Yearly Wrap-Up + A Hiatus

A lot of people do monthly wraps and they are pretty cool to read. (You get little insight into their life which you usually won't get otherwise.) But I can't be bothered (and I don't think my life is that interesting to write about every month) so I am planning to write a yearly one every year.

This will be long.

 Photo by Дмитрий Хрусталев-Григорьев on Unsplash

Books

I didn't mean to list all of the books I read in 2020. It just happened. I was just planning to mention favourites. But *shrugs* I got so into listing them that I decided to keep the whole list. Also it is cool to see how many books I actually read in 2020. And I'm not going to talk about all of these books in this list. Just my top favourites and a few books that, while not favourites, are getting mentions because I feel I should for reasons you will find out.

Owned books I read in 2020: 

• A Loyal Heart by Jody Hedlund
• A Worthy Heart by Jody Hedlund
• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
• Curio by Evangeline Denmark
• The Invention of Sarah Cummings by Olivia Newport

Borrowed from the library books I read in 2020: 

• The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber
• The Queen's Resistance by Rebecca Ross
• Storm Siren by Mary Weber
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim, 
• Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo
• Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
• Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo
• Within These Lines by Stephanie Morrill
• A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
• Siren's Fury by Mary Weber
• Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo
• Circle of Shadows by Skye Evelyn
• Newt's Emerald by Garth Nix
• The Winner's Curse by Marie Rutkoski
• The Memory Thief by Lauren Mansy
• Renegades by Marissa Meyer
• The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead
• Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
• COVID-128 by Marissa Meyer (short story)
• A Wilted Willow: Revised & Updated Edition by Julia Witmer
• Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson

Books borrowed from cousin: 

• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K Rowling
• Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Skulduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Books read in total: 30

I'm impressed with the amount, though it isn't the most I could've read. If I wasn't in a reading slump I could add 2 or 3 books more to this list.

Highlights in Reading List:

A Loyal Heart and A Worthy Rebel - The last two books in a series I've been dying to read for a while and finally I got the chance to read them as I got them for my birthday! Once I got into them, which isn't long from when I got them, I devoured them. I don't remember how long I took to read them but it was really quick for me. Most likely within days for each book. Also A Loyal Heart is my top favourite in the series! I love all of the books, but this one I adore. I plan for a review on the series some time this year.

Howl's Moving Castle - This book is amazing. I enjoyed every minute of it. And it didn't make the movie trash either which is a bonus cause I just love the movie. I'll save rambling about this book in its review.

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow - This book made me uncomfortable at the beginning but in the end I fell in love with it. And I'm dying to read the sequel. I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

The Queen's Resistance - I was very excited to see this book on my library's shelf. To be honest, the first book was good but wasn't amazing to me but I liked it enough that sequel was appealing to me to read. And I was blown away by how AMAZING this book was. The sequel was way better than the first and it made the first book amazing. I now love this duology to bits and I love the author. I can't wait to read other books from her. Especially the new release, because, well, I know what it is about. 😀

Children of Blood and Bone - I remember having this giant book and running out of time to read it (stress levels high) but then quarantine happen and I could read it without any pressure to finish it fast. To be honest, that was a huge blessing to me and I was thrilled about it. This book is amazing by the way and I wish I could write a review on it, but I want to wait on the other books in the series. Also I haven't read the second one and I am dying to.

Shadow and Bone Trilogy - As I mentioned, I love/hate this series. I'll save thoughts on this for its review.

Within These Lines/A Monster Calls - I am putting these together cause I have written reviews on both of these and I'll let the reviews do the talking for them, which are here for Within These Lines and here for A Monster Calls.

Storm Siren and Siren's Fury - These books are pretty good. The first one made me cry. And the sequel wasn't disappointing at all. I think it may be better than the first (except for certain characters' absences. *sobs* If you read the books you know what I am talking about.) I really need to get the third and finish it cause of course the second book ends with basically a cliffhanger. Thank you Mary Weber for ending all of your books with cliffhangers so I am even more desperate to read the next one. 😐

The Winner's Curse -  I love the style of writing in this. I adore the main girl (not so much the main guy but he warmed on me by the end of the book). It also inspired me with a story idea that I will be sharing later.

