DECEMBER
Books I Read
3/5
This wasn't at all what I expected it to be. It was a super cool concept that should have made for a great book that looks at the variety in human behavior when faced with a revolutionary power that changes the world. Instead, I got a gritty horror novel with three horrible protagonists and one that was just "meh." Even in the realm of paranormal/sci-fi genres, I didn't find this to be realistic at all. No way are that many people so awful. I found the whole book to be very angry and violent. Don't be fooled by the reviews and blurbs calling it a feminist tale. It's really not. It's just a bloodbath perpetrated by women. My positives are that the plot was really good in theory, and I never felt bored.
DNF
This was one of those cases where I got a late start reading this for a book club, got maybe 150 pages in by skimming as fast as I could before the meeting, then decided it wasn't worth it to finish it afterwards. I found it all super confusing and my mind wandered constantly. I guess between this and The Power, I've learned that adult sci-fi isn't for me.
3.5/5
I think if I hadn't seen the musical, I would have liked this a lot more. If you've never seen this production, you'll probably like this book. Even if you've only heard the music, it's worth reading this to fill in the gaps of the story. Had the book existed first and then been adapted into a musical, it might have been better. But because this book is basically the script and lyrics with a little more of Evan's internal monologue included, I didn't think it was a great adaptation. Because I've seen the musical and sobbed through the entire thing, I know how powerful the story was supposed to be. The story fell flat for me here. I didn't cry once. I still liked the characters and it was cool getting a little bit of Connor's POV, but even that felt gimmicky simply so DEH fans would have "bonus material" to look for in the book. It was enjoyable and I read it pretty quickly, but for some reason it felt way more surface-level than the story really is.
5/5
I'm so glad I decided to save this to read on a not-so-great day, because this totally brightened my spirits. In classic Gentleman's Guide style, this was laugh-out-loud hilarious. Seriously, I snickered so many times while reading those 50 pages, which completely flew by. Monty and Percy are my OTP, so reading their adorably awkward (and sweet) romantic escapades was perfect for a dreary afternoon.
Movies I Watched
5/5
This was delightful! Emily Blunt was the perfect updated Mary Poppins and Lin-Manuel Miranda was fantastic and fun, as expected. I loved all the music (and I still have some of it stuck in my head) and the story was sweet and heartwarming. Perfect for the holidays! I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Quotes I Wrote
After frying my brain trying to get 50,000 words written in November, I decided to take a writing break in December and just focus on editing. I used this month to go through my entire manuscript for All the World's Afraid and make notes in the margins. It was a lot of fun, because while a lot of it is a mess that needs serious revamping, I didn't feel discouraged after I finished it. With some revision and polishing, I think it'll be a really great book. I still love my characters and the basics of my story. Fingers crossed!
Obsessions I Acquired
"Orange is the New Black" - I usually watch something in the mornings to preoccupy my mind while I get ready, and since all of my shows are on hiatus for the holidays, I needed a new show to watch. I picked this one on a whim since it's something I've seen people rave about, and it's really good! The acting is great, the characters are all unique and wacky, and it's an interesting premise. Somehow it's able to feel lighthearted even though it's kind of depressing.
"The Prom" soundtrack - This is not depressing at all. It's been a while since I've listened to a new musical soundtrack that I loved. It's light, fun, clever, and catchy. I've only listened to the whole thing straight through a couple times, so I don't know what my favorite song is yet, but this one has been in my head for a while.
