Greetings from the cave! 

It is I, your friendly neighborhood absent blogger, coming back from a long and not-so-relaxing stint of living life in 2020. Seriously, grad school kicked my tail at the end, it was horrible. Took a whole three weeks to recover enough to even think about writing. 

But, a new year is fast approaching, so I'd better get the last vestiges of 2020 out of the way (and the sooner the better...)

- I received a copy of How We Rise by Brooke Riley! After reading it at Lia's house last year, I put it on my to-purchase list. And then earlier this year, I received a copy from Lia herself! It is such a good book (even though the ending will definitely destroy you), go get a copy! 

- Been binge-watching free episodes of Animal Planet and Science Channel shows like Secret Life of the Zoo, Rocky Mountain Vet, North Woods Law, and Mysteries of the Abandoned. Anything to keep me entertained (at least until they create their own streaming service....).  

- Discovered that YouTube Movies has free movies...including classics like 12 Angry Men and earlier, The King's Speech. Win!! 

- TWR is back from the editor!!!! And after a brief break for the holidays, I am already starting the edits. It's going to be a long struggle but oh so worth it....

- NaNo came and went, as you probably read in my last post. TMC...didn't really grow all that much, I'm sorry to say. But 4k is better than 0k, as many of my friends have said. 

- I picked up Chivalrous by Dina L. Sleiman at a discount store on a whim, and while I didn't exactly enjoy the story as a pleasure read for various reasons, it gave me analytical material for three different posts. I guess there are those books that are just meant to be picked apart....

- I got four books for Christmas: Mattimeo and Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques, The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor and Lia's first poetry collection! All of which I really enjoyed :) 

- I also got a couple of DVDs, including Rouge One (FINALLY), my own copy of Tangled (FINALLY), and the movie Gettysburg. 

For Working by Candlelight, I wrote no posts. I ended up missing this blog's 4th blogoversary, which is a rather sad affair. 

For Rebelling Muse, I wrote 8 posts: Know the Novel, Part 1, The 2020 Writing Special Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4, End of NaNoWriMo 2020, Catholic Writers, We Have a Job to Do, and The Feminine, An Unknown in Literature. 

For Maidens for Mary, I wrote no posts. 

Also announcing....the revival of my history blog! It's now called The History Cat, and it will be nerding out about history all the time. Also, not gonna lie, super stoked about the aesthetics in this blog. Check out the introduction post HERE! 

Goal #1 (TWR): Throughout this year, I have been working hard on this story. Starting with two rounds of drafting, sending it to an editor, and finally getting the feedback back, it has been a ride. There is a lot of work left to do before publishing, though. 

Goal #2 (Platform):  This year, I have opened up some additional social media accounts (i.e. Instagram) as a means of building some sort of platform. I have also looked into other things to grow it, but so far, there really hasn't been anything that works for me. 

Goal #3 (April NaNo): FINISHED. You can view the completed story on Wattpad HERE.

Goal #4 (NaNo): FINISHED. Well, not really, but...  

Goal #5 (Movies): Because of, ahem, factors, I wasn't able to achieve this goal this year. 

Goal #6 (Library): Because of the pandemic, the library has had many closures. So I was unable to achieve this goal this year. 

Goal #7 (Vlogs): FINISHED. You can view the Fandoms one HERE and the Bucket List one HERE.

I did a lot better on these goals than I did in my other goals list on Working by Candlelight. I think this is because this year, I focused a lot more on writing and, except for a brief period of sewing madness, really used that as an escape from the madness of the outside world.  

In my next post, which will be my first in the new year, I'll outline my yearly goals. 

In terms of fiction, 2020 was not such a bad year. Many good books came out, many decent films became available, and writing became ever stronger during the pandemic. I have confidence that 2021 will bring many more good books (though I don't have much hope for the film industry), hopefully including my own :). 

Here's to a better 2021! 

Scribbingly yours, 

Catherine