2007/2008

Originally Posted 12/31/2007


With less than an hour left of this year I figured now was probably an appropriate time for a post reflecting on the year and listing my resolutions for 2008.

2007 was an interesting year. 2006 ended/2007 began with a blowout roommate wise and one of our worst roommates ever leaving. We began the year with her replacement, who was also pretty bad, but not quite as bad. He lived with us for only a couple months because he lost his job and OD'ed the night before rent was due. We had to call an ambulance for the first time, but he  His replacement turned out to be pretty great. Today is an especially fine time to reflect upon that roommate as today was his last day living with us. This afternoon he got on a plane and moved to Washington. In the last two and a half years with have lived with a lot of people (that tends to happen when you rent a 5-6 bedroom house); one family member, three friends, three acquaintances, and a handful of random people we found on Craig'sList. Of all the random people we've lived with I never expected to find someone like Sean. We have parted ways with most our roommates amicably, living with 5 or 6 other people is not everyone's ideal situation, and while cheaper people do tend to get tired of it over time. We have parted ways with a few in fights that were loud and quite unpleasant. Sean is the first we are truly sad to see go. He went from being just some guy living down the hall to being close friends with most of us. He will be greatly missed. I hope that, despite the distance, he remains a friend. 

Midway through January one of the close friends we live with moved away for several months, needing some time away. He returned to us in the summer, and we are glad to have him back home. Shortly after he moved back or lease was up and we had to begin looking for a new home. Originally we planned to move out of the house we were in and find something with just the significant other, good friend, and I. Soon after we realized how hard it was to find a place for just the three of us that we liked and wasn't insanely expensive. Luckily our landlord showed us four or five other houses and while it lacked the central air we had grown accustomed to in the last house, we fell in love with our current house. It's a beautiful brick house that was previously a parsonage. The selling point? A large library with built in bookcases with beautiful glass doors. That was all we needed to see. We have lived here happily for over 5 months, and it was the right choice, I'm sure. 

Our collection of books, which before was sprawling and could not be contained in our measly shelves looked tiny in our library, filling not even a quarter of it. This is until my grandparents decided to move about four months ago, and all my aunt's books that were boxed up in their attic needed a home. Fifteen boxes of books later I would say our library is now 80-90% full. It's a beautiful, glorious thing. Which brings me to my next book point. 

In 2007 it was my goal to read 50 books. I know to a lot of avid readers it seems like not that much, but from the age of about 8 or 9 to 14 or 15 I didn't read. I loved to read, but had trouble finishing books. I hadn't found what I loved yet and would get to the middle of each book and lose interest. This all changed when Oliver handed me my first fantasy book, and I've been horribly addicted since then. Each book I've read since then seems like an accomplishment to me, even if a small one. So, without further ado, the books I read in 2007:
*=my first time reading that particular author

1.) *Coraline - Neil Gaiman 01/03/2007
2.) Party Princess (Princess Diaries 7) - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
3.) Shadowland (The Mediator 1) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
4.) Ninth Key (The Mediator 2) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
5.) Reunion (The Mediator 3) - Meg Cabot 01/04/2007
6.) Darkest Hour (The Mediator 4) - Meg Cabot 01/11/2007
7.) Haunted (The Mediator 5) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
8.) Twilight (The Mediator 6) - Meg Cabot 01/24/2007
9.) Queen of Babble - Meg Cabot 01/25/2007
10.) Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot 01/27/2007
11.) Size 14 IS Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot 01/30/2007
12.) Project Princess - Meg Cabot 01/03/2007
13.) *I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You - Ally Carter 02/13/2007
14.) *Twilight - Stephenie Meyer 02/17/2007
15.) New Moon - Stephenie Meyer 02/25/2007
16.) *13 Little Blue Envelopes - Maureen Johnson 03/12/2007
17.) *Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner 03/25/2007
18.) *She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders - Jennifer Finney Boylan 04/07/2007
20.) *Secret Society Girl: An Ivy League Novel - Diana Peterfreund 05/06/2007
21.) *A Great and Terrible Beauty - Libba Bray 05/27/2007
22.) *Don’t Look Down - Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer 05/29/2007
23.) *One for the Money (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 05/31/2007
24.) When Lightning Strikes (1-800-Where-R-You) - Meg Cabot 06/01/2007
25.) Two for the Dough (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/03/2007
26.) Kushiel’s Justice - Jacqueline Carey 06/08/2007
27.) Three to Get Deadly (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/13/2007
28.) *Wicked Lovely - Melissa Marr 06/17/2007
29.) Four to Score (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/18/2007
30.) High Five (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
31.) Hot Six (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/19/2007
32.) *Stray - Rachel Vincent 06/20/2007
33.) Seven Up (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/21/2007
34.) Hard Eight (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
35.) To the Nines (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 06/26/2007
36.) Under the Rose - Diana Peterfreund 06/27/2007
37.) Magic or Madness - Justine Larbelestier 07/03/2007
38.) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - JK Rowling 07/08/2007 (reread it)
39.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - JK Rowling 07/22/2007
40.) Queen of Babble in the Big City - Meg Cabot 07/24/2007
41.) *Moon Called - Patricia Briggs 07/30/2007
42.) Blood Bound - Patricia Briggs 07/31/2007
43.) Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer 08/07/2007
44.) Rebel Angels - Libba Bray 08/19/2007
45.) *Working for the Devil (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/25/2007
46.) Ten Big Ones (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/27/2007
47.) Dead Man Rising (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 08/27/2007
48.) Eleven on Top (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/28/2007
49.) Twelve Sharp (A Stephanie Plum Novel) - Janet Evanovich 08/29/2007
50.) *The Silver Kiss - Annette Curtis Klause 09/02/2007
51.) *If Angels Burn - Lynn Viehl 09/02/2007
52.) *Succubus Blues - Richelle Mead 09/07/2007
53.) The Devil's Right Hand (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 09/08/2007
54.) Vampire Academy - Richelle Mead 09/09/2007
55.) *Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews 09/13/2007
56.) *Kitty and the Midnight Hour - Carrie Vaughn 09/16/2007
57.) *Tithe - Holly Black 09/18/2007
58.) Valiant - Holly Black 09/27/2007
59.) Kitty Goes to Washington - Carrie Vaughn 10/02/2007
60.) Ironside - Holly Black 10/09/2007
61.) *Glass Houses - Rachel Caine 10/17/2007
62.) Dead Girls' Dance - Rachel Caine 10/20/2007
63.) *Vampire Kisses - Ellen Schreiber 10/26/2007
64.) Saint City Sinners (A Dante Valentine Novel) - Lilith Saintcrow 11/10/2007
65.) *Halfway to the Grave - Jeaniene Frost 11/11/2007
66.) Big Boned - Meg Cabot 11/30/2007
67.) *The Scent of Shadows - Vicki Pettersson 12/03/2007
68.) The Taste of Night - Vicki Pettersson 12/22/2007
69.) Succubus on Top - Richelle Mead 12/24/2007
70.) *The Devil Inside -  Jenna Black 12/26/2007

