Discussion: Summer Lovin’ – Bookish Bingo and Camp NaNo

Well I guess I’m a bit of a glutton for punishment, because I just decided to take one two (big-ish?) projects for the summer.

The first is The Ripped Bodice’s 2nd Annual Summer Romance Bingo! It runs from June 1 to August 31, and you can enter to win ♥ prizes ♥ , and well who doesn’t love prizes? Each square represents a book you’ve read this summer, and you fill in the square with the title & author once you’ve met the criteria. To get a bingo you need to get 5 in a row (vertical or horizontal) and for each row you complete you can enter to win prizes at https://www.therippedbodicela.com/bingo.

Here’s bingo card so far, and I’ve listed out the categories and books I’ve completed so far.

Set at Summer Camp – Him by Sarina Bowen
Enemies to Lovers – Carry On by Rainbow Rowell

Are you a romance reader? Are you playing this version of Summer Romance Bingo by The Ripped Bodice, or another type of summer reading challenge?

Because that’s not going to keep me busy enough this summer, I also decided to do Camp NaNoWriMo. Woo!

For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month) runs every November and is a whole thing. If you don’t know about it, I encourage you to check out their website to learn more.

Camp NaNo is like a mini, slightly more chill version of NaNoWriMo, and you set your own word count goals. Mine is set for 50k, and I plan to write a collection of short stories.

The PLAN (as such… so far…) is to write a collection of urban fantasy/paranormal romance fairy tale retellings. Some of them are fairly direct translations in a modern day urban setting, others mess around with the idea of who is the villain of the piece and flip the fairy tales on their heads (heads-over-tales… there’s a title idea?), other’s are gender-swapped/gender-bent/GLBTQIA versions. My focus for starters will be on some stories I have sort-of inklings of ideas for, and the glue that binds them all together is a nightclub owned by Rumpelstiltskin (name still TBD, which I suppose is fitting for a nightclub owned by Rumpelstiltskin?)

Some of my initial thoughts:
The Little Mermaid (M/F) (mermaids/sirens, selkies)
Rapunzel (F/F) (witches, villain MC, hero as villain)
Hansel & Gretel (M/F) (witches, villain MC, hero as villain)
12 Dancing Princess (M/F, faeries)
Puss in Boots (M/M?) (shifters)

I’ll be posting more about it throughout July (probably a lot when I’m stuck… haha).

If you’ve got a good idea for a fairy tale that you’d like to see retold, I’d love to hear about it. Give me writing prompts please! Haha! Also, if you have a great idea for a name for Rumpelstiltskin’s club, I will credit you in my acknowledgements in the infinitesimal chance I ever publish these stories. 😉