Spring Fever (March Book Wrap-Up)

READING
Finished This Month

• What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
• Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

What Happened to Goodbye is a book that I first saw several years ago when I was in early high school. The premise intrigued me, mostly because there aren't many YA novels about kids who move a lot, and having grown up as a military brat I thought maybe it could be something I'd relate to. I didn't read it that first time, though, and years passed before I even saw it again. The copy I now own was found at a Salvation Army for a dollar or two, and it sat on my TBR from January 2015 to January 2018, when I finally picked it up to read. The story was good, if a bit cliche. I learned a lot about both basketball and restaurants. I could relate to the main character in some ways. There were a couple of characters I didn't care for. But the most fascinating thing about reading this was that it was both a trip down memory lane and relevant to my life today in a different way than it would have been back then. If I'd read it both the first time I saw it and again now, the experience would have been entirely different each time. It's really cool when a book can do that.

Just as a reminder: I will do a full review of the Jackaby saga when I've finished the fourth/last book (which I'm planning to read in April).


Currently Reading

• To the Castle by Dorothea Malm
• The Comic Book Story of Baseball by Alex Irvine (ARC) (I'm having some download difficulties with this one; there may or may not be a review for it in the future, depending on if I can finish it.)
• Crimson Ash by Haley Sulich (ARC)
• The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
• The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

WRITING
My Pitchaplooza entry did not make it into the final 20, but that's okay. It was fun to try. The books that won the Book Doctors' Choice and the Fans Choice are both really interesting, and I wish both authors all the best!

April 1 marked not only Easter and April Fool's Day this year, but the beginning of the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo, which I am once again participating in. My goal - as usual - is 10,000 words, this time toward finishing "The Dimension Keepers" over on Wattpad. The story is progressing kind of slowly right now; I only got a couple of chapters out in March, as in February. That's one reason I want to power-write the rest of it, because I'm extremely hopeful I'll be able to release the next book in June (for reasons I'll explain when I get there). The couple of chapters I wrote this month were received well, as there was a huge character introduction that everyone seemed really excited about. Next month at this time I hope to report that I've released most of the rest of the story, if not the entire rest of it. Fingers crossed!

March End Stats:
857 reads
87 votes
32 comments


See you guys next time! :D

So Overwhelmed (February Book Wrap-Up)

READING
Finished This Month

• The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo

This was a book I won in a giveaway back in September/October, and it arrived around my birthday. Earlier this year I was in the mood for some fairy tale-like stories, so I went ahead and started reading this. The book contains six short stories of varying lengths and topics. Of the six, I only predicted the ending of one. The rest were at once familiar and totally unique. I think the thing I loved most about this book was the beauty of the simple language within. It's written for a low reading level despite the subjects within being for older readers, but because of the WAY it's written it just flows so smoothly and the message comes across so beautifully. This is the first Leigh Bardugo book I've ever read, but it won't be the last, for sure. If this is any indication I can see why the rest of her works are so popular.

Did Not Finish

• Cold Hard Truth by Anne Greenwood Brown

This was the first ARC I began reading from NetGalley (more info on that and how I got involved in it soon), and the reason I requested the book was because it seemed like a cute romance I could power through during the month of February. (Gotta be thematic, you know.) However "cute" quickly became cliché and uncomfortable as I began to realize that the main guy in the book had only one thing in mind when he began pursuing the main girl in the book - and she just LET him do it, even though she knew better. (We all know what that "one thing" was.) I won't post my full thoughts on it here; if you're interested you can read my review of it on Goodreads. Suffice it to say this left a really bad taste in my mouth and I am disappointed that it is being published at all.