The Memory Thief - I can't express how much I love this book. I kept on thinking back on it whenever I am figuring how I should reveal backstory, cause, yes, this book does that so amazingly. I love the characters, the plot, the world, magic system, the writing style and the villain was pretty good. She didn't have a lot of screen time so it's hard to say that I love her evilness, but she wasn't just a flat villain hanging around in the background until needed. It wasn't like that at all.

Renegades - I adore this book, but I hate the superheroes (this is not including the beloved crew, which if you read this book you will know who I am talking about) and I can't agree with the villains, so I am now on Nightmare's side. Just Nightmare, cause her point is good enough to support... for now.

Six of Crows - I LOVE THIS BOOK. It is so brilliant. The characters are awesome and the plot is *chef's kiss*. I also firmly believe that this book is WAY BETTER than Shadow and Bone Trilogy and if you have read Shadow and Bone Trilogy, you need to READ THIS ASAP. This one makes the world have so much more depth but also the characters and writing style are generally just better written. This is a must read, but I would recommend only older or mature teens to read this cause there is enough content, not a lot, not too serious, but enough to be uncomfortable. If you can get pass the content it is AMAZING.

Covid-128 - I have to mention this one cause (1) I am a fan of Lunar Chronicles and I had to read this, (2) It is really good and sweet and anyone who is also a fan of Lunar Chronicles must read this as well. It is worth it.

Sorcery of Thorns - This one was really interesting. I enjoyed it. Nothing like I expected but that's good. The worldbuilding, particularly the magic system, was really fascinating to see play out as the story went.

A Wilted Willow - this is a nice, sweet, casual fantasy, indie book which I almost forgot to mention! Here is its review, with a bonus author interview at the end!

Honourable Mentions

Scorpio Races - Everyone I know around the blogosphere love this book. I didn't as you can tell. I found it mostly boring. I was expecting something cooler with the races and the horses. But I did enjoyed all of the characters in this, even the minor ones. They felt like real people, so I like that about this book.

Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief - I didn't think that this book was boring. It was pretty interesting. But I can't stand the gods. They drove me nuts.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - this is mainly because I haven't read all of the books yet that this book feels neutral to me. It isn't because I didn't enjoy it. I did enjoy it. But I need to read more of the series to have a better view of this. And compared to the other books I read in 2020, this one was an average, probably forgettable read.  

Films and TV Shows

Once Upon a Time is now my all time favourite TV show. I started it in 2019 but finished it in 2020. I love it to bits. It definitely has flaws and I didn't like all of the things that had happened in it, but overall it is amazing and worth to be binged watched. 😂

Unlike my books, which I had a record of all the ones I read, plus I don't care to mention every new movie I watched, I am only going to mention memorable and favourite ones. All of these were found in 2020, not released in 2020.

Knives Out - a unique murder mystery that was just so fascinating to watch. I love this movie, I have watched it several times now and  is very happy that it is a part of our movie collection. Plus the soundtrack is really great to listen to, which by the way is weird coming from me since I am not a person who cares or enjoy much of a film's soundtrack. I did with this one though.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) - This film was not easy to come by, but it is worth the effort cause it was so good. It kept me entertained all the way through, which is rare with me with old films. I usually get bored halfway through. Or get bored with certain parts. So that was such a bonus!😀 Also this film has such a great story! 

Christopher Robin - I love this one so much. It was so sweet, powerful and really enjoyable. It was great to see characters from childhood come alive and be mostly accurate to the original portrayals.

Robin Hood (2018) - I didn't like this film. Why I am mentioning it? Because the worldbuilding was so fascinating that I felt it should get a honorable mention here. It was definitely fantasy, a mix of medieval and modern periods which made for interesting settings. And we're moving on cause that's all I cared about. I am keeping the rant why it is horrible to myself.

