2018 felt like a very intermediate sort of year, a year that was building up for next year. One of my good friends has said that 2019 will be my year and I hope she’s right. XD Most is this year was focused on Iceland for next year so I’m really looking forward to the new year!
What I did:
1.) This Month: I honestly didn't do a lot of writing this month. I still need to finish Black Hood but I was just trying to wind down for the year and get motivation to go full steam ahead in January.
This Year: This year I felt really discouraged about writing. It took me a whole year to write a draft which is the slowest it’s taken me in a long time. I mostly focused on blogging and other writing because I felt like at least writing those either made me money or at least were read by others and enjoyed. But slowly this year a good part of my other extra writing commitments have fizzled out and I think that’s a sign that I need to focus on the writing I love most which are novels.
I’ve gotten some good news and bad news in the publishing world. Some news I haven’t heard back yet but I’m crossing fingers for good responses. But I’ve had supportive friends and you all here and I really appreciate your encouragement throughout my writing journey in the ups and downs.
2.) This Month: This was a whirlwind of a month! It didn't feel particularly Christmassy this year because I was so busy with work, but I still had a lot of fun. I got to see a lot of family and friends. Before Christmas, I got to go back to the Illuminate Festival with a friend and this time the entertainment was incredible. The acrobatics and dancing were so cool!
Christmas eve my family and I had h'ordeuvres and saw Christmas lights and we went to Pettit Creek Farms where we got to see reindeer and I rode on a camel!
On Christmas day, we opened presents, ate Christmas dinner, played Pandemic (my new favorite board game which I got for Christmas!), and saw Mary Poppins Returns! My friends also gave me this AMAZING commissioned art piece of my characters! Doesn't it look like a freaking movie poster?!
Then for New Years, I visited my family up in Tennessee then my immediate family and I drove through two national forests to the town of Helen which has a Bavarian village and there we tried escargot and watched an Edelweiss drop for New Years!
This Year: 2018 definitely had a lot of highlights. Though I had a few slip-ups I feel like my mental health is better than ever. It’s such an improvement since I was a teenager and I’m so happy to be able to function almost completely normally. For the first time in ten years, I haven’t felt crushingly depressed around the holidays. I’ve also managed to maintain two jobs that work well together so my finances are better than ever and I enjoy both of my jobs so despite being busy my mental health hasn’t taken a hit. Again thank you, everyone, for your continual support.
I’ve made a lot of memories this year and done a lot of things I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. I visited my birth grandmother and spent some time with her and learned more about that part of my heritage.
I walked on a glacier and saw a totem pole and a bighorn sheep in person.
I did all the Asian things this year and went to two Chinese festivals and a cat cafe and had real authentic ramen!
3.) This Month: I read Rhett and Link's Book of Mythicality and The House with the Clock in Its Walls!
This Year: This year I read twenty-one books, which I know is tiny compared to most of you but I read a lot of books I’ve been meaning to for years!
4.) This Month: I didn’t really do any art this month but now I can reveal my annual Christmas present clay projects I did this year. I handbound books and made the covers out of clay and put inspirational quotes inside them.
This Year: I did a few pieces this year but then stopped about halfway through the year because I lost confidence. I got sick of hearing people call my drawings “cute.” I did some pieces this year. Some I like, some I don’t like as much but I did some. I think my favorite is the patronus because I actually got the lighting and foreshortening right!
5.) This Month: I did a review of Mortal Engines on Geeks Under Grace! I enjoyed the film!
This Year: I did five pieces on Geeks Under Grace, a staff feature for Havok Magazine, and seven pieces for Geekdom House!
The Geeky Department:
1.) This Month: I saw the Crimes of Grindelwald, Mortal Engines, and Mary Poppins Returns. Crimes of Grindelwald had a lot of good elements but it was very jumbled and Mary Poppins Returns was cute, but my favorite was Mortal Engines. It was a fun movie.
2.) This Month: I've been watching RWBY, Voltron, and Final Fantasy XV: Brotherhood!
This Year: I watched all of the current seasons of Attack on Titan, Kekkai Sensen, Handmaid's Tale, and My Hero Academia and I watched all of the Crown and A Series of Unfortunate Events and I liked all of these! My favorite was probably My Hero Academia though because I love All Might.
3.) This Month: Gosh, I've started so many video games and now it's finding time to finish them. I've been trying to finish Final Fantasy X but I'm stuck on a really hard boss battle, I've been playing Skyrim on my Switch while traveling, and I got distracted from Final Fantasy XV to play Kingdom Hearts on my new PS4 because I've been trying to play that game FOR YEARS.
