Victoria Zigler's Blog: Zigler News, page 77

Looking Back At 2018, And Ahead To 2019

Today might not be so good. But tomorrow, you got another chance to get it right.
~David Baldacci

Happy New Year!








2018 didn't go quite as planned for me. Most of the year was taken up with medical issues, and then there was the whole preparing to move thing, which then didn't happen, so we went through unpacking again (after having only finished unpacking in the first place as we went in to 2018). Not to mention losing my Grandad at the start of the year - not that I was close to him, but still... He was my Grandad (the only one I've ever known, since I never knew my Dad's Dad) and people dying is sad even if they aren't people you're close to - and almost losing a couple of other family members and friends to health issues that still plague them. Add to that the stressful situation with nasty neighbour that prompted the now aborted moving plans to be kicked off, and the extra stress I put on myself by still being determined to do so much... Yeah... Not my best year. Could have been worse, I suppose. I have had worse years. Plus, there were some good points, like making a few new friends, discovering subscription boxes, signs of improved health to come, and finally seeing an end to the situation we'd been dealing with for some time with nasty neighbour.

Still, though 2018 wasn't actually as bad of a year as it might have been, and plenty of people had worse years than I did, I find I'm more than ready to move on to 2019 at this point, thank you very much! I'm actually so eager to do so that I've had to keep stopping myself from writing "2019" instead of "2018" when writing the date since about November. So... Yeah...

With that in mind, let's take a quick look at what my goals were for 2018, and how I did with them. Then I can tell you all about my goals for 2019. So, you can read the post with full details about my 2018 goals if you like, but here's the short version of what they were:

2018 Reading Goals:
*Read at least 150 books.
*Do the 2018 A-Z title reading challenge.

2018 Blogging Goals:
*Continue blogging on Sundays, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, using hashtags when appropriate, and using Tuesdays when extra posting slots are needed.
*Start blogging more about other topics besides books and writing. I even had some monthly features planned. See the post linked to above for full details of the blogging schedule I planned to work with during 2018.

2018 Houshold/Personal Goals:
*Finish organizing the things on the shelves.
*Arrange to finally get the shower rail and curtain put up.
*Get back in the habit of meditating daily again.
*Actually remember that it's OK to take time off from working on the computer sometimes, and have a day off at least once a week.
*Teach Lilie the difference between what she's allowed to chew, and what she isn't.

So, how did I do?

Reading:
I finished the A-Z reading challenge in early August. If you'd like to see exactly what I read for the challenge this year - either because you missed seeing my post when it went up back in August, or because you don't remember - read my post about it here.

I didn't think I'd manage to complete my Goodreads reading goal, but I actually did, thanks to some short holiday reads. I ended up reading 153 books in 2018 - three more books than my goal was set to. You can see my year in books here.

Blogging:
Despite everything, I managed to do a pretty good job with my blogging goals. Although, I didn't properly do some of the monthly features I was going to do (most notably the movie and TV show reviews post). However, since the point of the monthly features was to have me talking about the other things going on in my life outside of my reading and writing, and I did do that, I'm proud of me for doing as well as I did with my blogging goals, and calling it a success. Feel free to disagree, but I personally feel I did well with my blogging goals, especially given what I was dealing with during most of the year. I mean, I didn't miss any posting slots, and even had to use several Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with the odd Saturday. Although, my determination to achieve this is part of the above mentioned extra stress I put on myself, so that part of it isn't such a good thing. Still, I did it.

Household/Personal:
At first the household goals got ignored because of the eventually aborted moving plans. Then it was too late in the year to make any real progress, though we did try. Some things are more organized, while others are less so, since they're back to being in boxes until we get more shelves, and the shower rail is still waiting to go up.

The personal goals - which were basically my attempts at self care - sort of got thrown out of the window in my efforts to do everything else I wanted or needed to while jumping through hoops to get my medical issues sorted out (not literally, of course, though I'm sure the gynecologists would have liked me to get that much exercise). I tried to salvage the situation towards the end of the year, but didn't make as much progress as I'd have liked.

