Another Year Gone

As usual, I'm back blogging to reminisce about the year past. I've been quiet these past few months. A lot has happened, and quite honestly, I'm not sure if I'm even ready to begin writing about everything that has happened. I gained a daughter earthside and lost a dear friend within days of each other. We worked so hard to get my daughter E here and I never thought that my friend wouldn't beat pneumonia. To say it was a shock, and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it, is quite the understatement. Eventually, I'll post about my friend, Katherine. However, right now, I'm not ready.

I will add this - she pushed me to be a better writer. Not just in continuing with my writing, but also, she pushed me out of my comfort zone and onto social media. I got a TikTok this past fall (follow me HERE: @authorktjames) and have been posting more content there. The focus of my account is threefold: books and reading, writing, and Deaf culture. I hadn't seen a lot of D/HOH "BookTokers," so Katherine pushed me to join and sign when I posted. It's been fun, but creating that content leaves me with little time to do blog posts or other posts. I'm getting better (aka faster) and remembering to start posting on Instagram too.

I did read a shit ton of books this year, which is technically normal for me, however - I also purchased SO MANY books because of BookTok. What does this mean? It means... I bought more than I read. I now have over 80 books on my TBR pile. I did make a plan that I would read at least 2 of what I had already purchased every month next year. It doesn't mean that I can't buy new ones, or read more than 2 a month, but I do have to get my pile down some before purchasing new ones.

On a note with books, I did start an ASL Book Club by joining together my friend group with Katherine's interpreter friend group. So, it's a mix of D/HOH, interpreters, and hearing friends who are learning ASL. It's been fun, though, we've not picked great books so far (I mean, we started out with a completely awful one - The Southern Women's Guide to Slaying Vampires to this month's sad pick instead of light-hearted Always, in December). I'm planning (eventually) on posting a review of the fall book club picks soon.

I also participated in NaNoWriMo. It wasn't my best year. Yes, I did "win" and wrote 50,000 words; however, I approached it completely wrong and focused on just getting the words - not necessarily getting good words. As a fun note, I did actually fall asleep writing at least 3 times. The sentences were gibberish and it was comical. My biggest goal was to write everyday for NaNoWriMo, which I did, so I felt some accomplishment.

So that's a few things from this past year. The highlights were definitely having my sweet girl E, going through pregnancy with my sister-in-law, our first girls' trip, and having fun on TikTok. The lows range from deciding to completely rewrite The Lost Daughter and losing my best friend.

Did I make all my goals from last year? No. But I did feel accomplished and did a fair amount of them. And I'm trying to give myself grace.

That's my year in review. Up next, my goals for the next year.

How was your year?

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