Hello friends! Some of y'all may remember that back in October, I absolutely raved over Christina Baehr's Wormwood Abbey, a cozy gothic fantasy about family and dragons and tradition and change. Well, the sequel to Wormwood Abbey, Drake Hall, just released this week (the week of Dragon Appreciation Day, very appropriately), and I am here to tell you that it is every bit as delightful as the original — and in some ways, it's even better.

 

Reasons Why Drake Hall Is an Absolute Delight

1. It's grounded in family (for better and for worse). This was one of the things I loved best about the first book, and it continues here. Since Wormwood Abbey, Edith, her immediate family, and her cousins have all grown closer, and it's beautiful to see the bonds that have formed (and continue to grow) between them, whether that's Edith encouraging Gwendolyn as she steps outside of what was expected of her and towards her dreams of the future, Gwendolyn helping Edith navigate life as a keeper of dragons, or just George, Violet, and Una having their own adventures in the background. That said, this book also hits on the ways that family shapes you — and, particularly, how family can cause pain and hurt, whether that's intentional or not. We see this in multiple characters, particularly Gwendolyn, Una, and Simon. However, Baehr keeps the promise that there can be change and healing firmly in view, so this never becomes overly disheartening.
2. There are so many lovely dragons! Wormwood Abbey gave us a glimpse of a few notable dragons — but now that Edith, her parents, and her brother have been initiated into the secrets of the abbey, we see far more of these magnificent creatures. These include both the familiar — Francis and the wyvern both are frequently present on the page — to new types of dragon like the river dragon on the cover. We also see dragons from many different lands: European, Asian, and more — plus, more dragon lore! Y'all know I love lore.
3. It's simultaneously the perfect summer book and the perfect winter read. I have, to this day, only read one series that is quite as infused with the essence of summer as Drake Hall is. (That series, by the way, is the summer-vacation half of the Penderwicks books.) Baehr's description brings the lush warmth of this glorious season to life alongside the feeling of possibility that summer brings. Those qualities, plus the highly enjoyable voice, make it the perfect book for enjoying on a summer afternoon . . . or on a winter night, when the narrative will make you forget the snow outside and feel as if some of that summery-ness has found its way to you.
4. We get to know Simon Drake much better. We knew from Wormwood Abbey that he is, of course, an Excellent Gentleman well-versed in the secrets of the abbey and the dragons it guards. In Drake Hall, as one might expect, we see more of him than almost any character aside from Edith — it's not quite his book as much as hers, but it certainly comes close. As one might expect, that means we get to understand him — and the forces that shaped him into who he is — far better than we did when we started the book. And while I can't give spoilers, I will say that getting to know him more is a very pleasant experience . . .
5. The tension between tradition and change is handled very well. Aside from the family elements, the other big theme in the Secrets of Ormdale books seems to be the tension between tradition and change. Wormwood Abbey, Drake Hall, and Ormdale are very rural, traditional places, and some of those traditions are good . . . but sometimes, clinging to tradition because it's traditional or it's how things have always been can cause more hurt than harm, and we see that quite clearly in these pages. Baehr acknowledges both sides of this conflict, recognizing the good in each, and as with the family themes, she never lets the reader lose sight of the hope that things can be better than they are.
   

Are you excited for Drake Hall? What's another grounded-in-family fantasy that you love? And if you haven't read Wormwood Abbey and you're curious, you're in luck — the ebook is on sale for $0.99 through January 20, so make sure you pick that up!
Thanks for reading!

Mantles of Oak and Iron Release: Interview with Captain Marik

Hello, friends! Today is the release day for Mantles of Oak and Iron, book two in Jenelle Leanne Schmidt's epic gaslamp fantasy, The Turrim Archive! I'm super excited to help celebrate this release — moreso because I got to interview my favorite character in the series, Captain Marik of the airship Valdeun Hawk! I'm also sharing my thoughts on the book over on Light and Shadows, so make sure you check out that post as well. And if you're entirely new to the Turrim Archive, I have good news! Book one, The Orb and the Airship, is currently on sale in Kindle format for $0.99, so you can pick that out and get started on your adventure! Or, again, you can stick around here for the interview.

About Mantles of Oak and Iron

Grayden thought he had four years to decide his future… he was wrong.