Lilie's not quite so bad about chewing things though, so that's something, I guess. Mind you, there's still room for improvement in that area, since she's still not entirely out of the habit.

To be honest, I feel the household and personal goals were something I totally failed at, because I can't honestly say I completely checked any of them off, and I very obviously failed to achieve the ones that were entirely under my control.

So, that's how I did with my 2018 goals. I didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but never mind. I did OK, considering everything that was going on. Anyway, as I mentioned above, I'm eager to move on to 2019, so let's take a look at what my goals for 2019 are, shall we?

This new day is too dear,with its hopes and invitations, to waste a moment on the yesterdays.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2019 Reading Goals:
I want to read at least 104 books in 2019. That's two books a week. I'd like to read more than that - especially given the length of my ever-growing "want to read" list - and most likely will end up doing so, because it's me. But 104 is the number I'm setting my Goodreads challenge for this year, and I'll be happy if I just read that many books. I just want to focus on relaxing and enjoying my reading time, not worrying quite so much about numbers. That's why I'm setting my Goodreads reading challenge to a number that's pretty low for me, despite having read more than that in 2018.

I'll also be doing the A-Z challenge one of the Goodreads groups I'm a member of likes to do every year. In fact, this year there are two versions of it, one for titles and one for authors, and I'm planning to do both. I'm going to try to anyhow.

I might decide to participate in some of the other group challenges on Goodreads too. But I'm not setting it as an actual goal, especially since I don't know at this point what other challenges might happen on the groups. It's just something I'll do if I decide I want to when sign-ups happen.

2019 Watching Goals:
This is a new catagory for me, but I have stacks of DVDs I want to watch, along with loads more on my list of ones I want copies of, which I'll naturally also want to watch. So I'm setting a goal for those this year too. My goal is to watch at least 52 DVDs in 2019. That's one a week. More would be great, but I'll be happy if I can say for sure I watched 52 DVDs.

To be clear, that's disks. So, for example, if a season of a TV series is six disks (like most of NCIS is) watching a whole season counts as watching six DVDs. So, by "a DVD" I mean one movie, or one disk of a season of a TV series.

I'll have to make sure to keep track of how many I watch myself though, since I'm not on a movie/TV series version of Goodreads. Does one of those even exist? It wouldn't surprise me if it does...

2019 Blogging Goals:
I'm starting a new blogging schedule as from January 2019. I've actually spent quite a lot of time thinking about my new blogging schedule. I considered leaving things as they were. I weighed the pros and cons of either increasing or decreasing my post frequency. Etc, etc, etc. Actually, being honest, I went back and forth with a decision on this several times, and I probably spent more time thinking about it than I really needed to, because that's something I do a lot. But there you go. In the end, I decided to go with a blogging schedule that will have me blogging five days a week. I'll be starting the following blogging schedule as from January 2019:

Monday: motivational and inspirational quotes, and words of wisdom. The posting of quotes is a feature I decided to keep going with, and do every week, since it seems popular among my readers/followers. Plus, seeing all those quotes is a great way to start the week, and collecting them is kinda fun too.Tuesday: anything goes. Whatever's been happening in my life, weather reports, craft project updates, and any other random thing I want to share. Basically, anything that doesn't fit nicely in to one of the other days, so most weeks this will likely end up being a weekly version of the "random ramblings" or "this and that" type posts I sometimes do.Wednesday: #WriterWednesday posts, which will contain writing links I consider worth sharing, any writing related news or updates I have that I can share with you from my week, book announcements for either myself or other authors I'm spotlighting, quotes about writing, or some combination of these things.Thursday: what I've read or been watching in the past week, along with reviews for all new to me books, movies, and TV shows.Friday: my usual #FurkidFriday posts; anything the furries have to share.
I'll continue scheduling the posts to go up ahead of time, though I'm changing the time from 10:00am UK time to 9:00am UK time. Still, since they'll be scheduled ahead of time, there will be a cut-off time for new things to be added, or times they wait until the following week because I didn't get a chance to add them to the post, like is already the case with the links in my #WriterWednesday posts. For example, if I finish a book or watch a movie on a Wednesday, I probably won't get the review up for it that week. In fact, you can almost guarantee I won't.