Currently Reading

• To the Castle by Dorothea Malm
• What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
• Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter
• The Comic Book Story of Baseball by Alex Irvine (ARC)
• Crimson Ash by Haley Sulich (ARC)

WRITING
Last month I submitted a pitch for my work-in-progress/NaNoWriMo 2017 novel Follow the Raven to the annual Pitchaplooza event hosted by NaNoWriMo and the Book Doctors. I won't hear anything until March 15 at the soonest, and only at that point will I provide more info about what it is and how it works. I just felt strongly that I should participate in the "Now What" months this year if I really wanted to get the ball rolling on a publishing contract, and this is one of the things that could potentially help with that. If nothing else I'll have taken a bold step forward, and I'll be working on this novel more as the year progresses.

Over on Wattpad I really slowed down in February; I only posted one new chapter in the entire month. That's mostly due to the fact that I hit the halfway point in the story and writer's block at the same time, so I needed to work that out before I could continue onward. I think I've mostly gotten around the detour at this point; there should be more chapters coming out in the next few weeks.

February End Stats:
652 reads
66 votes
23 comments


I'm reading so many books at once right now (and have so many more on the horizon), I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by the numbers. But as long as I keep my eye on the prize and formulate some sort of reading plan to get me through April at the very least, I think I'll emerge victorious and mostly unscathed. I know the year has started out slow in terms of blog posts, but there are more fun things coming your way soon! Keep an eye out, and I'll see you next time!

Chilling Out, Slowing Down (January Book Wrap-Up)

Welcome to my first book wrap-up of 2018! You'll notice some changes to the layout of these wrap-ups for the foreseeable future; I'm hopeful they will be easier to navigate and less cluttered with useless information. Let's give it a go, shall we?

READING
Finished This Month

• Jackaby by William Ritter
• Beastly Bones by William Ritter

A full review of the Jackaby saga will be posted after I've finished book four. (For now suffice it to say I have the biggest literary crush on Mr. Jackaby!)

Currently Reading

• To The Castle by Dorothea Malm
• The Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo
• What Happened to Goodbye by Sarah Dessen
• Cold Hard Truth by Anne Greenwood Brown (ARC from NetGalley! :D)
• Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

WRITING
I'm not exactly on track with my weekly Wattpad updates on Fridays anymore, but I am still on track in terms how many chapters of "The Dimension Keepers" I release per month. We're about halfway through the story at this point, which is crazy to think about. I feel like I just revealed the cover for this story! But my readers are loving it, and I'm having fun writing it, and there are plenty of surprises in store for February.

January End Stats:
479 reads
57 votes
18 comments


And that's it! What do you think of the new wrap-up format? Usually there won't be this little information; if I hadn't decided to review the Jackaby saga as a whole there would be a review or two in this post, so you can look forward to those in the future for sure. I also don't intend for future posts to be out so late; I was still working out some of the kinks with this one which is why it took so long to go live. BUT I do intend for future wrap-ups to come out within the first week of the following month. For example, February's book wrap-up will be out within the first seven days of March, March's in April, and so on. It's just easier for me to do it that way rather than stress about getting February's wrap-up posted on the last day of the month before midnight, as I've done before.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I'm reading! There will be some more bookish information coming your way very soon (including what NetGalley is and how I came to be part of it), so be on the lookout. Big, awesome things are happening in my reading world right now, and I'm excited to share it with you all. I'll see you guys next time!

2018 Book Goals

Welcome back to Endless Possibilities - 2018 Edition! As I'm sure you're aware by now, I have changed the design of my blog! What do you think? The last time I updated the design was January of 2014 - four years ago. Crazy, right? I figured it was time for a redesign again, and I must say I'm happy with how it turned out. :)

But enough about that for now. I'm kicking off the year with a book-related post, just as I did last January. Let's talk about my book goals for 2018, and how I hope to change my reading habits slightly along with these goals.

Goodreads Reading Challenge: 35 Books
2017 was the year I finally reached my three-time goal of reading 50 books in a year. I'd come close in '15 and '16 with 47 each, but last year was my year and I finally, finally made it happen. I am so proud of myself. That being said, trying to read 50 books in a year can be really stressful if you tend to get hung up on the numbers, as I do. Especially since I don't do much reading in November because of NaNoWriMo, December is doubly stressful because then I'm not only nearing the end of another month - I'm nearing the end of an entire year. I always felt like I had to rush in December, and I'd choose shorter books to help me power through to the end, and it always kind of felt less fun and more like cheating.

