Monthly Wanderings: December 2020/End of the Year Post

(This was supposed to go up on December 31st, but WordPress crapped out on me and erased my entire post.)

GOOD RIDDANCE 2020! I don’t know what 2021 is going to hold but anything is better than that Year of Suck. XD

What I Did

This month: I finished drafting In Darkest Starlight and did some plotting for it so I’m ready to go in January!

This year: I did a major rewrite for the Rose in the Wolf to send to publishers and I drafted In Darkest Starlight!

This month: I had Japanese BBQ for the first time which was a bucket list item! And I also saw some Christmas lights, did a family Christmas tea, and spent Christmas Eve and Day with family. ^ ^

This year: Like I’ve said before 70% of my year was pretty dang crappy, but I did have some blessed highlights before and after this year went to pot. Back in February, I had my first boyfriend (who is now my ex), I went to my first Chinese New Year Festival, I went to Universal and Disney and had definitely the best time of the year being with some of my dearest friends, I got an adorable kitten named Momo, and I got to go to Yellowstone National Park.

This month: I finished reading the House of Hades by Rick Riordan! Man, that book was intense. XD

This year: I read 28 books this year! Which is a lot for me. I had a lot more time to read this year than usual. XD

My Top Favorite Books of the Year –

1.) The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

2.) Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson

3.) Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young

4.) The Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan

5.) The Queen’s Resistance by Rebecca Ross

This month: I finished up a clay figure of Rufus Shinra from Final Fantasy VII and sent it to a friend. 😀

This year: I made five figures this year!

1.) Tibarn from Fire Emblem: Heroes

2.) Martha Kwan (My friends OG Character)

3.) Sam Temple from the Gone series by Michael Grant

4.) Seteth from Fire Emblem: Four Houses

5.) Rufus Shinra from Final Fantasy VII

The Geeky Department

This month: I watched Hillbilly Elegy which was an interesting film that took a look at white poverty.

This year: My Top Favorite Movies of this Year –

1.) Alita: Battle Angel

2.) The Matrix Trilogy

3.) Hillbilly Elegy

4.) Sonic the Hedgehog

This month: I finished the new season of the Mandalorian and GREEN LIGHTSABERS!

This year: My Top Favorite TV Shows of this Year –

1.) The Mandalorian

2.) The Witcher

3.) The Umbrella Academy

This month: I finished season two of Fruits Basket! Not as good as the first but man a bunch of twists!

This year: My Top Favorite Anime of this Year –

1.) The Promised Neverland

2.) My Hero Academia

3.) Fruits Basket

4.) Cells at Work!

This month: I tried to play Hollow Knight, but I hated the gameplay so much I just had to watch all of the info on YouTube so I knew what happened. So now I’m currently playing The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past that has far better gameplay and it was made in 1992.

This year: My Top Favorite Video Games of this Year –

1.) Animal Crossing: New Horizons

2.) Ori and the Will of the Wisps

3.) Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition

4.) Final Fantasy VII Remake

5.) The Witcher III: Wild Hunt

6.) Middle Earth: Shadow of War

7.) Final Fantasy X

8.) Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

This year: Well the only celebrity I met this year was Andrew Rea from Binging with Babish in January before the world went nuts.

What I’m Going to Do

Next Month:
Well, my plan is to start the next draft of In Darkest Starlight. I want to finish it by the end of March, so I’m hoping to get in 25,000-30,000 in January, so a good chunk of words, but not crazy like NaNo. XD

Next Year:
Like I said before I want to finish the second draft by March. Then I’m going to read over the book and do some larger edits then send it to betas to read in the spring. Then in the summer I’ll do more precise edits and in the fall send it back to betas and do one more round of edits and then I’d like to get it back to my agent by November. That’s the plan. We’ll see how I do. XD

Next month:
I don’t really have any plans besides financially recovering from Christmas. XD

Next Year:
I feel like I’m not the only one when I say I’m a little nervous about making plans for next year. I don’t want to be devastatingly disappointed if they don’t happen. I want to go to Florida for MegaCon. I want my friends to visit in the spring and summer and I want to visit Canada and attend Realm Makers. But I don’t know if any of this is going to happen. I’m hoping and praying that 2021 will be much more normal, but I just don’t know. The only guaranteed plans I have is that I’m going into school in June and July.

Next Month: I’m going to finish The Blood of Olympus and hopefully start Dune by Frank Herbert and Whirlwind by Robert Liparulo.

Next Year: My reading goal is 25 books again and some books in that TBRlist are:
Snow and Rose by Emily Winfield Martin
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Howl’s Moving Castle by Dianna Wynn Jones
The Wolf in the Wale by Jordanna Max Brodsky
Circe by Madeline Miller
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson
The Kingdom of Back by Marie Liu

Next Month: I may make a gift for a friend for a late birthday present but I’m not sure yet. XD

Next Year: Sometime early next year I’m going to start an Etsy shop for my clay figures! It’s going to be called Neverfound Figures and I’m going to sell custom order figurines, jewelry, and baubles. Are you a big fan of a book series that doesn’t have any merchandise? Do you want to see your original character as an adorable chibi-style figurine? Do you want to wear a necklace with a logo from your favorite obscure show? Then check out my shop! I’ll post updates about it soon and I’m planning on making an Instagram page for it. 😀

Last Month on Wanderer’s Pen …

Book Review and Writing Lessons: Reclaiming Shilo Snow by Mary Weber

So Your Character is Jewish … Featuring Dara @ notinjersey & Sami Frankel

Writing Lessons from Anime: Cells at Work!

Know the Novel 2020 – In Darkest Starlight

Hiatus Winter 2020

Coming soon to Wanderer’s Pen …

January 19th – So your Character is From Palestine … Featuring Nafisah Hawa – Despite it being a controversial topic, I’ve been really curious about the Palestinian prospective for some time, so I’m happy to have Nafisah to come on the blog!

January 22nd – Book Review and Writing Lessons: The Drawing of Three by Stephen King – I almost don’t know why I wasted my time writing this review. I just am not a fan of Stephen King’s writing. XD

January 26th – So Your character is From Iraq … Featuring RJ Zurgany – RJ is going to join us on the blog to talk about her life in Iraq. It’s a tough post to read because of the honesty of living in a war torn country but you don’t want to miss it.

January 29th – Monthly Wanderings: January 2021 – Like this but in a non-sucky year.

Looking back at last year’s End of the Year post I’m like, “Oh you sweet summer child.” Little did you know how lonely you’d be in just three months. Little did you know that you would feel extremely depressed for the majority of the year. Little did you know the world would turn upside down. I don’t know what 2021 is going to be. I don’t know what I’m going to think back to the Tori of December 31st, 2020 by this time next year. Am I going to look at 2021 with fondness or disappointment? One thing I know for sure is this year I’m going to set goals I know I can control. I can control how many words I write, how I do in school, and how I conduct myself as a person around others. Everything else is up to God to decide, which is tough for me to admit since I like to have everything just perfect. He has to take control because I can’t control if the borders open or if I ever get my second job back. And sometimes it’s a relief to just say, “God, you do it because I sure can’t.” So no matter what happens in 2021 remember that God is in control. Happy New Year, you guys.

How was your month? How was Christmas? What are some of your plans for next year?