment and my new Savings account) configured and dumped my initial starting amounts in those goals.

I am going to open my own 401k and fund it fully as well as my Roth IRA for 2019 if I can manage it with all my savings for the year. The max contribution for a 401k is $16,000 and the max contribution for my Roth IRA is $6000.

For the month of October I had quite a few side jobs and earned a lot of extra income in addition to my monthly primary income paycheck. I spent 56% of my primary income and 36% of my overall income for the month.

I absolutely love making, saving, organizing, and talking about finances. How is your budgeting and money tracking going?

Writing

Happy NaNoWriMo aka National Novel Writing Month. I plan to participate, win, and eventually finish the first draft of the second novel in my Romance Writers Series. This second book features a pole dancer and I’m very excited to share my knowledge and love of this hobby/sport/profession/passion/creative outlet. Dancing makes me very, very happy and I’ve taking pole dancing classes since 2014. If you happen to be in the Seattle area this weekend and are at all interested, you can go to Pole Sport Organization’s Seattle competition!

I’ve been working September to craft a useful outline and I’ve done the most thorough job I’ve ever done with an outline. Though I haven’t really written in two years, I’m very excited to get back into the habit.

Don’t forget to come visit me at the end of November!

11/29 at the Holly Jolly Holiday Market at Thomas Family Farm in Snohomish in the morning.

Thrill the World! I’ve participated since 2015. Every year I’ve been Zombie Waldo – with various accessories and different makeup. See if you can spot me in this year’s video.

My partner and I did something new this month and had mixed feelings on the event. We went to a Harry Potter themed pub crawl!

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Here is my June goal check in blog post!

Here is my July goal check in blog post!

Here is my August goal check in blog post!

Here is my September goal check in blog post!

Book Review: Prose Before Bros (Green Valley Library Book 3) by Cathy Yardley

by in Book Review and tagged , ,

Prose Before Bros (Green Valley Library Book 3) by Cathy Yardley

A Romance published by Amazon Digital Publishing (11/05/19)

Summary:

Thuy Nguyen is fully supportive of her best friend, Maddy… Even when Maddy returns to her childhood small town to become a farmer whilst pregnant and no baby-daddy insight. Small towns can be very judgmental and the local biker gang is no exception. It isn’t just the biker gang that harasses Maddy and Thuy, but one in particular is keen to bump into the duo of women. Maddy’s brother is a loyal member of the biker gang and he will have to decide between helping his sister or staying with his biker family. And Maddy can’t keep her eyes off of him but she knows intimately how impossible and dangerous a relationship with a biker can be.

Keywords:

Multicultural, Interracial, Library, Small Town, South, Romance, Contemporary, Motorcycle Club, Gang, Money, Inheritance, Siblings, Family, Love, Sex, Danger, Redemption, Loyalty, Fighting, Violence

My Review:

I absolutely loved the fact that Thuy is a librarian and has a great love for books, reading, and introducing others to the world of literature. I especially enjoyed the parts involving her talking about her love of books, how reading influenced her childhood (in a good way) and how she values those who value reading and books. The scene with Thuy talking to Drill about books was hilarious and even though his reaction seemed too good to be true, it was such fun to watch them bond over reading.

Thuy may seem like an innocuous librarian, but she is full of solid backstory and backbone. She is sweet and kind yet fierce and loyal. I loved how protective she was of Maddy and how close the two of them are in their relationship. I like how their friendship is such a strong bond. They are family. They support each other and don’t doubt the success of each other. I would have tried to dissuade Maddy from running a farm, but Thuy is with her best friend 100% on her decisions and is willing to learn how to be a farmer. She’s willing to give up her old life, her old job, her old way of doing things to be with Maddy through thick and thin.

I had to warm up to Drill. Just like it took time to warm up to that name, it took time to warm up to him as a character. A lot was stacked against him. Being part of a notoriously violent gang that doesn’t allow its members to talk to their ‘former’ family just seems childish. They have questionable morals but Drill proves that he’s ready to live a life less violent. He shows Thuy, his sister, and his MC family that he has changed over the years and I really liked seeing his transformation.

