Farewelling 2011's Finest and Foreshadowing 2012's (Or, The Week Between Christmas And NYE Is So Incredibly Awkward For Me)

I don't know whether it's recuperating after the mass amounts of shopping, wrapping, planning, cooking and eating associated with Christmas, or it's the contagious apathy associated with one year coming to a close and the inability to do anything substantial before the new one begins. Oh, and everyone's busy or on holidays. So what have I been doing?

Well, nothing. But, I have been vaguely considering the self-publishing route out of partial boredom and partial curiosity and partially because of the recent D Publishing opening (which I personally find too suspect to take seriously).

Anyway, I have two things to do tonight: summarise 2011 and look forward to 2012. And, if we have time, maybe considering the futile art of goal-making. (I'm terrible, trust me)

So, the best of twenty-eleven.

I only finished Laini Taylor's DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE the other day, and let me just say band-meet-wagon. It has been so long since I was just completely enthralled by a book, and it was the first of many which I finished under two days. That being said, Gretchen McNeil's POSSESS lived up to a premise that I held in very high regard for the entirety of its life wrapped in Batman paper before my birthday, and very much satisfied my inner exorcism fanatic.

And, the most coveted of twenty-twelve.

There's a variety in these and there's also a lot of similarity. It goes without saying that come September I will be dying to read the next Karou adventure by Laini Taylor. But we've got angels, curse workers, alchemists (and they better not rip off Fullmetal Alchemist or so help me god), time travellers, and Greek myths. Honourable mentions: CITY OF LOST SOULS by Cassandra Clare, INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, CLOCKWORK PRINCESS by Cassandra Clare, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green, and, well, Sarah J Maas' QUEEN OF GLASS. 2012 is shaping up to be pretty incredible.

Now, goals. More than ever I'm hesitant to make goals this year because it's HSC year. It's my last year of high school and I've already set my goals for that and they're pretty important. If I'm AWOL through the year, you'll know it most definitely is because of that.

But what do I want to achieve? I want to read fifty books this year, some of which will be school-related texts. I want to try and write once a week for the blog, or write up five posts once a month and schedule them. In regard to writing, I want to comb through the novel and do one last Big Revision and make it exactly how I've always wanted to but never really done, and then I want to query. Properly. 

I have had the most apathetic month, and now I am going to work until my hands bleed for ten months. Ten months until school is done and dusted, until I'm a free woman. I will work and write and study and you can all watch me slowly go mad. 

I hope everyone's had a brilliant year and I wish you all the best of luck for the year to come.

Oh, and guess what? This blog's been up for little over a year now. It feels much longer than that. This last year has just gone on forever, but really, it felt like absolutely nothing at all.