So with this in mind, when I realized I was actually going to make it to 50 last year and began looking forward to 2018 when I'd reset my reading goal, I decided to go for a lower and much more easily attainable number: 35 books. I did this mostly so I wouldn't feel as rushed throughout the year and so I could simply enjoy reading for pleasure again without getting hung up on numbers. I love reading, but I don't have the time for it as often anymore as I used to. I felt like, having reached my goal of 50 in 2017, it was time to give myself a breather and try for a lower number. 35 seemed like a good place to start. And if I make it easily, I can always up my goal later. For now, though, I just want to focus on making reading fun again.

2018 Personal Reading Goals
1) Read more nonfiction. I think this was mostly inspired by literally all of my coworkers (save for a few) being more into nonfiction than fiction, but I've also seen a lot of nonfiction books come through the drop at the library recently that have caught my eye more than they would have a few months ago, so I think my interests might be changing slightly as I'm getting older. Also since I'm not in school anymore I think it would be nice to learn more about topics that appeal to me.

2) Get into the habit of quitting books I'm not enjoying. This rarely happens, but when it does it makes reading feel more like a chore rather than a fun activity, and sometimes it will take me weeks or even months to finish a book because I simply don't want to. As many patrons at the library say, "Life is too short to read books that you're not enjoying." So starting this year, if a book is just not keeping my attention and/or I'm not having a good time reading it, I'm not going to force myself to finish it. I've actually created a "DNF" shelf on Goodreads to help me stick to this. Like I said, it rarely happens anyway.

3) Continue/finish series I've already started. Over the course of the past few years I've gotten into the habit of discovering and starting several new series every time I go to Barnes and Noble or my local bookstore or what have you, but it rarely follows that I continue those series that I start. There are some exceptions, of course, but for the most part I'll read book one of a set of books and leave it at that to move on to the latest and greatest thing. I want to start breaking out of that habit as well. Of course I'll still be starting some series this year, but along with that I want to continue ones I've already begun - maybe even finish a few, depending on how many books are part of the set.

4) Read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. This is the one and only book my dad has ever talked about repeatedly over the years (as far as I can remember). My dad isn't much of a reader - as a matter of fact, I don't think he's picked up a book in eons. But any time he does reference or discuss a book with me, it is almost always The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. As I've grown older he's actually started to recommend that I read it. Because of this rare occurrence I want to take his recommendation and finally read the thing for myself. (Never mind the fact that it's a very popular science fiction novel.)

5) Reread favorite books/authors. I rarely reread books. I used to, when I was much younger. I can think of several books just off the top of my head that I would read over and over again as a kid and young teen. But as I got into upper high school and early college I began to stop rereading anything outside of the obvious Skulduggery Pleasant. There are many books on my shelf on Goodreads that I've read, raved about, given five stars, etc....but have never reread. I think there's something unique about reading a book for a second and third time; you pick up more than you did the first time through. You may even have a different experience with it depending on where you are in life. In 2018 I want to start rereading books I've loved in the past, rather than just let them collect dust on my real-life shelf.

New Releases I'm Most Looking Forward To In 2018
Love, Hate, and Other Filters (Jan)
Let's Talk About Love (Jan)
#PrettyBoy Must Die (Feb)
Warlock Holmes #3: My Grave Ritual (May)

Writing Goals
Last year I set out to rewrite my most-revisited novel, Follow the Raven. In November I did just that, hitting 52.2k words before the end of the year and thus completing 95% of my rewrite. In 2018 my goal is to begin the revision and editing process so that in the upcoming years I can hopefully begin looking into getting an agent and getting this novel on the road to publication. Camp NaNo in both April and July will be focused more on revising and editing than on writing anything new. The revision process will most likely take me the entire year to get through, but slow and steady wins the race, so I'm not concerned about speed with this part of the process. That said, I am very excited to start along a new road in this novel's progression!

