Happy new year, my friends! And what a start to the year it has been. I've gone all in on writing, leaving behind my full time job in Student Affairs to try and build my writing career. It has been exhilarating and terrifying and overwhelming, to say the least.

I'm mostly in the learning phase at this point, doing research and poking around to see what's out there. In the meantime, I'm continuing to write on Your Book Friend and Medium. Here are the highlights from January:

• Someone stole my credit cards during our vacation, and I wrote about how I can't stop asking questions

• National Pizza Week happened, and a pizza lover like me couldn't resist spending a little time reflecting on the pizzas of my life.

• As I prepare to live a life that looks super different from the past few years, I'm musing on the difficulty of change and adapting to it

• The Amanda Reads newsletter is BACK with weekly tarot readings, book recommendations, and some words from the web! You can subscribe for free.

• While my husband was away on a business trip, I decided to scare myself by watching an entire season of Only Murders in the Building

• As I do every month, I looked back on the best books I read in January 2023.

As always, thank you for supporting my work in whatever ways you're able!

Happy December, my friends. It's hard to believe we've reached the final month of 2022, and yet, here we are. November continued the theme of being incredibly busy at the day job, and I've also been navigating a chronic condition flare-up. Yet, somehow, it remained a decently productive writing month, if I do say so myself.

Here's a recap of some of the words I put out onto the web last month, for your reading pleasure.

• I started a new weekly column on my book blog, Your Book Friend. It's called Book News Corner, and it's a space where I round up a few interesting book-related news stories from the week and give a little commentary. I've really been enjoying it so far. You can check out the intro post here.

• After a bit of a hiatus, I came back to my weekly Tarot Tuesday column, where I draw a card and provide a mini-reading, plus some journal reflection prompts.

• Personal essays are back! I wrote nothing but book blog content for all of October, so it felt good to stretch my essay muscles and reflect on the fact that I never really thought of my first chronic condition as anything outside of the normal, because I've had IBS my entire life. You can check out "The Truth Is, I've Always Been a Bit Chronically Ill" in Invisible Illness.

• Plenty of bookish goodness went up on the book blog, but I'm particuarly pleased with my first-ever holiday shopping guide!

That's about it for November, book friends. There will be some fun updates (hopefully) for December, as I've got a few things in the works that I can't share just yet.

As always, thank you for supporting my work!

September was an incredibly busy month at the day job, yet somehow, also a pretty prolific writing month. I finally felt the tug to write some personal essays and even try my hand at a little humor after a few months of feeling wrung out and mainly writing about books.

It helps that I've started to go out into the world and do things that might inspire said personal essays again, I think. Here's what I put out in September:

• I started a new Tarot Tuesdays series on my self-care blog, Running Into Joy. I reflect on the meaning of a particular card each week and give you some journal prompts based on its message.

• At the Rennaissance Festival this year, I got to meet some hawks. This prompted reflection on my teenage hawk girl years.

• My car broke down in the middle of a tunnel last week, which naturally sparked the need to write my way through it. The feelings, not the tunnel. Some guys in a truck pushed me out of there.

• While browsing my Google recommended articles, I began to wonder what someone would think of me if this was all they knew. Then I decided to channel Google's impressions of me for what may be my funniest piece to date.

• Plenty of bookish goodness continues over at Your Book Friend, including several book reviews and the usual weekly content. I'm going to post there once a day in October if all goes according to plan.

Those are the highlights of September! Thank you, as always, for being here and for supporting my work. I hope you enjoy what I've put out this month!

August is a dark time for me as an introvert who works in Student Affairs. Orientation is a lot of sudden socialization after the quiet of summer, and it rolls right into the start of the semester with nary a day to recharge. As much as I love meeting our incoming students and feeling that start of the year energy, I also very much love the first day where I don't have to talk to anyone.

In spite of the business, I managed to keep my writing hat on for at least some of the time, which means we're starting September with another monthly highlights post.

• My book blog and website, Your Book Friend, is going strong with plenty of new reviews and weekly reading check ins. You can check it out on Medium here, or on WordPress here.

• I felt called to write a sequel to my personal essay about my boob growth spurt, specifically related to how it feels to run in the summer heat now that I've got a D cup sports bra squad situation.

• Panic! at the Disco released a new album on August 19th, and there was much rejoicing. I took it as an invitation to create my personal ranking of their studio albums.

• Half Marathon Training continues, and I've been writing weekly training recaps on my self-care blog, Running Into Joy.