I did consider combining the posts for Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. I was going to do them as one long post on a Monday. But, in the end, I decided to keep them as individual posts. It makes tagging them easier. Plus, though there are exceptions to this rule, most people seem to prefer several shorter posts to one long one these days. I've also had some comments made directly to me from followers of my blog about how people like things being in individual posts, and how they were glad when I started doing that. So, there you go.

This new schedule officially starts today. However, I'll be setting up posts for around the time I'm going in to hospital, so during that time they won't be exactly as it says on the tin, so to speak. I'll be trying to stick to the set themes for the days when setting things up though. I even have a fun feature planned for the Fridays, which originally started as an idea I had with an author friend, and turned in to a sort of mini post series that I hope you'll enjoy.

2019 Personal Goals:
My personal goal involves the embracing of Hygge, while practicing better self care, as I explain in this post. This is something I've already started trying to achieve, but which I'm still trying to figure out. I'm trying different things, to see what works best for me, and what I do and don't want to include in my life on a regular basis, if you know what I mean. I want to look after my health better. Not diet, or anything like that. But be the best me I can. A quote I spotted on Twitter last night sums it up perfectly:

As the New Year rolls in, a reminder: Diet culture and diet resolutions normalize eating disorders. It’s possible to center your health without weight loss goals. Let 2019 be the year that you decide that you aren’t too much or too little. You’re just right.
~Julie Murphy

Anyway, there's also my surgery finally coming up early this year. But, though having that done is something I want to have happen, I'm not putting it as an actual goal for the year. Still, I'll be glad once it's done. Also, having it done will make it easier for me to focus on my actual personal goal, especially once I've had my recovery time afterwards.

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.
~J.R.R. Tolkien

So, in short, I have five goals for 2019, which are as follows:

Read at least 104 books.Do both versions of the A-Z reading challenge.Watch at least 52 DVDs.Blog five times a week.Embrace hygge, and practice better self-care.
Between the things I have planned, and the long-awaited surgery finally coming up, 2019 looks like it's going to get off to a great start for me. I hope you can say the same!

Tomorrow we'll talk about the writing side of things.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear how you did with your goals for 2018, if you had any. So tell me all about it in the comments. Or, just tell me how 2018 was for you. Was it a good year? A bad one? Somewhere in the middle? Either way, I'd love to know. Also, do you have any goals or resolutions for 2019? If so, what are they? I'd love to know about those as well, so tell me about them in the comments section of this post too.

Oh, and here's some advice on how to make the most of your goals, in case you could use some.

#MondayMotivation And #Inspiration - December 2018 Edition

Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.
~Alan Lakein

Hope is not an emotion; it's a way of thinking or a cognitive process.
~Brene Brown

Life is uncharted territory. It reveals its story one moment at a time.
~Leo Buscaglia

When it comes to life, we spin our own yarn, and where we end up is really, in fact, where we always intended to be.
~Julia Glass

There are far better things ahead than what we leave behind
~C.S. Lewis

Every piece of the universe, even the tiniest little snow crystal, matters somehow. I have a place in the pattern, and so do you! Thinking of you this holiday season!
~T.A. Barron

December 2018 #TV Talk And #Movie Mutterings - #AmWatching

It's time to take a look at what I've been watching in December.

I only have a couple of reviews to share with you, because most of what I watched was holiday movies I've seen several times before. But you don't need to hear about me enjoying "Friends" reruns, or watching "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Santa Clause - The Movie" again, or how many times I watched "The Polar Express" and "The Muppets' Christmas Carol" this year. So I'll just tell you about the new to me movies.

