Happy Solstice! ...and my year in books

The longest night of the year, and the turn to more light. I can't wait. Even living as far south as I do, the winter days are too dark and too short!

Though the last lights off the black west went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs.

(Those captions are from Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur").

And with that for the nod to the solstice, a little year-end fun. This blob will be a bit spotty in the next week or two, so this is my reading round-up, with a little help from Bruce's Shelfies at The Bookshelf Gargoyle: My year in books. Take these answers in the spirit intended, and check out Bruce's year!  If you want to join the fun, just be sure to give the Gargoyle due credit. I'll give a nod as well to Jemima Pett who called my attention to it!

So far, I would describe this year as being: Between Planets
I’m tipping that the next big thing in Reality TV shows will be: The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu
I could have cried when: Summerlost
I would love to have some respite from: The Black Thumb
The most unexpected thing that happened this year involved: Dragons at Crumbling Castle
My non-bookish friends would say I: Dare to Disappoint
My motto for 2017 will be: One Perfect Shot
I am most looking forward to: The Turn of the Tide
A recurring dream I’ve had this year features: Murder Most Malicious
If you looked under my couch you would see: The Vampire Mechanic
If I could no longer blog, I would probably pursue a career in: Finding Clarity
Something most people don’t know about me is: R...My Name is Rachel
Titles link either to my review or to the book's Goodreads page if I haven't posted a review. There are a number here that I assumed I had reviewed, but apparently just read and enjoyed!

©Rebecca M. Douglass, 2016
As always, please ask permission to use any photos or text. Link-backs appreciated!

IWSG: 2015 round-up

It's the first Wednesday of the month (and of the year), and that means it's time for the Insecure Writer's Support Group!

Purpose of the IWSG: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Looking Back at 2015

It's a new year, and time to contemplate the year just past. Happily, I have this blog to help me remember what all went on in my writing life, because it does seem like a long year. There was a lot that went on in my personal life: my eldest son graduated from high school and went off to college (three states away); my younger son traveled to Mongolia with the Experiment in International Living (and if your kid wants to do some travel, I can recommend the organization; the trip did wonderful things for him); my husband turned 60 and started making concrete plans for retirement. All of that will do as an excuse for maybe not keeping my focus as well as I'd have liked.

My Year in Writing

I just snuck a peak at my 2014 year-end roundup and plans/hopes for 2015. Probably shouldn't have done that. One thing I'm a little disappointed in: I didn't publish any books in 2015, though I missed it by only days. With Death By Trombone officially released on Friday, it pretty much counts--everything was completed in 2015. Once again, the revision process took longer than I intended or expected, although most of the delay was not mine, but trying to get beta readers and editors lined up and then to get feedback from them. If I want to improve that process, I will probably have to stop bartering and start paying real money, so it probably won't happen.

Nor did I manage to do much to shake up the blog or increase my marketing efforts, though I had one triumph: I set up a newsletter sign-up and issued my first newsletter this week. It's becoming clear that I am pretty hopeless about marketing, and might have to be hatched all over again and hatched different to change that. I managed to use that new Twitter account a few times, but mostly not. I still haven't put the effort in to understand Twitter and don't feel like I have the energy to give to another branch of social media.

On the positive side: I kept up the regular blog posts, including almost-weekly flash fiction and a steady stream of book reviews in several genres. I drafted most of the 3rd book in the Pismawallops PTA mystery series during NaNoWriMo, and have chipped away at the 3rd Ninja Librarian book until it is probably 3/4 drafted. I also finished an editing and formatting project for a friend, resulting in the release of a book that means a great deal to him and may help some people deal with life. I learned a lot doing the project, both about editing (and formatting), and about wisdom.

In the end, I feel a little unsatisfied with my progress, and maybe that's as it should be. If I'm ever totally content, what will spur me to do more?

Goals for 2016

I'll keep this one simple:
--Improve marketing and increase my rather stagnant sales.
--Finish, edit and publish the Ninja Librarian, Book 3 (still lacking a satisfactory title).
--Finish and edit the Pismawallops PTA #3 (the working title, Death By Adverb, didn't work out so well as the story turned out, so that will be in search of a title as well).
--Begin submitting short stories for publication
--Begin work on Gorg the Troll's own book
--Continue the blog more or less as is: 1-2 book reviews/week, Friday Flash Fiction each week, and periodic photo posts from our travels

If I manage half of that, I should probably be pretty satisfied!

