2022 Wrap-Up

Was 2022 a good year?

Not by a long shot.

But compared to 2020 and then 2021 this basically felt like a walk in the park. So, I'll take a win where there is a win and just be glad that I didn't lose any more jobs or close friendships and that both my dogs are healthy and happy😌👌🏽

We actually had vacations this year. I haven't left Ohio soil since like 2017 and was beginning to think I'd never get out, but I actually made it as far as northern Kentucky this year so yusss, it's a win. I was able to breath non-Ohio air for a little while.

(I say this facetiously, of course, I'm well aware of the fact that it is all Ohio and always has been)

(from Pinterest)

Now for the rundown of my accomplishments for this year. Here are my 2022 goals for those of you wondering if I stuck with them.

Hobbies:

Whelp, the good news is that I started reading again! Not the hundreds of books I did in Middle Grade and High School, sometimes I would go a couple months without reading, but I was reading. I started taking ARCs again and I even read some books for fun. It's certainly a struggle still to feel motivated to read, but I'm so happy to have that part of me again. I've missed devouring stories and not just limiting myself to movies and TV shows as my media.

I didn't find any new video games to obsess over, very sad. But since I tend to get inspired to write books off of the video games I play (An Apprentice of Death, Domain of the North, and all of my Ruskhazar books are inspired by video games) that's probably for the best because I have too many projects as it is.

I did get out of the writing groove sometime over the summer. Still working on the balancing act that is called life and more often than not it was my art that knocked off my to do list to make room for other things.

My on repeat songs (at the time of writing this post which if you look at my dashboard you will see that it was a little bit out), but I doubt my music taste will have changed that much by the time this post comes out.

Life:

This was the first year since I started working all the way back in 2018 (because I'm actually a baby who has not been in the work force very long) that I didn't have a huge job change. I've only been in the work force for four years and yet I'm on my fourth job, and can I just say how thankful I am to still have that job by the end of the year? Oh, my word, I could cry, a gal needs a little stability now and again and I have not of late had that stability in my career choices.

I started going back to my church after taking a short break from it and boy is it good to be back to the place I attended for 20 plus years. Been able to reconnect with a lot of old friends and aquaintances through that.

My word for 2022 was CREATE... when I had first made that goal, I had been thinking of all the books I had to write. Of drawing and pursuing my imagination... I had no idea how that single word would spill out over the rest of my life. I've not only been creating storyworlds, but also a business and a career as an author, I've created a brand and platform, but most importantly I've created connections and friendships in my pursuits.

In 2021 I was coming off a huge heartbreak, a very close friendship that went awry (which was built off a different friendship that was destroyed in 2020). Neither of those friendships ended by my choice and I was afraid to open up again because I had no idea how to stop something like that from happening again. But now I look back to all the lovely people who I have connected with this past year, to all you guys! And I realize... I'm not scared anymore.

Writing:

I finally got around to creating my author website. That is something that has been on my list of things to do for some time.

In a lot of ways, my writing has changed this year. I've come to regard it and treat it more as a business than a hobby and in many ways I've seen it take off as a business. I seem to say this every year, but this was definitely my most successful writing year by far.

I can no longer keep track of all the words that I write in a year. There are too many projects and too many drafts and I am no longer capable of keeping track of them so I think it is time to bring a close of my tradition of counting how many hundreds of thousands of words that I wrote...

And just say that I wrote a lot.

I published five books!

This was quite the ambitious goal and there was a part of me that wondered back last year when I set it that I would even be able to keep it. And yet, here we are and these books are out in the world.

On top of that, I have reformatted and released my books in multiple formats that I was only just branching into at the end of 2021. I released 9 of my books in audiobook format.

I've also released eight of my books as alternate cover hardbacks.

And I put out two book bundles. One a collection of the entire Winter Cursed series now all in one tome.

And the other is a collection of three of my YA novels I released for my newsletter subscribers. Although I am planning on putting this one out in print as well sometime next year.

And finally, I also started releasing League of Thieves through Kindle Vella. I'd begun to think I would never do anything with this story so I'm pretty darn excited to finally have it out there in the world.

(cover designed by CK Beggan)

I'm sure there are other things that I'm missing, I've done so much this year that I'm probably forgetting half of them. But there you have a quick wrap-up of the year 2022.

How did this past year treat you? Which of my newest releases are you most excited about? What are you looking forward to going into 2023? Comment below!