Onward - I LOVE this one. The story was great, the characters were amazing and the worldbuilding *sighs* one of the best things I have ever seen. The mix of fantasy and modern was done so well!

Case For Christ - This one was one of the best Christian films I have ever watched. This one blew my mind and made me more in awe of Jesus, the bible and just God in general. This is a must watch for those who share the same faith with me, cause it really shows just how amazing and real God is.

War Horse - this is a beautiful story, a sad one but also amazing. 

Emma. (2020) - This was a pretty good version of Emma. I enjoyed it.

Star Wars - I finally watched most of Star Wars and I like that I now understand the things that I didn't for a long time. I don't love them, but I do like them. I still have to finish episode VIII and XI. I think that the original trilogy is the best and Padme is my favourite main female character. 

Ever After - One of the best Cinderella retellings I have ever watched. I like how they tried to make it more historically accurate and I love that the Cinderella character was really boyish, making her an interesting strong female character. 

The 5th Wave - This one was interesting. I hated the romance, but it was really interesting. 

Descendants 1, 2 & 3 - I enjoyed Descendants way more than I thought I would. I actually adore these films and I love most of the songs. They are far from perfect but overall pretty good. The main thing I didn't like is that the four main villains from the first movie were total dorks and their own children were cooler than them. I did not like how they were represented. These four are part of the most iconic Disney villains ever and they are showed like they are just mere pathetic shadows of their former glories in a way that may be a bit disrespectful to who they were meant to be. I just believe that they could have been cooler and closer to their original evil selves. *end rant*

Maleficent - I fell in love with this story with the beginning. Yeah, they changed the iconic villain's whole story and made it new, but I still think it is amazing as a recreation of Maleficent. If you ignore the fact that they call it her untold story and pretend that it is the real story of Maleficent. I don't believe that nonsense.

Anime

They deserved their own section because they are so unique and I love them so much. I haven't watched enough sadly which I am trying to fix.

Violet Evergarden - This TV show is AMAZING. I cried with every. single. episode. I am not even kidding. I had tears in my eyes every time there was a moving or emotional scene. It was insane, but it was the most beautiful experience I ever had. Also this show inspired me so much with my current WIP. Living after war, cyborg, finding human emotions. The things I am dealing with in my story.

Princess Tutu - This one is a rediscovered love for me, a TV show from my childhood. I believe that this was my first anime I have ever watched. I remember being obsessed with this little show. And I still obsessed with it. It is amazing. I cried watching it the second time this year even though I knew what happened in the end. It was then that I realised that I LOVE this story and it will always hold a special place in my heart. 

The Ancient Magus' Bride - This one I watched purely by accident. I was planning to watch something else but it wasn't working so for some reason I press on this show to fix the problem and I watched the first episode. And I kept watching. It was weird but it was also so fascinating. I fell in love with the world and the characters. I'm glad I watched it.  

Your Lie in April - I watched this one because I read a blog post about why the manic pixie dream girl trope can be good, based on one of the characters from this show. The show sounded so good I knew I had to watch it some time. Then I had the opportunity to. To be honest, when I first started it I thought it long and boring, and that manic pixie dream girl was too crazy and hotheaded to be appealing. But since the ending was spoiled, I kept going, eager for that big moment. I stopped for a while, but then I started again to finish it so I could mention that I had watched it this year. Not kidding. And somehow it got more interesting. It is still slow, a little boring, but I cared more about the characters, I was more interested to see what happen to them in the end. And honestly, the last episode was so beautiful it was worth it all. I mean all of the near the end episodes were so good, but that one was the just the best.

And I didn't think that the manic pixie dream girl was so bad.   

Blogs

Oh, dear. I found too many blogs in 2020. I was planning to mention favourite posts from each, but the time and effort would be too much and this post is already long because of my previous sections. So I am only mentioning the blogs that I had followed in 2020 (the order is random).