Pictures of the Month
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| Max and I performed as Lurvy and Mrs. Arable (respectively) in "Charlotte's Web" this month! Musicals are my favorite kinds of shows to perform in, but this play was a lot of fun, too. The cast got along great and we enjoyed making the audience laugh (and tear up!). It was a nice change playing a mom, since I played two different villains this year. |
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| My bookshelf used to just be for books, but I've started lining it with gifts from friends. A lot of these presents were given to me by castmates and crew members after shows. |
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| I'm the student music director for a community theatre program for kids! I'm so excited, not only because I had a blast the last time I got to work with kids on putting on a show, but also because I'll be working with the vocal coach from "Lion King Jr.," who was awesome and super nice. |
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| "Mary Poppins Returns" was so good, as you saw from my review above. Worth the hype! |
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| Posing with performers from a Christmas Cabaret. I sang and danced with a bunch of my vocal teacher's students. It was the perfect way to celebrate the holiday. |
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| Merry Christmas! |
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| My friend Sammie drove up from Virginia to celebrate New Year's with my family and some mutual friends, and since her birthday is on December 30th, we threw her a party! Her favorite movie is "The Nightmare Before Christmas," so we went all out with themed foods and drinks. |
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| Annual New Year's Eve party! |
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| Can't believe I didn't blink when we took this Polaroid selfie. xD |
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| Selfie-ception! |
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| Max was sitting on a taller chair than the rest of us at the table and joked it was his throne, so I made him wear my tiara. |
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| Scout loves her sweater. |
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| She also loves to sit under the tree. When the presents started piling up, she was not amused. xD |
How was your December?
END OF THE YEAR WRAP-UP
Goodbye 2018, and hello 2019! Before we move on to next year, I always like to look back on the past year.
Top 10 books
I'm so sad that it was hard to pick my top 10 books this year, not because it was hard to narrow down, but because it was hard to come up with 10 I liked enough to include here! I only had five five-star reads. Not a fantastic reading year for me. :( Luckily, I did enjoy these.
New obsessions
1. "How to Get Away With Murder"
2. Jesse the Reader
3. The Broadway "Anastasia" soundtrack
4. "Someone Else's Story" from "Chess"
5. "Dear Evan Hansen" - the cast, the show, the music, the story, the Deluxe album songs, etc. (I know I included this last year, but I feel like I became renewedly obsessed with it after seeing it.)
6. John Mulaney
7. Instagram
8. "Peter Pan"/Captain Hook/"Finding Neverland"
9. "Atypical"
10. All the Hamildrops
Most played songs
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| Here's my 2018 Spotify Wrapped, to give you some idea. I got really into "Les Misérables" again . . . |
-The "Dear Evan Hansen" soundtrack
-The "Anastasia" soundtrack
-The "Les Misérables" soundtrack (that's thanks to All the World's Afraid revolving around a high school's production of the musical)
-The "Shrek: The Musical" soundtrack
-The "Lion King" soundtrack
-The "Peter Pan" soundtrack
-The "Once Upon a Mattress" soundtrack
-The "Mean Girls" soundtrack
-The "Finding Neverland" soundtrack
-The "Beauty and the Beast" soundtrack
-The "Spring Awakening" soundtrack
-The "Fun Home" soundtrack -The "Supernatural: The Musical" soundtrack
-All of the Hamildrops (especially "Found Tonight")
-"Someone Else's Story" from "Chess"
-"I See the Light" from "Tangled"
-"I'll Make a Man Out of You" from "Mulan"
-"Poor Pirates" from "SpongeBob: The Musical"
-"I Don't Wanna Love Somebody Else" by A Great Big World
-"She Waits" by Louden Swain
-"Treacherous" by Taylor Swift
-"Black Sheep" by Gin Wigmore
-"I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab for Cutie
-"God Is a Woman" by Dodie (cover)
-"Be OK" by Ingrid Michaelson
-"New Romantics" by Taylor Swift
-"Stronger Than My Fears" SHEL
-"To Be Alone" Hozier
10 favorite blog posts
1. "Character Karaoke - The Music that Inspired a Witchy Romance"
2. Rip it or Ship it?
3. Childhood Book Tag (Let the Nostalgia Begin!)
4. My Favorite LGBTQ+ Books
5. The Happy Tag
6. Captain Darling - NaNoWriMo Project of 2018
7. The Furry Friend Tag (Because You Need More Pictures of Scout in Your Life)
8. Yet Another Writing Tag That I Stole
9. "No, Mum, I'm Not a Millennial" (an interview with Lara Liz about her move to a new blog)
10. "Briggs Book Tag (Learn all about my personality through books!)"