Using Amazon.com and Renlearn.com as well as estimating on a handful of books it looks like I've read approximately 5,730,286 words this year. Seems like a huge number. Makes me smile. :D  I most certainly met my 50 book goal. Lots of YA. Lots of Urban Fantasy. My goal this year is 75, and to diversify my reading a bit more.

I feel like I've taken huge strides in my writing this year. I know I have a lot more to learn, but it feels more refined. I learned to write a query letter this year. I tried my hand at a hook for the first time in December 2006 with Miss Snark's Crapometer. In the following year I tried my hand at it  several more times, writing 3 more practice letters and refining each. The latest is for my current WIP. I think it's the letter I will end up using when the time comes. I wrote 55,632 words that I've typed and probably 20,000 written longhand sitting in various folders for future projects. I can't help myself, when I came up with each idea this year if I had a piece of it in my head I wrote it so I wouldn't lose it. 

I didn't finish writing any books in 2007, but I am going to change that this year. I spent the first 9 months of 2007 working on my practice book. I knew it wasn't *the* book, but I thought writing it would be good practice so I wouldn't waste any great ideas on books I wasn't good enough to write yet. The problem with continuing to write a book that is flawed and my heart wasn't in is it dragged horribly and I just couldn't make it work, since, you know, it was fatally flawed. In the end of September or October I realized that forcing myself to trudge away at it wasn't doing me any good and I let myself quit and begin work on a new book, with an idea and characters I loved and a story that I was sure I could make work if I just kept at it. The first draft of Queen of Freaks is now approximately 25% complete (ignore my meter on the side, it doesn't like me and doesn't want to update) and I'm loving it. This book will be finished. Assuming this whole being sick thing resolves itself soon (what a great way to begin the new year, huh) I hope to be finished by Jan. 27th. It will be great to finish my first book.

In the last month or so I began something new, cutting out pictures that remind me of characters or scenes from my books and posting them over my desk. Since I started doing this everything in my stories seems so much more vivid. I spent hours at length searching for pictures that suited my characters. Being able to look up at them when I look away from the screen is such a comforting thing. When I get the chance I may post a picture of my wall.

So, writing goals for the year to come...

• Write 520,000 words. I'm aiming for 2,000 each day with weekends off to spend with the significant other.
• Finish first drafts of four books.
• Write a proposal for each series I intend to pursue eventually so I have a proposal for each  on file.
• Query aggressively once I am ready.
• Do not let myself query before the book is well and truly ready.

Other goals for 2008:

• Walk at least 366 miles.
• Eat healthier.
• Cook more instead of going out so much.
• Create my placeholder website for my domain. Nothing complicated, just a clean cut, simple (but nice looking) page with my contact information, a little about myself, and the first three chapters of Queen of Freaks.
• Keep my house cleaner (though this is excruciatingly difficult when 7 people live in your house)

Well, I think that's it for my long-ass post. Happy New Year all.