January 3, 2021

Happy New Year!!!

2020 in Hindsight

(I told you I would make that same dumb joke as I made last year.)

Anyway, 2020 is moldering in its grave, so it's time once again to briefly look back before gazing forward.

I won't bore you with all the numerical details, but, in brief, I didn't quite make it to my goal of four writerly activities a week, but considering what a wretched year it was all round, I don't feel bad about that in the slightest. All things considered (a pandemic, working in a city that doesn't require masks, clinical homesickness, riots, politics, wildfires, etc), I think I did rather well.

I got a ton of research done, including topics such as human experimentation during the Cold War, Arthurian legends, forensics, criminology, civil defense films on bomb shelters, female serial killers, auras, and 1960s radicals. (Yes, those are all for the same book series!). I also received the Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology for Christmas, which will serve my folklore and fantasy obsessed brain for years to come.

I've also been keeping up (mostly) with my Rant Rave Reviews. Real people I don't know have subscribed to me and commented on my videos, which I consider a roaring success!

Finally, and most importantly, I have started drafting my AHFM trilogy (because, of course, it ballooned into a trilogy). The prologue and first two chapters are done! That being said, I still want to keep this one close to my chest for a while. I'll discuss it from time to time on my various social media sites, but I have other, bigger publicity plans this year.

2021: The Year of Styx!!!

Next year, I'm going to focus on two goals, and two goals only.

  1. Finish the first draft of the first book of the AHFM WIP. It will be around 24 chapters long, so if I write two chapters a month, it should be doable.
  2. Re-promote the Styx Trilogy!

I've noticed this odd trend on Writing Twitter and Tumblr to discuss "current WIPs" and nothing else, to write one (or more!) books a year, and, well, to just kind constantly produce and produce and produce and just, like, never stop? I'm not saying that focusing on churning out as many words as possible is false consciousness (but I am heavily implying it!), but it's not my style.

I love my WIP, with all it's secrets, but I also love my books, Miscast Spells, Outcast Shadows, Recast Light, and Love & Chaos. There is a reason I spent ten years of my life in that world; I really like it. 

And, yet, when I first started promoting those books, five years ago (holy cow!), I was not as social-media savvy. I also had a tiny fraction of the followers I had now. Thus, while my new WIP is secretly cooking in the oven, I'm going to give my Styx books some much needed attention and TLC.

We might have one or two Styx-based surprises on here, but most of the action will be on Tumblr and Twitter, where I will be reposting/retweeting my Styxian stories, "World of" posts, and character profiles.

As for the blog, I'll still be posting my reading roundups (except for December, in which I read one book) and various thoughts on writing and storytelling. My Rant Rave Reviews shall continue as well, plus a few other vlogs that I can hopefully produce once I find some good (ie, free) editing software.

And with that, I bid you all a Happy New Year. Here's to making it one of the greats!



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