December Wrap-Up & January Goals

Happy 2017 to all! This year I’m looking forward to continuing work on the Steel Empires series, contributing to Speculative Chic, reading lots of amazing books, and attending fun conventions, and watching lots of great movies and television shows. This year’s motto is probably “Work hard, play hard.”

December Wrap-up:

I only had two goals last month, and I blew them both out of the water!

• An additional 20k words were added to Steel Empires book 4, Steel Time, bringing me to 90k words.
• For the first time all year, I am officially caught up on my book reviews! I didn’t want to make it an official goal in case I failed, but in the space for a few weeks, I cleared off the list of every else I’d read between July and December of 2016.
  • Cloak of War (Empress Game #2) by Rhonda Mason (5 stars)
  • “No One on Earth” by Jennifer Lorring, part of the Starstruck Holidays anthology (4 stars)
  • The Four Sisters (All New Wolverine Vol. 1) by Tom Taylor (3 stars)
  • “Clay Tongue” by Nicholas Conley (4 stars)
  • A Study in Sable by Mercedes Lackey (4 stars)
  • Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany (3 stars)
  • Magic Steals by Ilona Andrews (5 stars)
  • Fairest, Winter, and Stars Above by Marissa Meyer (all 5 stars)
  • Home Birth (Kaiju Revisited #2) by Jessica McHugh (4 stars)
  • The Anatomy of Jane (WJM #1) by Amelia LeFay (3 stars)
  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong? (The Chronicles of St. Mary’s #6) by Jodi Taylor (5 stars)
  • Closer to the Heart (Herald Spy #2) by Mercedes Lackey (3 stars)
  • Under the Empyrean Sky (Heartland Trilogy #1) by Chuck Wendig (4 stars)
  • The Purple Heart Detective Agency by Rock Neelly (3 stars)

According to Goodreads, I read 55 books in 2016! You can check out my whole year in review at the link.

In addition, here are all of my Speculative Chic contributions for the month of December. If these sorts of things interest you, I hope you consider subscribing for more great content in the upcoming year. We have lots of amazing things planned.

• Sound Off! Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Sound Off! Moana
• Heroes v Aliens: A Conversation about the Arrowverse Crossover Event
• Sound Off! Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• My Favorite Things
• Sound Off! Assassin’s Creed
• Biggest Disappointments of 2016
• Sound Off! Passengers
• Future Favorites: Our Most Anticipated Releases of 2017

January Goals:

1. Finish Steel Time! I took yesterday off, but starting today, I’m going to write 1k words a day until I get to “The End.” According to my outline, I have 7 scenes left in the book.
2. I have notes from critique partners on the first 10k of the book, so the ultimate goal is to make those revisions and then send the whole thing off to my beta readers by the end of the month to get first impressions.
3. Stay up to date on my book reviews. When I finish a book, write the review. Currently, my physical “to be read” pile includes 93 books and graphic novels, and my Kindle holds 42 books. As usual, my yearly goal is 50 books.

What are you up to this month, and the rest of this year?

There are some great movies coming out, and I’m looking forward to everything from seeing Hidden Figures this upcoming weekend to counting down the days to Star Wars Episode VIII in 12 months.

I’ve already been officially invited to return to two conventions this year, and my goal is to become a participant for at least one new convention.

The first books I’m going to tackle this month are new releases by some friends, but despite the size of my TBR pile, I’m always open to suggestions! What are you looking forward to reading in 2017?