2012: A Year in Review

Earlier this week I did the 2012 End of Year Book Survey where I talked about my favourite books and authors of the year, but I had a few other things I wanted to talk about before the year officially ended.

First, I just wanted to thank everyone who’s stopped by the blog this year, whether you just popped in for a quick visit, or whether you visit on a regular basis. Every comment, every follower, every RT of my reviews and other posts, has meant the world to me. You guys keep me going - keep me reading, keep me blogging, and keep me trying to come up with content I hope you’ll enjoy.

While there are a ton of bloggers I love, there are three in particular who are very special to me: Jessica from Thoughts at One in the Morning, Molli from Once Upon a Prologue, and Katie from Twirly Reads. You three girls: I seriously don’t know what I’d do without you. The three of you know more about what goes on in my life than most of my ‘real life’ friends. When something exciting happens, you’re the ones I want to tell first. You make me laugh, make me feel special, and make me feel loved. It’s gone so far beyond just our shared love of books, and I genuinely love you girls.

I’ve also had a ton of fun getting to know people on Twitter. It still surprises me when people tweet me, RT me, and strike up conversations. It thrills me beyond belief when an author I love follows me out of the blue, or follows me back after I follow them. Getting to talk to the people who create the worlds I love is icing on the cake that is blogging. Funnily enough though, this year on Twitter I feel like I talked about two things more than anything else (including writing and books): Angel and Supernatural. I watched a few episodes of the first season of Angel when it was originally on, but then stopped getting the channel, so this year I bought the DVDs and watched all six seasons back to back over the stretch of a couple months. I tweeted during almost every episode and was so surprised by the response I got from fellow Angel fans. Same goes for Supernatural: I don’t get the CW, so I never saw a single episode of Supernatural but so many of my friends love it I was sure I would too, and I found the first seven seasons for a ridiculously good price online so I bought them, and it’s one of my new favourite shows. I’ve made new friends on Twitter through my Supernatural-related tweets, and I feel like my newfound love of the show has brought me closer to online friends I already had.

2012 HIGHLIGHTS

PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

*Publishing my debut novel, Blue Sky Days, on January 17th

*Organizing and surviving a month-long blog tour for Blue Sky Days

*Going to my first author signing in March - a talk, luncheon, and signing for Gail Vaz-Oxlade

*Writing my third novel in exactly three weeks in July

*Watching one of my best childhood friends get married and having my other best childhood friend as my date

*Publishing a collection of short erotic romance stories, Undressed, on September 19th

*Publishing my second full-length novel, The Game Changer, on November 13th

*Making the women’s fiction bestsellers list on Amazon on December 16th (my birthday!)

*Participating in, surviving, and completing my first NaNoWriMo

*Almost completing a holiday novella for winter 2013

 

BLOGGING HIGHLIGHTS:

*January: Blue Sky Days launch! I posted a lot about the book leading up to its official release on January 17th, plus I had a month-long blog tour, launch party, and lots of different prizes.

*March: one of my favourite non-book-related posts: a letter to my 17-year-old self before going to France

*April: participated in (and survived) the A to Z Blogging Challenge for the second year in a row

June: participated in Armchair BEA

*July: I hosted the Canadian Reading Challenge and Canadian Spotlight Month - author and blogger guest posts, reviews of books written by Canadian authors, and a ton of giveaways

*October: I hosted the second annual Spooktacular Paranormal Reading Challenge

*November: The Scarlet read-along that I co-hosted with Jessica, which author AC Gaughen donated a book and bookmarks to

A few other things I think are worth mentioning: While I started vlogging last year, I didn’t really become comfortable doing it until this year. Now I love doing it, and I don’t feel like such an idiot sitting in front of my bookshelf talking to a camera. I’ve done book haul videos, monthly recap videos, book reviews, and a few other random book-related videos. I’ve even figured out my editing software, and while I wish I had more sophisticated software and a better camera, I can’t complain! Also, this year I started buying books again. I’ve had major money issues the last few years and couldn’t afford to buy books for myself for a really long time (you know, that whole 'starving artist' thing). I got all my books from the library until this year and even though I still get a ton at the library, I’ve finally been able to afford to buy books which is really exciting. The books I buy are bargain books and used books, but my shelves are filling up quickly and it makes this little bibliophile very happy! :-)

BLOGGING/READING GOALS FOR 2013:

A few reading and blogging goals (I’ve talked about this a bit already and will be posting some personal goals on my personal blog):

*Read at least 102 books

*Do a better job of visiting and commenting on other people’s blogs

*Spread the book love and host more giveaways

*Have more discussion posts

*Do more vlogs and branch out to things beyond book hauls and recaps

*BE BETTER ORGANIZED!!! Prepare and schedule posts, keep track of things so they're easier to find, etc

One more thing: 2013 is going to be a big year writing-wise - I have at least 2 books coming out - hopefully more - and I'll be talking about it a lot at my author blog, but subscribers to my (brand new!) newsletter will get a lot of the information first, so please sign up if you'd like to be kept in the loop. ;-)

Other years in review: 2011

How has 2012 been for you? What are some of your accomplishments? What are some of your goals for 2013?

Wishing you all a wonderful, happy, healthy, successful, love-filled 2013! 

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