Although I've already done a post on my writing goals for 2016, Beautiful People took it to the next level and asked some more in-depth questions. Thus, I'm here to answer them. (Side note: I really tried to make this post use gifs of Frodo Baggins, but Tony Stark wanted to be here instead.)

1. What were your writing achievements last year?

Somehow, I guess, I managed to write three books. (?!?) One of these was a total rewrite, which was a huge step for me since I had never rewritten or edited anything up until that point.

I also worked on The Angel Novel and Something I Need, both of which are still in progress. I plotted and came up with so many more novel ideas this year. (Gee, thanks, plot bunnies.)

So even though I didn't think it was at first, it was a seriously productive year.

2. Tell us about your top priority writing project for this year?

Currently, my top priority writing project is Spaceboy. I'm about 5,000 words in, and I'd say it's Madam Secretary meets Interstellar. It involves a protagonist with pink hair, a man who looks a lot like Peter Quill, and... well, space and mortal danger. It's going to be fun (I hope).


3. List 5 areas you’d like to work the hardest to improve this year.

I'd like to work on consistency, finishing what I start, editing, writing as often as I can, and writing bravely.

Oh. Also, I'd like to stop procrastinating.



4. Are you participating in any writing challenges?

Yes. I'm participating in a challenge with a group to write a page a day. So far, it's going well. I'll also be doing NaNoWriMo in November of 2016. I will probably be attempting Camp NaNoWriMo too--even though I never win Camp, I apparently have a pathological need to participate every year.

5. What's your critique partner/beta reader situation like and do you have plans to expand this year?

The beta reader sitch is currently non-existent. Yes, I'm hoping to expand this year, even in small ways, because it's time to stop being afraid of people reading my writing.


6. Do you have plans to read any writer-related books this year? Or are there specific books you want to read for research?

I need to research the White House, so a book on that would be good. I think reading something by Stephen King would be cool. I'll also take any recommendations for good books on the writing craft!


7. Pick one character you want to get to know better, and how are you going to achieve this?

Oh my gosh, just one? (I know, I know, I helped pick the questions...)

Okay, I'm going to say Fiona. I know I know her well already, but honestly, she's the only one that comes to mind. Her book is my absolute soul-writing-project, and I want to see her and her story grow in 2016. Obviously, though, since I'm writing Spaceboy, the cast of that is important to get to know as well. (Seems legit.)


8. Do you plan to edit or query, and what’s your plan of attack?

Yes. I believe that I should work on Fiona's stories (Because I'm Irish and Because We Can). I'd also like to edit Lost Girls. My plan of attack? Um...


9. Toni Morrison once said, “If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.” What are the books that you want to see more of, and what “holes” do you think need filling in the literary world?



I want to see more YA books that are deep, multi-faceted, complicated, and rich. I want to see more representation. I want to see more strong female characters. I want to see more intriguing plot lines. Give it all to me.



10. What do you hope to have achieved by the end of 2016?

At least two projects finished (whether an edit or a first draft). Bonus points if I have three. We'll see.

2016 is just around the corner, and I can hardly believe it. Where did 2015 go?

As January approaches, I've been trying to get myself back into the swing of things, both with blogging and writing my novels. It can be easy for me to put things off (as you already know), but I'm starting off the new year with a fresh determination to stick to my goals. So without further ado, I wanted to share my writing goals for 2016.

• Write more! (This one is kind of obvious.)

•  I want to get in the habit of making writing a daily routine, which involves using 750words.com as much as possible.

• Edit more. Years ago, my problem was that I never finished anything. Currently, my problem is that I never revise anything. I need to fix that.

• Let myself follow my inspiration. Sometimes I get so caught up in finishing something that I make myself stay on one project, While this is good at times, I need to be able to let go and be a bit more free with regards to what I choose to work on. I'm hoping to find the balance between staying focused but also letting myself pursue plot bunnies. (Because I have to admit, I kind of thrive on plot bunnies. And adventures. I think I actually am Bilbo Baggins...)

• Basically? Just write my heart out. This goal trumps all the others. I don't really care what I get done this year, as long as I'm writing... because that is what will really help me grow. (It also helps me feel fulfilled and happy, so that's all the more reason to do it.)

This coming year, I want to write about family. The living, vibrant ones that are tied together with bonds thicker than blood. The ones that aren't perfect, but that cling to each other when life is difficult. The families that love each other more than anything.

