30 Before 30

One thing that seems to be sweeping the blogosphere is the 30 before 30 list. I just turned 27 three days ago, so it's a good time to look at what I'd really care to accomplish before I turn 30. I started by looking at my Bucket List (for life), dug through the lists on my computer, and then took some inspiration from other bloggers. And here we have my list (in no particular order):

1. Make my own bread
2. Stay somewhere French-speaking for at least a month, to force myself to speak it
3. Go to a Regency-era Ball
4. Get an article published in a paper magazine
5. Go to a campout music festival (I have tickets for Bonnaroo 2012!)
6. Get my Starry Night (Van Gogh) tattoo
7. Make and can my own jam
8. Get to a happy weight
9. Go back to playing piano
10. Get my home the way I want it. . . or get a new place
11. Visit at least one country I've never been to
12. Make clothes for myself
13. Visit New Orleans again (maybe for Mardi Gras this time)
14. Host a Steeped Tea party
15. Eat local for a month (successfully)
16. Celebrate the last night of my 20's with something special
17. Go on a zombie walk
18. Learn to scuba dive
19. Make my own cheese
20. Volunteer in Africa
21. Get a novel published (big dream!)
22. Make bags for myself
23. Start work in a job I've been aiming for
24. Dress the way I want to, daily
25. Make my own wine and/or beer
26. Learn to play the ukulele properly
27. Go to a convention in costume (fandom? steampunk?)
28. Learn to wear high heels
29. Ask somebody out on a date
30. Visit Scotland

Travel Tuesday: the Northwest Territories

Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. The Arctic in December!

Just past sunset (mid-afternoon)

Dusk (a bit later afternoon)

Heading dog sledding (that's me)

Reading Challenges 2012

More books! Because I love books.

Last year's reading challenges went well:
- I read over 24 Urban Fantasy/Horror novels
- I read over 51 library books (75, to be exact)
- I got all 6 titling categories from What's In a Name 4
- I came close to all getting all of the alphabet by title
Check out my achievements here:  http://jessdoesstuff.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-reading-challenges.html


My 2012 Reading Challenges:

1) Horror & Urban Fantasy Challenge 2012
The Goal: Read 24 Horror or Urban Fantasy books in 2012 (again)

2) New Author Challenge 2012
My Goal: Read 15 New-to-me Authors in 2012

3) What's in a Name 5 Challenge
The Goal:  Read a book with a title from each category in 2012-
1. A book with a topographical feature (land formation) in the title: e.g., Black Hills, Purgatory Ridge, Emily of Deep Valley
2. A book with something you'd see in the sky in the title: e.g., Moon Called, Seeing Stars, Cloud Atlas
3. A book with a creepy crawly in the title: e.g.,  Little Bee, Spider Bones, The Witches of Worm
4. A book with a type of house in the title: e.g., The Glass Castle, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Ape House
5. A book with something you'd carry in your pocket, purse, or backpack in the title: e.g., Sarah's Key, The Scarlet Letter, Devlin Diary
6. A book with a something you'd find on a calendar in the title: e.g., Day of the Jackal, Elegy for April, Freaky Friday, Year of Magical Thinking

4) Speculative Romance Challenge 2012
My Goal: "Two Sexy Werewolves" Category - 12 speculative romance novels in 2012

5) 2012 Read Your Own Books Challenge
General Goal: To read books you already own
My Goal: Holy moly. I just checked - I have 62 books on my shelves that I haven't read, and 40 on my e-reader (though many are classics that came with it when I bought it). So . . . I think I will try for Level 4: Read 21+ of my own books.

6) The Alphabet Challenge again, this time on my own
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z

Books Read in 2011

This has to be one of my favourite posts to do. All about the books I read last year! I read even more this year than ever before (or at least it feels that way). Here's my genre breakdown:

• 75 Historical romance (Regency, Georgian, Victorian, other, Gothic)
• 34 Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance (Urban Fantasy, Paranormal romance, YA urban fantasy)
• 9 Mysteries
• 6 Gardening/Farming
• 5 Travel/Guidebooks
• 4 Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic (2 YA)
• 4 Other Fantastical (Contemporary Fantasy, Steampunk)
• 4 Other Non-Fic (Employment, Writing, Political, Epidemics)
• 3 Historical Fiction (1 YA)
• 3 Foodie Non-Fic
• 1 Graphic Novel

148 Total

Top Ten Books/Series I Read in 2011
(in no particular order)

Immortals After Dark series by Kresley Cole (most recent came out in 2011) - Paranormal romance with an amazingly detailed world, and brutal matchups (of the "how will this romance EVER work?" variety). Very, very addictive.

McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Countainer by Rose Marie Nichols McGee and Maggie Stuckey - "The Bible" for container vegetable gardeners such as myself. I credit this book for the success of my balcony garden.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie - The twists, the turns, the tension, . . . the ending! If you haven't read this masterpiece (like I hadn't), even if you don't usually read mysteries, DO SO.

The Pirate Lord by Sabrina Jeffries - One of my favourite Regency romance authors has a boatload of convict women captured by pirates. Sound ridiculous? That's the part that's a true story. The rest ends up as a romance with a pirate hero who is one of my favourite across the romance genre. (Book #1 of the Lord trilogy)

The Gathering by Kelley Armstrong (2011) - YA urban fantasy started off a brand new trilogy with a supernatural heroine who doesn't know she's supernatural yet. Likeable characters, suspicious research facility, and so many delightful Canadianisms that pleased me. (Book #1 of the Darkness Rising trilogy - the next is out in April 2012).

