2012 is now over and the new year of 2013 has begun…big deal, right? Well Yea, for me pretty much that’s how I feel; just another day and all that jazz. But despite that, the year of 2012 was a productive one for me. It’s probably my most productive year so far in my life.
I read a total of 150 books/novellas/stories/etc. That’s 3 times 2011′s total of between 40-50, which is also the first time I’ve read enough books to actually keep track. Aside from just the productive amount of reading I’ve done, so many other great things have happened. I took the dive into the Indie World of Books very early in 2012. That was a great decision. Since then I’ve made so many friends who are readers, authors, bloggers, or just people who smell books to get high. Of these friends I’d like to make special mention on a few Indie authors who’ve been going along with me for many many months and really feel like family at this point.
Thank you to the first two to make it into my bookish “family,” Rebecca Hamilton and S.M. Boyce. I read The Forever Girl (Hamilton) and The Grimoire: Lichgates (Grimoire Saga book 1) (Boyce) and fell in love with both of those books. They were my first Indie releases to read and they disrupted all the stereotypes places on “Non-Traditional” books. They are both well-written, well-edited, original, beautiful and fucking amazing reads. Boyce and Rebecca haven’t only provided me with two great books (each) to read this year, they’ve also be part of the inspiration for me to finally sit down and publish my first collection of poetry, From Where I Stand. If I didn’t see how great of a community they are a part of and didn’t continue to stick my head out a bit to get to know more and more authors, I don’t think I’d be here typing up this blog post. I’d probably be reading some paperback, and not even have a Kindle, haha.
More authors who’ve made it into this family of sorts are fellow poets Ben Ditmars and Amber Jerome~Norrgard, both of which will be working on an anthology with me, as well as Scott Morgan, due to release in February. (Psst…all proceeds will be going to a no-kill animal shelter!!! Find out more on this project here.) Tiffany King, I don’t even know where to start with her. Since picking up Wishing For Someday Soon and not putting it down until I was almost in tears at the end, I knew “this author won’t produce anything bad.” I was write, I’ve been following along with her writing since and loved it all. Aside from being a great author, her generosity to her fans and huge heart to all is simply amazing. King might be one of the nicest authors I’ve met so far (no offence to all you other nice authors).
Thank you to every author who has become my friend. Thank you to all of my blog readers and general people who creepily follow me around on Twitter and Facebook. I keep doing this because there are people out there who care to stop by every now and then to say hi.
Thank you also to everyone who’s picked up a copy of my book, read it, reviewed it, loved it (or hated it without telling me yet 
). It’s a great feeling to know there are people out there supporting my work and who have pushed me to get it published in the first place.
And now…enough of the mushy shit. How about few lists of great books I’ve read and authors who need mention? Sound good? Well here they are!
*note: these lists are NOT in any real particular order. I don’t feel it fair to compare one book to the next, especially when I jump around genres a lot. I do have a few HUGE I LOVE THIS BOOK books, but you’ll just have to read my reviews to find out which 
Top Books
- Treason (S.M Boyce)
- Lichgates (S.M. Boyce)
- The Forever Girl (Rebecca Hamilton)
- Wishing for Someday Soon (Tiffany King)
- The Sin Collector (Jessica Fortunato)
- Gideon’s Corpse (Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child)
- The Devil’s Metal (Karina Halle)
- Vaempires: Revolution (Thomas Winship)
- Vaempires: Zombie Rising (Thomas Winship)
- Slammed (Colleen Hoover)
Top Novellas/Short Stories/Collections
- The Night Walk Men (Jason McIntyre)
- The Memoirs of a Gigolo series (Livia Ellis)
- Walking Away (Adriane Boyd)
- The Bassinville Witches series (Miranda Stork)
- The Sin Collector: Thomas (Jessica Fortunato)
- Being His Favorite (Charity Parkerson)
- My Last Blind Date (Susan Hatler)
- Dark Spaces (Dionne Lister)
- Here Sweetest Downfall (Rebecca Hamilton)
- The Allegory of Dusk (Amber Jerome~Norrgard)
Top Poetry
- B (Sarah Kay)
- Night Poems (Ben Ditmars)
- What the Living Do (Marie Howe)
- Searching for Cecy: Reflections on Alzheimer’s (Judy Prescott)
- Ghost Girl (Laura Madeline Wiseman)
(I didn’t read enough poetry books this year to make a top ten list. Maybe next yet, though.)
Top Authors
- S.M. Boyce
- Amber Jerome~Norrgard
- Thomas Winship
- Rebecca Hamilton
- Tiffany King
- Colleen Hoover
- Susan Hatler
- Miranda Stork
- Charity Parkerson
- Livia Ellis
(There were many great authors to put on this list, but there are ten authors who’ve proven their worth through continuing to publish great book after great book, and have really stuck with me. Please, don’t feel bad for not being left out, you know I still love you all 
)
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