War is imminent. The Igyeum has already begun incursions across Telmondir’s borders. The headmaster of the military academy issues a new directive: all students will be fast-tracked through the program. They will be full-fledged defenders by the end of the year. But when a training exercise turns deadly, Grayden must keep his head and become the leader his friends need.

Captain Marik has witnessed evil beyond imagining. Enough to make him sign on to the wizard Dalmir’s cause. But will the council of the west accept a pirate among their ranks? And will Marik’s crew join this mission, or will they consider him a traitor to all they once stood for?

Meanwhile, deep in the mountains lurks a hidden danger that threatens them all.

Find it on: Amazon || Goodreads

Find Jenelle online

Interview with Captain Marik

Captain Marik, art by Chloe Grace

Hello, Captain Marik! Welcome to the blog! I have to say, I'm a big fan of yours . . . but not all my readers know you, so to start out, please tell us a little bit about yourself: who you are, what you do, anything that you feel is important for us to know so we can understand what makes you, you.

Hello, thanks for having me over to this… blog, you said? I’m not sure what a blog is, but it’s always nice to meet a fan. I am a pirate by trade, though I started out as a treasure hunter. Unfortunately, we soon discovered that there wasn’t much treasure in the treasure hunting business, so we had to make a switch to piracy. Crew needs to eat, airships need cynders, pesky things like that drove us to it. We try not to harm people, but sometimes you can’t avoid it. Personally, I try to make sure that those who pay the most are those who have harmed others, or that I’m the only one in my crew who has to make the hardest decisions. I’m under no delusions that I’m the good guy, you see. But if I can protect those under my care from having to descend into the same darkness I walk alongside, then I will.

I know that you do your best to protect your crew, and that's one of the reasons I'm a fan. I understand you're currently making a career change of sorts — pirate to, well, something else. What's been the biggest struggle with that shift for you? Conversely, what's something that's come out of it that you've really enjoyed or appreciated?

I didn’t realize that was already common knowledge, but… yes. My crew and I recently encountered a man named Dalmir who helped change the trajectory I was on. I was mostly bent on survival and revenge, you see, and he showed me that I could do more to right some wrongs.

The hardest thing about this shift is not really knowing exactly what my responsibility is at any given moment. Working for the Council of Telmondir is not something I saw myself doing… working on any side of the law is not something I ever saw myself going back to. But here I am. For better or worse.

Something that’s come out of it that I appreciate is, well, a sense of working for a much greater good than I could have done on my own. Having a clear conscience, I suppose you might say.

It's not common knowledge (unless you read the blurb at the top of this post). I just know things. Moving on, as an airship pirate, I can imagine you've had some pretty impressive adventures. Can you tell us about one that's particularly memorable for you or that you felt was an especial triumph?

My favorite place in the world is a little hamlet in Vallei. The houses are small and humble, but the walls are covered on all sides with rice paper that has been painstakingly decorated by the people living in each home. Green mountains rise up on all sides and people work out in the fields from dawn till dusk just trying to carve a living out of the meager crops that grow in the area.

(Marik shakes himself here and gives a rueful little smile.)

Of course, the whole village is gone now, just a pile of ash left in wake of a regiment of Igyeum soldiers.

As for where I’d still like to go, I’d love to explore beyond the edges of the continent someday. Maybe fly out over the ocean and see if there is anything out there.

I'm sorry that your favorite place is no more, but I hope you can explore like you hope to someday. Changing topics a bit, a good captain needs a good crew . . . so tell us a little about some of the people in yours. Anyone you're especially close to?

My crew mostly consists of Oleck, Raisa, and Mouse. We hire others on at times, but those are the three that stay with me and live on board the Valdeun Hawk. Oleck is my first mate and right hand man. He’s steady as a rock, despite his fairly pessimistic outlook on life. I always know I can depend on him to have my back. Raisa is like a little sister to Oleck, and I sort of see her like a niece. She’s got a steady hand and a weather eye, and there isn’t anyone else I’d trust more at the wheel. Mouse is our little scamp. Kid sort of followed me home one day and I can’t get him to tell me where his family is. I couldn’t just leave him on the streets, but someday I’ll figure out how to take him home. I’m happy to have him on board, though, kid is quick-witted and good with locks.

Sounds like you have some good friends, then. I have to say, I'm curious about Mouse . . . hopefully someday he'll decide to reveal his background. One last question: how do you hope that people, either those in your world or those who read about you, remember you?

