Back in February/March, I sat down and set up a schedule to deal with getting Twisted Magics ready for publication. This included my desire to try and get work done on the second book during Camp NaNoWriMo in April.
I decided everything would be done by the end of April so I could enjoy May as a month of reading. That plan has been shot. Repeatedly. By a highly trained firing squad.
Now, I realize the month is far from over, but a good chunk of it is gone and my reading list is continuing to grow. I managed to sneak in a book at the end of last month (mostly because I needed to return it to the library), but nothing so far and I don’t know where to start. Do I try to finish books I’m currently reading? Read some short stuff first? Get the reviews done and out of my head?
Except that my attempts to finish book 2 have overridden all of these questions. I’ve also been trying my hand at a couple of other projects. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t know how to write short. A particular project that I started to help me out with details in book 2 has started on its path to becoming a novella. The other one…I don’t know yet, but I’m fairly certain that it won’t stay short either.
Predominantly on my list for reading are stories by friends and local authors. I have a few others and a list of recommendations that rivals most short stories (I know, it isn’t that long mostly because I’ve been lax about jotting things down). Hopefully I’ll get what I really want to write finished soon and start enjoying the outdoors with a good book.
J.C. Jackson 
At least you’re getting some reading in! Since mid-last year, I’ve struggled to finish any books. It took me longer than it should have to finish Pure of Heart, and I haven’t even touched a book since (beyond nightly reading of The Hobbit to my kids). So good job at reading what you have!
As far as writing short goes, what I’ve found that works for me is to assume the reader knows all of the world mechanics and character abilities already, even if they’ve never met that character before. That might mean I need to clarify stuff during revisions, but I can then use other people’s feedback to judge what they need in order to understand the story. I use this tactic with the Cera Chronicles and tidbit scenes like the one I submitted to the group a couple weeks ago. But that’s not how I write all the time. When it comes to my big books, I’ll let myself ramble in character’s POV and cover all the details they might think up. I know my pacing and tension suffers for it, but, eh… I’ll address that…someday.
Yeah, I’ve been trying to put forth more effort to read published works this year and it’s not easy. I just didn’t think it was healthy to keep reading in-progress works/my own stuff that I was working on all the time. Was making progress through Thanmir War until my husband ran off with my iPad. *sigh*
It’s funny in doing that, people pick up on a character almost just as fast if it is written well. Actually, I was working on a (not your group) critique that I finally found the main plot at the end of chapter 8 (no, that’s not a typo). I reviewed the story from that point on and the writer gave me as good of a feel for the world as the previous chapters I had trudged through.
I keep scenes that don’t make it into the books, but could still be used in a separate file. They’re fun, but that one piece I had cut way too much to try to keep it short just isn’t staying there and I’ve accepted that it’ll turn itself into a novella (hopefully not more – I’m not sure I can handle that). Jim got his billboard. XD