Happy Sunday!

On my old blog, I used to make lists of the books and movies that would be releasing that year. It was a nice reference for me to have throughout the year - especially for the upcoming movies.

So I’m doing it again this year. Here we go.




(These are for all the books that I don’t know specific release dates for yet. If/when I do learn them, I will update this post with the new information.)

The Blood Race #3: Resurgence (K.A. Emmons). I still haven’t read Worlds Beneath yet, but the first book was just so inspiring for me as a writer. I can’t wait to read the next two! Side note: I did force tell my friend to read it. XD (You're probably reading this right now, so I’ll just say: I figured you probably wouldn’t like it as much as I did, but hey, at least it’s checked off your TBR now!)

Uprising (Ivie Brooks). I CAN'T WAIT for this book. Ivie is one of my blogging friends, and she’s putting so much love and work into this book, I just KNOW it’s going to be good. (I’m actually not a huge fan of dystopian, but I really don’t care - the synopsis sounds great!)

100 Days (Abbie Emmons). This isn’t the actual title (I believe), and it’s set to release in summer. I’m not a huge fan of contemporary, either, but Abbie is AMAZING at writing characters, so it’s going to be great! So apparently I only like fantasy. Fine. Sue me. 



I know people wanted me to put The Wicked King by Holly Black on this list, but a) it already released, and b) I haven’t read the first book. But it released January 8th. 

Black Blood (S.D. Grimm). I haven’t read the first two books of this series yet, but it’s on my TBR pile! It releases January 29th.

A Winter Grim and Lonely (Nicki Chapelway). (Nicki, correct me if I’m wrong about any of your release dates. XD) I haven’t read any of Nicki's work, but all her books sound so good! If only I wasn’t so stingy with my money..... It releases sometime in January, although for some reason Goodreads wouldn’t let me find the release date. -_-



How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. I just know I’m going to cry over this movie, okay? Because the directors said that it was going to follow the ending of the books, and I went, "OH SHOOT." But I guess we'll find out on February 22nd.

The Deceiver's Heart (Jennifer Nielsen). Again, I haven’t read the first book of this series yet (the Traitor's Game series), but, again, it’s on my TBR list! I read the Ascendance trilogy, by the same author, and thought it was really good! This book releases February 26th.



Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Tomi Adeyemi). I'm so excited for this book! I reread the first book (Children of Blood and Bone) a week ago, and now I’m all ready for this one! (But if Inan dies . . . I WILL NOT BE OKAY.) This will come out on March 5th.

To Best the Boys (Mary Weber). Okay, confession time: I have never been the biggest fan of Mary Weber's books. I’m not a huge fan of her writing style, to be honest. But the synopsis of this book sounds so good, I’m going to give her another shot. TBtB also comes out on March 5th, so apparently that’s a good day for book releases.

Captain Marvel. I’m really hoping that this movie is good. It HAS to be, because it’s going to lead into Avengers: Endgame, at least in part. This is Marvel’s first movie with a female main character, so I’m interested to see what happens! It comes out on March 8th.



Avengers: Endgame. I'M JUST SAYING, THIS MOVIE CANNOT POSSIBLY BE MORE EMOTIONAL THAN THE LAST ONE. of course it can, what am I saying. When it comes out on the 26th, you’ll probably see a review post about it, kind of like what I did last year. Anyways, I’m planning on bringing the tissues.

Dalkieth (Abigail Harder). April 27th is when Goodreads says that Abigail will release her book! I’m super excited; I haven’t been following Abigail for very long, but she’s a great person (plus a Lord of the Rings fangirl!).

The Story Raider (Lindsay Franklin). Yet again, another sequel to a book I haven’t read. Hopefully, if I’m lucky, I can read The Story Peddler (the first book) before April 30th, the release of this one.

A Winter Dark and Deadly (Nicki Chapelway). Again, I got the release date off Goodreads, and it said sometime in April. Again, this book looks excellent, though I haven’t read her other works. (Sorry! Hopefully this year!)



Romanov (Nadine Brandes). I saw Anastasia the musical last weekend, which was AMAZING, so I’m totally ready for this magical retelling of the Romanov's! It releases on May 7th.



Sorcery of Thorns (Margaret Rogerson). I don’t know anything about this book, except that it comes out on June 4th. The title sounds very cool, though!



Spider-Man: Far from Home. I LOVED Spider-Man: Homecoming (aside from some content) so I’m looking forward to seeing this one! Also, he’s going to be a junior in this movie. #relatable This movie releases on July 5th.