As with the previous posts like this one, just click on the titles to go to a page where you can find out more details about the movie or TV show in question; the title links will usually take you to a page on IMDB.

Don't forget: I watch things across multiple genres, as well as for different age ranges, so you should always check before viewing to make certain something is suitable for the intended audience, especially when children are involved. IMDB will usually provide this information for you, but you'll have to look elsewhere if you can't find it on the page I link to.

OK... On to the reviews!

Hotel Transylvania 3: A Monster Vacation (2018 movie):
This was a really great movie. Not quite as good as the first two, in my opinion, but still really good, with plenty of entertaining moments, and one or two touching ones too. I give this movie four out of five stars.

Arthur Christmas (2011 movie):
This was a fantastic, and very entertaining, movie, which the whole family can enjoy. I give this movie five out of five stars.

The Swan Princess Christmas (2012 straight to video movie):
This was a pretty good movie, with a lovely message about the holidays, and the spirit of Christmas. It wasn't amazing, but it was an enjoyable and cute movie... A nice one for fans of Disney's original Swan Princess movie. I do wish the children singing had actually sounded like children though. Anyway, I give this movie four out of five stars.

#ChildrensBook - The Great Tadpole Rescue Now In #Audio! #Fairies #KidLit

Lily is a water fairy, which means it’s her job to make sure everyone who lives on her pond is safe and happy, so when Mrs. Frog’s tadpoles are stolen it’s up to her to rescue them.

Will Lily be able to find the missing tadpoles and get them home safely to Mrs. Frog?

Previously only available as an eBook or paperback, "The Great Tadpole Rescue" is now also available as an audiobook, read for you by Jenny Bacon.

Regardless of the format you'd prefer, here are the main places where you can buy the book:

Audible, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Chapters-Indigo, iBooks, iTunes, Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Canada, and The Book Depository.

The book also has a page on Goodreads.

#Christmas Themed #FurkidFriday: "I Heard #SantaPaws!"

Hi everyone. This is Lilie the Westie.

Daddy was playing with the flashy thing over Christmas, so no doubt we have stuff on it to share with you. But Mummy and Daddy say they still need to sort them - whatever that means - so I can't share any of it today.

While you wait, I thought I'd tell you about what happened in the early hours of Christmas morning.

I heard Santa Paws.

I'm sure I did. No matter what Daddy says.

Daddy says it was probably the squeaky things in cages playing. But soon after I heard the noise coming from our living room, Mummy and Daddy said we might as well go see what Santa Paws had left us, since we were up. They seemed pretty confident he'd been already, so they must have heard him too. Daddy likes to tease sometimes, and he must have been teasing me when he said it was probably the squeaky things playing. How else did they know for sure Santa Paws had been already, even before we went in the living room to look?

And, he had been too! Our stockings were all filled with goodies.

The squeaky things in cages all insist they never saw him. But they must have been too sound asleep, or not looking properly, because I know he came. After all, how else would our stockings be full of goodies? I know our stockings were empty at dinner time. I checked. Mummy let me look, right before Daddy took me out of the living room to feed me, while Mummy stayed in there to feed the squeaky things and clean up from dinner, like we do every day.

Sure, Mummy did take a while in there, but there's nothing weird about that. We'd done lots of play time that day, and Mummy often stays in the living room for a bit after dinner when that happens. She says she, "Needs five minutes of Mummy only time," even though she's often more than five minutes. I don't mind though, even though I'm never allowed in the living room after that - something about giving the squeaky things in cages peace - because after that Mummy goes in the bedroom to read, and I get to play with her one more time before I have my treat ball and settle for the evening. I've never been allowed in with the squeaky things after dinner time, unless Mummy and Daddy are having a movie night.

Anyway, like I said, the stockings were empty when I checked them at dinner time. But after I heard the noise I'm sure must have been Santa Paws, and we went to check, they were full of goodies. So, it must have been Santa Paws I heard, right?