Like I said earlier, I know I’m not the hero of any story. There are things I’ve done that I’m not proud of. But I also know that there are monsters in our world, masquerading as men, and if I could take them with me, then I’d be happy to go out fighting against them to my last breath. I won’t ask anyone else to risk their lives for it, though.

I think you might be wrong about not being the hero of any story, Captain. If you're not there yet, your answers say you're headed in that direction . . . and I look forward to seeing where that path takes you. Until then, thank you for appearing on my blog and answering my questions; it's been a pleasure to have you!

Are you excited to meet Captain Marik? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Hey'a, friends! How's the first week of the New Year treating you? I have one last post to wrap up my 2023 recaps: my 2023 End-of-Year Book Celebration! I always do these a little into the new year, just in case I read something amazing (or at least noteworthy) the last week of the old year. I want to make sure I celebrate all the books deserving of celebration! Also, as a reminder, this post covers books I read in the six months since my Mid-Year Book Celebration back in July — so anything I read in the first half of the year isn't included here. Doing two book celebrations lets me spotlight twice as many books, and it also saves me from going out of my mind trying to fit a whole year's reading into one post. (I know other people do it, but this is more fun for me.)

As usual, if you want the short-and-sweet top five, you can go check out my Best of 2023 (Part the Second) list on Light and Shadows. But if you want all the categories, keep reading!

2023 End-of-Year Book Celebration

As always, we start with the statistics! According to Goodreads, I read 158 books, well past my goal of 101, and 42,818 pages, which neatly doubles where I was at my Mid-Year Book Celebration. That's also twice as many pages as I read in 2022 and almost twice as many books. My average book length is 271, about the same as last year, and I actually only read five books longer than 500 pages this year — I'm out of practice with epics, it seems. To be fair, I've reread a lot of series of short books, and I also read a good bit of manga. And, once again, my average book rating is 4.4 stars.

So, my overall statistics show a good reading year. Hopefully that makes up for the fact that my specific reading goals had somewhat . . . mixed results.

• For my goal 12 books published (or written) before 1975, I've actually read 18 books in this category, which is great! However, the second half of my goal was that at least nine of them (or 75% of them, depending) not be aimed at children. In that respect, I did . . . less well. I finished six books and one short story that were written before 1975 and aren't considered children's literature. (I did read Dracula twice, sort of, but I'm only counting it once for purposes of this goal.) Granted, I'm still in the process of reading Moby Dick, Kidnapped, and Dante's Inferno, so if you include those, I have nine books and one short story . . . but the eleven children's books I read still dominate pretty heavily.
• As for my goal of reading 15 non-speculative fiction books, I again came close but didn't succeed. I read 11 non-speculative-fiction books, though two of them are sort of in a grey area (in that they could kind of go either way). Of those, three were poetry, three were general nonfiction, two were somehow about cooking, and three were children's classics. So, I had a good variety here, at least.
• And when it comes to my recommended reads list . . . despite some very good intentions on my part, I only managed to read one book on it, and that was all the way back in April. Ah well. It was a good thought, but it was all too quickly forgotten (I say in passive voice, as if I wasn't the one doing the forgetting).

For more statistics or the full list of everything I read in 2023, check out my Goodreads Year in Books or my tracking form results. Or read on for some specific books I want to highlight!

1. Best book you've read in the second half of 2023:

The fact that I read a lot of sequels and rereads in the last six months makes this question a little easier than usual — but even if that weren't the case, Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr and Black and Deep Desires by Claire Trella Hill would probably still be at the top. I loved both of these Gothic fantasies — one a cozy tale of dragons and mysteries and family, one full of vampires, monsters, haunting dreams, and lovely romance — and expect to reread both many times. If I had to pick just one, Wormwood Abbey might come out a smidge on top (because I will always pick dragons over vampires), but they're both so good.

As a runner up, I have to mention Steal the Morrow by Jenelle Leanne Schmidt, which is a lovely gaslamp fantasy retelling of Oliver Twist. It takes the essential bits of the original and gives them new life and a new look . . . but it's also distinct enough that even if you aren't a fan of Dickens, you'll probably like this.

2. Best sequel you've read in the second half of 2023:

This one is not actually a difficult question because Dark and Stormy by Suzannah Rowntree was so good in every possible way. The crew's schemes, the machinations of Vasily's family (all of whom are utterly mad), the dynamics between the characters, the growing feelings between Molly and Vasily, the various characters all figuring themselves and each other out . . . and the ending! I'm still not over it.