Artemis Fowl. *sigh* Okay. I saw the trailer for this movie and . . . I think it’s going to be another Percy Jackson. It looks weird and not like the book. Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know. I’ll still probably see it on August 9th, but I may have to bring a friend so I can rant.



Coral (Sara Ella). Like with Sorcery of Thorns, I know literally nothing about this book, except that it’s by an author that writes books with interesting premises. If I’m lucky, I’ll read her other series’ before September 10th, when this one comes into the world.


None! At least, none that I could find that looked interesting. Writers, this just means less procrastination for #NanoPrep. XD



KOTLC #8 (Shannon Messenger). Because you HAVEN’T HEARD ME RAVE ABOUT THIS ENOUGH. XD We don’t know what the title is yet, or what it’s about, but it’s KOTLC. It’s going to be amazing. There isn’t a release date yet, but I bet that it’ll come out this month.



Star Wars: Episode IX. I was veeeery hesitant over this movie, as The Last Jedi . . . wasn’t my favorite movie ever (but that talk is for another day). I’m hopeful that this one blows me away and is a nice send-off to this trilogy! It is said to come out on December 20th.

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Okay, and now for the announcement that I told you about in the title of this post.

I’m going on hiatus.

What does this mean? Well, I’m going to be absent on Blogger and Goodreads (because those are the only social medias I have XD), and I won’t be commenting on all your lovely posts. I WILL respond to emails or Google Hangouts, however, so those of you who want my email, shoot me a message in the “Contact” form on the sidebar!

I’m hoping that I’ll be back after about two weeks. There’s a writing project that I NEED to get done by the end of January (it’s supposed to be a Christmas present to my cousins), and besides that, there’s some stuff I need to figure out soon. When I come back, there will be a post talking about this in more detail.

So, yeah. I hope you all have an AMAZING rest of January, and I’ll hopefully see you sometime soon!

-Nicole

HAPPY NEW YEAR! *confetti cannon explodes*

Man, it feels like the last time I saw you was last year!

*facepalm* No, that wasn’t funny. Forgive my poor attempt at humor.

2019 has already started off EPICALLY, and I can’t wait to see what happens! But, of course, I decided to set some goals for myself to try to make this year even more awesome.

Let’s see how I do. . . .


So, I split my goals up into five categories: improving my quality of life, being healthier, reading, music, and writing. Because heaven knows I won’t have enough to do in the new year.


Complain less. Something I’ve realized this year is that I tend to be pretty optimistic when I’m around people I barely know (like when I’m at work). On the other hand, though, when I’m around close friends and family, that optimism just . . . drains away. This year, I want to at least somewhat improve my attitude.

Spend more time in prayer. In 2019, I’m planning to continue my daily Bible reading, and also add in an examination of conscience every night. Our school also houses a chapel, so this year I want to utilize that opportunity more.

Spend more time with my family and friends. Because SOCIAL MEDIA SHOULD NOT BE MY LIFE. (Yeah, you can expect a phone rant to be coming sometime this year. Be ready. XD)


Exercise more often. Hahahaha. Ha. Ha. Yep, this ain’t happening, but it’s nice to dream. Anyone who knows me can tell you that I don’t exercise - at all.

Well, I guess that even a little exercise would achieve this goal . . .

Eat healthier. My family’s going on a big calcium push, and I want to actually try and hit the % daily goal for each day.

Think before I talk. Yes, this is going under “acting healthier.” It’s mental health. Don’t ask.

But seriously, one of the things I love about writing and talking online is that you can always change what you’ve written before you post it. In real life, I tend to just say random stuff and then hope everyone understands what I’m saying. And trying to explain Chemistry to someone is a lost cause. So hopefully, this year, I can make the quality of my speech better.


Yep, I’m going to try and read 100 books this year! (Most of the goals here concern book series that I want to finish this year.)

Finish the Ilyon Chronicles. I got the first two books for Christmas, and that has given me motivation. (I think the last book comes out this year?? So this is perfect timing!)

Finish the Tales of Goldstone Wood. Yet another series that I started, but didn’t finish in 2018. I have the last three to go!

Finish the Wingfeather Saga. I read the first book and really enjoyed it! (Peet the Sock Man was probably my favorite character.) I hope that I’ll have time to pick the rest of this series up in 2019!


Write/compose my first song. You’re not going to hear anything more about this goal until I actually do write a song, and I don’t know when that will be. So if you look through future posts, waiting for updates on this, you probably won’t see them.

