So, honestly, my life is getting really crazy, so I have to adjust my blogging schedule more than I thought I was going to. But I think it’ll be fun! (And hey, this gives me more time to get more novels out to you all, so that’s a plus.) I also think this it will be fun because it’ll be closer to being “live.” Unlike all my other posts that are written two weeks in advance, this one will be ready the night before.
On Saturdays, I’m just going to post what I’m reading, listening to, watching, baking, etc. Starting in November, Mondays will be dedicated to revising old but popular posts you might not have seen before. (After all, I have about 570 posts on this website, and many do need a revision.) On Wednesdays, I’ll have regular blog posts (and I might have blogs posts on Saturdays too. It’ll depend on how crazy the week is), but I might leave Saturdays to just fun. I’d love to hear what you’re reading, watching, doing, too! Feel free to chime in!
(Since I came up with this idea two weeks ago, this one will be longer. I’m including two weeks of info instead of one.)
What I’m Writing:
I’m writing in Take Me Yesterday, book 2 of The Tomo Trilogy, and I’m currently in chapter seven. Word count? 10,613. I’m really excited for this sequel, and it feels good to be back in the tomo world. It’s more or less going to go back in time too—hence the “yesterday” part of the title—so expect the sequel to answer all of your wonderful questions, but don’t worry! You’re going to see more of your favorite characters as well as new faces and new places.
What I’m Publishing:
I’m sitting on a finished November Snow. I promise I’m working on publishing it next, but I promised myself I would get the entire trilogy out before moving onto the next piece, so I’m waiting on the paperback release of Death Before Daylight on October 19 before I make a move with November Snow.
What I’m Reading:
I just finished These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner, and I’m in love. You can read my Goodreads review here. But it’s awesome. Also, the authors tweeted to me and starred my selfie. So, they’re cool in my book.
The Reluctant Guardian by Melissa Cunningham: I’m 19% of the way through, and I’m touched by both the voice and the serious topic of suicide being covered in a unique and interesting way.
What I’m Listening To:
Gin Wigmore’s album Gravel & Wine. It was gifted to me by one 
of you actually! 😉 So, thank you for making me dance. I’m also using it as a soundtrack for writing Take Me Yesterday, along with the previous Take Me Tomorrow influencers, Portishead and Lykke Li.
What I’m Watching:
At the movies, I went to go see Black Mass. You know, because Johnny Depp and his gangster films. Plus, I thought it’d be interesting to see a more modern depiction of government-criminal espionage. (I’m so much a fan of this concept, I use it in Take Me Tomorrow, mainly with Dwayne and Wheston Phelps. I think I fell in love with this after I looked into the ending of Catch Me if You Can and how Frank Abagnale ended up working for the FBI). That being said, Black Mass is about Whitey Bulger, a notorious gangster who worked with the FBI to get rid of an opposing Mafia family. I enjoyed it a lot! It was nice to Benedict Cumberbatch, one of my favorites, and I was surprised (slightly delighted) to see Dakota Johnson in something other than the 50 Shades franchise. Black Mass is a great movie. Not for the lighthearted. Definitely recommend reading up on Whitney beforehand and/or after though.
At home, I watched ten minutes of Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles with Megan Fox and had to turn it off. (Sorry, not sorry.) Then, I followed that with When Trumpets Fade (1988), a WWII movie that focuses on the Battle of Hurtgen Forest. It. Is. Sad. (Of course.) Definitely recommended though, if you don’t mind watching graphic war scenes. The character “Sandy” reminded me of an older Piggy from Lord of the Flies. I also saw A Most Violent Year (2014), because I’m in love with Oscar Isaac. Aside from that I watched Lawless, because, you know, Tom Hardy’s grunt. (It’s worth a million dollars.) So, I followed that up with Insidious Chapter Three, because Insidious movies are the best modern scary movies. That is all.
What I’m Baking, Making, and Drinking:
I made the best sandwich of my life. Sourdough bread, (my favorite kind of bread), smoked turkey, muenster cheese (my favorite kind of cheese), Swiss cheese (my second favorite), cucumber, mayonnaise, and guacamole spread (including avocados, tomatoes, onion, pepper, and salt). Holy sandwich gods, I love you. 
Cooking wise, I accidentally bought heavy cream instead of milk, so I asked a bunch of you on my Facebook for your heavy cream recipes, and I decided on scalloped potato gratin. I paired it with lemon chicken and asparagus, and they paired well.
For dessert, I made a Hong Kong Yuan Yang Coffee Tea. It’s basically made out of condensed milk, coffee, and black tea. It was amazing, but it tastes more like tea than coffee to me, so I’d only suggest it if you like black tea as well. Also, the recipe I called for required sugar, but I thought condensed milk made it sweet enough, so I didn’t add any sugar. Beyond that, I paired it with dark chocolate chip cookies. 😉
What I’m Wearing:
My Pikachu shirt and hat. All. The. Time.
What I’m Wanting:
The Conjurer’s Riddle (book 2 of The Inventor’s Secret) by Andrea Cremer. I reviewed the first book, The Inventor’s Secret, here, but it was amazing! I can’t wait until November…
This Shattered World (book 2 of The Starbound Trilogy) by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner. I mean, I just finished the first one. I need the second.
Post-It Pop-Up Note Cat Dispenser: Think of how cute and convenient this would be. Plus, I’m also out of sticky notes. (I live on sticky notes.)
What I’m Dreaming Of:
Dinosaurs. I hate them. They make me cry. I blame Jurassic Park.
I also had a dream that Jackie Chan was trying to kill me with a knife. I actually defended myself pretty well. Kind of proud of Dream Shannon.
What Else Is Going On:
I have a coffee event at Headrush Roasters here in Kansas City on October 21. I’m also thinking about dying my hair black and white like Jessica’s supernatural form for Halloween. So, look out for that.
