Getting in the Summer Groove – June 2023 Wrap

Summer is here! My June highlights kicked off the sunshine season in the best way. I’m grateful for all the memories I made this month. Put on your sunglasses, grab some fruit punch, and enjoy this months’ wrap.

My Sassy Pop Summer Session

One of my favorite days this June was my ten-hour studio session. After taking a few months to write new music and choose more songs for my next album, it felt amazing to be back at the Vault.

During my session, I worked on three pop songs and finished two of them. I’m definitely in my sassy pop era and can’t wait to share all this new music. As always, I wrote a blog post about the session, so definitely check that out for exclusive details. I’m almost finished recording the album, and I can’t wait to wrap up this part of the process and get into the mixing stage. I hope to have another session soon.

Another Summer at the Murrysville Farmers Market

Last summer, I played during the Murrysville Farmers Market, and I’m delighted to be back for round two.

Shoutout to whoever took this photo of me while performing.

I put together a set highlights video from my first performance of the summer. I hope you enjoy it.

I had a blast playing this month. It was such a great way to start summer. 

Producing Summer Groove on Heart of Indie Radio

The summer fun continues with Heart of Indie Radio’s special, Summer Groove. Guess who produced this one? This butterfly!

In March, I got to curate my first show, Spring into Spring, which was a blast. Listeners loved it, so Eddie and I decided to do a show for summer. With my first show behind me, producing Summer Groove was a much smoother process. I got to add the show’s information into the fancy spreadsheet and all.

Summer Groove is full of amazing summer tunes and fun conversations. Give it a listen on MixCloud and get into the summer groove. See what I did there?

Round Two on Unscripted

At the end of May, I returned to Unscripted to record my second episode, and I’m so glad it dropped this month. I truly appreciate Aaron having me back and enjoyed our conversation so much. During the episode, we have a genuine chat about my music career, author journey, butterflies, and so much more. I’m so honored I got the opportunity to be on the show again and can’t thank Aaron enough for his endless support.

The episode is available on all podcast platforms. Here is the direct link to Spotify.

My second Unscripted episode is an authentic glimpse into where I’m at right now in all areas of my creative life. It warms my heart to see others embracing me as a songwriter, author, and podcast host. I’m forever grateful.

Contributing to the NaNoWriMo Blog

I got quite literally one of the coolest opportunities this month as an author. Contributing to the NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, blog was honestly a dream come true and my first big moment in the publishing industry.

Last November, I participated in my first NaNoWriMo and blogged about my experience here. Since then, I’ve stayed involved with the writing community on Twitter and love all NaNoWriMo does for writers, from their challenges and resources to building a supportive community internationally. So, let’s just say I flipped out when I got invited to write an article for their official blog.

Long story short, the team put out an application for contributing writers. Naturally, I jumped on this opportunity and filled out the form. NaNoWriMo is massive, so I imagine tons of writers did the same. I may or may not have squealed with delight when I received an email inviting me to write an article.

I tossed around a few ideas for what I wanted to write about, but in the end, I settled on an article called, “5 Tips for NaNoWriMo First-Timers.” Since my first NaNoWriMo was a success, I decided to share tips for other authors preparing to take the challenge for the first time.

I’m ecstatic to share that the article has been published, and you can read it here!

I can’t thank Josie and the whole NaNoWriMo team enough for inviting me to contribute to the blog. I hope other authors find my article helpful, and I’m looking forward to my second NaNoWriMo in November.

My Experience from the Story Academy with Bethany Hensel

In April, I enrolled in the Story Academy with editor Bethany Hensel, and it wrapped up this month. I believe there’s always room to learn and grow as a writer, so I’m beyond glad I took this course.

I learned so much in the Story Academy and can’t wait to apply new concepts as I continue working on my manuscripts. Since I had such a great experience in the course, I wrote a blog post about it.

June was truly an amazing month. Every memory I shared in this blog post means the world to me, and I’m beyond happy I’ve been taking steps forward as both a songwriter and author. Being in two creative industries is difficult at times, but writing a blog post each month reminds me how far I’ve come and gives me a chance to reflect on my highlights and accomplishments along the way.

With half of 2023 over, I’m proud of my progress this year and have so much in the works. I can’t wait to see what the rest of 2023 has in store for me. I already have exciting things on my calendar and know there’s much more to come.