Finishing Off 2017 Right (Sorta)

Sorry for the delay, Christmas being on a Monday threw me off a bit. I forgot that I was working on a Tuesday, and I was so into the whole "spending time with family on Christmas" thing that it didn't even occur to me to pre-write something.

Still, I am determined to have this be the first year that I have 52 posts - one for every week! This will be my 52nd post of the year; this will be my year when I FINALLY manage to get that "once a week, every week" schedule down! My writing IS important, and being dedicated to this blog at the very least is my way of telling the world that.

Such a big step for me. Such a small but important victory. Especially since, unlike previous years, each of the 52 posts has been for the week it is intended for, instead of having to do "catch-up" weeks where I post twice a week to get my final count up. In fact, this is only the third post this WHOLE YEAR that I didn't publish on Tuesday. Back in March I was two days late, posting on the 9th instead of the 7th. Then I missed posting on Independence Day and updated on July 5th instead. Now today instead of yesterday. This is a BIG DEAL for me. Are you excited too?

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc.

Okay, so what if this is a big deal that I'm keeping up with this blog and making my few hours to write an update each week a priority? I mean, it's cool beans and all, but what does that do for you, the reader? Not really much of anything, sadly. However, now that I'm getting into a proper rhythm, and I typically recall to at least pre-write a post if I can't do so Tuesday morning, that means I can start getting a bit more serious about the CONTENT.

More importantly, I can work more on my overall writing routine so that I have something of more value for you to read each week. I failed with this year's goal to have something new each week, and I most likely won't be able to get that steady for 2018 either. Especially now that I'm taking the time to slow down and really focus on bigger projects like "Peeping Tomcat." However, I could still try to aim on having something new to post at least once a month. That could be fun and exciting.

Maybe one day I'll even be able to transition this into a more professional looking blog with updates more along the lines of what professional authors write. Even if it's a couple paragraphs long to give you an update on my narrative writing, and then get back to it, instead of dedicating three hours or so writing a blog update.

We'll see what the future holds.

As for this week? Well, the last two weeks of the year are always about as shot as the last week of November. Darn holidays. Actually, pretty much all of December is shot. Between Hubby's birthday, recovering from Thanksgiving and/or NaNo, prepping for Christmas with things such as decorating and getting gifts ready, trying to keep the house clean and inevitably failing, and prepping for my mom and sister to visit.... well, December gets a bit hectic with very little extra time to write or read. I barely have the time to watch the multitude of holiday movies I generally attempt to cram into December. I also tend to get a nasty head cold right around Christmas, and, right on schedule, I'm battling through a doozy of a head cold right now. FUN!

Long and short? I added to my reading this past week, but didn't touch my writing.

Challenge by Reading Books Like a Boss

Hubby chose "Ender's Shadow" for me to read for my "set in the future" book. Sadly, I'm not even half-way through it, so I doubt I'll finish before the end of the year, let alone re-reading a book. I also didn't check off "Ready. Set. Novel!" or "Atlas Shrugged"; two books that I'll try again next year.

I don't think I'm going to attempt an official challenge for 2018, though. I've gotten back into the want to read, which was the whole point of challenges in the first place. However, all they seem to do is make me freak out that I'm not reading the "correct" books or not reading fast enough. I also spend most of the year either figuring out how to manipulate what I want to read so it fits into the challenge, or I avoid reading that particular book altogether. Not really what I was going for.

The challenges were fun and have broadened my horizons, but I think I'm moving on from them, at least for a year.

As of right now, my game plan for 2018 is to try one more time to read "Atlas Shrugged" and get that back to my father-in-law. I also want to re-read "Lycopolis" before reading Ali Luke's second novel "Oblivion." By the time I'm done with that I should be all set to buy and read Ali's latest book "Dominion," which just came out this month! As of right now it's only an e-book, but by the time I'm ready for my read she'll probably have the paperback option.

The more I read "Ender's Shadow," and the more the book eludes to "Ender's Game," the more I want to re-read "Ender's Game" in order to be fully reminded of the events being referenced in "Ender's Shadow." Plus, now that I have more backstory for Bean, perhaps the little jerk will be a more sympathetic character when I re-read EG. I can even finish it up by re-watching the movie adaptation of "Ender's Game" and/or re-reading the graphic novelizations of the book. Then lament how "off" it is compared to the source material. Basically, January may start off with me going back to EG before taking another crack at "Atlas Shrugged."

The end of March also brings about the movie adaptation of "Ready Player One" finally, so I'll probably get a re-read of that book as well. I just don't know if I want to re-read before the movie to remind me of everything, or if I want to purposely wait until AFTER watching the movie so I don't get disappointed by how different the adaptation is. Then again, the author of the novel wrote the script basically at the same time. He sold the script pretty much at the same time as the novel! I'd like to have faith that in THIS situation the movie will be pretty faithful to the book.

See? I have such a nice reading game plan already, and I don't know if I'd be able to read any of the above novels if I tried to fit them into a reading challenge. I'd also feel so overwhelmed and behind if I tried to get in the twelve books for the challenge - as seems to be the basic structure of these things - as well as the six books listed above, especially since I KNOW I'll have to take two months or so to make it through "Atlas Shrugged" properly. And those books don't even include informative books such as "Ready. Set. Novel!" or "Writer's Book of Days" or "No Plot? No Problem!"

Since I'm avoiding official reading challenges next month, I do encourage you fine folks to throw some suggestions my way. Got a book you thought was amazing? Let me know about it in the comments. Did you publish something yourself and want me to give it a read? Sure thing! Let me know below!

Well, I've rambled for long enough about reading, I think. Normally this is where I'd try to reflect on the year and do my "year in review" post, but I don't think I even have time for that!

So, for this year, I think I'll just leave it as a simple thank you to everyone who has followed me during this journey, and everyone who stuck by me this year. For any of those who bumped me up past 200 hits per post - I now have a slew that's over 900 hits! - especially if you decided to stick around, because I know you probably came here looking for Miraculous info and found bupkis. Especially for everyone who encouraged me when I was running on fumes at the beginning of the year, and when I was about to wave the white flag in November.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman, Inc.

Also, since I celebrated all the other holidays I knew of last week, it's time to give out two last shout-outs.

To any celebrating their African heritage:

Sorry I couldn't find something more
celebratory. Sometimes Google sucks.

And to everyone; every last one of you, my beautiful, amazing readers: