{SUMMER WRAP-UP} i'm back + photo dump

HELLO I'M BACK *waves*

I missed you all so much last month! But I did have a blast with my family and just being out and about and living. Taking a blogging break every once in a while is needed :)

Anyway, a TON has happened since I was last blogging, so I'm going to kick off my fall blogging  with a recap of the summer + a billion photos.

MY SUMMER BUCKET LIST:

Hike into Yosemite Valley

Ride some bike trails

Send Found to an editor

Write draft #4 of Outcast

Do a blog makeover

Film a vlog

Learn to drive a stick shift (car)

Watch a sunrise and a sunset in the mountains

See a green flash (at sunset)

Attend Realm Makers

 Do more writing prompts

Take a blogging hiatus

COMPLETED BUCKET LIST

#1 Hike into Yosemite Valley -- completed 8/8

that railing is really unsturdy so I'm silently begging it not to break xD

 My dad and I did this hike together. We planned to park, hike into the Yosemite Valley, then ride the bus back to our car. As you can see in the pic below, the elevation is a little high at the gate. Just a little?

We almost didn't go on the hike because of the amount of smoke in the air. There was a fire nearby, and every time you took a breath, you could smell the smoke. It tinted the sunlight a bit. It was my last week in the mountains though, so it was our only chance to go. Luckily, it cleared out a bit later.

this was just...cool

  Once we got to the highest point of our hike, before the downhill, there were some pretty awesome views.

Half Dome is not supposed to look like that :P #smoke

And then we started to go...down. And down. And down down down down. We later learned that we'd descended over 2000 feet from the top of Yosemite Falls to the valley floor. That's... a lot.

I took these pics with my iPod, so I have NO CLUE how this one came out so gorgeous. But this was the monster we were descending next to.

I'm pretty sure we'd been hiking for over an hour before this view came. We'd started way up at the top of the water

 After two and a half hours, my dad and I finally reached the bottom. My feet were blistered and my knees ached from the rough trail. I intended to take a ton of pics of the valley floor, but all I could do was limp along I could soak my blisters in a stream. ;)

#2 Ride some bike trails - completed 7/6

(This one sounds a bit vague since I don't want to tell the Internet where I spent the summer :P) But I got on some awesome trails and even caught air a few times on the downhills. I'm not an adrenaline junky, but sometimes I can't resist doing something like that xD 

#3 Do a blog makeover - completed 7/1

This makeover was a blast! I love all the feathers and colors and plan on keeping this look for a while <3

#4 Film a vlog - completed 7/11

I had a lot of fun with this! If you haven't seen it yet, here's the link. 

#5 Learn to drive a stick shift - completed 8/6

In classic Audrey style, I got the shifting right the first time, then....

I drove a stickshift for the first time today
I got it right first try
then I stalled the car out 20 times in a row#storyofmylife 😂

— Audrey Caylin (@audrey_caylin) July 25, 2017

BUT I rallied the second time I went out driving, and sort of kind of know how to do it, so I count it as a success. 

#6 Watch a sunrise and a sunset in the mountains -- completed-ish 7/22

I saw a bunch of sunsets, but never got up early enough to watch a sunrise xP I saw a few through my window while I was lying in bed at 6am, but I didn't go out and actually watch the sun rise over the mountains. Oops :P

watching sunsets from here is "a thing" in my town

#7 See a green flash - completed 6/27

Ack, it was so incredible! I didn't get an actual picture of it though because it goes too fast

#8 Attend Realm Makers - completed 7/29

I wrote a whole blog post about it and filled it with photos so I won't add any more here xD

#9 Take a blogging hiatus - completed!

This was originally supposed to be an "Internet hiatus" but I kinda went on the Internet often. ;) I did get re-energized though and did some awesome things with family!

I missed the ocean <3

I have a thing with trees. I just loooove them.

UNCOMPLETED BUCKET LIST

#1 Send Found to an editor - fail

This, um, well...it didn't work. AT ALL. xD Here why:

1) I was too stressed. Editing is impossible to rush.

2) the novel wasn't ready for an editor and I knew it. It was more at the stage of another beta read.

3) there was a...problem. A big silly plot problem. 

Silly problem explained: I was out on the deck editing, and read a certain section that had gotten positive beta reader feedback. It suddenly struck me that the awesome conflict in this scene had nearly nothing to do with the main conflict of the entire book, though it could because the main conflict of the book could be changed (which shouldn't have been able to happen this late in the writing process xP)

And I came to the realization that my novel is needing book surgery.

#2 Write draft 4 of Outcast - fail

This happened because of the above plot problem. It looks like I'm going to need a rewrite, so I can't nail down the conflict of the second book until the first book is finished.

#3 Do more writing prompts - fail-ish

This is a "fail-ish" because I did do writing prompt-ish stuff. I wrote a ton of free verse poetry but didn't actually do any real writing prompts. So...self-explanatory?

RANDOM THINGS

 running outside in the middle of a rainstorm and tilting my face to the sky + posting on Instagram about said-rainstorm

surviving a summer of biking without a crash (though my brother wasn't so lucky :P)

going back to choir after a summer of being away and not missing too many notes

watching La La Land (reaction: AAAHHHH ASDFJKL) and Pride and Prejudice (reaction: EEPPP WHY CAN'T ALL ROMANCES BE LIKE THIS?)

the realization that I'm eligible to get my license next month. help

epically failing to complete my summer TBR (which is why that is not part of this wrap-up)

THINGS TO COME

Mainly the return of my posts every Saturday morning! *confetti* I have some awesome posts planned out for the month that I can't wait to share :D

AND here's the "big writing update" I've been mentioning elsewhere on social media:

I have a new WIP.

I actually mentioned it during my vlog, though that was before I started working on it. The idea came randomly one night in July The thought literally popped into my head with no warning: what if dreams (spoiler)?

Then, even more random: what if my main character was blind, but (spoiler)? and what if she could communicate telepathically with (spoiler)?

A few days later, on Pinterest, I was scrolling through a private board I'd created. Suddenly I figured it could go along with this new novel idea. And in there I found the biggest inspiration for this WIP--a prompt. (which is weird, bc I've never found them very helpful until now xD)

BAM I had a book idea I was dying to write. But I was so busy with Found.... So when I realized I might need to rewrite Found (more on that in my newsletter coming this Tuesday), I decided to put  Found on hold and start on this new WIP that was running away with my imagination.

In short, I have a new WIP you can learn more about on my What I'm Writing page :)

******

THANK YOU for reading this long post. It's great to be back in blogsphere!

<3

audrey caylin

How was your summer? Did you have a bucket list? How is your WIP coming along?