Just Another 2018 Wrap-Up Post

2018 was a great year! If you’ll indulge me just for a minute, walk with me through some of the highlights from Storeys of Stories.

I read WAY more books than I’ve ever read before in a single year. I crushed my goal of 52 books, ending up with 65. That’ll be hard to beat in 2019, but I’m going to aim for 70!

I read less of the books I WANTED to and more of what I felt I HAD to. I learned the hard way that its very easy to request way too many NetGalley books. I was requesting like someone who knocks out 200 books a year, and the majority of the reading with my eyes was spent on ARCs. I change that in 2019. If I wouldn’t be willing to buy it, I won’t be requesting it. No more, “I might enjoy that.”

My favourite book of the year was Bag of Bones by Stephen King. This was a really tough choice, by the way. I read a lot of book this year that I loved. Nevernight, Mistborn, Little Fires Everywhere, Station Eleven, Neanderthal Opens the Door to the Universe, They Both Die at the End, Gemina, and I could keep going.

My blog was up a million % in fun. I’m not going to bore you with stats. Why would you care? All I’m going to say is that I made some really great friends, strengthened some existing friendships, and had a blast the whole time. 

I created a blog meme. First Impression Fridays. And even though only a few people are into it so far, those that like it LOVE it. It’s a lot of fun writing a FIF, but even more fun to read them!

I finished a ‘final’ draft of a manuscript and started sending it out to literary agents. Since then I’ve received a few responses, but nothing beyond a “no thanks,” so far. *shrug* The road to being published is paved with rejection.

I completed NaNoWriMo for the third time. This was the 10th or 11th year taking part, so I was thrilled to reach 50K words. I plan on finishing it in by the end of February. We’ll see.

So that was 2018. And though I have no real complaints, I’m hoping for an even better 2019. What would a better 2019 be?

A year with even more reading.

A year I finally get around to redesigning and organizing this blog.

A year I find myself a literary agent willing to slosh through my manuscripts.

Another year with happy, healthy kids.

Another year with no complaints.

Fun fact about this post: It’s January 4th. How does it feel like we’re a month into this year already?!