It should be noted that I won't mention all of the blogs I followed because (1) they were actually found in 2019 and officially followed in 2020, (2) they are inactive blogs or (3) I only have followed them but haven't read any posts yet from them. I want to only mention blogs that I am constantly reading posts from and/or being part of the comments. 

• Words in Her Soul
• Jenna Terese
• Well Go Read
• Polka Dot Pens
• Helping Writers Become Authors
• Hannah Foster Writes
• Teen Writers' Nook
• An Ordinary Pen
• Just A Bookworm
• Maya Joelle
• The Rain-Drenched Writer
• Kingdom Pen
• Go Teen Writers
• Sarah Thea
• World of Chronicles
• Living Outside the Lines
• Project Inspire
• The Long Voyage
• Alabama Rose
• Julia Witmer
• Scribes & Archers
• I Have 12% of a Plan
• Legend of a Writer
• Ink Calamities
• The Ones That Really Matter
• An Attic Full of Paper
• Christine Smith Author
• A Synesthete Writer
• Books, Life and Christ
• Well-Storied.

I hope I included all of them.... 

Writing

It turns out 2020 was not the time to write any stories. It turned out to be planning stories year. Which is okay since I started from scratch this year in the story making. If you don't know why then check out this post so you won't be confused with the rest of this post and then have to madly searched through my blog posts to clear your confusion (or is it just me who does this?)

Current WIP total wordcount: 16, 885

Short stories: 3 - one is on third draft so I wrote one of them twice. 

Flash fiction: 7

In no order, here are my most developed story ideas:

Robin Hood Retelling

• Robin Hood character is sarcastic
• He's not a thief, he's a rebel
• He's also a circus performer, an acrobat, which makes for amazing images in my head
• Marian is a dancer
• Marian has a bit of a traumatic past
• There is a mentor figure... and he's the grumpy type
• I think the villain will be fun to write... because of how annoyed he gets with Robin
• Rebellion
• Fantasy
• I don't know why he's called Robin Hood. I feel there must be a reason for the hood in the name
• I am writing a retelling now?
• I have no idea what the title should be for this story 

The Fairy Prince

• I am writing about fairies now... after declaring that I won't ever write about fairies
• The fairies are evil
• My main male character hates fairies
• He wasn't meant to be the main character of this story... his fiancée was
• His fiancée falls in love with The Fairy Prince
• There is a girl who is rumoured to be a fairy in disguise 
• Rumoured fairy girl and fairy hater boy team up
• The Fairy Prince is the villain who is good at playing games
• The spelling of fairy should change some time to fit the time period of this story
• Changelings
• Is iron a fairy's weakness?

Monsters

• Four different types of monsters
• Four POVs
• A vampire who is also sarcastic and is pretty similar to Smoke but more evil
• I also said I wouldn't ever write about vampires
• I adore my vampire
• A Ravenblood whose source of power is purple magic blood and has voices in his head constantly telling him to destroy
• A girl whose power is unknown but very dangerous since she's locked up in a glass cage
• Vampire slayer, who is obviously the villain of this story. I don't like him. He's horrible... but fun to think about
• Redemption!
• I am slightly obsessed with monster type characters
• The whole point of this story is to explore monsters

Genderbent Snow White Retelling

• Idea inspired by a comment made by Jen over at Living Outside the Lines
• My male Snow White is known as beautiful, not handsome
• Cursed by a witch who hated his mother for some reason
• He is actually called Snow White but only because of the prophecy... not his real name
• The prophecy is there to tell how his death will come about
• The princess is adventurous
• She seeks her own husband so she is still independent and making her choices
• She does care about wealth, status and beauty
• She loves the idea of rescuing her future husband
• Snow White ruins her views and her plans
• The stepmother isn't evil
• Seven wood sprites

