Merry Christmas: a 2016 Recap
Good morning, dear Reader! I hope you are all having a lovely week and having fun getting ready for Christmas this weekend. I am a bit surprised that Henry Fairchild hasn't made an appearance this week, I figured that he was planning something kind of extravagant for the holiday season, but we haven't heard a peep from him. Perhaps he's had as busy and overwhelming of a week as I have (sick kiddo, prepping for more traveling, etc). Since he usually sends his missives on Wednesdays, I think we're safe for now... but if he's not doing a big Christmas upset, then I'd be willing to bet (if I were a betting sort of person) that he's got something in the works for New Year's! It's too bad we can't just arrest him here in the real world... unfortunately, I'm fairly certain no judge in the world would be willing to convict him for fictional crimes. *sigh* oh well. I will just have to continue chasing him through the Fiction Verse as best I can and hope I catch a break or he makes a mistake.ANYWAY. I have a bunch of posts to write. Reviews of Doctor Strange, A Wish Made of Glass, and Draven's Light are all in the works. I also had some Christmassy type posts jumbling about in my head... but I might just save them for next year. It's Christmas, and while all those things are fun, I thought I'd just do a quick year -in - review. Kind of an Ishness for 2016!WritingI was looking at my list of goals for 2016 that I posted about back in January. And it seems that I have achieved them fairly well, and perhaps even exceeded what I hoped to accomplish in some respects.Published Yorien's Hand.While I have not completed the rough draft of this project, I did manage to write 45,000 words in the second installment of the Turrim Archive project, and am well on my way to getting that draft completed in the next couple of months.Finished the first round of edits on Minstrel's Call and sent off to beta readers and my second editor. Have received back notes from several of my beta readers.Wrote a few short stories.Worked a little on my Cinderella retelling. And have seen some lovely illustrations for that story from my illustrator. So excited to share that with you... maybe in 2017?BloggingWhat a year for this little bloggity blog! I'm sure wordpress will email me my official stats around New Year's, but here are the big things that I remember being new and noteworthy.
We powered through a generally "blah" month by celebrating a fantasy theme nearly every day in February. That was also by far my highest traffic month, so thanks to all of you for reading and commenting and generally making it fun to be here in cyber space. I would love to do it again this year.
Myself and nine other awesome bloggers hosted the inaugural Silmarillion Awards in the summer, and it was an absolute blast. I know most of us are anxious to have it again this year, and I am looking forward to seeing how it grows and changes with new presenters and perhaps some different awards (as we realized later at least one of our awards was a spoiler-rific nightmare... which we didn't anticipate as we probably ought to have... oops!)
I began working for the InterFiction Gazette and became acquainted with the villainous Henry Fairchild. I've been documenting his escapades in an attempt to figure out where he is going to strike next so we can catch him and bring him to justice.Reading
I exceeded my 25-book challenge and Goodreads says I'm currently sitting at 33. Hopefully that number is a bit higher by the time 2016 officially ends, as I have a couple I'm nearly finished with.Revisited some old favorites, met some new ones. Only a few of the books I read this year left me with a "meh" feeling, so that was nice.AuthoringI attended my first comic-con... and as a vendor, no less. Sold some books, got a taste of what that sort of experience is like, and am open to doing more things like it in the future.I also got to be a vendor at a library-con, which was more laid back and much shorter, so less stressful, but still fun.I set up an actual newsletter and you can subscribe to it! I have sent out two newsletters, and plan to only send them out 3-4 times a year. I don't want to clutter up people's email inboxes unless I have important news of some kind.I ran a very successful free ad with King's Warrior back in April and saw an enormous spike in sales and pages read. I followed that up by having King's Warrior set at 99 cents throughout the summer for the Homeschooled Authors Read to Win event, and as a result this has been our most successful fiscal year thus far! I mean, my husband can't retire or anything, but it was a very encouraging year.Life-ingWe have now been in Wisconsin for over a year. It's hard to believe that is true. I still introduce myself to new people with a, "We just moved here." sort of caveat... and then I find myself having to stop and explain that, well, we moved here over a year ago. But I still feel like a newcomer in many ways. We've found a wonderful church home that we love and have enjoyed getting a bit more involved. Derek and I are the SPARKS directors for the AWANA program there, and it's been a great year so far. We've also started to make some actual friends, which is nice.Leiana is well into her 3rd grade year and is doing wonderfully. Nathalie is officially homeschooling this year as a Kindergartner, and she is just soaking up every ounce of teaching I can give her. She constantly asks to do more. Brant is enjoying life as a 2-year old. He wants to be just like his big sisters, but is still grasping the concept of only using writing utensils on paper... and not on the walls or tables!2016 saw rather a lot of travel, including a trip to NC in the Spring, a trip to MI in the Summer, a trip to DC, a trip to OR for a wedding, and a trip to WA in the Fall... with yet another trip to AR planned for this Winter. YIKES! Next year, we plan to stay home pretty much all year!It also saw us announcing the impending arrival of our fourth child with this little image my talented husband created:
Which was apparently a bit too subtle, since nobody seemed to "get" it without some additional hints. What can I say? Pinterest has exactly 4,000 variations of the same 5 ideas when it comes to announcing expectations of a baby, and we like to be different.As my Uncle used to say, "Y B Normal?"My Cubbies were super accommodating later on in the year, and we were all super excited about their historic and epic win. I managed to catch my kiddos' reaction to the win...
Then, just before Thanksgiving, we again rode on the shirt-tails of the Cubs's success to reveal little "Cubbie's" gender:
And even fewer of my friends "got" this one. No, we're not having twins (Brant is already our #3). No, the Cubs did not just sign a set of Schmidt brothers to play next year. Yes, we are having a boy!I think my friends are all extremely annoyed with us at this point.Looking Ahead...I'm not really certain what 2017 looks like. But 2016 was a mighty good year. I am definitely planning on publishing the final episode of The Minstrel's Song. I would love to finish up Book #2 of the Turrim Archive and potentially even get book #3 written. I would love to spend a solid month editing and formatting my Cinderella retelling. But those are ambitious goals... particularly with baby #4 making his grand arrival sometime this Spring. So... those are my goals. But I'm flexible.I'd love to read some more amazing books.I'm sure I'm going to see some fantastic movies.I'm fairly certain there are going to be grand adventures... maybe not, "Ring to Mount Doom" style adventures, but grand adventures nonetheless!I know it's going to be busy and way more hectic than I'd really like it to be... but such is life with littles.What about you, dear Reader? How has your 2016 been? What's on the horizon of your 2017? I'd love to hear from you!And if I don't see you again before then... from my family to yours: MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Don't forget to enter the giveaway for your chance to win a prize bundle including ALL of the Stormcave products to-date! The giveaway is live through December 31st.See you all next year!