The Road So Far (4)

Hey all, Dani here.

I’m on my fourth year of doing this annual post! You can check out my posts for 2016, 2017 and 2018 here. Today also happens to my Mousai Books’ Blogaversary. I posted my first blog post on this day back in 2016, which feels so long ago even though it was only four years.

Anyway, the title of this post continues to be a reference to “Supernatural,” which is a show I still enjoy, but don’t follow with the same level of obsessiveness that I used to. Whenever they would do a mid-season or end of season recap of the events that came before the screen filled with the words “the road so far,” so I think it is fitting to use that phrase myself when looking back on the last year of life and this blog. Actually, with “Supernatural” ending, especially since Damian didn’t get the chance to watch the whole thing in the beginning, we’re thinking about bingeing our way through the whole show. I own all but the last couple seasons.

I started this blog after my paternal grandmother’s death because I needed to give myself something to focus on, and I also felt the desire to talk to other book lovers about books. While I hoped that the blog would do well, I worried that it would be a dud like my previous blog. Thankfully that hasn’t been the case.

Okay, well let’s just chat through all the stuff from 2019. Well, in the last year I reached 600 followers and then at the end of the year I ended up with 700 followers, so honestly, thank each and every one of you who has joined me on this book and nerd blogging journey. I am so thankful for each and every one of you, because you have enabled me to have an active place to talk about the hobbies I’m passionate about. Seriously, thank you all.

I also wrote more blog posts in 2019 than I had in any previous year. I’m still trying to figure out how I managed to keep up with that schedule…and yet, here I am trying to do it again in 2020. I wrote my 800th post at the end of the year, so that seems pretty impressive to me. If I keep up a solid pace in 2020, I think I’ll reach my 1000th post, which seems incredible and ridiculous to think about. But I’m just really enjoying the blogging process, and I hope to keep doing this for years to come.

Speaking of blogging last year, that was when I started my Weekend Writer series, and though I only managed it for just a few months, I’m excited to see where it goes in the future, because there are a bunch of writing craft books I’d still like to work my way through.

Let’s see…in 2019, Damian and I bought a house: a really nice 4 bedroom, 2 bath, with a 2 car attached garage house. It has been an adventure to adjust to being homeowners and trying to furnish the home and take care of the yard work and all of that. But we have enjoyed putting together our nerdy domain. It has been pretty great.

Oh, and buying a house put us in a position where we were able to finally choose a wedding date: 10/10/2020, so we spent some time through the year figuring out who to invite, where to have the wedding, and the honeymoon was already decided before we even had a date–the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, for those who are curious.

Also throughout the year, I participated in both sessions of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, as well as the Reverse Summer Readathon, and I always have a great time with those, even if I don’t read as much as I would hope to. I did participate in a few longer readathons, like the OWLs and the NEWTs, as well as #AGameofBooksathon, and those were a pretty fun time as well.

Honestly I kept up a pretty amazing reading pace in 2019, and it’s still a tad baffling to look at my 2019 Goodreads challenge because I read so much more than I expected to. Plus I read a bunch of manga, graphic novels, poetry, children’s books, Middle Grade books, YA books, Contemporary Romance, and Fantasy books, so that’s always a good time.

I also went to a book release/signing event for Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan, and The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman, and later in the year I went to a book signing for Embrace Your Weird: Face Your Fears and Unleash Creativity by Felicia Day. The Felicia Day signing was a very last-minute wonderfully crazy idea by Damian, but I’m so glad we did it. We literally finished working a 10 hour shift, then drove 3 hours to a bookstore for the signing, waited around there for a couple hours, and then had another 3 hour drive home. We were so tired the next day, but it was so amazing to meet Felicia Day again. I also got a few books signed at GenCon, so it was a good year for adding to the signed book collection.

I also watched more anime with Damian, mostly with us watching more “Fairy Tail,” “Black Clover,” and “My Hero Academia.” But we found a lot of our watching went down because our Internet became sub-par after moving into our house so we needed to have something on DVD to really be able to watch. So we’re farther behind on some shows than we would like to be. But it’s okay overall.

On the convention side of things, we obviously attended GenCon, but then we also worked at Cincinnati Comic Expo with Colorworld Books. I’ll also throw our two trips to the Ohio Renaissance Festival in this portion of the post as well. The first time we went was literally opening weekend and we did some shopping and watched some of the shows, but the second time we went in 2019, towards the end of the season, we went solely for food and drink, and I documented it all on my Instagram. It was a fantastic time.

I tried to participate in NaNoWriMo 2019, but I ended up failing. The words just didn’t come out as well as I would have hoped. But I’m figuring out what I need to do to keep writing, and 2020 is the year that I write my book.

My video gaming improved a bit, especially after I bought myself a Nintendo Switch Lite. I’ve mostly been playing “Link’s Awakening,” “Skyrim,” and “Pokemon Shield.” But I’m hoping to pick up “Witcher 3” soon so I can give it a try considering I like both the books and the show. I’m still not super focused on gaming or anything, but I do enjoy it from time to time.

I guess the last thing to happen really was at the end of the year I got a temporary promotion at work and got to do a job I really loved, and then I was sent back to my typical job and it was really rough. Oh, and at the very very end of the year I finally replaced my car that had died two years earlier.

Reading over this post I feel like there might be some stuff I’m missing from this year-in-review, but I just can’t think of anything at the moment. How was your 2019 overall? Let me know in the comments, and I’ll be back soon with more bookish content. (Like literally in a few hours, because it will be time for my Weekend Writer post.)