So…2020 sucked. Worldwide. In a multitude of ways.
On one hand, hard agree with all the people who have said not to worry about ~accomplishments~ this year, because having survived is quite the fucking accomplishment this year. And everyone who spent any part of this year going, “Shakespeare wrote x-number of plays during the plague!” or whatever can fuck off, because this was not a vacation, this was not unlimited time to do with as we pleased. It was a stressful situation that wore us down and tired us out, and essential workers never even got a lockdown.
On the other hand…this year totally sucked, and it makes me feel better to see that it didn’t totally kick my ass.
So here is my last-minute, “fuck you 2020,” year-in-review blog post.
Writing Done in 2020
- Completed a last major draft of the Chosen Grandma story ahead of schedule.
- Completed several rounds of line edits of the Chosen Grandma story.
- Researched agents, put together a query package, and started querying for the first time.
- Started drafting a sad, spooky story (more on that later), shelved it temporarily, and returned to it to do hella planning.
- Completed a first draft of Hungry Girls.
- Participated in a BUNCH of Twitter hashtag events for writers and made a bunch of new friends.
- Ran NaNoWriMo support groups for both Camp in July and NaNoWriMo in November.
- Accidentally turned this into kind of a grammar blog???
Top Reads of 2020
- TODAY TONIGHT TOMORROW by Rachel Lynn Solomon: finished in one sitting, can’t remember the last time I did that ❤
- A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN by Roseanne A. Brown: I l o v e d the characters and worldbuilding and I’m so excited for the end of the duology!
- THESE VIOLENT DELIGHTS by Chloe Gong: the writing is SO literary and atmospheric and I love all the characters but all in different ways ::sobbing::
- CEMETERY BOYS by Aiden Thomas: the wholesome fantasy/romcom I NEEDED this year when life was too dark for me to be able to enjoy most fantasy because so much fantasy is ~dark~ and ~gritty~.
- CUTE MUTANTS, VOL 1 by SJ Whitby: it’s voicey and queer and chaotic as all hell and doesn’t shy away from tough questions like “if we kill someone are we still heroes” and “what if killing someone is the only way to stop them,” and EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT.
- GET A LIFE, CHLOE BROWN by Talia Hibbert: thanks to this book, Talia Hibbert’s an auto-buy for me, which is probably all I need to say about it ❤
Other top reads include FELIX EVER AFTER by Kacen Callender, THE DEEP by Rivers Solomon, WITH THE FIRE ON HIGH by Elizabeth Acevedo, and THE HENNA WARS by Adiba Jaigirdar.
Other Random Nonsense in 2020
- 51 different species of birds seen or heard and identified, which amazes me because we didn’t go anywhere this year. Highlights include a sandhill crane seen in MICHIGAN holy cow; pileated woodpeckers; which are rare in this part of the state and can only be seen (in my experience) at one specific metropark; an orchard oriole and some merlins, which are new species for me; and also we saw a FLOCK of swans in flight, which I had never seen before. (You can view 2019’s bird list here.)
- Grew a peach tree from a pit and started on a second peach tree ❤ And also acquired several new plants, because impulse buys and 2020 go together like Oreos and milk. Dipped into orchids for the first time ever despite my lifelong fear that they’re too easy to kill (the first one proved me right) because Meijer suckered me in with ~mini~ orchids. (The second one is doing well, although I don’t know whether or not I’ll get a second round of blooms.)
- Painted our kitchen and rearranged our living room and made both more functional even though we don’t have any more space! Just waiting on a kitchen island we bought to come in so we can put it where the kitchen table used to be and have more counterspace.
- Ordered a customized funko pop of Edna Fisher, the MC of the Chosen Grandma story, from a friend on Twitter! I won’t get it until January bc the model she’s using to make it is on backorder, BUT I AM VERY EXCITED.
tl;dr: TAKE THAT, 2020. Look at all the awesome shit I wrote and read and did. T a k e. T h a t.
e.m.anderson 
Wow, you had a productive year! BTW most of the common orchids you pick up in the supermarket floral department aren’t hard to grow. I had a bunch of them till I moved. I put them on my kitchen windowsill (east facing at one house, north facing at another) and watered them once a week. They bloomed every year.
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Alas, I did kill the first orchid, but the second one is doing well! It took ages to drop its blooms and its leaves still look good, so I’m hoping it’ll bloom again eventually. (If not…at least it’s alive!) I think putting it in the bathroom helped – better light in there for it, and it gets more humidity.
(Also I know how to water it properly now, which I most definitely did not before.)
Purely because they’re sold at the grocery store, I figured they couldn’t be that hard to kill, but I don’t know, orchids have always just *felt* like finicky and delicate flowers to me!
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Thanks! I think I’m actually going to rewrite it in first-person present, which is new for me, but I’m excited to try it out!
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Hi, E.M. Kudos to you for making it through 2020 with much accomplished! It was good to start a new year and put that tragic difficult one behind us. All the best to you, and good luck with “Hungry Girls.”
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