Do well in singing competitions. Because for SOME bizarre reason, my music teacher likes putting me in all these singing contests - WITH JUDGES. If that doesn’t strike terror into your heart, nothing will. XD

Learn a new huge piano piece. This year, I learned a ten-minute Avatar: The Last Airbender piano medley, which was EPIC. (Although my brother now hates that song . . . oh well. XD) This year, I have my sights on either a HTTYD piece or a Harry Potter medley . . . but this will probably have to wait until summer, so I can get practice time in.


Keep up with my blogging schedule. Hopefully this isn't too hard - the Sunday schedule seems to be working pretty well for me! 

Finish the first draft of the Silver Sword. Yep, you read that correctly: my NaNo 2018 project STILL isn't done. I figure I'll finish it during the first three months of this year, after I finish another project.

Finish draft 2 of The Inhumans #1 + possibly write book 2? I SO WANT TO WRITE BOOK 2. But I really need to outline the entire trilogy first, and then rewrite the 30k first draft of book 1. (I'm thinking that it will be expanded to 50k, but I'm not sure.)

Go to Realm Makers.

Yes.

You read that correctly.

I AM GOING TO REALM MAKERS 2019.

*eternal screaming and flailing*

Although I'm super nervous about doing this (it's my first writer's conference and I'm going to try PITCHING *horror*), I'm also super excited! I hear a lot of my blogging buddies talking about how it's so amazing, and I've wanted to go to a writer's conference for some time.

*more screaming*

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Well, those are all my goals for 2019! It's a lot, I know, and if you read through this entire thing, CONGRATULATIONS! *showers dark chocolate*

-Nicole

UM. IT'S ALMOST 2019.

Say WHAT????

Honestly, I’m excited for 2019 and all the opportunities it will bring. But . . . at the same time, 2018 was a pretty good year.

Let’s delve a little deeper, shall we?

This post will be split into three categories: fandoms, writing, and life.

First up, we have . . .

Otherwise known as “When I Try to Make My Life Aesthetic and Fail Because That’s Just Not True.” (That title was a bit too long to fit into an image.)

It’s two days until Christmas!

*scurries around buying last-minute gifts*

How is it already almost the end of the year? It just feels . . . weird. I mean, weirder than normal.


For some reason, this December hasn’t felt very Christmas-y.

Most years, you can feel the Christmas in the air. Deserts are made every other day inside the house, and outside, Christmas lights and trees pepper the streets. Candy canes are handed out at school nearly every week. Usually, there’s at least a little bit of snow outside, and the air is really cold.

But this year . . . I don’t know. Something just feels off. Maybe it’s because of exams, maybe it’s because suddenly I have so many things to do, but either way, it doesn’t feel like a normal December. It’s hard for me to believe that Christmas is literally two days away.

Of course, it’s not that the feeling of Christmas is the important part. It’s everything else.

Christmas is a special time of the year, obviously. I’m not going to preach an entire sermon here - you can read or hear that almost anywhere - but it’s when we celebrate Jesus’ birth. We should be happy, joyful, and peaceful.

And instead, I just feel stressed and tired.

Should this time of year really feel this way?

I don’t think it should. I think that this time of year, Jesus wants us to set aside time to be with Him and prepare our hearts for Him. After all, this Advent marks the beginning of the new Church Year, and it’s a good idea to begin the year with a renewed effort to strengthen your relationship with God. And no, I’m not saying I’m perfect at this. I’m struggling with this, like everyone else. 

But how can we do that when there’s just so much to do?

I don’t have easy answers. But I will say this: we need to remember that there’s more to this life than just our physical lives. We need to make time in our spiritual lives as well, whether that means sacrificing some Netflix time, staying up five or ten minutes later, waking up a little earlier, or going to Mass more.

That’s what God is calling us to do this Christmas: make more of an effort to spend time with Him.

And I know it’s hard, like I said above. Lately, I’ve found that every spare moment is taken up with something I “have” to do. But when I take a step back and seriously look at what I’m doing, I see so many places where I can cut some Internet activity or book-reading and just spend time with Him. Let’s not even talk about my YouTube consumption lately.

Maybe that can be our gift to Jesus this Christmas season: just five minutes alone with Him, talking quietly. Doing nothing else, except spending time with Him. After all, it is his birthday.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

-Nicole

Happy Sunday!