The only thing I don't understand is why he didn't come in and say, "Hello," when he heard we were awake. I told him in my letter I love visitors and wanted to see him. I guess he must have been in too much of a rush.

I heard Santa Paws though. I know I did. Like I said, Daddy likes to tease sometimes, so that must be why he keeps saying it was just the squeaky things in cages playing. Yes, that must be it.

Lots of licks,
Lilie

#Christmas Fun: The Christmas Stocking Tag - #AmReading

I know Christmas is technically over. But people will still be posting about how they spent their holidays - I'll be doing so soon myself - and I couldn't resist. You see, when I was doing the 12 days of Christmas book tag I posted last week, I noticed some other tags I could do. When I went back to get the questions for them, I spotted this one had just been posted. I didn't have anything scheduled for today at that point, so I thought I'd go ahead and play along. If you'd like to play along too, please feel free to do so, either in the comments section of this post, or on your own blog. I'd love to see your answers!

Just to mix things up a bit, I'm answering only based on reads from 2018.

OK, here goes...

1. An orange! Which book is refreshing and vibrant, both inside and out?

"Pippi Longstocking" by Astrid Lindgren. I know it is inside, and I'm sure it would have been on the outside too, though I couldn't tell you that for sure, since I don't remember if I saw the cover in the past, and haven't a clue what's on it

2. The next thing you see is a bag of chocolate coins. (Yum) Which book have you recently bought that was expensive, but totally worth the high price?

"Nyxia Unleashed" by Scott Reintgen. Both of the Nyxia books haven't come cheap, but they've been totally worth it!

3. You also pull out a bath bomb. Tell us about a book that had explosive action scenes.

I've read two that could fit this, and can't pick between them, so I'll list both: "Quest of the Brokenhearted" by Charles E. Yallowitz, and "Star-Born Mage" by David Estes.

4. Next is a pack of playing cards. Which series won you over?

"Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer. I only just started reading the series this year, but was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the first book, and am looking forward to reading the others (which I'm hoping will happen soon).

5. You also get a candle. Which character is a symbol of hope in their story?

Smoky the Yorkshire Terrier from "Smoky the Brave" by Damien Lewis.

6. There are socks inside too. Is there a book that you think really encompasses all the distinctive tropes of its genre?

Is it cheating to pick a non-fiction book? Because "Ask an Astronaut" by Tim Peake would fit if it isn't. It's a perfect example of a book about space.

However, if picking a non-fiction book is cheating, I'm going to have to go with "The Girl Who Saved Christmas" by Matt Haig.

7. There’s also a notebook. Which author’s writing process do you find most interesting/inspiring?

I'm always interested in hearing about the writing process of all the authors I love.

8. To go with the notebook, there’s a fancy pen. Is there a book or a series that you’d change if you’d written it yourself?

"Leela The Chinchilla" by David Emil. It's a cute story, but some of the stuff just doesn't fit for a chinchilla, or for the type of character the chinchilla in question is meant to be. If I wrote it, I'd use my own experiences with our chinchillas, Mollie and Maizie, to improve upon the character and story.

9. There’s also a small bedside clock. Which book took you a long time to pick up but was worth it in the end?

"Lord Valentine's Castle" by Robert Silverberg. I seriously can't wait to read the rest of the series! It was recommended to me by a friend a couple of years ago, and I don't know why I took so long to read it. I'm glad I finally did so though, because it was an excellent read.

10. Your pile is getting really big. You reach in to pull out the last gift and it’s… a lump of coal? You’re a little disappointed. But you look closer and realise there’s a seam running through the coal. You crack it open and sitting inside is a tiny golden snitch. Tell us about a book that surprised you in some way.

"True Confessions of Adrian Albert Mole" by Sue Townsend. I was surprised by how little I enjoyed this one, considering I'd loved the first two books in the series. I hope the other books in the series will be more like the first two.

#WriterWednesday - December 26th 2018 + An #eBook #SALE On #Smashwords

Happy Boxing Day! I hope you're enjoying your holiday celebrations, whatever you happen to be doing to celebrate at this time of year. Or, if your celebrations are over, I hope you enjoyed them.

