Welcome to the last day of 2020. Many of you have welcomed me back into the internet world and I am glad to be back. I have been thinking about what I’ll be doing in 2021 and have made some reasonable goals that will help me become a better reader and writer.

Reading:
I am going to dive headfirst into new releases this year. I have already pre-ordered the ones I’ll be reading in January and February from Jenny Lawson’s Nowhere Books. In February I’ll order my March and April books from another independent bookshop, and I’m hoping to patronize a different shop every couple of months with pre-orders.

2020 was so overwhelming that I hardly read anything (compared to how much I usually do) but I feel like I get what this is now, and so in 2021 I’ll be setting aside one hour each day for reading. If you feel like this too, the best way to get back in the habit is to set a timer and turn everything else off. I’m almost certain that you’ll discover that once you begin, the alarm will go off and you’ll just keep going.

Writing:
I’m going to return to my original goal for this website and aim to publish one book review each week. This is the most aggressive of all my goals, but if I read with a timer like I plan to, I should be finishing most books within a week anyway.

My book is still in progress. I’ve written two drafts in the past two years, but it has been difficult to squish all of my writing into the two month summer break when my mind is relaxed and not full of work. This year though, I’d like to have around 20,000 words in the draft before the end of the school year to take the heat off those months, and mathematically that means I have to write about 150 words every day between January 1st and May whatever it is. This is an extremely doable goal, and like the reading timer, I will probably surprise myself and end up writing more than I planned.

Susan Dennard (of the Witchlands series) is doing a “Story per Month” writing club and I joined it! Every month she’ll provide us with a prompt and we’ll write a story around it. I googled “how long is a short story?” and google said “5,000-10,000 words” so I’ll be aiming for the 5,000 mark with around 160 words each day. Again, seems small but it’s doable and it adds up! Plus I’d like to start getting practice writing stories I could submit to contests or collections or places that publish such things.

Because this wasn’t enough writing practice, I am going to be using Leigh Bardugo’s The Severed Moon for daily journaling. I hope to post some of these responses either here or on my author website.

Cooking:
Both the husband and I have been moving towards a more vegetarian lifestyle. While we recognize that we will probably never be 100% vegetarian (it’s expensive!), we try to make one or two meals each week with no meat. Last Christmas I bought him the American Test Kitchen’s “The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook” and I’ll be making one recipe from that book each week. I also make my own pizzas every Saturday and I bake my own bread (thanks bread machine!), so I’m sure that I could come up with an Angry Angel Cooks post once in awhile. Cookbooks are technically books, so I’ll allow it.

Streaming:
The one thing outside of reading and writing that I absolutely love doing is playing video games. I won’t be making posts about it, but I am going to try to start streaming on a regular schedule – once a week at first. If you’d like to watch me build things or shoot aliens you can catch me on Twitch. I’ll be posting on Twitter when I’m streaming, so you’ll want to follow me there if this sounds like something you would be interested in.

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I will be patronizing independent bookshops this year and that tends to be a bit more expensive than going through Amazon. If you would like to support me (and indy shops!) in this effort I will have both a Ko-Fi account and Paypal link set up in each post that you can use to support this website (this also helps me keep the page ad-free!!). If you would rather send me a book directly, I have an Amazon wishlist set up for the simple reason that it hides my address and I can’t justify paying for a PO Box (yet). None of this is required, but is always appreciated!

Support Angry Angel Books with a donation or a book!

See you in the new year. Stay safe out there.