New Year's Round-up

It's the end of another year (and what's with that, anyway? Used to be a year lasted for, well, months and months. Now it's about 15 minutes). and time for some reflection on what I've done, what I'm doing, and what I think I ought to be doing.

Don't worry. I'm not going to talk about losing weight (though I'm sorry to say I gained back all I lost trekking in Peru, and then some) or getting daily exercise (I do). I'm talking about writing.

The Year in Review:

This was a big year for me, writing-wise. I brought out the first mystery in the Pismawallops PTA series, Death By Ice Cream, in April. In November I not only published my first middle grade fantasy, Halitor the Hero, but joined forces with six other great writers and participated in the first Bookelves Anthology, a collection of holiday stories for children. I also managed to survive the April A to Z daily blogging challenge, and averaged about 2.5 posts per week the rest of the year, despite being out of the country for five weeks in June and July (and on the trail for three weeks of that time).

It was also a good reading year, as I kept up my better-than-two-books per week reading pace, posting reviews for many, both works for children and adults. I felt at times as though I wasn't reading enough (dang that Internet and its distractions!) and sometimes felt like I was being pushed too hard to read for a deadline. My reading and reviewing (and Internet usage) need to be examined.

I also began tentatively reaching a bit farther out to make more connections in the blogging world, although my reading and commenting dropped off sadly this fall. Rather, I never regained traction in reading or writing after our summer travels, though I did finish the not insignificant editing process for Halitor.

I also did several classroom visits at two different schools, and was well-received by the kids and teachers alike. These visits are highlights of my writing life!

What I didn't do was much new writing, aside from weekly (or nearly) flash fiction. Thank goodness for that, which keeps me sane when I'm revising! By a quick count, I did 37 Flash Fiction stories, if That is 37,500 words right there!

Reflections on 2014:

I feel like the year was a mixed bag. As my comments above suggest, I'm happy to have managed to publish two books in a single year, but those were both largely written before the year began, so I had a year very heavy on revisions. That was not ideal, and I need to work on making my revision process more efficient, so that I can spend more time writing!

My level of engagement with the profession went up, but not enough. Sales also went up, but again, not as much as I had hoped. I still need to work on the advance publicity for a book. I have my days of thinking that I need to hire both a maid and a marketing director, because I don't seem to be doing an adequate job in either area!

So...what about 2015?

So here's the deal about 2015: I want to write more than ever, and I want to shake up the blog a bit, connect more with more people, writers and readers, and use my time more effectively (online and off). Piece of cake, right?

My thoughts run something like this:
For the writing, I plan to finish editing Death By Trombone (the Pismawallops PTA #2), which I drafted during NaNoWriMo 2013! (I also don't want to get this far ahead of myself again; it was for that reason that I didn't do NaNo 2014). I hope to have my first cut done in a couple of weeks so that I can send it out to my first editor/beta reader. Then I can turn my attention to the next project: the Ninja Librarian's third book (still untitled). And I want to create my own short story anthology, using flash fiction I've published here, spruced up and expanded in some cases. And, of course, I'm starting to think about the next full-length novel after revisiting Skunk Corners. That's probably enough and then some!

As for shaking up the blog, I definitely intend to continue with the weekly Flash Fiction. I like it, and my readers seem to like it. I will also continue posting book reviews, but I may back off to one per week, so that I do children's books the 1st and 3rd weeks (to participate in the Kid Lit Blog Hop) and adult books the other weeks. I need to connect up with more people, so will look at participating in additional hops and tours.  Because I do want to continue to post three times/week, I will be filling in the other days with more varied posts, on writing and possibly on life (though my life isn't very interesting), and more photo essays of current and past journeys. I will also work on the flip side of blogging, visiting other blogs.

If I want a new time sink, I will endeavor to learn to make use of the Twitter account I set up last month!

What do you think? What should I do more or less of in my blog?

Oh--and Happy New Year!

Did you get a new eReader for Christmas? Load it with my new book, Halitor the Hero, a fantasy for 10-year-olds of all ages. Use the Smashwords code AV66V to get it at 40% off! Just click on the cover image: