2015 ~ The Year In Review

It's time for the end of year blog post.... 

This year has been an emotional rollercoaster for me. I took a break from online life, which included social networks and blogging. I made a comeback mid-November and was touched by the outpouring of love and support I received from my friends, readers, and fans. It was humbling to see that even if I didn't think so, my presence made an impact in some people's lives. 

Due to a severe bout of depression, my gaming increased tenfold. I even started a gaming blog. Okay, that's not exactly true. I'd already started the blog, but this year I added a lot more to it. In a strange way, it helped me work a few things out in my head. Not many will understand that, but I know some of you will. That's enough. :) If you're into games and are curious, go ahead and check out the blog. It is public, but I basically have the thing turned "off" so to speak. Not sure I'm really ready to put my gaming self "out there" yet. So I do a lot of talking to.... myself. lol

Oddly, this was one of my best years for writing. My word count went over 110,000. Granted, that wasn't one story; more like eight different stories. Three of them got the coveted "the end" on their first drafts, though. One is a Regency short that will be published early in 2016. That one's been to beta readers already and the cover only needs a few more tweaks before it's officially revealed. 

I think that's it. Not much happened this year. Oh, yeah. I got a new laptop when an unfortunate accident destroyed my old one. Forgot to mention that. 

I'll be back tomorrow with my goals for 2016. Much ♥ to you, my faithful readers!

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

There’s a jukebox in my head. It’s currently playing

♫♪ OneRepublic ~ Stop and Stare

~2013~ The Year in Review

As is often the case with bloggers, I start each year with a list of goals for the year (writing-related) and end each year with a summation of the year and which goals I managed to reach. I don't always do the end-of-year post, but I really want to get on schedule with that. 

That said, you can see my original blog post HERE. Let's see how I did... 

I've clipped my original goals post (above) and crossed off the things I accomplished. As you can see, again, I managed to complete 3 of 11 goals. I almost made 4 of 11, but I only managed part of goal #4. On the other hand, Intrigue actually made it to the "published" stage, so that goal was taken a step further than planned. 

Other projects morphed and changed through the year. Two of my Regency shorts that were meant to be in anthologies (#7 on the list) became something slightly different. As both are closely related to Heartless, I decided they should be in their own anthology and then I decided to write a third short story to kind of tie them all up. The third story is nearing completion and the cover for the anthology is done. Watch for it to be released early in 2014. 

I'm disappointed in myself for not having accomplished #9 and #11. I managed 3 critiques. I hope to do much better with that goal in 2014. :) Number 9 went fine for the first part of the year, but I let RNC2013 (August) get in the way and while that convention was fun, in so many ways it was just too much stress. I think conventions aren't really for me. 

This year held quite a few firsts for me, the best of which was meeting some awesome online friends in real life. :) I was able to meet my very best friend, fellow writer Linda Boulanger, which was the highlight of my year. Meeting the lovely, wonderful ladies of InD'tale Magazine was a very, very close second.

And the icing on the cake was this year's book sales. This was by far my best year for sales. I made My Lady Coward free at the end of August and experienced a sales spike for all my books in all the stores they're in. My Apple sales went from 14 (seriously) to almost 7,000. Granted, since all sales (including free titles) are reported to Smashwords, the majority of those, about 5,000 or so, were copies of My Lady Coward. However, those sales didn't happen until the last ten days of August through the end of November. (Apple hasn't reported my December sales to Smashwords yet.) Yeah, this was definitely my best year for sales. :)

Last, but certainly not least, I am deeply grateful to my readers, followers, friends, and supporters. You make this all worthwhile and I certainly could not do any of it without you. ♥ 

Tomorrow I will post my goals for 2014.

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

There's a jukebox in my head. It's currently playing

♫♪ The Smashing Pumpkins ~ 1979 (The year I was born. How great is that? lol)