Big things that happened in 2018
-I got my driver's license
-Saw Adam Pascal again in "Something Rotten!" when it toured locally
-Saw Paula Poundstone's stand up live
-Won four silver keys and six honorable mentions for the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards
-Saw Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp live in their "Acoustically Speaking" show
-Got cast in my first lead role as Captain Hook in "Peter Pan Jr." and adored every second of it
-Turned 18 and voted for the first time
-Got new glasses
-Was part of a local author's festival (complete with a book signing and a 15-minute presentation/Q&A)
-Saw the original London cast of "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" on Broadway for my 18th birthday
-Wrote a poem every day for the month of April as part of Camp NaNoWriMo and National Poetry Month
-Performed in not only "Peter Pan Jr.," but "Lion King Jr." as Banzai, "Once Upon a Mattress" as an ensemble member, "A Midsummer Night's Dream in 17 Minutes or Less" as Helena, "After Hours" as Burglar #1 (a last minute casting choice after the original actress got sick on show day), and "Charlotte's Web" as Mrs. Arable
-Finished the first draft and the first round of edits for All the World's Afraid
-Became a Municipal Liaison for NaNoWriMo and completed the 50,000-word goal
-Was an intern for a community theatre's Theatre Academy Classes
-Became a student musical director for a local community theatre's production of "Musicville" and got to help cast the show
-Graduated high school
-Was cast in two cabarets
-Started taking vocal lessons
-Got my wisdom teeth out
-Went to a writer's conference with my mom
-Made a scrapbook of my time in "Beauty and the Beast Jr."
-Saw "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Dear Evan Hansen"
-Went to my first writer's retreat
-Saw the touring company of "Finding Neverland"
-Applied to five colleges and was accepted to all five
Image from this year
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| A snapshot of "Hook's Waltz" from my last performance in "Peter Pan Jr." This was my favorite song to sing every night, because it was the best one for my vocal range, the most fun when it came to choreography, and it came at the climax of the show when I was running on pure adrenaline. Both nights, I finished it to a long round of applause. It was so awesome and surreal. |
Book stats
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| What this graph doesn't show is that a lot of those 4-star reads were actually 3.5-star ratings. :/ |
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| This ends up being pretty close each year, but hopefully next year I'll be able to tip the scales! |
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| And hopefully covers get better . . . |
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| This section is one of the ones I find most interesting to look at, because there are so many different reasons why I pick up a book. This year, I did a lot of impulse reading. Some were because a favorite author of mine blurbed a book I'd never heard of, and others were because I did a lot of driving this year and needed audiobooks to pass them time, but my selection for free audiobooks wasn't always great. |
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| I find it interested that my two biggest sections are "few/several days" and "3+ weeks." There is no in between, apparently. |
Thrilling.
Goals for 2019
Writing:
1. Finish rewriting All the World's Afraid. Now that I've got all my notes written up, I'd love to be able to rework the story enough so that by the end of the year at the latest, I can get it sent out to critique partners. I think I can do it. A lot is going to be cut so it'll tighten the story, so I'll have even less to work with eventually.
2. Finish rewriting 'Til the Last Star Dies. I might be biting off more than I can chew with having two projects I'm rewriting, but we'll see how it goes. TTLSD is way more of a mess since I have to completely rewrite the whole story--not just revise, rewrite. I'm basically starting from scratch. But at least I know where the story is going this time, so I won't have to meander around for 10,000 words.
Usually I have three goals for each section, but since these are both such huge projects, I'm not going to try and add anything else.
Reading:
1. Complete Ivyclad Bingo. I had a lot of fun doing her bingo challenge last year, so I'm going to try it again this year! The squares look very intriguing and diverse.
2. Finish a series I'm in the middle of. This didn't happen last year for some reason (i.e. I got distracted by standalones), but I'm determined to make it happen next year. Especially if I just buckle down and finally read Obsidio.
