A Year in Review with Way Too Many Photos
Highlights of 2019
This was going to be a bookish post, but it’s funnier if I interject some farm stuff here and there. And since funnier is always better… HERE.
Winter inside and out on the farm looks like this:
Pretty, eh? It really is!, and quiet as hell. We joke that we haven’t seen a deer near our house since we moved in and that’s because *SPOILER* children are loud as F. But in the winter, their big mouths are inside, and all is quiet on the farm front.
And just look at at that snuggly reading area! Chris actually read 16 chapters of my manuscript in 2019. Let’s rejoice in the small wins, shall we?
I made a random goal to read 25 books in 2019. I actually thought it was kinda lofty, since I was very busy doing other things (work, family, farm, publishing internship, writing 2 books, etc.). But it turns out I can totally handle 25 books, since I surpassed my goal by 7 books – and that’s not even counting the 5 manuscripts I read for friends and the 19 manuscripts I read for the publishing internship, the 9 books I started but didn’t finish, and the insufferable amount of times I read my own manuscript. Challah!
Here’s my 2019 reading list of published books:
I love maintaining this list and I suggest it for any Big Readers. And honestly, this isn’t the complete list – I have a “Ratings” column (5 stars), a “Finished” column, and a “Notes” column. I am a firm believer in closing a book mid-way if it doesn’t grab you immediately. Sometimes the book just isn’t the right book at that time, and I refer to this list when I want to go back and give something a fresh start that was once a “DNF” (Did Not Finish). One of my sisters says she almost never stops reading, even if she doesn’t love it, because more times than not, she appreciates the ending and is glad she kept going. Another of my sisters says there are too many books in the world to suffer through one, and I agree with her! Also, I’ve read several books, even when I hated them, and by the end I wished I hadn’t kept going. But to each his own! You Do You, as 2019 said. (Actually, Mary Shelley said it first in 1818 in FRANKENSTEIN.)
The highlighted titles were my favorites of the year. Amusing, since only one (A DANGEROUS COLLABORATION) was released this year. There were a ton of 4-stars, but only these three got all 5 stars. If you’d like recommendations, I’m happy to give them. Heck, I’ll recommend some right now. But I’m not great with synopses, so check ’em out at Barnes & Noble first. And describing how each made me feel when reading is pretty important:
Rec #1: AND THEN THERE WERE NONE adult mystery by Agatha Christie. This is nothing new, folks. But it was to me! I read this well into the night and could not put it down – except those times I had to pee. And let me tell you, it was scary to get out of bed and go to the bathroom because I felt like I was the next victim. I was, as Anne Shirley says, “deliciously scared!”
Rec #2: A DANGEROUS COLLABORATION adult historical mystery by Deanna Raybourn. This is the 4th of her Veronica Speedwell mystery series and I could just eat it up. There are 2 more books coming out!, and I mark their release dates on my calendar so I can be sure to read ’em as quickly as possible. I recommend starting with A CURIOUS BEGINNING and going from there. Veronica Speedwell might very well be my favorite female protagonist of all time. What a sass-master. Also, her feral counterpart, Stoker, is the man of my dreams. (Sorry, Chris. Get an eye patch and we’ll talk.)
Rec #3: AN EMBER IN THE ASHES by Sabaa Tahir. I sweated through every chapter of this YA Fantasy. It was published in 2015, so I’m pretty late to jump on this bandwagon, but if you haven’t read it, READ IT. It’s especially good for YA writers, I think, because it beautifully illustrates what wild tension and conflict is on every damn page.
Rec #4: SPECTACLE YA historical mystery by Jodie Lynn Zdrok. This was spoooooky and I read it during a thunderstorm and it scared the hell out of me and I loved it. I enjoyed the “Whodunit” aspect and that I was guessing the whole time. The French flare was also lovely.
Rec #5: FIRE COLOR ONE YA contemporary by Jenny Valentine. This was published in 2015 and I never heard of it until I was researching some editors’ books. It. Is. LOVELY. Talk about character and voice! It’s quite short, and while there isn’t a huge, complicated plot, it’s rich with characters you love to death or want to kill. Also, the imagery and metaphors are to die for.