~SAT
For October, I’m offering 5 Halloween-themed box sets of The Timely Death Trilogy, and I only have 1 left! Each box set includes 3 signed books, a signed bookmark, a bat or spider ring, and a personalized note from me. They cost $40.00 with free shipping in the U.S. A picture can be found below. Email me at shannonathompson@aol.com if you’re interested.
Also this October, the paperback of Death Before Daylight releases on October 19! Two days later, on October 21, you can come see me at Headrush Coffee and Tea Roasters in Kansas City, Missouri for a paranormal talk and book signing. It will be tons of fun!
Minutes Before Sunset: book 1
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Goodreads
Seconds Before Sunrise: book 2
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo, Goodreads
Death Before Daylight: book 3
Shannon A. Thompson 
Things were going well and this was a fun read until you said you turned off TMNT after 10 mins. *sigh*
I…just…couldn’t. UGH. And I LOVED the cartoon when I was a kid. Maybe that was why? I might give it another chance? What did you like about it?
~SAT
At least dream Jackie Chan didn’t have a random object from the area because that’s when he’s really dangerous. Guessing saying I want to get ‘Jurassic World’ wouldn’t be the best . . . oops. I still haven’t built up the strength to watch TMNT since I loved the stuff from when I was a kid. Just heard too many bad things and most who liked it add that one shouldn’t live in the past, which sounds oddly insulting. I’d keep going, but that’s a pretty big rant.
I just finished writing a new book in a new genre and am taking a break to work on outlines or watch DVDs. Switching between Orphan Black Season 3 and D-Grayman. Just bumming around until life settles and I can dive into the next novel. Enjoy your weekend.
Now that is a Jackie Chan fact. lol. You can say that! I actually say Jurassic World in theaters…and has nightmares that night. I kind of liked the recent movie too. They redeemed the raptors. And I agree with TMNT! It wasn’t the turtles I disliked, although I didn’t watch the whole movie. It was mainly Megan Fox’s acting and the “vibe.” I agree with you! And although I understand “don’t live in the past,” there’s a certain quality of the original you have to retain in remakes (in my silly little opinion anyway).
Good luck with the writing, have fun with the watching, thanks for your update! 🙂
Have a great weekend too,
~SAT
I actually saw Jurassic World and Mad Max Fury Road in the same weekend, which led to a strange dream. Raptors on post-apocalyptic cars is all I can remember now.
Good point on remakes. As much as it’s new, there should be a level of respect as well. Depending on fans of the original to see the remake no matter what is rather insulting and doesn’t work as well as people think. Look at the Fantastic Four movie and you’ll see how that backfired.
Thanks for the luck. Feels like I’m going to need it. 🙂
I have yet to see Mad Max. I believe I saw Pitch Perfect with my friend instead. The boyfriend went and saw Mad Max with his brother at the same time. lol I need to see it though. It is on my list. Your dream sounds like a quite-possible movie of the near future.
~SAT
A terrifying crossover indeed. It was interesting how much praise Mad Max got for an R-Rated film. I saw it after the hype and was rather surprised that it lived up to the reputation.
I think R-Rated movies are going to start being bigger and bigger like that, mainly because they just won’t adjust ratings. I mean, there’s nudity on public TV. Why would it be rated R in movies? If you haven’t seen the documentary “This Movie is Not Yet Rated,” you should. It’s awesome. That being said, I’m looking forward to the very R-Rated Crimson Peak, the next Guillermo del Toro movie.
~SAT
I’m looking forward to Deadpool next February, which is going to be R-Rated. Was scared they’d water him down in that arena. Need to look into Crimson Peak since I know very little about it.
Funny how nudity, sex, and language can get you an R rating faster than the violence.
So true! Have unlimited amounts of violence, but god forbid two people loving each other or cursing. I actually had some funny reactions that way in my latest publication, Death Before Daylight. There’s practically four chapters of “torture,” so to speak, but I received a few emails about the F-word being used. No problems with torture. But say the F-word and everything is over. So, naturally, I was researching this topic, and I found a great piece. An author posted, asking for teenage novels for her son, I believe, and said she didn’t mind violence for him but sex was a no-no. She got harassed for it, but she ended up writing an article about how she never even thought about it that way and would let him read books with sex in them if he wanted to. An interesting debate to say the least. Definitely up to the individual reader, of course, but a fun topic to talk about with fellow readers and writers.
~SAT
I’m preparing for that to happen when I release the post-apocalyptic book I just first drafted. A lot of violence and cursing. Think I remember hearing about that article/debate at some point, but never looked for it. I’ve noticed that the ‘sex/violence’ topic tends to get me a lot of comments and traffic too.
I’ve had a complaint about a hero being tortured in one of my books. Though that’s a lengthy topic on how people get angry when heroines are injured, but never bat an eye of a male counterpart receives the same or worse.
Oh, man! These are such great topics! They are! I have soooooo much I want to say regarding this, but I completely understand. It is very true that female characters will get commented on more in regards to things happening to them but a male’s well-being will generally be looked over for the “sake of the story.” I treat my characters the same, male or female. Things will happen to both of them, and those things are not picked based on their gender.
~SAT
I treat them the same too. Good point on the sake of the story thing. One day I’d love to see a villain talk about how he can’t do certain things because he’s fighting a woman, so just gives up or calls a villain customer service line to complain about the ‘unfair’ match up. 🙂
LOL Too funny!
~SAT
Reblogged this on theowlladyblog.
Thank you for sharing!
~SAT
I feel you on the TMNT. The cartoon was one of my favorites as a kid, but the movies recently…. I could do without. And that’s putting it nicely.
Yeah! So I wasn’t the only one…
~SAT