And that's all she wrote this time, everyone. Thanks for sticking around with me as we move into a New Year! Be sure to check back frequently for new bookish and nerdy posts in the upcoming months. (I'll hopefully have something Sonic-related for you very soon!) See you next time! :D

Meeting Goals & My #1 Book of 2017 (December Book Wrap-Up)

Guys, it's the last day of 2017. What happened? This year breezed right on by! We're looking at entering 2018 tomorrow. Crazy. I have a lot to cover in one post, so let's get to it, shall we?

Writing
After NaNoWriMo ended I told myself I didn't have to do any more writing on Follow the Raven in the first week of December if I didn't want to. As it turned out I did end up writing another 2,000 words a few days after the finish line, so the story is currently sitting at 52.2k. I optimistically hoped I could finish the entire thing before the New Year, but obviously that didn't happen. I don't have much left to write; that will have to be done in 2018 at this point. Regardless, I'm very proud of myself for having rewritten 95% of it and thus completing 95% of my 2017 New Year's Resolution. It's a huge accomplishment for me, and I'm (mostly) looking forward to the editing/revision process during the "Now What?" months, which I plan to participate in for the first time starting in January.

As for Wattpad, I am very happy to say that I've successfully released a chapter a week since my newest story's initial release in late November! "The Dimension Keepers" has taken off in a way none of my previous stories on Wattpad have before; my readers seem really excited about the new direction I'm taking Kay's journey. I can't wait to see their reactions to certain upcoming events next month. My current stats for this latest book are 242 reads, 33 votes, and 15 comments.

Reading
While November is primarily focused on writing, December (for me) is primarily focused on reading. I managed to finish six books this month - just in time for 2018 - which makes 50 books total for the year! For the first time ever, I completed my Goodreads reading challenge! I told you all this was the year! I did it! :D

• Psion by Joan D. Vinge
• Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
• A Hero for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• Lock and Mori: Final Fall by Heather W. Petty
• What Light by Jay Asher
• A Study in Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

**Spoilers Ahead**

Considering the amount of praise Everything, Everything has received, I expected much more from it than what I got. The story sounded promising in the beginning. It was a unique concept: A girl allergic to life outside her home falls for the boy next door and risks everything to be with him. Only...not. Because as it turned out, the whole premise was one big lie to both the protagonist and the readers. The author chose such a cop-out ending for the story. I was so disappointed that she felt the need to have a happy ending rather than continue down the dangerous road she had previously set up for her main character. What began as a YA romance that promised uniqueness ended up being exactly the same as the rest of its kind, and I just don't understand how so many people can give high praise to an ending that makes it feel like you as the reader were lied to as well. I'm not really inclined to read this author's other book because of this.

The long-anticipated ending to the Lock and Mori trilogy was finally released in late November, which meant my library got it in early December for me to start reading. I was so excited going into Final Fall; I couldn't wait to find out how everything went down and how loose ends would be tied up and whatnot, since this was only meant to be a trilogy. So you can probably imagine my surprise when I held the book in my hands for the first time and discovered that it was only 200 pages - shorter than either of its predecessors. I had no clue how the author was going to fit everything there was to fit in 200 pages, especially once I started reading and Mori was still imprisoned 70 pages in. I really shouldn't have doubted, though, because if I've learned anything about Heather Petty as an author it's that she knows what she's doing. Mori resolved her evil father problem halfway through the book, and the other half was about her trying to get the heck out of London while avoiding the police and Sherlock himself, as he finally began to turn on her once he saw who she was becoming.