3. Focus on reading the diverse books on my TBR. My TBR is completely out of control and there's no hope of recovery, so I think this will be a good way to approach deciding what I read next. If I make sure it features diverse characters/authors, I'll not only be tackling my TBR, but I'll be reading a variety of stories.
Other:
1. Make scrapbooks for each of the shows I've performed in. I've almost put the finishing touches on my "Beauty and the Beast Jr." scrapbook and it was a ton of fun. Getting pictures with castmates and of the show is one of my favorite parts of looking back on past shows I've done, and scrapbooking is a great way to do some hands-on projects since I'm not really crafty in other ways.
2. Exercise at least 15 times each month. I've noticed that when I put pressure on myself to exercise every day and I miss a day because I'm busy or something, I get discouraged and end up finding excuses for why I can't exercise the next several days in a row. If I allow myself a buffer of a rough schedule of exercising every other day, I think I'll stick to it better.
3. Start a dog-sitting business. This is the perfect way for me to make some more money before I leave for college. I love dogs. And I can set it up in a way that lets me work for the several months I'm home, then I can shut it down until I come back in the summers.
Goals for 2018 that I've accomplished
Writing:
1. Finish the first draft for All the World's Afraid. Not only did I finish the first draft in October, but by mid-December, I'd finished the first round of edits, too! I really like the direction it's headed in.
Reading:
1. Join a blog book bingo. I linked up with Ivy from "Ivyclad Ideas" and really enjoyed it! I didn't quite fill the board, but I covered quite a few squares.
Superhero - Vicious by V.E. Schwab
Debut Author - A Thousand Perfect Notes by C.G. Drews.
Over 500 pages - Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
Contemporary - Love, Hate & Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
Historical - Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Black cover - A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Set in space - Artemis by Andy Weir
Magic - Everless by Sara Holland
Star-crossed lovers - Autoboyography by Christina Lauren
Witches - The Power by Naomi Alderman
Not set in the USA - The Chillbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
Manga - Death Note by Tsugumi Oba
Wolves - Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Other:
1. Go vegetarian for a month. I did this early on in the year! For all of February and a little into March, I (and the rest of my family, who decided to join in) did not eat any meat whatsoever. I felt like I was eating much healthier, in general, but I also had many days where I was constantly hungry. After a while, it was hard to have a variety of meals. It was tricky, but I'm glad I did it. One of my big takeaways was now that I've done it, I think I would have an easier time in the future eating a vegetarian diet for long stretches.
2. Create healthier habits. I think I did this, though I'm kicking myself for making such an unspecific goal, because I'm not sure how to tell if I actually accomplished it? I feel like I was more aware of what I ate and how much I exercised. I could always be better, but I improved. After a few months, I let my daily diet/exercise/sleep tracker go because it was way too much to keep up on, especially on days where I was out all day or busy. I just made sure I kind of kept a mental list.
3. Keep up on my Spanish. I did a lot of Duolingo this year and review. I'm not fantastic at it or anything, but I understand a lot more than I did before. I was able to stumble through some customer orders at my job without needing anyone to translate, so I call that a win.
Goals for 2018 that I didn't accomplish
Because it's good to recognize your failures, too.
Writing:
1. Finish rewriting 'Til the Last Star Dies. Pfft, yeah, this didn't happen at all. I did try, but once I got started, I realized it needed a lot more work than I thought it would need. Especially after going to my writing retreat and Beth Revis telling me that the book I'd written was an adult fantasy and not a YA novel, so that was a wake up call that needed to happen. xD It's getting a much bigger revamp now.
2. Finish the first draft for Captain Zahira and her Wayward Crew. I had good intentions, but I ended up getting sidetracked by All the World's Afraid instead and totally throwing myself into that project. At least I got distracted for a good reason?
Reading:
1. Read six classics of my choice. I read three, not six: The Great Gatsby, Peter Pan, and Lord of the Flies.
2. Finish a series I'm in the middle of. As I mentioned before, this didn't happen because there are just way too many standalones begging to be read. Oops.
Bye, 2018! Now for the next adventure.
What are your goals for 2019? Anything big happen in 2018? Leave a comment!
