Quick reminder before I continue - the holiday season can be tough, with family and friends not being around, or them being around is the problem. Stay strong if you can, and if you can't, that is OK too. Be supportive of those who might need a helping hand to smile.
I want to make a list of all the amazing things that have happened in 2013, but I also want to tell you all of the Really Very Exciting Things I have planned for 2014. I want to start though by saying thank you.
2013 truly has been an emotional rollercoaster. There have been some incredible high points, and some heart breaking low points, and often the two have been at the same time. In January my nan's health was rock bottom, but I had some amazing things happening at the same time. Even with her death in August, it was around the time I was preparing to publish Rose on Fire and do the filming related to it. It seemed that every high was tainted by a low, and all the lows came with highs. I admit that some of the things that have happened this year I still have not fully recovered from, and that goes back to January.
Without your support I would not be where I am now. Knowing that my friends were around celebrating the highs with me, and holding my hand through the lows - that knowledge is what got me through each day. I cried sad tears and happy tears, and you were there handing me tissues no matter what. Thank you just does not seem enough.
This year not only did I get published [a poetry collection and the start of a weekly serial] I became a best selling poet on LeanPub and that is just mental. I have never liked what I write, and even now I look at my work and cringe at how dreadful it is; the fact that so many of you have downloaded my work, and paid for it, and told me that you enjoy it... Mind. Blown. Thank you.
I want 2014 to be just as mind blowing. Despite what is probably good for me, and despite Liz telling me I'm an idiot for adding to my already chaotic workload, I'm going to be publishing more things. I may or may not lose what little is left of my sanity. Yay!
Senate of Blood will, from the first Sunday of 2014, will continue to be released until it is finished. I know I'm currently on holiday from it, but it will continue until at least April 2015. I have it planned until that point, but who knows? It might get a bit longer. Also, I will be working on a few edits from Fire because I hate knowing that there are probably typos in the latter half of the collection. Even if I do not edit the quality, I will at least fix the line breaks and stanza breaks! Promise!
I will finish university at the end of May, which means I can work on Lily - I have been working on the novel since July, and I love it. I really cannot wait to share it with you, but I probably will be publishing the entire thing in one go. I might split it up into the three parts, but I think that depends on how quickly I can edit.
As a part of my New Year Resolution I vowed to write a short story every week. What sort of idiot thought that was a good idea? A short story, and a new SOB chapter each week, plus university, and trying to have a social life... Why...
I'm doing it. I said I would and I am too stubborn to quit. They will be published, along with some pieces I really need to edit in Rose in Ice which you can express interest in; this basically means that as soon as it goes live, you can get an email to say it is ready to download. The cover for it is still a work in progress, so it will be coverless for a while. As I have no fixed day of publishing each short story - I'll start writing it once each SOB chapter goes live, but I will need to finish and edit each one - I won't be able to tell you exactly when you can get updates. I will be posting on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr [and probably Google+ if I remember it exists] when you can get the next story. The stories won't be the best quality in the world, especially when I'm trying to focus on university work, but like with Fire I will go back and edit.
If you got this far without falling asleep, well done! This is when I ask something of you.
We all know the old saying "You learn something new every day" but I want to prove it. With the help of my amazing admins, I will create a new page on this site, and we will [anonymously] post what we learn each day throughout 2014. It might be something small like learning how to cook pasta without setting it on fire; it could be something related to study, like the technology that came out of the Younger Dryas; it could be something life changing like learning that you can get out of bed, despite being in the grips of depression. Send it in to us through the Facebook page, or using #LessonsOf2014 and we will be adding them all to a page on this site. It might get insane, but it should be fun. I will make that page now, with all the details.
Thank you again for making 2013 the year I started to realise my own worth.
See you on Christmas Eve!
E