There were a lot of things I really appreciated about this book. First and foremost being that Sherlock and John Watson (who only made cameos in the first two books) FINALLY began to hang out together. That happened at some point during the five months Mori was away, and I cannot tell you how much I fangirled when she realized Lock was spending time with John in her absence. Another thing I appreciated was how much we really began to see the classic Moriarty in Mori with this book. Not only that, but we got to see how and why she became such a bad person by the end of it all. And what she did to Sherlock in the end! Man! I never saw that coming. Lock, too, really began to become the true Sherlock Holmes by the end of the series; I even noticed that as things became worse between the two of them Mori stopped referring to him as Lock and began to call him Sherlock again. I don't know if that was intentional, but either way it was expertly done.

However there were a couple of things I didn't care for with this novel as well. First being that - as I mentioned before - so much of the first half of this book was Mori imprisoned, being snarky to her captors, and trying to find a way out. She didn't actually escape until after 70 pages of what I felt to be unnecessarily drawn-out content. Then when she did finally get back to London, she solved her evil father problem almost immediately, without really having to fight him much. I thought that was a bit anticlimactic, given the plots of the first two books. I also didn't care for how much back and forth internal dialogue was going on with her. I could understand why some of it needed to be there - I think she realized she was becoming the person she hated but knew it had to be done - but she would have her mind made up about something and then two seconds later she'd read a postcard and suddenly she was changing her mind again. Her internal dialogue just felt confused and unnecessary most of the time.

Finally - and seriously, I think this is the biggest thing that stands out to me right now - there was a line in this book that was never explained. Like, a really, really important, you-cannot-overlook-this line concerning John Watson. I don't want to give too much away, but Mori mentioned that as it turned out she would have to apologize/answer to every citizen in London for making Sherlock who he was, except for John. And that was never explained! By the end of the book there wasn't even an epilogue detailing what happened to her after she did what she did in the end. If this was only meant to be a trilogy, considering how different the Sherlock/Moriarty rivalry is in this alternate universe where Mori is a female AND when their rivalry begins when they're teens instead of adults, you can't just assume your readers are going to know what that means. Of course I have an idea of what she meant by that line - I'm a Sherlockian, after all - BUT it was so massively important that I seriously think that Heather Petty needs to write one more book just to explain what she meant by it. It implies so many things about what became of Mori after the trilogy ended that I just...I need an explanation! Please!

Despite these complaints - and my desperate desire to see what became of these two after this trilogy ended - I really, really enjoyed Lock and Mori. I reread the reviews I wrote for the first two, and I think it's interesting that I didn't think Sherlock was really in character way back in the beginning. Of course he wasn't - nothing had happened to make him the Sherlock we know yet. By the time all three books were over I think we got a really great look at how things would be different for Sherlock and Moriarty had one of them been female instead, and I absolutely loved this series. I want to own these books. I want them on my shelves. Without a doubt, this was the best young Sherlock I've read to date. Well done, Heather Petty.

My Top Books of 2017

And now for the moment you've all been waiting for! Below is a list I've compiled of books I chose as the best of the bunch I read in 2017. I will say before you read the titles that this list was way harder for me to put together than last year's. In 2016 six books managed to get a 5/5 star rating from me, which made the list obvious and easy. This year only two books managed that, while there were 15 runners-up that got a 4/5 from me. I had to narrow down my options quite a bit, and it was not easy, but after contemplating it for several days I am satisfied with what I've chosen. They all earned their place at the top, that's for sure.

(Note: I have not listed the Skulduggery Pleasant books I read this year - the first of which gained a 5/5 while the others got 4/5 - for the sake of discluding the obvious. But I did definitely enjoy all of them!)

The first two on this list are the 5/5 star books. I also decided to count the first three books of The Selection as one since they are part of the original trilogy, I read them so close together, and I gave them all the same rating.

• The Search for WondLa by Tony DiTerlizzi
• One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus
• Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven
• The Selection #1-3 by Kiera Cass
• Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Of these seven books, the ONE that I believe is the best book I read this year is One of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus. I can't even put into words how brilliant this book is. It captures such real, raw emotion and made me so angry on behalf of each of the four main characters for completely different reasons, as they were all so different from each other. I think the best part about it, though, was that the answer to the mystery was staring us all in the face the entire novel, but it wasn't until the author chose to reveal said answer that it all became clear. The title of the book is on point, and it is absolutely, 100% fantastic.

My Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2017 - as with the two years previous - was 50 books. And ladies and gentlemen, I JUST made it to 50 this year. I did it! I finally, finally did it! I am so proud of myself for having made it happen this time around. I knew I would reach the goal sometime! That said, though, I'll be changing up my game plan a little bit in 2018 in terms of reading, for various reasons that I'll detail in another post coming soon. For now, suffice it to say I could not be happier with how 2017 turned out for me, both in reading and writing, and I can't wait to try new things in the New Year!

I'll see you in 2018, everyone. Big things are coming your way! Happy New Year! :D

Reading Like a Boss

I wanted to write a full-length blog post about halfway through the month, but things are so nuts right now with my reading and with Christmas and New Year's coming up that I simply can't find the time to do anything longer than what you'll see here. So just to keep you up to date with things, here is a brief overview of the craziness that has been December so far.

I was fully recovered from the insanity of NaNoWriMo by about December 10, and I ended up writing another 2,000 words of my novel in that time. It's still not finished, but it's pretty close. I'm satisfied with where it is for now.

I gave myself a couple of days at the beginning of the month to just do nothing. No writing, no reading - nothing that would tax my already melted brain. But it wasn't long before I finally picked up a book and started my reading quest. As of the last time I posted something here I was reading Psion and Everything, Everything. I have finished the latter; I'm still about 100 pages away from finishing the former. My review for at least one of those will be in my wrap-up at the end of the month.

After I finished Everything, Everything, though, I got a little overzealous with my reading and...well...I am now currently reading four books at the same time.

Yes, yes, I know I'm crazy. But there is a method to my madness - or at least there was when I decided to go ahead and start reading that fourth book. To be fair to myself I am almost done with two of them, and I'm hoping that even with the craziness of Christmas weekend coming up I'll be able to get a decent amount of reading done. My plan is to finish those two books this week so that I'll only be reading two at once, and then power through a shorter book toward the end of the month to get to my goal of 50. Either way, guys, this is the year - I am actually going to make my Goodreads goal for the first time!

This has been a great year for me in terms of both reading and writing. At this point I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get any more work done on Follow the Raven before the New Year, but all things considered, I did really well at getting 95% of my rewrite done in 2017. (Thank you, NaNoWriMo!) And finally reaching my goal of reading 50 books in a year is an awesome accomplishment to add to my other amazing accomplishment. I'm feeling really good about how 2017 treated me in the realm of books. It's a perfect springboard to try something new next year for both reading and writing! (You'll hear more about that in my wrap-up.)

That said, I'm off to finish my reading goals. I'll be back on December 31 with my wrap-up for the month as well as the year, and I'll get to tell you about my grand bookish plans for 2018 as well. See you next time!

I Freaking Did It (November Book Wrap-Up)

I'm alive! This was yet another NaNoWriMo that was difficult for me (but in a good way) and left me not wanting to do anything for a couple of days. Thus, the late November book wrap-up. But we're here now, and I'm about 50% recovered, so let's get to it!

Writing
Last month I committed to sitting down and writing 50,000 words in 30 days, as I had done three years previous. Once again I emerged victorious and I beat my word count from the previous years, and for the first time ever, I finished NaNoWriMo but not the book I was working on. As it stands right now I estimate I only have a few thousand words left to finish the novel, but my biggest concern as of a few days ago was hitting 50k and validating before midnight on November 30, which I did. I won my fourth year in a row.