Oh, and speaking of things I'm still not over: W.R. Gingell released two new Worlds Behind books that could challenge Dark and Stormy, but Behind the Curtain is my favorite of the two and my new favorite in the series as a whole. It's so good. And I can't even say half of why because spoilers, but suffice it to say that I will never not love it when people who think they're only for causing pain find they can, in fact, do other things and do them well, and also I have never been so happy about someone non-villainous getting stabbed. Just go read the series and you'll see what I mean. (But make sure you read City Between first.)

3. Best book you've reread in the second half of 2023:

The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff are just as good the second or third time around as they were the first — they're better in some respects, since you can appreciate what the author is doing more when you're not panicking about whether or not your favorite characters will survive.

 4. New release you haven't read yet but want to:

Despite being thoroughly hyped for The Olympian Affair, I still have yet to read it, and the release date rather snuck past me without my noticing. I shall have to remedy that soon! Though I need to reread The Aeronaut's Windlass first . . .

5. Most anticipated release for 2024:

You'd think my answer would be the new Stormlight Archive novel — but actually it's Dark & Dawn by Suzannah Rowntree. We all know I'm a sucker for these gaslamp fantasy heists . . . but I'm especially looking forward to this installment. After all the everything in Dark & Stormy, I desperately need to know what happens next! Goodreads and Amazon currently have this coming out in September, but Rowntree has said there's a chance it'll be sooner, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.

Additionally, Christina Baehr has said that we can potentially look for all four of the remaining Secrets of Ormdale novels in 2024! Drake Hall comes out in a little over a week, and Castle of the Winds, book 3, is on Amazon and Goodreads with an April 14 release date. The other two don't have official listings yet, but are slated for July and October. I am thoroughly excited, and I don't know if I'll stop screaming all this year.

Besides these, I'm looking forward to No Man Left Behind, the conclusion of W.R. Gingell's Worlds Behind series. I'll be very sad to say goodbye to Athelas (again), Harrow, Camellia, YeoWoo, and the rest . . . but I also can't wait to see how Gingell wraps up their stories! Also, that cover is giving me Suspicions, and I will be delighted if I'm right.

Last but not least, we have more Turrim Archive novels from Jenelle Leanne Schmidt! Mantles of Oak and Iron releases next week (and I'm very belatedly reading my Kickstarter ebook copy right now), and according to the Kickstarter, we can look forward to Book 3 sometime later this year. After all the excitement of The Orb and the Airship, I'm looking forward to seeing where the rest of the story takes us — and seeing more of Captain Marik!

 

6. Biggest disappointment:

This is a reread, not a new read, but I was disappointed that Magyk didn't hold up as well as I hoped. I've spent a lot of this year rereading old favorites, and they've all still been so good on the reread, but Magyk just . . . wasn't quite doing it for me. To be clear, it's still a good book and a fun read, but it didn't enchant me the same way it did in the past.

7. Biggest surprise:

I think this is probably Second Chance Superhero by H.L. Burke. I was fairly certain I'd like it going in — after all, I have yet to encounter an SVR-verse novel that I don't like. What's more surprising is that Second Chance Superhero is solidly a romance first and a superhero story second (as opposed to equal parts of each), but it might be one of my favorite SVR books anyway.

I also have to mention Black and Deep Desires again here — not because I didn't expect to love it (W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree both endorsed it, and I met the author at the June book signing, so I was pretty sure it would be a four-star read at minimum) but because teenage me would be utterly scandalized that adult me is not only reading but recommending (and fangirling over) a novel about vampires. I'm not sure if this counts as character development or not, but it's something.

8. A book that made you cry:

No actual tears, but I do get emotional at several points in the Illuminae Files.

9. A book that made you happy:

I read Twelve Days of (Faerie) Christmas by C.J. Brightly just before Christmas, and it's such a fun, clever, sweet story with a lovely romance, a cool twist on the Twelve Days of Christmas song, and characters I quickly fell in love with.

10. Favorite post you've done this half of the year:

A lot of my posts this year have been either Doings!, reviews, or seasonal reads, so there's less to choose from than usual. But I enjoyed writing Five Years Published for the five-year book birthday of Blood in the Snow (and the start of my author career).