I was really worried that the ending couldn’t live up to the buildup and climax, but I was pleasantly surprised by the twist – which seemed obvious afterwards – and I was not let down at all. The resolution was very satisfying.

This novel was published by Amazon Digital Publishing on 11/05/2019 and is available on Amazon here.

TL;DR Star Rating: 5.0

Links for more information:

Goodreads

Cathy Yardley’s Website

2019 September Goals – Accountability, Check in, and the Big Disneyland Vacation

by in Rachel Barnard and tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Zero-Waste

I’ve lost a lot of steam on the zero-waste front.

Fitness

September was a slow month. I was prepping to go on vacation. I went on vacation. I got sick after vacation. The month ended.

Here are my fitness stats for the month:

  1. Biking: 15.2 miles
  2. Pole classes: 1

Turkish language progress:

I now have 1,347 Anki cards. I’ve done 6,406 reviews. I have spent 6:35:48 reviewing with an average of 53 reviews per day. My grade is 71% C.

I’m behind again on my Rosetta Stone… I’m trying to finish Unit 10 this first week in October. I fell behind due to a vacation that lasted 1/3 of the month.

I’ve decided to focus only on the Rosetta Stone Units until I finish (there are only 12), while continuing to input my vocabulary into Anki and reviewing daily. When I finish Rosetta Stone I will begin my Memrise in earnest!

My main goal for the year was to save as much money as possible! I have been working the last few weeks with a financial coach. I decided to move most of my money into a Betterment account instead of working with an investing company. I am taking charge of my money, my savings, and my retirement.

Here are my goals in Betterment:

  1. Main retirement with my Roth IRA (already $16,000 in the fund and 30% funded for the year). Here is some info about the growth of my IRA according to my age and the amount I would potentially fund each year. In order to contribute the max $6000 each year to this IRA, I will budget $500 to come out of my monthly income starting January of 2020. Before the end of 2019 I plan to take $4000 out of my savings and put it directly into the IRA in order to max out my contribution allowance for 2019.

2. General investing… This is for any leftover income from the month I didn’t factor into my budget. I plan to grow this pot of money for many years.

3. Safety Net… This is a fund I want to build out to 6 months’ worth of living expenses ($12,000 with my current spending habits).

4. New Home… Eventually I want the option of purchasing a home and this would be the down payment. I plan to contribute $70,000 over the course of 10 years.

5. Care for Parents… Just in case… I plan to contribute $70,000 over the course of 10 years.

6. Travel… I plan to save $2000 for travel in a year.

7. New Phone… My current iPhone Xs (which I absolutely love) is one year old and I plan to have enough funds to purchase a new phone for around $900 in a year. I don’t expect to purchase a phone in one year, but I want        to have the funds available should I need to buy a new one or have the inclination when the new models come out next September.

8. New Computer… I use two desktop computers and they are both over 4 years old. My laptop was a refurbished Surface Pro that I got over 5 years ago. All three of these devices have started to show signs of aging and eventually I would like to purchase a high end laptop that I can connect to my wonderful dual monitors. I plan to save $1200 in one year. I will probably only buy a new computer when my laptop no longer works sufficiently (the battery still lasts 5 solid hours now). I will probably continue saving every month until I actually buy a new computer.

9. New Car… I sold my car last month. My partner and I are sharing his VW GTI – which has everything I want in a car: reliability and seat heaters. Joking aside, we eventually might want or need two cars again or to replace his car so I’m saving $12,000 over the course of two years .

10. My final goal is to purchase the equity I have in the company I work for. The equity I own has various purchase prices and deadlines but I made a goal of saving $23,681 over the course of 3 years to purchase the first stocks that would expire.

My savings plans for all the above goals involve saving and contributing the full amounts, but I hope my money will work with me and generate additional interest on top of my contributions so my money will go farther when I’m ready to pull it out and spend it. I will also re-evaluate these goals every few months. My 11th financial goal is to get my savings to work for me as well and to open a high yield interest savings account and put the rest of my ‘cash’ money into it.