 The Wing Catcher

• Fairies... again
• But with elves too
• The plot is based on the King Grisly Beard fairy tale
• The setting is floating islands
• My too main fairies have the best wing designs
• They hate each other
• Butterflies
• Surprisingly, almost everything about this feels like a spoiler
• It has a sequel already... also based on a fairy tale... Jorinda and Joringel
• I am excited for this tale
• I am really into doing retellings now

Master and Slaves

• Inspired by The Winner's Curse
• The normal "conquerors made slaves of the people of the country that they have taken" trope
• The conquering is unfinish 
• My "master" character has compassion
• His mother was a slave
• His father is the leader of the conquerors 
• One of my slaves is the usual feisty, defiant girl who hates her captors
• But her master keeps on surprising her and shaking her views, feelings and stand
• The other slave falls quickly in love
• The climax seems pretty cool
• Has a sequel

 Writers

• The longer "title" is "Writers Who Can't Write Their Stories on Their Own"
• Not sure on the POVs
• Three, maybe four main characters
• A young girl who becomes a secretary for a writer to escape the rut she's in and start afresh
• She's a foster girl who has an assigned guardian by her unknown parent
• Meets a older women secretary who works for a famous struggling writer
• Typewriters are a norm
• Another famous writer who disappeared for years and has now come back to start writing
• Also ex-lover of older women secretary, who still loves him
• Mystery, secrets

 Sci-fic Fantasy (no title)

•  A boy who was created to be a saviour
• Able to control the very fabric of reality (only in nature, not beings or creatures or man-made things)
• His limitation is really cool
• His title is prince
• He got kidnapped by the villain
• The bad guys are all robots
• A giant girl who fights other giant girls for entertainment for the robots
• Convinced by mysterious girl to rescue the legend prince
• I love the image of the prince and the giant girl together - cause he's small and she's big.

So these are all of my next novel ideas at present, when I finish my other WIPs or when I want to start something new. Who knows. I didn't share any short stories ideas or ideas that are still too uncertain to be solid or adult fiction ideas.

And, yes, I am somehow planning adult fiction stories now. WHAT. That was purely unexpected for me. I thought I would just do YA for the rest of my life.  

God Stuff

What did God taught me in 2020? It's simple. It's obvious. But all so important. And honestly my teaching from 2020 is being carried into 2021 cause it is still something I am learning to do. Yes, what God taught me was a life lesson, one that has to be practice every day. Some days I do good, other days I fail. But it's okay. It meant to be a journey.

He taught me about...

• Managing time well. (Still learning)
• Giving everything to Him. (Still learning)
• Including Him in everything. (Still learning)

What a pattern. It's funny to see that things I was struggling with the most in 2020 were related to the things God wanted me to learn. I struggled with using my time well, I struggled with trusting God at a deeper level, I struggled with having a deeper relationship with God. I am still dealing with these things but I feel I have made a big step in 2020 to reaching the end someday. 

Music

I discovered a lot of music in 2020, which I can't name here cause it will take forever. I listened to the most music in 2020. I was always constantly listening to something cause it helped me with focus. I am now obsessed with music. So I am just going to share my All Time Favourite Playlist, which most songs were found in 2020. Including Queen, which I only just added to the list as a favourite. 😊

All Time Favourites Playlist

Fun fact: My music tastes changed significantly late 2019 and during the whole of 2020 because of Hope Ann, a fellow indie author. I noticed she had music playlists on her YouTube and so I listened to all of them. And I enjoyed most of the music on there. Since then I have listening to music based on the styles she had on the playlists.

She is also the one who started me on the journey of making playlists for my stories and collecting story inspiring songs. And she helped me find artists who are good at making story inspiring songs through one or more songs that made me notice that their songs are generally story inspiring.

Author Hope Ann - YouTube

YouTube

I am just going to share links for my favourite YouTube channels I am following and describe what they are briefly.