11. Most beautiful book you've bought/received this half of the year:

 

This is a two-way tie again. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is the most beautiful in terms of pure aesthetics — I love the blue and pink and the art style, and I think it might be the prettiest of the Secret Projects. But the Dracula Daily hardcover is also beautiful — maybe a little less so aesthetically than Yumi (though I do think it's very nice-looking), but because of what it represents, because of the community and collaboration that sprang up around this 200-year-old book.

That wraps things up for me — but what about for you? What are the best books you've read in the second half of 2023? Also, what's the best book or series you've reread? Tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

Onward and Upward [2023 Recap//2024 Goals]

 

Back when I wrote my 2023 Goals post, I described 2022 as straightforward, busy, and "pleasantly predictable." And here, at the end of 2023, I just have to say . . . I miss pleasantly predictable. Pleasantly predictable was nice. So was straightforward. 2023 has been neither of those things, unfortunately. It's been rather challenging. Not entirely — 2024 also contained many good things, some that were "We wish this hadn't had to happen, but under the circumstances, it could have been MUCH worse" and some that were indisputably excellent. Still, I suspect I will look back on this year with very mixed feelings.

I confess that, as a result of, well, everything, I kind of forgot about most of my goals about halfway through the year. Still, we'll recap and see what I managed, and then we can get on with setting some new goals for 2024. But first, don't forget that my New Year's Eve short story posted last night, and y'all should read it! Also, if you're watching for the second half of my 2023 Reading Celebration/Best of 2023 list, I'll post those on Friday. I read a lot of good books in 2023, so I'm going to have to make some tough decisions there . . . but that's a problem for the me who's already finished writing this post. Let's stick with one thing at a time.

(Before I go on, though, one more quick sidenote: Through a Shattered Glass is free on Kindle through January 4 because it was chosen as the Fellowship of Fantasy book of the month for January! So, if you haven't read it yet, now's the time to get a copy.)

2023 Recap // 2024 Goals

2023 Recap

Year of Water and Grow

• My theme for 2023 was "water and grow" — maintaining what I've achieved and growing myself and my skills in various ways.
• In theory, these themes (based on CGP Grey's "Year of . . ." theme method) are supposed to guide the whole year, but I just kind of use them to set goals and then assess at the end of the year.
• I would say that I had . . . mixed success with that theme. In some areas, I definitely achieved both watering and growth. In other areas, I was doing well if I just managed the watering bit.

Writing

• My goal for 2023 was roughly the same as the one I've set the last several years: to actively and regularly work towards specific writing goals at least ten out of the twelve months in the year. And I can say without hesitation that I have done that! In fact, I spent all twelve months actively working towards specific writing goals! Did I meet every monthly goal? No, because "finish Bastian Dennel, PI #4" was one of my goals in multiple months, and I just accomplished it a week ago. But that's ok!
• My total wordcount for the year was 286,032 words. That's lower than last year, but I also worked on fewer projects this year, and I had other tasks taking me away from my writing more. It's still a good 100,000 words higher than 2021, and it's only about 50,000 lower than 2020, so I'm more than satisfied.
• I also achieved another general writing goal/dream when Through a Shattered Glass won the 2023 Realm Award for Novellas. I'm still a little astonished at this, actually — I expected that I'd be dreaming of this award for quite a few years yet. But I'm also delighted, and winning the Realm Award was one of the highlights of my year.
• Additionally, I attended two events to sell my books: Eat Local, Read Local and Doxacon. I can't say that I attended solo because the lovely Heather Halverstadt shared my table and gave me some great direction at both, and L. Jagi Lamplighter was also at our Doxacon table. Still, these feel like pretty significant milestones!
• Regarding specific project goals:
  • I wrote, submitted, edited, and published Song of the Selkies with the Stolen Songs Arista Challenge. Last year, I described the idea that became Song of the Selkies as "shorter and faster to write [than my BDPI Little Mermaid story]." Past me, you sweet summer child, you had no idea. I worked on this right up until release day, with only a few brief pauses. Still, it's out in the world, I'm happy with it, and other people have enthusiastically told me how much they like it, so, hey, I'm not complaining.
    