• After using a Passion Planner for years, I decided to apply to be a brand ambassador--and I got in! This inspired me to start writing a bit more about how I use my planner, also on Running Into Joy. (Side note/shameless plug: If you're in the market for a new planner and want to give Passion Planner a spin, you can slide on over to their website and use my discount code AMANDAO876 to save some $ and send a little support my way.)

That's about it for this month! Not my most profilic writing month, but I'm really proud of keeping my passion projects afloat while I've been so busy at work. I hope August has treated you well, and thank you as always for being here and supporting my work. I'll see you at the end of September with another highlights post!

It feels like just yesterday, I wrote my June highlights post. That's partly because I got that one up a little bit late and partly because I've been so busy at the day job that time is slipping right on by. Soon I'll be in the busiest season of my work in Student Affairs, and my writing will likely slow down as I get through the start of the semester.

Here we are at the end of July and the start of August. July wasn't my most prolific writing month but I did get a few new words out into the world.

• The old running & self-care blog is back up and running (see what I did there?). I started half marathon training and decided to blog the journey week to week. You can start from the beginning with this post.

• I shared a bit about my latest podcast obsession and how it briefly inspired me to download TikTok.

• July found me coming out of June's pain flare cycle, and I reflected on the morning I realized I'd woken up without a headache for the first time in two weeks.

• A friend and I took a full moon hike with a local group, which was a magical experience. Just not quite the experience I expected.

• FanFare had another bout of their Thunderdome series, in which writers face off around different topics to claim the crown. I jumped into the ring to prove that The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is the worst sequel of all time.

• Of course, several book reviews and What We're Reading Wednesday posts also graced the old book blog, Your Book Friend.

When you list it out like that, July doesn't feel quite so unproductive as it felt! We'll see how August goes. I hope you had as good a month as is possible in these times, and an equally okay August ahead!

Yes, it's already mid-July and yes, this post is delayed. June was an incredibly busy work month for me, which meant I didn't have a ton of energy left over for side projects and hobbies. Unless you count complaining about too many meetings as a hobby.

Nevertheless, I did get some writing done in June, which means I'm here to recap the month in words.

• After feeling weird about it for a few years, I finally wrote about the time a male yoga instructor put his hand on my butt during class.

• I had a ton of fun writing this humor piece about how Biossance skincare has taken over my bathroom, and Reese Witherspoon is to blame.

• We hit the midpoint of the year, which means a check-in with my reading goals for 2022.

• My nostalgia and I couldn't resist hopping on the trend of reviewing favorite movies from every year you've been alive. Here's the first installment in the three-part series.

I won't neglect to mention that in addition to these essays and articles from June, there's plenty more to check out over on the book blog, if you're here for the book reviews and book news commentary. I'm gearing up for the all hands on deck vibe that is August in student affairs, so I won't promise a July recap will be any more on time. Under promise and over deliver, as they say.

Thank you, as always, for being here and for your interest in my work. If you're feeling so inclined, I always appreciate a coffee tossed my way.

Happy June! Here in PA, the flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and the temperatures are reminding me why I'm mad that central AC isn't a given in houses here.

May saw a slow return to writing consistently after some time away for the wedding and honeymoon. It's also continued to be a heavy time to be a human person living in this world with a shred of empathy, so I've taken time to recharge and take action as best I can to try and combat the overwhelming helplessness that creeps up any time I engage with the news for too long.

Sometimes it feels odd to plug away at my corner of the internet with so much going on, but I ultimately hope that art will continue to give us the ability to connect with one another as well as the much-needed chance to focus on something bright and light every now and again. With that in mind, here's a brief recap of the words I put out into the web for the month of May.

• Just in time for Mother's Day, I put down my thoughts on why assuming all women want to be mothers is damaging for the nuturer in all of us.

• I also reflected on the super-fancy lodge my husband and I booked for our honeymoon

• My go-to location for my favorite local coffee chain permanently closed while we were away, and I became briefly obsessed with the fact that the chain didn't acknowledge it online

• My anxiety found a new outlet in the form of the free one-card tarot readings I've been dropping into our Little Free Library, so I wrote about why I think that is

• Panic! at the Disco's long dormant Instagram account showed some action in late May and I got excited about what it almost definitely means--new music!

• The Best Books of the month column at Your Book Friend is back after our April hiatus, and I had so much fun running through my favorite reads of the month.

Whew! Going back through the month made me realize I was more productive with writing than I felt like I'd been.