In case you were wondering what I actually spent in September… Here are the stats: I spent 59% of my day job income and 49% of my income overall for the month of September. I was surprised that I was able to earn as much side income during this month as I did since I was out of state and on vacation for 10 days. I made a few changes to my monthly budgeting. I thought it was prudent to make a new category for “education” expenses as well as “gifts.” This reduced the amount of miscellaneous expenses I couldn’t fit into other categories.

Want to know where I am under budget for the year? Writing, Clothing (not a category anymore as I collapsed it into ‘household’), Health, Fitness, Education, Groceries, Household, Travel, Entertainment, Car, Housing, Phone, Misc, Charity. There are still three months in the year left to go though! More importantly, here are the categories I’m already over budget on: Eating Out and Gifts.

Writing

I signed up for three sales events for 2019:

11/29 at the Holly Jolly Holiday Market at Thomas Family Farm in Snohomish in the morning.

12/7 at the Si View Holiday Bazaar in the afternoon.

12/14 at the Artisan’s Holiday Faire in the Monroe Fairgrounds starting midday.

Will I ever actual get to writing? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll rustle up some time and motivation for NaNo this year. I do want to finish my contemporary romance book (and eventually series) that is already started.

Disneyland!

I spent quite a few hours preparing for our big Disneyland vacation this year and it went really well! I’ll leave a few of my favorite photos here. If you are planning to go, make sure you get a reservation at Oga’s Cantina, ride in the front of every roller coaster you can (especially the ones with pictures), go back at night and during the day to Guardian’s of the Galaxy in DCA, and get the mint julep and beignets from the Julep Bar.

What are your goals and how are you meeting them this month?

Here is my January goal check in blog post!

Here is my February goal check in blog post!

Here is my March goal check in blog post!

Here is my April goal check in blog post!

Here is my May goal check in blog post!

Here is my June goal check in blog post!

Here is my July goal check in blog post!

Here is my August goal check in blog post!

Book Review: Snow in Vietnam: A Novel by Amy M. Le

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors and tagged , , ,

Snow in Vietnam: A Novel by Amy M. Le

A Historical Fiction novel published by Amazon Digital Services (05/24/2019)

Summary:

Snow is the youngest of seven children growing up in Vietnam during a time of war. Life isn’t always certain. The future isn’t always certain. Snow agrees to marry a Vietnamese man even though she pines for an American G.I. She gives birth to sick child with a heart problem. America could be her daughter’s chance to live and Snow’s chance for freedom. Vietnam is uncertain in times of unification but every time Snow gathers enough resources to leave, another tragedy forces her to prolong her escape.

Keywords:

Love, Family, Survival, Hope, Politics, War, Vietnam, Mother, Struggle, Historical, Women’s Fiction, Trust, Strength, Fear, Uncertainty, Freedom

My Review:

This book was gritty and raw. I didn’t always understand why Snow treated her daughter or family like she did at times, but I felt like I was looking into the life of a real person. Snow felt like a completely genuine person, flaws and all. Snow was the essence of bravery and determination. Her goal to escape with her daughter was always in her mind and always in her actions. But family and tragedy kept getting in the way. I loved how close knit family is portrayed in this book. The characters in this book would do anything for family – to honor them, to love them, to provide for them, to give them a chance for a better life.

The love story in this novel was cleverly wound around the war-torn country and its effects on Snow’s family. The mystery surrounding her G.I. will keep you guessing as to where he is. The book was sad yet compelling because Snow had the strength to continue to adapt and survive and care for her sick daughter. If she can live and prosper and love under those conditions, then anything is possible.

This novel was published by Amazon Digital Services 05/24/2019 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 4.50

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads

Amy M Le’s Website

Book Review: The Gospel According to St. Rage by Karen Eisenbrey

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors and tagged , ,

The Gospel According to St. Rage by Karen Eisenbrey

A Young Adult novel published by Not a Pipe Publishing (08/20/2019)

Summary:

Barbara Bensen doesn’t want to be invisible anymore. She’s ready to be seen. She wants to form an all-girl punk rock band but doesn’t know who to ask or how to ask them. Then she meets Jackson, charismatic and popular, and he introduces her to the first member of the future band. But Barbara isn’t the only one on the fringes outside of popularity who wants to be seen.

