{"id":1735,"date":"2020-02-02T22:30:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T04:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lfsmusings.com\/?p=1735"},"modified":"2020-09-26T17:38:07","modified_gmt":"2020-09-26T22:38:07","slug":"january-2020-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lillyfei.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/02\/january-2020-update\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2020 Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>It&#8217;s about that time for another daily musing. I post these less and less as book reviews and advocacy take up most of my time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As we can all agree, January felt like it lasted about 100 years. I am very happy to be in February and getting on with the year. The days are getting warmer, and I try to spend more time outside. It makes me feel much better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve clicked around the blog, you may have noticed some changes. Mostly organization&#8230; I am hoping the new menu options make it easier for you to navigate and find topics that you need. The biggest changes are in the <a href=\"lfsmusings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/\/category\/books-ive-read\/\">Books I&#8217;ve Read<\/a> tab. I am making more of an effort to categorize my books by genre <em>and <\/em>let you know if they are #ownvoices reads (#ownvoices means books that are about <strong>marginalized groups<\/strong> are written by <strong>authors of that group<\/strong>). After the latest controversy with books and cultural appropriation, I want to make it easier for you all to support marginalized writers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking of writing, I haven&#8217;t updated you on my drafts. Well, <strong>the memoir draft is done. <\/strong>I am taking a break and restructuring it. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;ll attempt to publish it for several years&#8230; basically until more happens in my life because I doubt people want to read a memoir of my 25 years on Earth. When my life took a turn for the worse almost a year ago, I started writing a <strong>contemporary romance<\/strong>. With that draft almost done, I am at a similar stage of restructuring and an initial round of edits. I am letting that sit on the back burner for a while. It is a project that&#8217;s important to me because it let me escape into my ideal world after everything came crashing down, but I see a more urgent need. <strong>A YA fiction featuring a transracial adoptee.<\/strong> Today, I officially started work on my latest book. Growing up, I didn&#8217;t have a book about a TRA by a TRA. I don&#8217;t know if I will ever get to the point of publishing this, but I have to start somewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reading is also in full swing. I&#8217;ve received 4 ARCs (Advanced Readers&#8217; Copies) for #ownvoices work, and I am super thrilled to get to read and review them! I have some contemporary fictions to read as well, so the time blocking and managing my free-time is very helpful right now. I review <em>everything<\/em> at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.goodreads.com\/user\/show\/58069751-lilly-schmaltz\">Goodreads<\/a> (you can also find a link to my Goodreads on all of the blog pages), and I review most books here. There are always some I really felt neutral about and just don&#8217;t want to spend the time posting about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Work is exciting as ever. I&#8217;m back to researching and being a teaching assistant. Lucky for me, I have a team of undergraduates who make my life much easier. I&#8217;m working on getting them to time block so then we can all be organized and efficient. Mentoring has always been a passion of mine, and I am happy I can continue with it at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As 2020 continues, I want to turn this blog into more than just books. As I have mentored, I realize just how much we can gain from learning from each other. I will continue to post reviews and advocacy, but I also want to share some of my day-to-day skills and track how those change over time. I&#8217;ve shared about <a href=\"https:\/\/lfsmusings.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/01\/how-i-balance-life\/\">managing time<\/a> and I have a post about my writing process being posted soon. So, you may be seeing some new topics coming up&#8230; perhaps some thoughts and reviews on some of my absolute favorite products (as an Asian woman, it took me a <em>long time <\/em>to find beauty products that work for me). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Until then, continue taking care of yourself! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s about that time for another daily musing. 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