  • I released a short story with the Wags, Woofs, and Wonders anthology. "Grim Guardian" was fun to write, and I'm so glad that it was accepted into the anthology! I didn't get to do as much with the release as I intended, but I'm still pleased.
  • I finished drafting Bastian Dennel, PI #4. I originally thought I'd be done with this back in February. That's hilarious. But, y'know, I made progress! I also decided that it's going to require a hefty rewrite and will probably become book five in the series, but that's ok. In that sense, I sort of accomplished my goal of drafting BDPI #5 . . . but I didn't write the story I originally thought would be BDPI #5 (which will now be BDPI #4, so I'm not giving myself too much credit there).
  • I know what I'm doing for the 2024 Arista Challenge (tentatively). I intend to start writing it today or tomorrow, in fact. The only reason that "tentatively" is in there is because I have learned my lesson.
  • I have kept up with my Defenders of Serys D&D campaign. We spent a bit over half the year in Middle Earth, which was good because it meant I knew where things were going, but also got a little unsatisfying to write after a while. And now we're back in Serys, working through an adventure I've had in mind for a while, and that's been fun.
• I've mostly kept up with blogging and author socials. I took a few more blogging hiatuses this year than in some past years, and I definitely missed more Wednesday Instagram/Facebook posts than I intended. Still, I think I did ok under the circumstances.

Reading

• As per the usual, I'll cover my reading goals in my Best of/End-of-Year Book Celebration posts. For an early look at my stats, you can check out my tracking form results.
• By way of a brief summary: I shot way past my overall reading goal (101 books) with a total of 155 books read. I also did pretty well with tracking my reads in detail, and I think the new version of my Google form worked well. However, I didn't succeed at most of my more specific reading goals because I decided to go with mood-reads instead.
• I also did a much better job of tracking what I watched! This was actually easier than tracking my reading, as I could usually enter the details of what I was watching while I watched it. I ended up using a Google form based on the one I have for tracking my reading, and that worked well. A few statistics, in case anyone is interested:
  • I watched 72 distinct movies, episodes, or videos.
  • The majority of those (79%) were episodes of TV shows.
  • The shows I watched the most were Over the Garden Wall (1o episodes), Leverage (9 episodes), Fairy Tail (6 episodes), and Hogan's Heroes (6 episodes).
  • I did most of my watching in May, June, and October, which makes sense — in May and June, I was watching a lot of shows with my sister, and in October, I rewatched Over the Garden Wall.

Life

• I started online grad school. This was my unspoken job-related goal in last year's goal post, and . . . well, I'm a third of the way through a Master's in Professional Writing! I'm doing it! I did spend a lot of the time second-guessing my decision, but I haven't thrown in the towel yet!
• My job is still going well. This year's work has involved slightly fewer new things, though there have still been some interesting challenges: we changed printing companies (which meant I had to find our new company), we ran into new and exciting troubles with the livestream and internet (cue many groans), and we finally managed to pull off an EDDM (neighborhood-based) mailing (after a false start and a failed attempt — the catalyst for our change in printing companies).
• I'm still practicing German . . . and I went back to learning Irish. For once, I surpassed past me's expectations on a goal! I said I wasn't adding a second language . . . but a few of my friends were talking about learning Irish, and I happened across an explanation of some concepts that befuddled me on my first attempt, so now I'm doing both German and Irish on Duolingo. It seems to be going ok so far.
• I did not figure out a consistent exercise method. I did pretty ok for the first eight weeks or so, when I could usually spend some time on the treadmill a couple times a week while working on grad school assignments. However, that didn't work super well with my second class, nor was it ideal for my novel writing, and then the summer happened, so . . . yes.
• My whole family had a weird, stressful summer and fall. Go back and read my May 2023 Doings post if you want more detail as to why, but long story short for those who missed it (or for future me, looking back): my grandpa fell and broke a few vertebrae shortly after my sister's graduation. The injury was far, far less serious than it could've been (thank God for protecting him), but it still meant my mom was up at his house most of the summer — the first weekend of May through Labor Day weekend, minus about three weeks in July — while my dad, my sister, and I stayed in Virginia and took fairly frequent weekend trips up to see them both. Then, about a month and a half after my mom was able to come home, my grandpa's health went downhill again, and he had to have open heart surgery . . . which went well, but was also scary. Praise God, he's doing much better at this point, and I am praying so hard that 2024 is better for him. So, yes. There were many miracles over the course of everything, but that doesn't mean it wasn't hard for everyone (my mom especially).
• However, this summer did still include some fun things! Namely:
  • I drove all the way to Ohio to attend a book signing featuring W.R. Gingell and Suzannah Rowntree! This was absolutely awesome — and not just because meeting some of my favorite authors was absolutely awesome. My sister drove up with me, which meant we got to spend lots of time together, and we stayed with a very good friend of mine (my former roommate) who I was delighted to see again in person.
  • I attended Realm Makers for a second year! This was my first year at the St. Louis location, which I'd heard a ton about. It was much less overwhelming than Atlantic City, though also much more cramped. This was also my first time flying solo, which ended up being much less stressful than I expected — in fact, it was actually pretty fun! Of course, the highlights of the trip were the Realm Awards ceremony and getting to see my friends (especially Kendra E. Ardnek and Wyn Estelle Owens) in person again.
  • My family went back to White Sulphur Springs for a joint retreat between our Bible study and another Bible study in Ohio. White Sulphur Springs is one of my favorite places in the world, so this was a very good time.
  • I got a lot better at and more comfortable with cooking as a result of having to do more of it this summer while my mom was away. I'm still not great at juggling a lot of tasks at once, but I can make several of my favorites, and I can improvise on certain types of foods! So that's a win.
• My D&D group defeated one of our major nemeses (twice) and found out we're pretty close to finishing the campaign. This is notable mostly because we all hate the now-defeated nemesis more than the actual BBEG of the campaign, and also we made his final defeat on the last session of the year, which was kind of satisfying.