Keywords:

Music, Band, Girl Band, Punk, Rock, Teenagers, High School, Superpowers, Garage Band, Invisible, Bully, Introverted

My Review:

I absolutely adored Barbara’s inner commentary about herself and the world. She’s bleak and yet hopeful at the same time. She is the perfect blend of quirky and shy. She is the underdog I immediately root for. Her goal is to be seen. Her dream is to be in an all-girl rock band. I know what she wants and I’m right there with her wanting her to get everything she hopes for and more. We are all losers sometimes. Barbara’s story and her description of high school reminded me all too well of my own time as a shy girl in school.

I was at first shocked when Barbara wasn’t the only narrator in this story, but I really liked getting the perspective of the other students and members of the band. I loved how distinct each voice was and how each person had their own look, personality, and set of unique problems. I loved seeing the characters grow as the novel progressed.

I’m not a huge music person, but I really enjoyed all the nuances of starting a band and holding practices and performing. I could feel the band’s excitement when they were on stage and I was right there with them.

I’m not quite sure how I feel about the supernatural element in this book as it seems to fit perfectly with Barbara and her teenage dramas, but them seems at odds with the very realistic contemporary setting. I’m not sure the story was improved by including this element of fiction, but I’m also not sure that it detracts at all from the story either. The plot was complex enough to where the fantastical element was not necessary but I’m interested to see where the author takes it in the sequel.

This novel was published by Not a Pipe Publishing 08/20/2019 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 5.0

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads

Karen Eisenbrey’s Website

Book Review: Santiago’s In Trouble by Victoria Bastedo

by in Author Tuesdays, Book Review, Free Valley Publishing, Local Authors and tagged , , , ,

Santiago’s In Trouble by Victoria Bastedo

A Mystery Romance novel published by Amazon Digital Services (08/08/2019)

Summary:

“Santiago is where adventure meets truth and superheroes come to the aid of the homeless. Santiago, in a way, is my life here in Seattle.”

Jacoby lives a normal life. He works the night shift as a guard. He helps out with a local Christian group. But soon his calm life will be thrown into chaos when a mysterious letter shows up claiming something about an inheritance, the lady upstairs is in trouble and needs his help, and a stranger keeps calling him racist names. What is going on and how will Jacoby respond to the accusations against his family, his upbringing, and his ethnicity?

Keywords:

Romance, Friendship, Sleuth, Mystery, Seattle, Queen Anne, Superhero, Humor, Adventure, Racism, Inheritance, Family, Brothers

My Review:

This is the ninth book I’ve ready by Victoria Bastedo and every book has been better than the last. Every book set in Seattle (Mini-Droids and Tea, Black Poodle Over Seven Hills) has been utterly enchanting. This book in particular, and the other books set in Seattle, very much reminds me of the charm, ease of reading, and mystery of Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple.

This book was a simple, meet-cute novel full of witty dialogue set against the lovely hills of Seattle’s Queen Anne and the surrounding neighborhoods. Santiago’s in Trouble was a charming fast read with a well-developed mystery surrounding the main character: Jacoby.

I loved the fact that Vivienne was a writer and placed herself into troubling situations in order to fully understand her female sleuth heroine: Santiago.

This book was centered more on Jacoby and his mystery and life than on Vivienne. This book also features strong Christian ties, though it works with the characters and the situations. The book itself is a sweet romance and does not go any further than gentle hinting at sex.

I absolutely enjoyed all the scenes and dialogue that included Jacoby’s cousin.

There were moments where I yelled at Jacoby for not being more interested or invested in the “mysterious inheritance.” Sometimes I wonder if there really are people out there who wouldn’t be curious about an inheritance.

This novel was published by Amazon Digital Services 08/08/2019 and is available on Amazon here.

TLDR Star Rating: 4.75

 

Links for more information:

Goodreads

FreeValleyPublishing

SnoValleyHobbit

Victoria Bastedo WordPress