My chart above kind of speaks for itself; I started off the first couple of days strong, but then I fell behind and did not catch up again until the very last day when I won. I would say that the first half of the month went fairly well in terms of ease of writing, but as the month drew to a close and I was nearing the climax of the story I found it more and more difficult to sit down and write. I majorly changed the plot at least twice (something I can fix in January and February) and I was writing a lot of excess dialogue and description that I didn't necessarily need just to fill up my word count. And I still didn't finish the actual novel after all that, ironically. By the time it was the last few days of November I simply did not want to sit down and write. Not because I didn't want to write the story but because the deadline was stressing me out and I hated feeling pressured. But as with three years before I made it through and pulled it off in the end.

I think it's safe to say this NaNoWriMo was probably the hardest one I've done so far. The story I was writing was something I have wanted to rewrite for years but never had the discipline or desire to actually follow through with until this year - and even then I wasn't originally planning to write Follow the Raven for this year's NaNo, as you read in my last couple of wrap-ups. The story still isn't entirely figured out, but at least I have a much better feel for my characters than I did before since I opened up my mind a little and let them tell their own story rather than try to control everything myself. And of course, the stress of that deadline wasn't helping as I neared the end of November. But even though this was the hardest NaNo I've done thus far, I think it was also the most rewarding. I finally did something I've wanted to do for years. I only have a few thousand words left to finish my rewrite of Follow the Raven, rather than the daunting entire novel I was staring at a month ago at this time. I'm really proud of the winner's certificate I got this year. It is hanging proudly for all to see. I freaking did it, guys.

In unrelated and smaller news, I also released the prologue and first chapter of my newest Wattpad story, "The Dimension Keepers." It has been received extremely well so far, and I'm so, so excited to really get into this book and introduce a lot of neat things that I think hardcore fans of Sonic will really enjoy. Since we still don't know much about the Boom universe I've taken many creative liberties with this story. There are lots of references and alternate dimension theories coming soon, along with lots and lots of action. (This is a book about war, after all.) This book went live on November 17, and it already has 74 reads, 10 votes, and 5 comments. Crazy! I'm very excited to release more chapters this month and see what my readers think.

Reading
As November was primarily focused on writing, I did not get much reading done at all. Like, at all. There were a couple of days where I just felt really burnt out from writing and decided to read instead, which was refreshing, but ultimately I only managed to finish the two books I'd already started going into NaNoWriMo.

• Too Many Ghosts by Paul Gallico
• The Silver Eyes by Scott Cawthon

Too Many Ghosts was a book I picked up at the library from our sale/donation cart. At the time they had a bunch of older books on there and this was one of three that I picked up over the course of a couple of weeks. I started it in October because I figured it may be some kind of classic ghost story, and it was, in a sense. It took me forever to get through it because the writing was way different from the kind I'm used to reading in today's YA fiction (Too Many Ghosts was published in the 50s), but ultimately I really enjoyed it. The only part that really freaked me out was the beginning, when we didn't yet know it wasn't actually ghosts doing the things that scared everyone in the mansion. Other than that it was just an enjoyable, classic read.

The Silver Eyes, as I explained last month, is one of a couple of books based on the Five Nights at Freddy's game series that scared the crap out of me a couple of years ago when they first came out. I had hoped that the book would be just as scary if not more so, but there were only one or two parts in the entire almost 400 pages that really had me scared or creeped out. The rest was really bad writing that I ended up skimming through because I'm a nerd and I wanted my answers. A lot of my personal questions/theories were answered/confirmed, but now I'm on the fence about whether I want to read the second book as well. Time will tell.

Now that the insanity of National Novel Writing Month is over, I'm going to shift gears this month and focus primarily on reading. I am currently in the middle of two books - Psion and Everything, Everything - which you'll hear more about at the end of this month when I've finished them. GUYS. I am SO close to reaching my goal of 50 books this year. I've had this goal for the past three years and gotten really close the last two, but I seriously think I'm going to make it this time! Once I finish the two books I'm currently reading I'll be at 46/50. I'm so excited; I'm actually going to reach my goal of 50 this year. 2017 is the year! YES!

That said, I'm going to go read. Make sure to check back here at the end of December to see if I made it to 50, and to find out what I believe were the best books I read and/or discovered this year. See you next time!