Well, that wraps up my Year of Water and Grow. Again, it's not really what I expected or hoped, but I know God was working in all of it. And now it's time to lay out my 2024 theme and goals to hopefully start the New Year well.

2024 Goals

Year of Staying the Course

• I thought about dropping the whole "Year of" themes because I forget about them well before I forget my actual goals.
• But then I realized during church yesterday (while praying about my goals and themes) that there was a theme that would work well for this year . . .
• And that theme is Staying the Course. With writing, with grad school, with work — the key is, as always, consistency. And I know from last year that I'm going to have challenges in some of those areas. That I'm going to wonder if I can do the thing I've said I'm going to do. But I want to stay the course, to keep going, unless I receive a clear indication that doing so is the wrong choice.

Writing Goals

• Not much new here. I'm repeating my overall goal from last year: I want to actively and regularly work towards specific writing goals in at least ten of the twelve months of 2024. Again, these can be wordcount goals, or they can be project goals like "Write this much of [book/story] by the X date." I'll probably switch back and forth depending on what best suits what I need to get done.
• I am deliberately not increasing the number of months in that last goal because my other overall goal for the year is to keep up better with deadlines so I can build in time to rest between projects and I'm not working on things until the last minute. In 2023, pretty much the only times I took a creative writing break of more than a couple days was when I was either sick or working on a big grad school assignment that took up all my time, and I was terrifyingly close to the wire on some projects. While everything worked out, and while I think I had some pretty extenuating circumstances, I don't want to repeat that in 2024. I want to make sure I have some proper time to rest and refuel between projects, and I want to go back to finishing things well ahead of my deadlines so I have wiggle room if anything goes wrong.
• Of course, we also have some specific project goals:
  • I want to write, edit, and publish Daughters of Atirse #2, which is also my 2024 Arista Challenge project. I aim to have it drafted by the end of March, which will mean lots of writing in the next three months . . . but will also give me plenty of time to have beta readers take a look before I edit, polish, and format so it's ready for a September release without having to scramble.
  • I want to write, edit, and maybe publish the new Bastian Dennel, PI #4. As I mentioned earlier, the BDPI #4 novel I worked on the last few years is being pushed back to book 5, and what was book 5 is now book 4. This should be a much shorter book (given that it's a less complicated plot with fewer POVs). My hope is to have it ready to go either around the end of 2024 or early in 2025.
  • I want to write and submit a story for H.L. Burke's DOSA Files anthology. I love the SVR universe, and I'm super excited for a chance to write in it! This has a wordcount cap of 10K words, so if I can block off a week or so, I should be able to get it done. The trick is just picking that week.
  • If I manage to hit all three of those goals and still have time to spare without denying myself rest, I want to either edit BDPI #5 (formerly #4) or draft at least half of Daughters of Atirse #3 or #5. Again, this is only if I hit my other goals and can pick up another project without overdoing it. And, yes, I said either #3 or #5 of the Daughters of Atirse series because I'm really excited for #5, and it's a direct sequel to Song of the Selkies, as opposed to a prequel or spinoff-sequel like a lot of others I have planned. Since the series order is a little looser, I can probably afford to write some of them out of order if I really want to. It'll just mean sitting on the draft longer.
  • Finally, repeating a goal from last year, I want to keep up with writing my Defenders of Serys D&D campaign. This is an essential project, but since my group tends to have short sessions, it's not an overwhelming one. I anticipate I'll need to write two or so adventures for this, and I know what the next one is. As long as I don't get bogged down in making three million NPCs, I shouldn't have any trouble.
• Moving on to some writing-related, but not novel-related goals, I want to keep up my current blogging and social media schedule (and be better about not missing weeks on social media). As a reminder for myself, that's a blog post and one to two Facebook/Instagram posts per week, three weeks out of every month.
• On a related note, I want to finally post some of the backlog posts I've been sitting on from earlier in the year, particularly the results of my music and focus study. I just need to rework it from what I submitted for the class, and that's not something I've wanted to do when I have current classwork.
• Last but not least, I want to attend as least three author events to sell my books in-person. I hope to repeat two from last year, and then I just need to add one more.