Honestly, I could recommend a shit-ton of books on this list. Someone I could recommend you never pick up. The major lesson I have learned in publishing so far is subjectivity. A friend of mine was going nuts on Twitter about one of the books on my list that I could not finish because the characters were garbage piles. One of the books on this list taught me how to pop someone’s eyeball out, and another taught me the power of kissing a villain, and another taught me how NOT to write. And all of them together taught me that good books and shitty books get published, and there’s really no rhyme or reason. It’s all about the power of what one person fancies. And that, my friends, is infuriating. Oh well. “Life is pain, highness,” as Wesley tells us.
Speaking of pain, I found my monthly calendars from 2019. These basically reflect deadlines and goals for reading/writing I had every month. They’re amusing.
I started the year off with working on SECRETS IN THE STONE and worked until May, when my agent put us on submission. I also started and internship at a new literary agency.
I looked like this from January – May.
Also in January, we trapped a rat that was hanging out in the basement but made its way to our kitchen. Please don’t think we’re disgusting – we live in the middle of nowhere on a farm. I am certain it’s the only rat, because now we’ve let the cat inside and shit is taken care of.
Wanna see how big the rat was?
Mutha effin’ huge.
I was sick for most of February and March. This is actually me doing chores:
In April, one of our bunnies had a second litter of mother fuckers. I prayed to God above they’d die. Yes, I did. Because we’d just given away the first litter and were going broke feeding these little bastards. We couldn’t handle eight more. But God is gracious and answered my prayers, because the next day, all eight bunnies were dead. Did I feel guilty? Hell no! Only when Grady buried them in the woods and asked me to step away so he could say a prayer did I feel a sliver of guilt.
By the way, Spring on the farm looks like this:
We also lost some teeth, killed some birds, and kept on writing.
Summer was particularly busy for me, even though I had a few days of vacation, because I was finishing up my literary internship and also drafted my newest manuscript.
Chris and I discovered our love of homemade mojitos with mint from our garden. Grady discovered frogs and the neighbor’s pond. Gretta and Perry re-discovered make-up. And Walter turned 10 years old!
By the way, summer on the farm looks like this:
In the fall I traveled to Salem, MA to attend a Lit Fest.
Salem is such a cool place, even though the day I went it was in the upper 80s (filthy) and sweating like a pig. But the Lit Fest was great, and I listened to many authors I love discuss writing and publication. I whined to the published authors that I’d been on sub for 4 months. Oh, child…. You young, foolish child…
I worked on the new manuscript until November, when I sent it to my agent. And I didn’t maintain a calendar in December because December is for Christmas and crafts and relaxing. But this is what fall looked like:
In early winter, we were hit with sad news – our black goat Holmes had to be put down. We came home one day and he would not move or eat, and by the next day he was drooling and his eyes were moving rapidly. The farm vet came to the barn and we had to let him go right there. I’ve never suffered the loss of a pet before, but let me tell you, it is a specific pain that makes you feel like a failure. Helpless and guilty. We still don’t know exactly what happened to Holmes, but there isn’t a day I see our barns that I don’t think of how we somehow failed him. But that’s all part of farm life, I guess. But it sucks.
~We love you, Holmes.~
But there were still good days to be had in 2019.
I mean, we made a loaf of dick bread, so that’s a plus.
Chris is still crushing it at school, producing and directing professional-grade high school musicals, then doing farm stuff on the weekends. And we’ve been married for 11 years.
My agent is still subbing my manuscript to editors and we’re hopeful for 2020. And she didn’t hate my newest manuscript, so I’d call that a big plus.
And every day, we love our farmhouse as much (or maybe more?) than we did when we first set eyes on it. It’s teaching the kids responsibility, but it’s also giving them a really good, wholesome childhood… intermixed with learning how to pour Mommy’s beer correctly. Fun fact: Grady gets up at 6:30 every weekday and does the morning chores in the barns before school. By himself.
And every day here smells like Grandma Bethyl’s farm.
We’re doing okay. We lost Holmes, but we’re moving forward to 2020 with “high-high-high hopes,” per Brendon Urie.
And just maybe we’ll have a few more animals join the farm in 2020…
And, God willing, some bookish announcements as well.
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