Happy 2021 everyone! It’s finally a new year, although it feels like it’s just a continuation from 2020.

I’ll first start with a COVID update for my area of Canada… We’re back in a full lockdown! My region moved into a full lockdown in November sometime, and then the rest of my province followed suit after Christmas Day. Things still aren’t looking the best here, as cases are now approaching 4,000 a day. So soon my province might have more restrictions because people don’t know how to stay at home! I leave my house to go for walks with my dad (who I live with) and to use the curbside pickup my library has set up as well as curbside pick up with my local bookstore. Gotta support local!

I’m finally out of a horrible reading slump that I was in at the end of December! I managed to read 52 books last year which I was really impressed with. This year I set my goal to 100 books along with other personal and bookish goals which I did a post on here. I’m still doing some reading based on my mood, but I’ve also set up a schedule for reviews so I need to get those books done before I can read what I want based on my mood.

I mentioned back in my last outside the blog post that I was paired with a mentor. He has been a huge help and support for me trying to get into the publishing world. He has encouraged me to take some free online courses to make me stand out more and has also helped with my cover letter and resume writing skills. But I still haven’t received an interview yet. I’m not giving up hope yet.

In other news, I am now a new recruit for MuggleNet as part of their content team! This is a volunteer position, and I get to update and edit past posts and content to keep everything accessible on their website. The best part is that I get to flex my HTML and WordPress skills! Everyone on the team is really nice and super helpful. I can’t wait to see what opportunities this position leads me to.

I went a bit overboard with candles this past weekend. Back in November, I saw my ex and we went to a candle making store in his hometown. I bought a 5 lb bag of wax and used the last of it. I’m undecided if I want to try selling these candles… I’ve been looking on Esty at book-related candles, and most of them come from the USA with shipping that costs almost $35, and with the exchange rate being what it is I don’t think it would be worth paying for those candles. There’s not a lot of options here in Canada either and I would love to support a local/Canadian maker. I might open an Esty shop and sell bookish candles? It’s just a thought so… We’ll see!

In December I was busy making so many cookies! If you guys follow me on Instagram you probably saw how many cookies I made. We JUST finished them last weekend. I tried out some new recipes… Some of them were a success and others not so much. I know for next year not to make so many cookies though!