Tuesday 31 December 2013

2013 Wrap Up

Wow, 2013 has been an intense year for me, and a great year in terms of both reading and writing! So, here is my 2013 in review...

Books Read



I read 72 books in 2013 and reviewed 51. I thought it might be fun to look at some stats, so here are some interesting break downs of what I read in 2013:

38 books by female authors (including anthology editors)
34 books by male authors (including anthology editors)
1 unknown (K.J. Parker)

32 British authors and anthology editors
22 US authors and anthology editors
5 non-British or US authors and anthology editors (wow, I need to try to read more next year!)

29 review copies
6 audiobooks
12 book club reads

62 SFF or with SFF elements
5 contemporary
5 historical (non fantasy)
2 crime/mystery

25 YA or children’s



My Favourite Books of 2013


Yesterday I listed my favourite books of 2013. You can find the post here, and since then I've finished another book that I would have included on the list: Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce.


Challenges


Goodreads Challenge - I managed to complete this with half a day to go! I set my challenge as 70 books, and I actually read 72 books this year, but two of them were not listed on the site.


British Books Challenge - I completed this with 18 books read and reviewed.


Paranormal Challenge - I completed this with 26 books read and reviewed.


Witches and Witchcraft Challenge - I completed this with 8 read and 3 reviewed. I'd have liked to read and review more for this one, and was surprised how few books about witches I actually had. Plenty with magic, but not many with witches.


Richard and Judy Challenge - I completed this with 5 read and 3 reviewed. This was a fun challenge, forcing me out of my reading comfort zone, and it was great to try new things that I otherwise might not have picked up.


Genre Variety Challenge - I completed this with 16 read and reviewed. My genres ranged from fantasy and science fiction to contemporary, crime and even a zombie western!


TBR Challenge - I completed this with 11 read and 9 reviewed. I definitely want to get more of my TBR pile finished in 2014!


Success in all challenges! :-D


My Writing – Short Stories


I finally felt ready to start sending out short stories, and have had some successes! Next year I’ll have stories appearing in three anthologies – The Sword and Laser Anthology, Women Writing the Weird 2, and Missing Monarchs. I’m so pleased with this, and can’t wait to get writing and sending off some more!

My Writing – Novel


I’ve planned, plotted and begun writing a novel. It’s still in early stages yet, but I’m feeling pleased with the progress and hopeful about finishing it next year!

Internship


I’ve started an internship at Angry Robot, a science fiction and fantasy publisher in Nottingham. I’ve been learning and experiencing so much so far, and I’m really enjoying it. :-)


Conventions


I attended three conventions this year – Edge Lit in Derby, Eastercon in Bradford, and World Fantasy Con in Brighton – as well as one book fair in Leicester. I enjoyed all of them, but I think Edge Lit was my personal favourite.


Readathons


I took part in 5 readathons this year – three Bout of Books, the Wicked Valentine Readathon and the WWReadathon. I love readathons, but haven’t had as much time to join in with them this year. I’m hoping I can be involved in more in 2014!


So that was my 2013. Did you have a good year? :-)



2 comments:

  1. Wow, sounds like you had a super awesome 2013 Vicky! :) Congrats especially with the short stories, that's awesome and very exciting =D Wishing you the very best for 2014 :)

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  2. Bizarrely, I read exactly the same number of books as you in 2013... !

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