Thank you for being here and for following along with my writing month-to-month. I appreciate your support, as always! We'll see you in June for more musings.

Hello, friends! My monthly update for April is coming a bit late because, well... I got married at the end of the month! The last couple weeks were, therefore, a blur and I started May off on our honeymoon.

Aside from getting a little bit married last month, I did manage to put out some words on the web as well. A couple of older essays, particularly the one about my weight gain and probably related bra size increase, picked up some traffic last month, which is always cool to see.

The big shift of the month is that I resumed writing on my self-care and running blog, Running Into Joy, and joined a new running-related publication, Runner's Life. You can check out my article with tips to show up race ready here.

Other highlights include...

• A rant/humor piece about an Oats Overnight ad that really grinds my gears, for some reason.

• My review of Kingdom Hearts III, which I finally started playing thanks to the announcement that KH IV is in development. You know me, always fresh and on trend.

• Seeing The Lost City sparked some reflection on my relationship with rom coms.

Now that wedding planning is over, I'm looking forward to putting up our Little Free Library and focusing in on the memoir. Hope your May is off to a good start, and I'll see you next month to reflect on how it went!

Hello from the other side of 30, my friends! This month has been a whirlwind between my 30th birthday, wedding planning, and my bachelorette party.

The look of pure skepticism on my face while receiving a Tarot reading at my bachelorette party.

On top of it all, a toe-tally random piece that came out in early March has gone quasi-viral, and it’s not at all the sort of essay I expected to garner so much attention. I’m talking, of course, about the essay I wrote to process my Big Feelings about losing my left big toenail and how it dragged up some medical trauma from my chronic pain diagosis a few years ago. You can read all about in my essay in Age of Empathy, titled “When I Started Running, I Expected to Lose a Toenail—But Not Like This.”

That piece has been far and away the most viewed article I’ve ever written, and certainly takes the top slot for March 2022 without much competition.

Nevertheless, I wouldn’t want to leave out my other darlings!

In March, I also…

• Penned a reflection on turning 30 and how it’s not quite the overwhelming thing I thought it’d be.

• Finally put down my thoughts about yearning for another summer like that one time we all seemed to be playing Pokemon Go. Ah, the togetherness and harmony.

• Wrote about the decision to switch my birth control method to only have four periods a year, for better management of my chronic pain condition.

In other exciting writing-related news, I revived my weekly newsletter, Amanda Reads! You can subscribe for free and get weekly reading recommendations (books and online articles) and a tarot reading to start your week!

Your Book Friend also went legit, because I snapped up the domain name! You can now find all the bookish goodness not only on our Medium site, but also at YourBookFriend.com! There’s always way too much new content there for me to summarize in these monthly highlights, so do give us a follow if you want book reviews, reading recaps, and other bookish goodness. For a quick preview, there’s always the monthly Best Books recap, one of my favorite posts to write.

That’s about it from me for this month, dear friends! Thank you for your support and your interest in my words. If you’d like to throw a little monetary support my way, you can Buy Me a Coffee.

Here’s to a great April! See you in May from the other side of matrimony!

It's March, and I'm turning 30 in a few weeks! I like to celebrate all the days leading up to Saint Patrick's Day aka my birthday, which means plenty of shamrocks and hashtag treating myself are in store.

February always feels so short (because it is), but I felt relatively productive, writing-wise. All those cold winter days keep me inside and thinking about life, the universe, and everything.

Let's take a look at the words I put out into the web this month, shall we?

• I capped off January's Skyrim obsession by writing a piece about the game's impact on my relationship, as well as the current front stoop décor the Breezehome is sporting in my universe. Thanks for FanFare for publishing "Skyrim's Courier is Obsessed With Me," which is my favorite thing I've written recently, if I'm honest.

• The Bengals were in the Super Bowl for the first time in my entire life, which I took as a good excuse to write yet another little love letter to my hometown of Cincinnati.

• My latest morning ritual involves a quote from Spider-Man, surprising no one. Shocked and pleased that Age of Empathy took on my reflection about the personal nature of rituals, "The Power of the Sun in the Palm of My Hand."

• I recently had to buy new bras because the girls were tired of that B cup life. I wrote about my complicated feelings re: my boobs for Breast Stories.

• Your Book Friend put out plenty of new reviews and bookish goodness this month, which you can find on our publication homepage.

Thanks so much for checking out what I've been up to! I'd love to hear what you think. And if you're interesting in throwing a little birthday month love my way, maybe buy me a coffee?

Until next time, friends!