Reading Goals

• My reading goal for this year is 93 books. Yes, I'm dropping my goal from 2023 even though I surpassed it, and you'll see why in a few bullet points.
• I'm reattempting last year's read-more-old-books goal, aiming for 12 books published (or written) before 1975, at least nine of which were originally aimed at adults. I know why I failed at this one last year: I got stressed and switched to exclusively mood reads and ARCs. I know I can do it, though, if I'm a little more deliberate about finding older books that I'm excited to read.
• I'm also reattempting last year's genre goal of reading 15 non-speculative fiction books in 2024. Again, I know this is something I can do; I just have to not get distracted by mood reads.
• This is a little vague, but I want to decrease the number of physical books I own but haven't read. Which is to mostly say that I want to read more of the books that are on my shelf but I haven't read yet. I'd like to be more specific — get down to fewer than some number of unread-but-owned books — but doing so requires figuring out how many books are in the category in the first place. This ties in with a goal in the life section as well, as you'll see.
• My last reading goal for 2024 is to catch up with H.L. Burke's SVR-verse books and Sanderson's Cosmere and Secret Project releases. I'm behind on both of these, though for different reasons. In the case of the SVR books, I started off behind, and Heidi tends to release new books while I'm not looking. (To be clear, I know they're coming. I just don't realize they're actually out.) In the case of Sanderson's books . . . at first, I didn't want that much of a distraction from what I needed to do. Then, I was stressed (as I've said before), and anything longer than about 500 pages felt like Too Big a Commitment. But I love both of these authors, and I know I'll love all the books I haven't read, so I really want to get up-to-date with them.
• I want to keep tracking what I read and watch. I've done pretty well with this the last couple years, so I'm not sure I still need to set it as a goal, but we'll go one more year before I decide it's enough of a habit that I don't need to specify.

Life Goals

• This should go without saying, but I want to finish another four grad school classes, which comes out to one part-time year. I've registered for the first two of those; the other two will happen in the fall.
• I want to keep up with learning German and Irish. I have a system worked out pretty well, fueled by bonus XP boosts and my desire not to lose my streak, so hopefully it'll keep working!
• Once again taking a shot at a goal I repeatedly fail: I want to figure out a method of exercise (or at least physical activity) that I can enjoy enough to do once week. I am pretty sure that the bar is on the ground at this point, but y'know. Gotta start somewhere. (I did discover a month or two ago that I can walk on the treadmill and play D&D at the same time, though, as long as my character sheet app works and I don't set the speed high, so that may help.)
• I want to return to Realm Makers. I've actually already started making plans for this, and I'm watching the Realm Makers site like a hawk for when conference registration opens up. I'm so excited.
• This is a bit smaller than some of the other goals on my list, but I need to weed and reorganize my bookshelves. This has been on my to-do list for most of 2023, but I keep putting it off. I know I have a lot of books that I'm not likely to read or reread, but I'm holding onto them for various reasons — because I think I should read or at least own them, because I bought them new, because they're pretty, because they make my shelves look better, and so on — and I need to fix that, if only so I have more space for books I genuinely love. 
• I want to make one recipe per month from my new Baking Yesteryear cookbook. I got this for Christmas, and I'm very excited to try some of the recipes. I think one recipe per month is doable, but I may dial it back to one every two months if necessary.

What were your 2023 highlights? What goals, themes, or resolutions do you have for 2024? Please tell me in the comments!
Thanks for reading!