This Year: I FINALLY PLAYED BREATH OF THE WILD! I was pining to play that game so long and I’m so happy I finally got to do it! I also played Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask at long last too!
4.) This Month: I did not do any cosplay this month. XD
This Year: I got to cosplay as Lady Bishamon from Noragami. She is such a special character to me and I loved being able to represent her this year!
I also did a scouts version of Ymir. ^ ^
5.) This Month: I got several new Pokemon in Pokemon GO this month! Did lots of hunting in historic districts!
This Year: I finished most of my Kanto (three to go), Johto (seven to go), and Hoenn (twelve to go) regions in time for Sinnoh to release!
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| I have all of these except for four. XD In case you were wondering ... |
1.) Next Month: I’m hoping to finish drafting Black Hood then go back into Silver Hood and reread it to rewrite it. I also following up on some potentially amazing writing news. I'm just hesitant to reveal before anything is set in stone, but stay tuned!
Next Year: Optimally I’d Like to get Silver Hood ready for betas for realz and then, of course, do NaNo though I have no clue what I’ll be doing yet. I’d also like to work on editing Black Hood but I’m just going to keep the bar low for now. XD And also see what’s going to happen with the news I received from publishing professionals.
2.) Next Month: I’m officially registering for the Iceland Writers Retreat! After nine months of saving, I’ll be saving my spot and I’m so excited! I just have saving up for spending money to go then I’m golden! So excited!
Next Year: I’m going to NYC to visit my cousin in February, Iceland in April, my friends and I are planning to do MomoCon and MegaCon in May, and I want to do something for the Chinese New Year. Other than that I'm not sure what I'm doing. XD
3.) Next Month: I’m going to read War Storm by Victoria Aveyard! And I’d like to read Tower of Dawn by Sarah J Maas too if possible.
Next Year: I’m going to try to bump my reading list up to 24 books and see if I can do that in a year. XD I know. A lot of these I've had in the past years, but I want to for real read them!
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
War Storm by Victoria Aveyard
Germ by Robert Liparulo
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by J.K. Rowling
Predator’s Gold by Phillip Reeve
City of Glass by Cassandra Clare
Queen’s Rising by Becca Kufrin
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan
The Mortality Doctrine by James Dashner
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Watcher in the Woods by Robert Liparulo
The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber
A Series of Unfortunate Events: The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket
The Spiderwick Chronicles: The Field Guide by Tony DiTerlizzi
Paper Towns by John Green
Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K Le Guin
Spindlefire by Lexa Hillyer
Sky in the Deep by Adrian Young
4.) Next Month: I want to for real do a drawing of Aska. It’s calling to me.
Next Year: I really want to try to do a piece of art a month again. I miss doing art and it’s good to have another creative outlook besides writing and I want to try to regain my confidence in my drawing.
5.) Next Month: I’m trying to write my first piece for a webzine called Think a Christian. It’s going to be on Final Fantasy XV!
Next Year: Like I said before in trying to focus on less extra writing so I may just focus on editing at GUG and Think Christian if I make it in.
Last Month on Stori Tori's Blog ...
A Book Review of Mortal Engines by Phillip Reeve
The Shared WIP Tag (Week 4 Even Though I Didn't Do the Other Weeks but I Wanted to Do a Post on Side Characters and Setting So There)
A Book Review of Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Knowing the Novel Part 3 (Though I Only Did this Part)
Coming Soon to Stori Tori's Blog ...
I will be on hiatus until January 15th! I'm also downsizing my posting to just two a week. Saturdays and Tuesdays to try to free up more time for novel writing.
January 15 - A Book Review of Rhett and Link's the Book of Mythicality by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal - When I saw my two favorite YouTube comedians were writing a book, I knew I had to read it and though I don't usually read non-fiction, I did enjoy it!
January 18 - So Your Character is Gothic ... Featuring Elliana Reickard - Elliana is coming back to the blog to talk about being part of the gothic subculture!
January 25 - So Your Character is From the South 2 ... Featuring Yours Truly - I did one of these years ago, but I didn't have a format and questions back then so I want to do a new edition!
January 29 - Monthly Summary: January 2019 - Like this but for January and without the next year stuff.
Overall, 2018 was an all right year. It wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t terrible. But I have high hopes for 2019!
How was your month/year? How was your Christmas? What did you do? Are you looking forward to any of the upcoming posts? Are you looking forward to any of these drawings? Have you read any of these books? Have you seen any of these movies? What are some of your goals for next year?
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Monthly Summary: November 2018
Monthly Summary: October 2018
Monthly Summary: September 2018
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