Happy New Year (on day 10…)

Hi Aledan Merfolk *sheepishly waves* It’s been a while, yeah?

I have to admit, that compared to the first half of the year (baby niece, NYC, book contract, my mom’s new kidney), the second half of the year was not quite as exciting, with the huge exceptions of Nebo Retreat and YAllFest (any time a bunch of authors get together it’s exciting and memorable!). I met a bunch of new friends at YAllFest, and hung out with a bunch of old friends I only see once a year, so that weekend was a blast. The weekend before YAllFest, Hubs met his author idol, so November was a huge literary awesomeness month for us.

Most of October and November I spent working the late shift at the lab, so I listened to lots of books, but didn’t have the brain power for much else. I listened to and/or read AGE OF MYTH by Michael J Sullivan (CHOCK FULL OF AWESOME WOMEN), NOW I RISE by Kiersten White (oh Radu, I just want to give him a hug), COMMUNICATION FAILURE by Joe Zieja (which I’ve now listened to three times because it’s hilarious), THE BOOK OF SWORDS Anthology, PARADOX BOUND by Peter Clines (I love Clines, and I will literally listen to anything Ray Porter narrates), THE LAST WISH by Andrzej Sapkowski (it’s the first Witcher book – Hubs is obsessed with the game and now the book series so I tried it), DEAR MARTIN by Nic Stone (this was the most intense book I’ve ever read, and written in such a strange, stand-offish way that I have no idea how she pulled the intensity off. It’s amazing), ARTEMIS by Andy Weir (even better than The Martian), A PLAGUE OF GIANTS by Kevin Hearne (I was worried I wouldn’t like this one, because it’s so different from The Iron Druid Chronicles, but I think it was my second favorite fantasy of the year, behind The Stone Sky), and STRANGE THE DREAMER by Liana Taylor (which left me with a lot of conflicting emotions that I haven’t untangled yet).

Now I’m re-listening to the Red Rising Trilogy by Pierce Brown and reading EMPRESS OF A THOUSAND SKIES by Rhoda Belleza (who I met at YAllFest and had nails to match her book!)

Whew. Told you I did nothing but read this fall! Well, read and play WoW. I got my fellow author and pony fanatic, Courtney Moulton, into my guild and we’ve been playing almost every night. I even started doing raids *gasp* My hunter’s a badass now (her name is Kindra, duh), and I finally learned how to play feral druid! My baby druid, Karigan, is blowing through Northrend *sniffles* They grow so fast *wipes away tear*

As for 2018, it started with a snowstorm that shut down Charleston for FOUR DAYS. So instead of a week off between Christmas and New Years, I ended up with a second week off as well…and a horrible cold from playing in the snow without proper winter boots (they don’t even sell proper winter boots here). My cold is finally abating, and I plan to be around the blog a lot more this year, especially since I’ll be posting interviews with my fellow 2018 debut authors! I also plan to get a newsletter started, to keep you all updated on Speak the Ocean’s journey to publication! This is going to be an exciting year of edit letters and cover reveals and book birthdays ^_^