I Wrote a Book! and Other Updates

Hey everyone, it's been a while since I've been on here. Health issues and personal reasons have kept me from posting, but now I hope to get back into being on here once a week.

So let me give you some updates as to what's been going on in my life.

First, I wrote a book! It was a long process, and kept me busy for most of the past year, but it's on Kindle now so I hope you'll check it out and see what you think. I hope to be posting some sample chapters on here and on my severely neglected YouTube channel soon, but if you don't want to wait Amazon also has a feature where you can read the first five chapters of Thorn Changer either online or as a downloaded sample. Right now, it's only available as a Kindle book, but I hope to have it available in other formats eventually. Fortunately, if you don't have a Kindle, you can get the app for free to read Kindle books on your computer, iPhone, iPad, etc.

Thorn Changer from the description on Amazon:

After escaping from prison, Skey leaves her homeland in order to leave her past behind her. But if breaking out of the Tower was hard, she finds out that keeping her past and her form changing a secret is even harder. Arriving in Beolki during a war, she is employed as a minstrel by Lady Sieku of Sumika. But while the lady trusts her, gaining the trust of the king is another story. As is eluding Sodoma and his army of Iezomen, the servants of Foaie.

But when her secret comes out, she has to choose between losing her own freedom, or keeping it by taking away that of others.

Second, my 2015 Book Challenge was kind of a failure. With everything going on, I was not able to finish it. I didn't even bother with one for 2016, and that's probably why I've read less books this year than I would guess any year since I first started to be able to read as a little kid. So I'm bringing it back for 2017, I want to try to read a book every week, for a total of 52 books, but right now my list (which I'll post soon) only has around 40 books. I have a tendency to set too lofty of goals, so I decided to read those 40, and then if there's new books that come out during 2017 which look interesting to me (or if I hear about older books that sound interesting), I'll add those to the list.

Third, I did complete Nanowrimo last year and this year, making my total wins three. I also completed Camp Nanowrimo Summer 2015 and this past summer, but my word count goals were only 10,000 so it was a lot easier to complete. I love both, and I highly recommend participating if you love to write and want to challenge yourself to write more faster. Of course, if you have a good writing routine already which keeps you regularly writing, this probably won't be as challenging (and if you write more than 50,000 words a month, that's totally amazing!). If you're still working on trying to get into a nice writing flow, I recommend Camp Nanowrimo. The next session starts in April, and it's less strenuous than Nano in that you get to choose your word count, so if you have a busy month, you can set your goal lower and still accomplish it. Either one is amazing, and I'm hoping to participate in both next year.

Fourth, over the next few weeks to months I'm planning on renovating this blog, my Christian Devotional blog, my Twitter, and my YouTube channel, so expect to see some changes there. I also plan on adding a Pinterest account (which I have, but still need to figure out how to work) and a Facebook page, so I'll keep you posted about what I decide with those. I don't like having too many social media accounts (I feel like I get sucked into scrolling through them instead of writing), but I thought Pinterest would be nice to share my interests as well as what inspires me for books, and that a Facebook page would help me keep in touch with those of you who don't use Twitter. I also want to use my Goodreads account more actively to connect with readers who like the same types of books that I do.

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and a wonderful holiday season all around. And thanks for taking the time to read all of this. Let me know what you think of Thorn Changer!