Twenty-Fourteen: A Behemoth Year

"The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year's resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective."

-G.K. Chesterton 

TWENTY-FOURTEEN

It's been a monumental year for me as a writer. So huge I wonder if I'll ever have another quite as big. See, this time last year, I was still entirely unpublished with a cover design in hand and an email into Createspace. By Valentine's Day, I had released my first novel, Fly Away Home. In January, I received word that I was a finalist in the Five Glass Slippers contest and saw my first novella published in June. The rest of the summer was spent finalizing cover design for my first mystery and second full-length novel, Anon, Sir, Anon. Throughout the early fall I put that novel through my trusty editor, Rachelle Rea, and the first Vivi & Farnham mystery debuted to quiet applause on the Fifth of November. In early December I finished the first draft of my children's novel, Cottleston Pie, and sent the first three chapters to beta-readers before polishing them up. By the time you read this, I will (hopefully) have sent Cottleston Pie to its first publisher to be looked upon with a savage eye. And we mustn't forget the twelve-day wonder, John Out-the-Window, which astounded me by coming out to nearly 18,000 words  (each letter being written the day it was posted) and being acclaimed by some people as one of their favorite things I had ever written. In all seriousness, you are the best group of readers I know. The fact that you spent time every day in the hugely busy holiday season to drop by The Inkpen Authoress (some of you several times a day) and read something that was unpolished and unedited surprises and delights me. Thus, the year in writing. As for the year in reading? Well, I keep a list taped to my Wall of Inspiration. The wall currently looks like this:

Please forgive the overflowing trash can and busy-looking desk. We can't all be tidy.

It was not an exceptional reading year as far as numbers go. I was far too busy juggling the strange new world of Nanny vs. Novelist and trying to keep up with my family in the spare times. But if I did not read many books, the quality was high and delightful. From Plenilune to The Grand Sophy; from Eric Metaxas' giant and heart-wrenching biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer to a Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon; from The Man Who Was Thursday to Stephen Lawhead's Hood trilogy, it was a year of growth for me as a reader. The complete list is as follows, and my favorite titles are emboldened:

Outcasts by Jill Williamson
The Red House Mystery by A.A. Milne
Hood by Stephen Lawhead
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Forget-Me-Nots by Amber Stokes
Scarlet by Stephen Lawhead
On Distant Shores by Sarah Sundin
Once on a Time by A.A. Milne
The Grand Sophy by Georgette Heyer
Duty by Rachel Rossano
Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Metaxas
Violets Are Blue by Elizabeth Rose
Tuck by Stephen Lawhead
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Only a Novel by Amy Dashwood
Plenilune by Jennifer Freitag
P.G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters edited by Sophie Ratcliffe
The Mrs. Meade Mysteries Vol. I by Elisabeth G. Foley
The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler
Leave it to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse
Aunts Aren't Gentlemen by P.G. Wodehouse
Villette by Charlotte Bronte
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
Corral Nocturne by Elisabeth G. Foley
Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Anne Shafer
The Book Thief by Markus Zusack
Murder Must Advertise by Dororthy Sayers

As you can see, I was able to fit in quite a few indie novels, which was a lovely switch-up. The reason I do not have Five Glass Slippers on the list is because I still have not read one of the five stories and didn't feel I justified in listing it until I had. Before 2015 begins, I hope to be able to add The Hobbit into the list. It was one of my Christmas Break goals. Phew. Twenty-Fourteen sits heavy on the shoulders. Let's see what lies ahead in the twelve-month to come!

Ten Ways to Know You've Found Your Voice

If finding your voice is so important, how is one to know when that goal has been mainly achieved? Below, I collected ten points that could help you decide if you've found your trademark:

Comperto vocem

1.) The tone creeps into everything you try to write

2.) You find yourself thinking of events that happen to you in the same flavor with which your stories end up on the page

3.) Someone reads an author whose work has definitely impacted yours and says that their book reminds them of you somehow

4.) You are never quite as easy in another tone as you are in the tone that is currently under surveillance

5.) The majority of your plots fit the style that has become yours

6.) The plots that don't fit the style fizzle out and you find you cannot do them justice, even if they are perfectly good plots

7.) You are writing in a manner that makes your project something that would catch your fancy, were you to see it in a bookstore

8.) You can easily discern similar voices to your own as you read, and mentally differentiate between a style you could write well and one you could not

9.) You find that describing your style in a query-letter (or conversation) comes quite easily after all, once you've properly started

10.) The tone carries into emails, letters, and the like without a conscious effort on your part

Of Procrastination and Readables.

