Looking Back, Looking Forward

I know most people posted this sort of post yesterday, but I was busy with my cover reveal, so you get it today. Moving on ...

I consider last to have been a good year. Not a great year by any stretch of the imagination, but it was a good year. I didn't fully achieve many of the goals I set before myself, but I'm mostly okay with that. I didn't foresee how draining work would be on me.

I'm most upset over the fact that I didn't finish those last few school goals. I've been working on Khan's Academy and reading the various books I'm supposed to when I can find the brain power, but brain power's been a precious commodity for me over the last year. But no, it didn't get completely done.

This year, I will reach a point where I can be declared done (even if it means just getting a GED) and then I'm going to take some college courses in things that I think will be beneficial. For the record, this doesn't include writing. I'm all about studying writing craft, but college is more about credentials, and I don't need credentials to write my books. I am, however, considering library science.

As for publication goals, I wanted to release my second collection and third Bookania. I'll say close enough on both of those. The Collection got out, though I shortened it to only three stories. This was partly because I didn't get the other two stories finished, and partly because the three stories that did make it were longer than I'd anticipated, and the collection was already thicker than the first.

The third Bookania is not out, however it's release is set for February, so I came close enough. I did finish the book last year, and that's what counted.

Here's the cover if you haven't seen it. The kindle book is available for pre-order, for 2.99. If you don't mind me coming over to your blog, I'll be holding a blog tour on the 14th - 21st, and you can sign up for it here.

I wanted to get 250,000 words written total this year. I got close! After sitting down with a calculator and all of my books, I counted up somewhere in the area of 215,000 words, which I think is pretty good, since it's about 30,000 more than last year, and most of those words are the 136,000 of Water Princess, Fire Prince, and was written in the last three months. Second place would go to Kingdom which gave me 30,000 words (I'd written 10,000 last year).

Speaking of WPFP, that was a goal I did succeed with! Not only did I finish the first draft and do up my attack plan for draft two, I churned out those 136,000 words that now are the second draft. Such an awesome feeling of accomplishment there. This is my baby series, and I'm really looking forward to officially sharing it with all of you. I've set the release date for August 31st, so now I just need to get it edited! (Translation: I'll be looking for beta readers come February/March. So go ahead and start volunteering.)

I'd also wanted to finish my NaNo from last year ... but that didn't happen. I managed to eke out another 2,000 words while visiting my cousin this September (thus showing how long it sat on my computer grinning at me) and now I'm stuck on the doctor's chapter again. Sigh. This is a book you guys are really going to enjoy, and I'm really looking forward to writing the sequel, I just need to figure out what I'm doing with the last 25,000 or so words of the first book.

I did not do great on reading this year. I'd wanted to read 150? I managed to read 67, and a lot of them short piddly books. I do have a bunch of half-read books on my kindle that I need to finish reading, that I stopped because they were too intense for my brain, but still. I did terrible. Three reviews a month (two for O.Scarlett, one for Clara)? Didn't happen. I wrote five on the O,Scarlett blog and nothing happened on Clara's.

Still, I don't feel dissatisfied with myself. I held down a job for nine months and left of my own accord and on good terms with them. (Honestly, whenever I stop by for a hamburger, my boss asks me when I'm coming back) I gave them my all, met new people, gained confidence in talking to strangers. I also attended my first public event as an author, sold a couple books, got my name out. My library intends (as far as I'm aware) to hold another event this year, and I'm looking forward to attending again. I've upgraded my kindle and tablet, bought a camera for my sister, and organized my thoughts on a few of my stories.

So what does this year hold? Hopefully, more reading and reviewing than last year. And I certainly have writing plans.

Beyond the editing of My Kingdom for a Quest and Water Princess, Fire Prince, there's a third book I'd like to get out, around Christmas time - a Bookania collection, containing all three novellas, all of the short stories, and some not-yet-released stuff that I haven't written yet, including the novelette about Casperl, a short story about Robin and Robert's birthday, and a short story about what Robert and Rosamond are up to during the events of Kingdom. There may be a third story, but I'm not sure yet. I also plan to include character interviews, maybe some bloopers, and if I can organize my brain enough to draw one - a map. I won't make promises on the map, however, it may be beyond my mental powers. As I stand right now, the collection will probably be kindle only. Sorry paperback fans ...

For this collection, I intend to put Sew through a thorough edit, cleaning up the Shakespearean grammar and awkward wording. My cover artist cousin and I are talking about updating Sew's cover to fit the other two better, and I may release it as a second edition when we do that.

While I'm editing WPFP, I'll be working on writing book two and plotting book 3. I want to have 2 out summer/fall of '16, and 3 in '17. Ambitious, but I believe in myself.

Jack and I didn't get Worth finished this year, mostly my fault since I let chapter 11 sit on my computer for several months. I'm now working on chapter 13, and am going to try to get it back to her before tonight. Wish me luck. We're going to try to get the first draft done this year, and maybe publish it next year (a tentative plan, but at least it's a plan!).

V. wants to get the first Ooladada book written, and I'm all for that, since I'm really looking forward to introducing Jen's group in book three. She just needs to get her first chapter to me, since our rethinking of the world last summer necessitates a complete start over.

The other thing I'm hoping to get written this year is Silivock, because it's the first book of the Mikadas, and it's a very important chapter. I've got this book well planned out, and had even planned to write it for NaNo this year before WPFP took over, however there's a part of me that's holding back. The reason? The conversation is going to be a challenge. The Character Conversation I posted with them last year was a bit misleading. Lillillil and Rikkard don't speak English, so they can't make plays on English words. Silions and Alisili are telepathic, and rely heavily on that for conversation. Even though the Silions are only touch telepathic, they are very physical people. Yes, there is a spoken language in Silivock, but it is a very formal language, relying on thoughts/emotion and various hand positions and facial expressions to relay its full meaning. It's a complicated language, it's intimidating, but this will also probably be the only book that really uses it, since all of the subsequent books take place after they've made contact with the Chai'ons and have adopted their much simpler language for most everyday things.

So, my great plans for the year, and let's hope that, as Robin puts it, I don't fall off the page.