Its Never Easy Getting Back in the Saddle

Well, this is coming a bit late... December is always an incredibly tough time for getting writing done. After spending a month writing 50k, I always need a few days off. This year, fortunately, it wasn't really a recovery I needed, but a chance to rejuvenate my flagging creativity. Its one of the side effects of falling into just one creative bubble for me; when I get out if straight recovery of abused muscles isn't needed, some mental recovery is. So, since Nano, I've been obsessively playing around with my tablet, drawing some really gorgeous dahlias. I've also got a quick rough picture done of an ink painting I want to do.

Now onto some awesome news! I just found out that my novel, Hunter's Gambit, has been added to at least one online bookstore in Sweden. While I realize that this is something that I should have realized would happen, seeing it actually do so is really exciting. It's a small thing, but it has absolutely made my day. Its another little way that helps me feel like I've made it. That added to the new review that I have on Goodreads and I feel like I could fly. I've also received one additional star rating, though no physical review for that one.

What does this mean? Well, Goodreads has my book sitting at a very respectable 4.25 stars with three reviews. I am secretly hoping for even more reviews for Christmas.

Speaking of which, how many of you have e-readers or are asking for them for Christmas? What books are on your gift lists this year? And will any of you be giving books (mine or others) to your family this season? Let me know in the comments!

Goodreads Reading Challenge

          Every year since I've found out about it, I have taken part in it. Last year, I only just made my goal of 100 books and so this year, I finally decided to lower it. Instead of 100 books, I'll be going for 75. It's an easy goal, it will keep me reading and, most importantly, I should be able to avoid feeling super stressed out about it. Last year, and just a little bit the prior year making that goal of 100 books stressed me out. It isn't good for my writing, or me in general, to get that stressed out over such a little thing. Especially since it isn't a competition. My goal is not to wow people with how many books I read each year. Those that will be wowed, would be as wowed by me reading 20 books as they would be by my reading 100.

          Having said all that, I have read 7 books to date this year (available here if you want to see which books they are). I have four books on the go in my to be read pile now and you can check out what those are, right here.

          Another thing I'm doing this year is to try and be creative in more ways. To that end, I'm working on drawing more this year. If you want to follow my work, you can check out my drawings here. The ones I'm working on now will all be going into my scrap file, since they're just scrap work, essentially. I used to work on my art a lot more often, but once I started writing, it went to the backburner and recently, I don't draw much at all. Because of that, my pictures aren't really very good yet. However, I am working with an app that gets you to draw something each day, so I can only hope my work will improve as time goes on. Right now, I only have one drawing up and one inking practice sheet, but it should be interesting later on.

          Are you working on being more creative this year? Did you sign up for the Reading Challenge of 2017? Let me know in the comments! Lastly, if you want to keep your Friday evening open this week, I'll be hosting an evening of #fntwp on Twitter again. Come and join me if you want to write, talk about writing or have some questions you'd like to ask me there!

My Year in Books- 2016 Edition

          Hello, everyone! Welcome back. I have a few things I'm going to have to get working on, but I told you earlier this year that I wanted to let you know what my year in books was. So I took a picture of the Goodreads graphic and I thought you'd find it interesting as well.

         Firstly, I read 100 books in 2016! A few of them were rather short, and one was actually a children's book (still counts). It made up for at least one of my books actually being a trilogy in a single volume, I feel. That 100 books was 31,739 pages worth of reading! I was more than a little stunned when I realised that as well.

          The shortest book I read was only 36 pages long; the children's book, Nobody Likes a Goblin by Ben Hatke. Offhand, if you have young children and are a bit of geek, I totally suggest this one. The writing is fun and simple for kids, but if you game, it's even better. Goblin is "hanging out his friend Skeleton" and the picture clearly shows them playing a D&D/Pathfinder type of game in one page. Another is when Goblin finds the heroes who have stolen his treasure, they have taken a buxom wench as part of the treasure. The woman herself seems quite displeased with that turn of events as well. It was entirely hilarious and worth reading.

         The longest book I read was Anne Bishop's, The Black Jewels Trilogy. The book contains the books Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows and Queen of Darkness. Pagewise the volume itself is 1,204 pages long. A great book for anyone looking for something to read. Anne Bishop books all contain a very feminist outlook, this one detailing what actually happens when women take too much of the power back and start abusing it to boot. As well, her books have been perfectly described by a friend of mine as "Violence meets Marital Bliss" which strangely works super well together.

          The most popular book I read this year, by far, was Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I shared that books genius with nearly 2,250,000  other people! The least popular book I read was a manga of Overlord, Vol. 3 by Kugane Maruyama. Only 8 other people worldwide read it with me. Sort of an insane difference, isn't it?

          I learned that I tend to rate books rather highly since last year my average star rating was 3.9 and that the highest star rating all around for a novel that I read was Brandon Sanderson's Bands of Mourning which overall have a 4.46 average rating on Goodreads.

          Next week, I'll talk about this reads Reading Challenge with Goodreads (Yes, I'm doing it again, with a lower total this year). Today, I'll leave you with an apology; I forgot to mention in my last post that I had also received Miss Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I can't wait to read it later on this year.

Finally Getting Better

          It has been a bleh couple of weeks folks. Even admitting that January/February is usually when I get my worst illnesses of the year, this one has been a doozy. I have a touch of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) or something like it; basically, I don’t do as well when the I’m not getting my preferred amount of light (I used to joke that I was obviously photosynthesizing. I get a little bit depressed, I’m a little more likely to get sick and I’m much more likely to wallow in my own depression about it. Normally by the end of March I’m champing at the bit, desperate to see green plants and bright sunlight again. Enough so that every year I take pictures of the new green buds just because they fill me with so much pleasure.

          Anyways, now that you’ve had the long story, I can say (short story) I caught the flu and it took me out for two weeks. Now I’m mostly over it, just a bit of achy muscles, a stuffed up nose, and a bit of tiredness in general left. It means that I haven’t gotten much writing or editing done in the last two weeks, though I am very glad that ‘less’ in this case doesn’t equal ‘none’. I finished editing two chapters of Hunter and have a paragraph started for a completely new chapter I’m adding to the novel. I can't wait to get even more done on it. I recently figured out an entire section to add, while quietly cutting down the storyline that my MC deals with in town.

          Speaking of my editing experience, I must say, when I first saw the changes my editor suggested I was horribly disappointed in myself. Now, I can see why she made the suggestions. Her comments really made me look at my story and decide not only what I wanted but what would make my book even more exciting for my readers. I can't wait to get even more of those changes done. 

          Lastly, I finally had a chance to get to Chapters so I can now tell you about my New Years novel. The one I chose is an awesome little fantasy called Skyborn (by David Dalglish) about twins who join their local army; using magic and mechanical wings as their weapons. It sounds interesting and I'll be starting it after I finish reading the novel I'm currently reading.

          Have any of you read any of David Dalglish's novels? What did you think of them and this one in particular? Oh, make sure you come keep an eye out for my next post where I'll be talking about what I read last year in Goodread's Reading Challenge and what my challenge for this year is!