• Abbie Emmons (Writing)
• PattyCake Productions (musical shorts, mostly Disney)
• Shadiversity (Medieval weapons, worldbuilding, writing, analyzing games and movies for accuracy and good storytelling)
• Brandon Sanderson (Writing advice, live streams)
• Author Brittany Wang (Writing, bookish things)
• Nadine Brandes (Writing, bookish things)
• K.A. Emmons (Simple writer's lifestyle, vlogs, writing discussions)
• Jamie Grace (Random stuff. I don't even know how to describe all of the stuff on this channel. Mental health, her life, singing, discussions, songs... stuff)  
• George Japan (Japan culture)
• Jill Bearup (Film fighting, movie discussions on... most likely fighting)
• Daeus' Fantasy Opinions (Writing, fantasy)

Fun fact: I didn't really do YouTube until late into 2020. 

Life Stuff

My older sister got married in January!!

I started a course online, which to be honest was super stressful. I hated the deadlines so much (I was homeschooled before so I don't think that helped with this). And I also realised just how slow I am at learning. Study wasn't too fun this year, but it was online (no people, no problems 😂) and I learnt a lot of things that I actually enjoyed. I didn't finish it sadly, but I am confident that I will this year, 2021. It was a blessing to know that I didn't have to start over all again but could pick up where I left off. 

COVID happened. Which wasn't too bad for me at all. I miss people, but overall I was good. It was the study that was causing the stress and making me depressed a little. 

The whole Black Lives Matter thing, as well as a study on indigenous people in my country (happened around the same time. weird, right?) really made me think about racism. About the situation of racism today. And now it is my passion to fight against the racism that is lingering as best I can. I am not actively doing things about it right now, but I plan to. One form for sure would be my writing. I have so many story ideas that reflect my views on this.  

Three family members had important numbers birthdays in 2020, which pretty cool and weird.

My youth group were particularly awesome in 2020. Zoom meetings were pretty awesome and save me from going crazy from no people beside my family.  

I got Minecraft again and I joined a realm for the first time with my youth group. It is so awesome to do Minecraft again.

I got the bible app for the first time, which is actually pretty cool. It is quite a handy tool. 

I also got Goodreads in 2020 and I love this site/app so much. Keeping track of all of the books I have read and my TBR is super amazing for a bookworm like me.

And I got Discord too! My youth group started a server during quarantine. This is where I talk to my friends now. Because of Discord I have drawn closer to them, made new friends and I can talk to them all of the time now with just a click. 😊 

Blogging Achievements

• Got tagged with tags
• Participated in a readathon  
• Did a cover reveal
• Joined a linkup
• Signed up for a blog tour
• Read my first ARC book
• Got a shoutout on another blog

I can't believed how much I experienced on my first year of blogging! I feel very blessed on this journey. I honestly believe that God's hand was over me, encouraging me to keep going with each exciting thing that normally happens at least a year under the belt. I know that part of was me being active around the blogosphere, but a lot of it just seemed a God thing.   

2021 Blog Plans

I want a new focus on here. It isn't a major one. I just want to do more writing posts, more Christian posts and more book reviews. I will still do the other stuff as well, like tags, but they are not part of my main focus now.

And maybe I might do an odd diabetic post or two. Cause I have this unique thing that I like to use in my descriptions and might be fun to actually talk about it. Maybe myths about diabetes. 

Also I may not post as much considering how I want to get my novel done this year and finish my studies. But I am not planning to disappear. I hope to keep up at least 1 to 2 posts a month. 

Lastly, I want to shoutout my followers! Thank you for following me and joining my journey. Your interest in this little blog is heart-warming to me. Just thank you, thank you! *showers you all with paper cause I'm weird and I'm a writer* 😛

And, yes, I am going on a hiatus for about a month. I am planning to come back on my blog's birthday!

(picture of books I got in 2020, but I haven't read them yet except for one)

 If you're a follower - say hi in comments! - I appreciate you!

Also, are you using the follow by email thing? Is working? Also tell me in the comments!

P.S. What do you want for my blog's birthday? - suggestions are so welcome! - cause I have no idea and I want it to be special.