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen - A re-telling of Sleeping Beauty. . . during the Holocaust. Beautiful and haunting.

Essex Sisters Series by Eloisa James - Georgian-era romances. Through the 4 books, you get really invested in the lives of the 4 Essex sisters. Eloisa James is a master at putting really heartbreaking scenarios into her books, and also at intertwining her female leads through series. But they always have a happy ending!

Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews - A second foray into "The Edge" (that place between our world and the "other", magical world), with a gritty alternate Lousiania swampland and an equally gritty heroine who fights for her family and meets a semi-feral fella. This series keeps getting better. (Book #2 of The Edge series)

One Second After by William Fortschen - One second (and then days, weeks, months, and years) after an EMP above North America kills all modern technology. Chillingly realistic apocalypse, and also really engaging.

River Marked by Patricia Briggs (2011) - Another dip into Mercy Thompson's world, VW Mechanic and part-time coyote. This is a bit different in tone from the others, but the development of Mercy and Adam's relationship,  the focus on Native American mythology (like seeing Coyote), and the intricacies of the world-building made it another delight to read. (Book #6 of the Mercy Thompson series)

Writing Goals - from 2011 to 2012

I can't believe another year is ending already. It seems like it went by extra quickly this year, but maybe that was just me. But, it is of course a great time to look back at what I did (or didn't) do in 2011, plus what I hope to accomplish in 2012.

Writing in Progress

Hunt, YA Urban Fantasy novel
Sixteen-year-old Abby Connolly sees the new guy at school leading a group of gruesome corpses across the sky on horseback - the Wild Hunt. Probably the shock of her life! She's not supposed to be able to remember it, but she does. It's not until several of her classmates see a photo of the group that she discovers that if you see the Wild Hunt and remember it, you're going to die. HUNT is YA Urban Fantasy, like Welsh folklore meets Final Destination.
- 2011 goals? get 2 more beta readers, do a full edit, and query 70 more agents (bringing the total to 100)
- 2011 in actuality? got the beta readers, have a really solid idea of what needs to happen, but then focused on Desolation State instead
- 2012 goals? after Desolation State is all tidied up, do a major edit/overhaul, and see where things go from there

Desolation State, (Adult) Post-Apocalyptic Romance novel
In a future North America ravaged by the Tech Crash and environmental issues, Sy agrees to live with a stranger, "Deron" in a mansion on the wastelands in exchange for provisions for her wanderer band. Oddly, he will only visit her rooms by darkness.  Despite that, they begin a hesitant friendship - which may be the beginning of something more. Sy expects that "Deron" has ties to the oppressive rulers of Empire City, but doesn't expect that he is tied to something even worse. DESOLATION STATE is post-apocalyptic romance with a steampunky feeling based on the myth of Cupid and Psyche.
- 2011 goals? finish the first draft, let it sit, potentially start editing
- 2011 in actuality? finished the first draft, had a good start on editing, AND it won a contest (Colorado Romance Writers' Heart of the Rockies for Paranormal/Time Travel/Futuristic/Fantasy) with a full manuscript request from the judging agent
- 2012 goals? edit, edit, edit. . . then get out that requested manuscript ASAP, along with queries to other top agent choices

Travel Articles
- 2011 goals? write 12
- 2011 in actuality? wrote 4; had 4 published (which were not the same 4)
- 2012 goals? write 12 , for real this time. I blame my novel-writing for the gap, but I do want to write more travel articles.

Short Stories
- 2011 goals? write 6
- 2011 in actuality? wrote 1 (in collaboration with other authors), and had it published
- 2012 goals? Well, I realized in 2011 that short stories aren't my favourite thing to write. So I'm not going to make a new goal for numbers, though I would like to: revise the 2 sitting on my computer and submit them, and if I'm in the right mood I may write one or two from my idea file


What are your goals in 2012?

Campaigner Challenge #1

I don't usually write flash fiction, but the Writers' Platform Building Campaign's Challenge #1 insists on it. I've had a few scenarios zipping around my head lately, so I decided to pull one out. I  followed all the rules of the contest, both mandatory and optional.

Read the stories, and vote for a winner HERE (I'm #206, if you're curious!)

The rules:

• Must start with "The door swung open"
• Must end with "the door swung shut."
• Must be exactly 200 words

The story:

The door swung open. Light scorched my eyes, as bright as it had been that night. For months later I had seen the afterimages when I blinked. Today, though, my eyes adjusted. And I gasped. The city was levelled. Nothing but brown and grey. Rubble and lifelessness. My eyes dampened. So much gone. So many dead.


I turned back toward the bomb shelter, and saw something incongruous. Something green. A scraggly weed struggled through the irradiated soil.

“Josh!” I called.

He came out, squinting as I must have, his face stubbled with days of itchy-looking growth. I waited until his eyes looked clear, then pointed to the weed.

“Look.”

He squinted at it as well, then grunted dismissively.

“It’s something,” I said. “At least it’s something.”

Then I saw what he had in his hand. Our only defense against the others. The gun.

“What are you doing?”

He shook his head, and had the balls to look sad. “You knew it had to happen.”

“No. . . Josh.”

“There’s only enough food for one.”

He raised the gun at my chest. The boom sounded as loud as the blast itself had. As I struggled to breathe, the door swung shut.

e-Pocalypse Interview!

Just a quick note to say that there's an interview up on writer Colin F Barnes blog with me and four other contributing writers to Pill Hill Press' The e-Pocalypse: Emails from the End. Check it out, HERE.