Did you get a new eReader for Christmas? Or, perhaps, you got some money you want to use to fill your old one? Then you may be interested to know that the Smashwords end of year sale is now on. Authors across Smashwords will be offering their books at various levels of discount, from 25% off to completely free, for a whole entire week. I've enrolled most of my books at 50% off, which puts all my books at between $0.99 and $2.50 with coupon code SEY50 (which should automatically apply itself when you add books that are in the sale to your cart) on Smashwords throughout this sale, which runs from December 25th 2018 through January 1st 2019. Go to my Smashwords profile, and grab your eBook bargains today! Oh, and don't forget to browse the list of books on sale, and see what eBook bargains you can pick up from other authors! This is exclusive to Smashwords, but all my books - and those by many other authors - are available in multiple eBook formats, making them accessable to you, regardless of your eReader of choice. In fact, if you can read this post, you can read my books, since there's a version you can read in a web browser.

Yes, officially most of my books are aimed at children. But, in the words of one of my favourite authors:

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.
~C.S. Lewis

I expect most people are too busy enjoying their holiday celebrations to be online today. Or maybe recovering from having done a bit too much enjoying of them yesterday. But I wanted to mention the Smashwords sale. Plus, I grabbed a couple of links before I started focussing properly on my holiday celebrations, so figured I might as well go ahead and share them. I'll take a look at what came through while I was busy enjoying the holidays later, and share those another day. But here are the couple of links I have for you this week:

You know... That moment when you get a shiny new idea, and start writing your amazing book... It's a wonderful feeling. But the sparkly happy feeling fades eventually. It's the way it goes with everything. So, what happens when the honeymoon phase ends? The same thing as with anything else: you work at it, and remember that what you put in to it is what you get out of it too. So, if you want to be a writer, finish that book. Yes. Keep working on it, even if the honeymoon phase has ended. One day, you'll be glad you did!

While you're working on that book, you'll want to learn how to master story archetypes, so you might want to read the post I just linked to for some details about the different archetypes.

Another thing you'll need to learn is about backstory. Spacifically when to use it, and how much to use.

By the way, if any of your characters happen to be going on some kind of adventure where they'll be exploring dungeons or ruins, here are some dungeon crawling tips they may find useful. Those of you who play roleplaying games may find them useful too.

My final link today is for those of you who find NaNoWriMo (NationalNovel Writing Month) happens at the wrong time of the year, or who need that accountability to give you the nudge to get further than the writing stage of book production. Have you heard of the 85k90 writing challenge? It's a writing challenge that essentially structures your writing year for you: January through March for writing, May and June for editing, etc... The post I just linked to explains in more detail. Anyway, I won't be doing it, but I thought it looked like a great challenge, and figured I'd give it a mention, for the benifit of any of you who might be interested, especially since two people immediately spring to mind who might see this post, and often say they would love to do something similar to NaNoWriMo, but find November is a bad month for doing a writing challenge like that.

#Christmas #Music: Disney Version Of We Wish You a Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, from my family to yours, and from Mickey and the gang...

#Christmas Themed #MusicMonday: One More Sleep Til Christmas

It's Christmas Eve! There's magic in the air tonight. After all, it's only one more sleep til Christmas. Just like this song from "The Muppets' Christmas Carol" - one of my favourite holiday movies - says...

#Christmas #Music: Cliff Richard - Mistletoe and Wine

It's two days to Christmas, and most of us are feeling pretty festive about now. I bet some are even enjoying a holiday drink, or two. Perhaps planning to meet someone under the mistletoe? If so, watch out for Nargles!

The only mistletoe in our holiday celebrations is the fake decorative piece I got to put up along with our other holiday decorations this year - which I'm hoping is free of nargles - and I'm more of a cocoa drinker myself. But there's plenty of mistletoe and wine in my holiday celebrations, thanks to this song by Cliff Richard...