2013 in Review and Looking at the Present

This has been a year full of learning and growing and digging in for me. I have a lot to be grateful for and many things to look forward to in 2014. This post is just a tiny look at 2013.

Goodbyes

We had to say goodbye to Demon Dog. Sigh. I wrote a post about it, but you’ll never see it. Mockingbird has banned me from posting about her or her world. I’ve already said too much.

Nearly three-fourths of my “finished” fantasy novel is gone. Yes, I grieved those darlings as I cut them. Why did I slash my beloved Hunter Moon to smithereens? Because I took Kristen Lamb’s class about antagonists. Because something didn’t feel right about the story. It’s hard to have a story if there’s no bad guy.

Hellos

Thanks to Jay and his crew at TechSurgeons for holding my hand while I rebuilt Mermaids Don’t Do Windows here. Also, he has a great sense of humor–even when I managed to lock myself out of my own website *cough* *unintelligible number* times. I look forward to adding stuff in 2014 to the website. Not sure what yet, so stay tuned.

Diana Beebe's Blog, Diana Beebe, science fiction, middle grade fantasy, fantasy — Photo courtesy Nicole Grabner

My WANATribes and the WANA Way and WANACon has helped me in more ways than I can ever express. To my Hotel California peeps (you know who you are): Well, you know how I feel. <3 And also, DFWCon. It was wonderful to meet soooo many WANAs there. In person.

My new favorite vacation spot: Maui.

By the Numbers

Because I moved from a WordPress.com site to my own hosted .org site, I got two different reports from WordPress about the numbers.

For this site, you can view the report here: http://jetpack.me/annual-report/50163869/2013/
For the old site, you can go here: http://dianabeebe.wordpress.com/2013/annual-report/

The surprise most-viewed post is the one that I totally made fun of the fabric that I picked for my bridesmaids. The title is 27 Dresses…Maybe just 4 and some curtains. I get more hits from internet searches for “27 dresses” than anything else, including creepy searches about teenaged selfies. Lock up your daughters, people!

Here’s the list that WordPress gave me:

27 Dresses…Maybe just 4 and some curtains
Time-Traveling, Shapeshifting, Magical Ponies
Clear Signs that the Woman Who Sold You a House is Crazy…or a Genius
No BBT, No Story. No BBT, No Story. Repeat Until it Sinks In
Are You Sure Mermaids Aren’t Real? (This is a follow up post to my first and one of my favorite posts: Mermaids aren’t real?)

A few of my other favorites:

The spammers continue to hammer away. In December alone, there were 4,406 spam hits. If you left a comment that got caught in the extra powerful spam filter, then I’m sorry. I emptied spam one day without reading through the 71+ pages of junk. Since April, there have been a total of 13,236 spam comments (and only 12 got through the filter).

Looking Forward

Without going too long, here are a few of my goals for 2014 (in no particular order):

Spend more quality family time. So, this one does come first.
Give more attention to my spiritual growth.
Organize my office and closets.
Finish writing Hunter Moon (again)–including editing and revisions after beta readers attack it.
Edit my middle grade novel, State Secret Keepers and plot the series.
Get back into those jeans (I know the ones) that don’t fit after the holidays. Yeah.
Put together my notebook for PTA President.
Post something on this blog every third day.
Read 2 new craft books.
Read 6 fiction books in my TBR pile. That’s barely the tip of the iceberg.
Gardening stuff. Mostly learn how to preserve the surplus (when that happens) better.
Join local and national writer groups/organizations.
Begin writing the YA science fiction story (code name Glow).
Learn to speak French again.

Dang! I went long. Looks like time management is going to be key to my success this year. LOL. Anyway, there it is out there for the world to see.

Happy New Year! I wish you all the best!

What was your favorite thing that happened in 2013? What plans do you have for 2014?