Monthly Highlights - January 2017

   I literally (and accidentally) put '2016' on my 'January Highlights' header image when I was making it. Apparently my mind can't wrap around the fact that it's 2017 now xD.

   Am I the only one who both loves writing monthly highlights posts, but cringes at the same time? It's so HARD - but at the same time it's a lot of fun to round up all the things that happened and realize that, hey, this was a pretty good month (albeit a quiet one xD)!

   Actually, not much happened this month. Like I said, it was pretty quiet. Mostly school and writing - and the other, everyday things that were still fun ;).

   - There's been lots of singing - though, this basically happens every month. Our family loves making music together - and it's especially fun when one person breaks into song and the rest of us randomly join in. Sometimes we sing normal songs ... but sometimes one of the family goofballs will make something up, and we'll all end up laughing until we cry. Tons of fun xD. (and lots of listening to the beautiful songs my sister Skylar composes. They're epic)

 
   - Vlogging. Turns out I really like doing this, and Ariel certainly doesn't mind giving me a hand with the taping of a video. Maybe I'll let her make a guest appearance in the next one ;).  

   - Wrote about 5,346 words, not including all of the plotting/brainstorming stuff that I did xD. Most of this was for no story in particular - I just felt like spilling ink. So I did *shrugs*. I'm hoping to write closer to 10k words next month - but next month is going to be pretty full for me, so we'll see if that happens.

   - Lots of musing over a Red Riding Hood retelling that wants to be written. I'm not too sure about it yet (seeing as I really need to get my priorities straight and edit Killing Snow, instead of traipsing off into the wilderness of un-done story ideas), but the characters refuse to give up. So the first draft of that might happen in February.      

   - I wrote a good few pages of story from a random prompt that Hope Ann posted on her blog. Said story seemed to be taking off for a little while, but then I got tired and the thing went nowhere xD. But my sisters thought that what I wrote of it was good, so maybe I'll post some of it on here at some point. However, it was WAY different and kind of darker than what I normally write, so it's probably going to join the pile of 'stories I started but never finished that shan't ever see the light of day' xD.   

ze aforementioned prompt

   ... and you guys are probably wanting a snippet of something-or-other that I wrote this month.  *sighs* *goes to find something vaguely suitable* (this is unedited, to make you aware) 

   And yep, that's it - hurry away and forget I showed that to you xD. 

+ five others I couldn't get pics of

   17 books - not as many as I planned to read, but not a bad amount either. And basically all of the books were EPIC so I don't really care xD.

   - (whole series) Threshold by Christa Kinde. I almost consider this series one of those 'hidden gems' of the book world. It isn't super well-known, but it is one of my favorite series in the whole stinkin' world (right up there with LotR, Harry Potter, and such). I've re-read them so many times - and I don't re-read too often, so that means a good deal coming from me. The characters are so incredible, and I definitely had a huge case of story hangover when I finished. I just needed more. It's a five star series for certain. 

   - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. So I know I talked about the Hunger Games series in one of my other Monthly Highlights posts - but I had to come back to this one. I have complained about it being a kind of confusing last book, but guess what? It's actually much better on a re-read. As I re-read, I loved this book just about as much as the others. Definitely a 4 1/2 star book on the second go-round.

   - Anne Of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. One of the only realistic fiction books that I adore and will re-read. I think this was my second or third time reading it (I guess this was a month of re-reading for me? Huh. Odd.) and I still love it. I don't normally give realistic fiction books five stars, but this one deserves every one of them.

   I also started alpha-ing Soleil's story, Changeling. I love beta/alpha-ing stories, and Soleil's is really good - and she hasn't even edited it since NaNoWriMo (and OH BOY is she brave to let me read her bare-bones draft) so I'm super excited to see where it goes after this.

collage she made for Changeling = EPICNESS

 

   - Sarah Margaret finished her novel and got physical copies of it *squeals*.

   - Hannah White posted about the importance of vulnerability in characters (her posts are GOALS, people. Every time.).

   - Katie Grace gave us a huge dose of encouragement for editing that I NEEDED SO BAD.

   - Tracey Dyck did two GORGEOUS posts that I can't even explain (because they caused me to lose all the words in my brain) so just go read this and this.

   - Julia Ryan wrote a beautiful short story based off of one of her poems.

   - Nadine Brandes wrote an epic post about your age being defined by your attitude, not a number.

   - An incredible post on Burning Youth stunned me again (basically every post on Burning Youth does this to me. But I'll just link to one, no? OH WAIT - this one too. Can't help it xD).

   - The next post in my character building series, which may or may not have to do with villain characters ;).

   - At least one tag, seeing as I'm getting behind on the things I've been tagged for xD.

   - Maybe a post of First Lines (inspired by one of Tracey's posts) from my stories. But we'll see about that one, as most of my first lines are horrendous, un-edited monsters. 

the poor un-edited thing *shakes head*

   That one 'tis a wee bit better than the others - BUT STILL.

   So that was my January in a nutshell - and it looks like the first month of 2017 might be the calm before the storm. I'm super excited to see what the next month brings! (probably edits of Killing Snow. But I'm pretending I don't know that. *continues to be oblivious*)

~ Savannah Grace

   Did any cool things happen for you this month? What was one of your favorite posts you read in January?