It’s been a strange year for goals–so maybe it’s fitting I’m running a day or two late from normal on this report! I mixed together life goals and reading challenges this year, so the updates have been a little varied from usual. And the timing has been a little strange all through.
Getting married was my biggest goal this year, accomplished on May 12th. I put a lot of focus on the Newbery Medal reading challenge, and completed that at the end of August, so I already reported on that in my last update.
My second reading challenge was (for the third year in a row) to try to read more books with minority hero(ines). Well, I’m still getting used to reading while married (totally different daily routine!) and I frankly didn’t think about this goal in the last three months. So, not surprisingly, I’m sneaking in one fantasy re-read but otherwise, no progress here. With the usual rather sad observation that it’s not easy to stumble accidentally into minority-led books–which says rather a lot.
- North of Happy by Adi Alsaid (Mexican)
- Amos Fortune: Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (African-American)
- Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Indian)
- Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Spanish)
- Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Navajo)
- Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly (Japanese and Filipino)
- Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Incan)
- Street Magic by Tamora Pierce (vaguely Arab, in a fantasy world)
On writing goals, I wanted to write three short stories, which I finished by September. On my last update I was still working on the first book of my Phantom trilogy. I’m very happy to report that’s completed–at least barring any tweaks required based on revising the later books. But that should be minor at most!
I also intended to get the second installment of the trilogy to beta-readers by the end of the year. Well, it’s January 2nd and I’m still working on it. But the end is actually in sight, and I’m hoping to get it off by mid-January, so only about two weeks behind the original goal. And honestly, that’s better than I expected most of the time, so we’ll call that good!
So, not quite a perfect score on reaching all my goals–but I had more ambitious, more complicated goals than usual, and 2018 was one of the most life-altering years I’ve ever had–so I’m going to feel good about how it all turned out.
Did you have reading or other goals for the year? How did they turn out for you?
Seems to me you accomplished a lot in a year when you had a life-changing event like getting married. You didn’t just abandon your goals because of your new status and adjustment to married life. Good for you! My reading goal for 2018 was to finish 60 books. I exceeded it by quite a bit – finishing 77 books by the end of the year. I really enjoy having time each day to read for fun. I’ll probably have a similar goal this year in terms of numbers.