Happy New Year's Eve!!! Can you believe it? The last Monday of 2018. Hell, it's the last day of 2018. This week I've decided to do something different. A year in review; musical style.
Tomorrow I'll have a second post that is a my 'year in review' based on the goals I set last year to see what I accomplished or didn't and make the new goals for 2019. But, I wanted to see how my year played out based on the songs I chose over the months.
Let's get started.
First up is All On My Mind by Anderson East
This song kicked off my 2018 as a happy moment of completing my first project of the year, Anything Once. I was excited about getting this story done and in 'record time' for me, meaning months not years. LOL It also kicked off my decision to enter query land for the first time. The year started out on a high note.
That didn't last.
Legendary by Welshy Arms
Talks about how I hit a wall after a few rounds of #editinghell with Anything Once. The love had started to fade, and I had begun decent into the funk, aka The Writing Blahs. But at that point, I wasn't quite ready to admit defeat. I still held out hope that I would make it through and all would be okay.
Gonna be honest, even at this stage, the jury is still out. I had/have a real love/hate relationship with that one project, but my squad, my RChat ladies, they helped keep me from completely throwing in the towel.
But, I didn't fully give up. I took the most of the summer off. I didn't write much, just piddled around here and there working on other little projects, but nothing serious. I did manage to finish two other novellas that had been in the works. Being Neighborly and The Lists. Mainly because of my RChatters who wanted to know what happened based on the earlier chapters I'd written.
Not the first time I've caved to their peer pressure. LOL
Their other gentle shoving lead me to High Hopes by Panic At The Disco
My dreams of grander are rather small. I want to make enough from my books to afford one of those weekly maid services. LOL What can I say, I'm not a fan of cleaning. But really, I just want to write, and have people love my words. When I started querying, I fully expected all rejections and to take the projects indie like my other works.
I was okay being wrong.
But 2018 wasn't just a 'big' year for me. My RChat squad collectively had some wonderful strides. Having your people, those you can count on in good times and bad is important, and that's what I have with them. We cheer each other on during the ups, and give out virtual hugs during the downs.
Ain't No Stopping Us Now by McFadden and Whitehead
This song was a celebration of the group's ups in a major way. Even after this post, more great things happened to the ladies of RChat. If I remember correctly, we now have five with agent representation (Felicia [who has agent AND contract], Evie, MJ, Tia, & Lindsay). Three others also have contracts with publishers (Amelia, Deana, & Luna), one of them, my pub sister Amelia has three books at three different publishers!!!
Coralie, she made the decision to go indie, made a plan, and put out four books this year. Deana was hot on her heels putting out three books herself. 2018 has been an astounding year.
We all have our paths and processes. We respect that about each other and celebrate accordingly. Friendships have been forged and one of my biggest highlights of 2018 was getting to meet some of these amazing women in person over the summer when I went to Denver for the RWA conference.
By all accounts, 2018 has been my 'best' writing year so far. Overall I finished three stories, published one that marked the end of my 'accidental' series, and have the other two due out next year.
I dealt with personal hard times in dealing with seasonal sadness for the first time surrounding the one year anniversary of my aunt's death. That did affect my mental readiness to write about couples and happy times when I wasn't really feeling the love, so I've been once again on a bit of a break.
But the holidays are behind me. I had family around to make things better, and I'm once again looking forward to the next year.
2018 was great, and I would love for 2019 to be better. More words to share with the world. More books to boost in support of my friends. More lessons to learn to make me better.
Wishing you and yours a very happy New Year! And many best wishes for all things to come. So let's start the year off with a song about looking forward and bringing about the positivity of all the goodness ahead.
Until next time
~Meka
"Gotta Feeling" by The Black Eyed Peas
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