While most of my characters don't have families, maybe I kind of want to change that. Whether it's their actual parents, siblings, or a family found and stitched together all by themselves, I want to write about that feeling of family--of a tight-knit group of people that would sacrifice anything for each other.

A trope in YA often is the parentless (and family-less) hero or heroine. This is because it's a lot harder for your characters to do exciting things when they have to be home by eleven o'clock PM. So I totally understand this. But at the same time, my favorite show when I was younger was Caillou, which showed the bonds of family. I liked it because I felt like it compared to my real life.

I think some people may be looking for the same thing in books, at least. While some of us may not have parents, it's rare not to have some sort of family--whether it's a mentor, a parental figure, or their best friend. I think it's time that families were upheld way more in YA fiction than they already are.

I want to write about families like mine. Families where I hear my mom playfully yelling about how my brother put wrestling on TV and trying to get him to change the channel. The ones where my mom sends me an email telling me to be at peace, that it will all be okay. The kind of family where my mom makes me get in the tub with candles and darkness, where my mom makes me just rest. The kind of family with vivacious little sisters that are almost too quick to keep up with because of all the joy they hold inside; families with brothers with orange and blue casts on their legs, and playful senses of humor, who can hardly wait to watch Breaking Bad every night. Families with dads who may have their own struggles, but still will always, always guide their children when they need him to, and be there for them even when he isn't doing well himself. Families with pets, with home-cooked meals, with homes to come home to and holidays spent around the table eating and laughing. Families with grandparents; grandmas and grandpas, aunts uncles and cousins, and tons of love to go around.

Families without parents or brothers or sisters or any clearly defined roles except they are there for each other and that's everything that counts. Families that are makeshift and messy, but the most incredible thing my characters have ever experienced. Families that spend time watching TV show marathons and sitting around bonfires and discussing Mere Christianity. Families that don't share genes, but don't have to, because their hearts are right at home and safe and loved and cared for. Families that make people feel like they belong.



With such heartfelt sentiments as these, it's shocking it's not utilized more in YA and in the world in general. It's high time the feeling of family -- no matter what shapes and sizes they come in -- is embraced more in fiction. At least in my fiction. And, in real life, too. I think writing and reading about families helps us appreciate our own. At least it has for me while writing this post. So that's why, this coming year, I want to write about family. Every single kind.

Actually, maybe the word I'm looking for is love. Not necessarily romantic love; instead, those most-encompassing, life-changing, heart-rending, warming-up-by-the-fire-with-people-dear-to-you kinds of love. The ones that wrap around you like a warm blanket, so that your whole life and being changes. The kinds of love that make you feel safe, warm, and okay. Yeah. That kind of love. That's definitely it. This year, I want to write about love.

What are your thoughts on the lack of family in YA? Most importantly, what do you want to write about this coming year?

Sorry for the lack of updates. I have been very busy working on KOF!

Anyway, here's a tag that Bluejane tagged me with quite a while ago.

The Big Read reckons that the average adult has only read 6 of the top 100 books they have printed.

I know I'm not an adult, but let's see how I do!

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Underline the books you love.


1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling - I do not want to read these.
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Withering Heights – Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman ~ I have to agree with Bluejane ~ I will not be reading any Philip Pullman books!
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Works of Shakespeare - A few plays here and there
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray 80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (working on reading it right now!)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas (
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

8 book are bolded, 17 are italicized. In spite of this tag, I assure you, I am not illiterate! I love to read... just not all of the books on here! Anyway, I guess it is a good thing I am not an adult yet! ;o)

I would like to thank you all for awarding me. I am very sorry I haven't gotten around to doing a post with them, but as I've said, it's been very hectic. If I don't get around to it, I apologize profusely, but I assure you I appreciate them very much. =)

In His Love,
~Kylie

My family has made a decision to cut back on electronics... you can read about it here. Surprisingly enough, I think this is good for my family in many ways. Already today, my siblings and I have interacted a lot more, and have made some great memories! I will learn to manage my time better. I also think that the computer was slowly wrapping its pixelated talons around my life, and that I needed to get it off!

Anyway, us kids will only have one hour on weekdays, and an hour and a half on weekends. I will do my best to post at least once a week, and probably on Tuesdays and Fridays. Unfortunately, replying to comments will probably suffer, too, as much as I wish it won't. Anyway, please understand that since my time is now limited, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just not able to respond, although I do read every single comment.

I may be able to email some of my close friends, if you would like... I will try to respond to those as frequently as I can.

Blessings,
~Kylie