I am procrastinating today. Of course that is to be expected after having been entirely away from my writing for so long. (A WHOLE WEEK) It was a wonderful week, but I find my brain rather foggy and it will only think nonsense, so I thought I'd work on Cottleston Pie, but it doesn't want to write nonsense--only think it--so here I am realizing I had better write a blog post to clear off that wonderfully vanity-and-warm-fuzzy-inducing post my sister-ish-in-law-ish person wrote for me in a grand dose of Trespassing.

What a nice surprise to come home to.

I think I will indulge in reading today. Just to get my brain back into the feel of forming words. I know if I tried to write it'd be rubbish today, (having read a lot of posts I'd missed on Go Teen Writers, reading Jenny's convention-posts on Scribblings, and generally stuffing my head full of How It Oughter Be Done.) so I'll just let myself off this once and read something.

This brings to me the question, "what am I reading?". Here's the latest:

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Never sorry I bought this for my birthday earlier this summer, though I already owned a ratty copy. My third time through it, I believe, and just as good now as it ever was.

Freddy Goes to Florida by Walter R. Brooks

I am reading this as a love-gift to Abigail. Because honestly, I'd never have thought to pick it up. But Abigail--being the wonderful sister-ish person she is--decided I needed a break from classics and taking my writing seriously, and sent me off on an improbable winter "migration" with a bunch of daft farm-animals. I've laughed. Truly.

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken

An autobiographical book by Sheldon Vanauken about his relationship with his wife, their friendship with C.S. Lewis, their conversion to Christianity, and a bum-bum-bum-bummmmmmm which hasn't come up yet. This book has made me laugh, touched me, and will doubtless make me cry by the end. It reminds me of Jenny, somehow, and one of the reasons I like it best is because it deals with C.S. Lewis...and any book with him inside it is automatically that much better. I love true books.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I picked this book up for two reasons: 1) The plot intrigued me, 2) I'd been looking for a modern novel to read and enjoy, and I'd heard this one was better than most. Boy were they right. An entire review is forthcoming, but know that if you are of the age of 16 and older, I highly highly recommend it. It does have a couple issues such as language, but over all I think it was an instant classic.

In other news, I've got quite a queue of books lined up waiting to be read and/or re-read, including the Mark of the Lion series, Kidnapped, and a lurking, long-time feeling that I want to read again my beloved Chronicles of Narnia--a feeling likely stemming from reading A Severe Mercy.

What are you reading? How is your Have Read List for 2012 shaping up?

The echoings of me: Favorite Things

It all began with Abigail--she may wish to deny it by now but she can't. Jenny followed it up with a favorite-things post of her own, and the clenching fist of the matter, the thing that decided I would play dominoes with the rest, was Anna's post at Insanity Comes Naturally. After these three posts I knew I would have to follow suit. It is my way.
This post, I assume, is not as needful as their posts, for I am not a reticent creature. I am not at all mysterious [which I've heard the gentlemen find alluring] and I am not aloof. [which has a charm of its own] That does not mean that I have not depth, nor does it mean that you know everything about me. It simply stands to reason that I tell you more about myself that they are inclined to do. But I digress. In short, I can only assume that you have a fairly good idea of me already. But my favorite things will come out on their own accord whether I devote a whole post to them or not. I will submit to their clamoring and give you a list. Here you are. I give you the echoings of me:

 Scottish accents--any over-there accents, really/smooth-flowing pens/liquid sunsets/baby-laughter/unexpected letters in the mail/dancing/full, swingy skirts/50's fashion/the triumph in finishing a book/kisses from Grace/Disney classics/Love/freckles/genuine red hair--the Celtic kind, not from the bottle, please/P.G. Tips/pomegranates/witty banter/moonlight/starlight/first light/ half-light/amethyst dusk/brooks/gloriously satisfying books/historical sites/musical theatre music/ the High Kings/ the Psalms/ long walks having conversations with the Lover of my Soul/travelling/the rush of panic-hilarity that comes as I push off the top of a hill when skiiing/music/singing my heart out when no one is listening/thick-enough aprons/heirloom flowers/larkspur/delphinium/Beatrix Potter/watercolor painting/fits of laughter/witty people/dear heart-friends/period-dramas/period costumes/ costume designing/ raspberry jam/Cricket, my Rum-Tum-Tugger/storms/blog comments/free samples/smooth, silky hair/new friends/social occasions/picnics/ramblings/contacts/tin-lizzies/cinnamon buns/Virginia/cute kids/laughter again.

There could be more. There are more. But I am a person of many favorites--you might call me exuberant, colorful, and easy to please. Aren't these things precious gifts?