Time to Blow Off the Dust From This Blog!

Greetings from 2015!

Wow, I have no idea how 2014 zipped by so quickly, but here we are. I left a job in tourism, started working out, dabbled in writing science fiction for a forthcoming short story collection, found a job in a bookstore, and officially began writing the follow-up book to Underground. It may not sound like much here in list form, but all of this has kept me busier than I've been in a long time.

I also read a lot of books last year. How many? I have no idea because I didn't have the forethought to keep track of them. [sad trombone] This year is different! I've challenged myself to read one-hundred books before December 31, 2015, which averages to about two per week. Sometimes that sounds like a lot to me, other times it sounds super-easy. Right now I'm reading four books at the same time, so I hope to be able to log a few more completions soon that should bring me right up to the target number for this point in February.

Do you have a reading goal this year? Are you "competitively reading" with a group or book club? I'd love to hear about how you're challenging yourself and staying motivated!

Another challenge I've set for myself this year is to get back to producing video. My Youtube channel is getting a clean sweep this week and the preparations are being made for my foray into the Booktube community there. I'm beyond excited (and nervous) and will definitely be sharing those videos here on the blog, but if you want to know what's happening with the channel as it's happening, head over and subscribe.

Last, but certainly not least, is the biggest writing goal I've set for myself this year:

I will finally put pen to paper and draft the memoir of my experiences with my brother's descent into Schizophrenia.

It's been a long time coming, but I think that gestation period was necessary in order for me to properly process and fully understand the events themselves and my responses to them.

Now that I'm working on a book that isn't a regional history or niche-market kind of thing, I'm preparing myself for the inevitable search for a literary agent in hopes of presenting this story to a national or international market via the traditional publishing route. This is quite a stressful (and rather terrifying) endeavor, but I'm going to stick it out regardless! You can expect a lot of sharing here about that learning curve and the ups and downs that come with it as that journey progresses. Who knows, some of you may even find it helpful.

Fingers crossed!