Since exams are killing me right now, I decided to do a tag! A couple weeks ago, back in NaNo, Jenna tagged me for the Voted Most Likely Tag! It looked super fun, so I decided to do it (obviously). And here we are!

Let’s do this.


Rules:
1. Thank the blogger who tagged you. Thank you so much, Jenna, for tagging me so I didn’t have to steal this!
2. Include this link. http://phoebeamorryce.wordpress.com/2018/10/15/voted-most-likely
3. Use your own lovely Original Characters (OC’s); don’t use a friend’s characters or characters from your favorite fandom. They can be from any project, so long as you created them. For more fun, try to use as many different characters as possible.
4. Tag at least five lovely bloggers to play along!

For this tag, I am going to be using characters from The Inhumans and the Silver Sword. Because you probably don’t remember who these people are, I’ll give you a quick sarcastic rundown.

The Inhumans:

Ben Evans - MC, Ravenclaw, almost died several times at the hands of Mysterious Assassin, forensics/genetics geek
Shannon Anderson totally didn’t forget her last name - Ben’s cousin, also an MC, has friendship issues, loves dying her hair, Slytherin
Elly Moore - “strong female,” knitting lover, loyal Gryffindor
Askari Ø - the Mysterious Assassin, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw, entire backstory is SPOILERS (also the Author Favorite)


The Silver Sword:

Faye - MC, healer, Hufflepuff, naive yet suspicious, is strangely cynical (????)
Rowan - MC, prince, Ravenclaw, avid reader, excellent at repressing memories
Whit - Slytherin, middle name is Sarcasm, emotionally scarred, family-oriented
Erin - Gryffindor, a princess-in-waiting who actually WANTS to be one (shocking!), Manic Pixie Dream Girl with a touch of narcissism

All right, now that we’ve got that out of the way, on to the questions!



Oof. Maybe . . . Shannon. She’s a very abstract thinker who likes to dream up long, flowery statements that don’t mean anything most of the time.

Hey, she’s already a poet! XD

Just kidding - obviously poetry has meaning, and poets are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.



Um . . . Shannon again???

Okay, just so I don’t use her twice in a row, Erin would definitely also do this.



*snickers*

Rowan, without a doubt. He’d be the only one who wouldn’t complain about wearing a kilt. Ben would throw it away (he despises them), and Whit would probably do something stupid with them (like set it on fire).



Askari has been punched in the face. Multiple times. Usually because of Ben.

But Whit would also be a likely candidate. He never thinks before he talks.



????

Okay . . .

Actually, Faye would probably enjoy that a lot. *shrugs*



Rowan, of course.

But also Ben.

I get the feeling that those two would be great friends. It’s a pity they’re not in the same universe . . . ;)



Hm . . . Elly. She always exhausts herself during the day, and once she falls asleep, she is out.



Erin - and no, this is not because she comes from a poor background. No, she just likes messing with people that way. (She grew up with 3 older brothers. What can I say?)



Whit. (He’s the answer to a lot of these . . . Interesting) But if he had to pass the class, he would do whatever it took.



Oh, gosh, this is a hard one. Maybe Askari? He’s just a sweet guy - buuttt wouldn’t be the type of person to accidentally set something on fire. So maybe Whit - again.



Probably Faye, because she knows what it’s like to be without parents.



Erin. She actually has considered this several times. She thinks it’s “more exciting.” (Clearly this is before I throw Life at her. XD)



Honestly, a lot of them would survive a zombie apocalypse. Whit would survive, of course - probably by using others as a human shield. (Possibly. If they were enemies.) Ben has the smarts and guts to survive. Shannon would terrify the other zombies into eating themselves. (Don’t ask.) Elly would slaughter them all. (In case you’re wondering how to kill a zombie - IT’S POSSIBLE.)

But yeah, Erin, Faye, Rowan, and Askari would all die. #sorrynotsorryAskari



Ha ha ha. Ha. Ha.

*This question has been CENSORED for participants’ own safety - and for a spoiler-free zone. XD*



It depends. If possible, Elly would definitely come back and haunt Ben if she died. Whit would do it just to annoy Faye (although she’d probably enjoy it).


And now for the tagged!

I tag:

Anika @ Anika Walkes
Allison @ the little bookworm
Gray @ Writing is Life
Kara @ Kara Armstrong
Julian @ Saver of Memories
Savannah @ Inspiring Writes

Thanks for reading, all, and good luck with your exams! I’ll see you next week - if I’m not dead from the stress. XD

-Nicole