Hi, all!

January was an interesting month, as my partner and I both got COVID (thankfully, relatively mild and we're doing much better now). I played a lot of Skyrim and took a lot of naps, but I still managed to crank out some writing, as well. Here's a few highlights of my words from the web in January:

• Speaking of COVID, while sick I attempted to order groceries for delivery. DoorDash, however, had other plans and brought me someone else's order, instead.

• I penned an essay about why it's been hard to write new essays, called "The Place Where My Stories Live Feels Hollowed Out and Empty." It seems to have resonated with people more than I expected!

• Your Book Friend has reached 90 followers on Medium and our readership has definitely increased. The most popular posts this month were my January TBR and my post about 2022 book goals.

In total, I put out 13 new stories on Medium, which is a pretty good start to the year!

November was a slow and steady month for me, as the weather turned colder and the semester reached its height. I managed to type away at the memoir a bit, though less than I hoped, and took a needed step back from reading quite so much.

Here’s a few of my favorite pieces to hit the interwebs in November:

• I had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Josie Silver’s upcoming release, One Night on the Island. The review lives over on my book blog, Your Book Friend.

• After watching Free Guy, I felt compelled to point out that it’s actually kind of a romantic comedy. No, seriously.

• Since I dedicated a few hours to my farm in Stardew Valley I wrote a little reflection on why I’m drawn to these kinds of games in the fall and winter months.

• The tree that helped me pick my undergraduate university was cut down, and I wrote about how we can grieve the little things, too.

Between grading and keeping up with the day job, November went by in a flash, and I’m really pleased I managed to tap into the creative muscles a few times throughout the month. Here’s to the winter holidays and to the best possible version of the last month of 2021!

As the summer passed me by and we jumped into the school year, I fell away from doing these updates because, to be frank, I was too busy to remember I even had an author’s website to maintain.

That doesn’t, however, mean that the writing stopped. Oh, no, the writing has continued, more or less.

Since it’s been a bit, I’ll skip the small talk and jump in to a few favorite pieces from the past few months.

• I got a little bit vulnerable about my evolving spiritual practices in this piece about nudging a toe outside the so-called “broom closet”

• After one of my daily walks with our dog, Azula, I penned this piece about how she’s shifted my understanding of our neighborhood

• I earned my first semi-viral piece and plenty of internet trolls by ranting about why I don’t watch Wonder Woman with my students anymore

• As orientation approached, I put my thoughts about being emotionally out of office into words

• On the book blogging front, I wrote about how I learn of new and upcoming book releases

• I’m back into video gaming and reflecting on the carefully animated, swaying breasts in Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance

This is just a snapshot of all the words I’ve been putting out in the world, and I’m so grateful for everyone who’s checked out my work over the past few months. I’d be remiss not to mention I received some generous support on my Buy Me A Coffee page this month, as well!

Happy June!

May felt like a thaw in more than just the weather, at least for me. The world seemed to start moving again after so much pandemic-related stagnation.

I also made a return to my former life as a book blogger, revamping my old Amanda Reads blog to Your Book Friend. Same vibes, new name.

It’s been another relatively productive writing month for me, so here are a few highlights of what I’ve been up to in the month of May.

• I posted an April 2021 reading recap over at Your Book Friend, and it became my most popular self-published post on Medium! Check out my mini-reviews for the best books I read last month and add on to that TBR (that's a friend link, just for you, non-Medium friends!) There’s also a hot-off-the-press May 2021 reading recap, as well.

• I reflected on one of my favorite travel memories for a prompt in World Traveler's Blog inviting us to consider a travel memory in the country where we were born.

• Your Book Friend launched an exciting new series--What We're Reading Wednesdays! Join us every other Wednesday to chat about our current reads.

• I wrote about the joy of anticipating my upcoming trip for World Traveler's Blog and about how my anxiety changed the experience of hiking solo for Invisible Illness

• I also started a Bookstagram account to house all my bookish posts and photos, as well as enjoy connecting with other book people

• I shared the daily three-card Tarot spread that sparks my creativity

• So many new book reviews hit Your Book Friend and my favorite bookish publication, Coffee Time Reviews. I had a great reading month and hope June carries forward that momentum!

• In non-linkable news, I started drafting my first memoir. Cue all the scared, excited sounds!

I hope you had as good a May as possible in this year of 2021, and that your June is off to a good start!

If you’re interested in a weekly update on my writing life, you can follow me on Buy Me A Coffee, where I post weekly updates every Monday.