Looking Forward to 2018!

2017 has been quite a year for me! I can’t believe that we’re going into 2018 already! Looking back at this past year, what exactly happened with me during this year? Here’s a quick summary:

With fanfiction, not only did I finish past fanfics such as “Radioactive” and the long-running “Yurick’s Video Blog Thing,” as well as start and finish “Carousel,” but I’ve also got Nobutsuna Kamiizumi and Geist Grace engaged in the “Things We Cannot Undo” Fanfic Continuum as of posting the fanfic “Things We Can Do” during this past June—and it’s rather fitting, as I realized only immediately after posting it that was also during Pride Month!

Looking at book reviews, I’ve read and reviewed every book in The Great Library series so far, dove into classics such as “Strait is the Gate” and “Wuthering Heights,” and even finished up the “Book Girl” series while continuing “The Devil is a Part-Timer!” and “Is It Wrong To Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon!?”

With social media, I’ve started up a Facebook page, I’m at least a little more active on Twitter (at least I hope so), and Tumblr probably has the most attention other than this WordPress blog in terms of social media. Speaking of WordPress…I’m getting very close to 100 followers (I’m at around 97 followers at the time of writing this post!). Maybe 2018 will be the time I reach 100? We’ll see!

But here comes the question: What am I doing in 2018?

Here’s a list of things I want to get into for the New Year:

Some books I want to read and review:

1. “The Midnight Star” by Marie Lu. I’ve yet to get my hands on a copy, and I’m hoping to finish reading and reviewing the Young Elites trilogy during the next year once I do!
2. “It Devours!” by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor. Earlier this year I read the first book, “Welcome to Nightvale,” and I loved it. I’m looking forward to reading this one and reviewing it! Fingers crossed that it’s just as good—or maybe even better—compared to the first one!
3. “American Gods” by Neil Gaiman. There’s a TV show based on this book that I want to watch, and if I get my hands on the book version, perhaps I can write up a comparative analysis of the two…
4. “Out of the Shadows” by Ashlee Nicole Bye. It sounds interesting—especially with the grim reaper being involved. As far as I can tell from reading the summary on goodreads about it, it sounds like a mix of fantasy and humour.
5. “Queens of Geek” by Jen Wilde. Apparently the setting of the book takes place at a fan convention, kind of like a comic con. I’m interested in seeing how this one goes.
6.  “Murder on the Orient Express” by Agatha Christie. Given that the remake of the movie version came out this year and that I’ve never read anything by Agatha Christie before (I know, it’s shocking!), I thought that this would be interesting to read. I hope to watch the movie, read the book, and perhaps compare the two!
7. “Dead Air: A Glenn Beckert Mystery” by Cliff Protzman. I found it through reading Literary Titan’s review of this book, and I’m honestly interested in reading this now. I hope I can get my hands on a copy sometime in the new year!

Manga and/or Anime to potentially analyze or/and review:

1. “Welcome to the Ballroom.” Like “Let’s Dance a Waltz,” “Welcome to the Ballroom” is about the main protagonist ending up in competitive ballroom dancing. However it’s for entirely different reasons—not for love, but rather to avoid joining the gang life. I feel like this could be quite interesting to get into!
2. “Shimanami Tasogare.” I’ve heard of this one being quite popular for realistic LGBT+ representation due to it being about its queer characters coming to terms with their identity. Also, the artwork I’ve seen for this looks really beautiful.

Films to watch and will maybe comment on once I have watched them:

1. “A Silent Voice,” a 2016 Japanese animated teen drama film produced by Kyoto Animation, directed by Naoko Yamada and written by Reiko Yoshida. I heard it features the main character trying to make amends with a deaf girl he bullied back in highschool, and I’m interested in seeing how that goes.
2. “A Quiet Place,” an upcoming 2018 American supernatural horror film directed by John Krasinski. It’s about a family who lives in complete silence, including using sign language, in order to avoid a hearing monster from getting them. The family in the film consists of two hearing parents and their deaf daughter (who is acted by an actual deaf actress, apparently!). I’m not generally one for horror, but the concept for this film sounds very interesting and I’m interested in seeing how it goes.
3. “Be Kind Rewind.” Okay, I know this is an older film (it came out in 2008!) but I’ve been wanting to watch this one for a really long while. Also, it’s going to be 10 years old once 2018 comes around. If there is any good time to watch it, I imagine it would be during 2018 for sure.
4. “Clue.” Yes, there’s a film based off the board game of the same name, and it’s also a really old film! I had no idea it existed, but I think it would be fun to watch. Also, Tim Curry is in this movie, so that gives me more incentive to watch it.

TV shows that I may or may analyze, but will definitely comment on from time to time:

1. “Emerald City.” I admit I’ve technically started getting into this one already, but quite slowly, so I’m keeping this one on the list because I doubt I won’t finish watching it until sometime in 2018. I heard it ended on a horrid cliffhanger due to it being cancelled only after the first season finished, but that it was also an interesting, darker, and gritty take on the Wizard of Oz. Given how much I like retellings of classics and fairytales to varying degrees, I’m willing to see how this goes.
2. “American Gods.” I haven’t read the book by Neil Gaiman as I mentioned earlier in this post, so I don’t know how it compares to the TV version. However, I heard it was really good and that it especially helped that Gaiman himself was one of the writers for the TV version. Also, I heard that Crispin Glover, who I remember acting as Ilosovic Stayne in the 2010 “Alice In Wonderland” film, acts as one of the main characters in that show (Mr. World, if I’m correct), so that probably helps spur my curiosity about this show. I know the first season already aired and that it’s being renewed for a second season, so I hope I can catch up on the first season before the next one airs!
3. “Difficult People.” I heard it was cancelled recently, but I also heard that it was really good and really funny overall. Also, after watching Billy Eichner on AHS: Cult, I’m interested in seeing him in some straight-up comedy.
4. “Switched at Birth.” Like with “Difficult People,” this show also recently wrapped up earlier this year by finishing at five seasons, but I heard this was also an interesting one—not only are two of the characters literally switched at birth and only found out years later, but I also heard that this one also incorporates a lot of sign language as well as deaf or hard-of-hearing characters.

Podcasts to get into and maybe comment on:

1. “The Far Meridian.” Technically, I’ve started getting into this one already, and I’m still slowly going through all the episodes aired so far. I find it to be very interesting regarding the characters in it.
2. “Wolf 359.” I’m not quite sure what this one is about, but I’m interested in listening to at least the first few episodes. I’ve seen a lot of posts on tumblr praising it, so I want to see if it lives up to the hype.

Writing to be written:

1. Writing Geist Grace and Nobutsuna Kamiizumi’s wedding in the “Things We Cannot Undo” Fanfic Continuum and posting it during June 2018. I’m still floored to this day that there are quite a number of readers that enjoy reading the ship, and I love writing the ship. I still remember posting the first oneshot in that series, and how I managed to get the engagement oneshot posted literally a year after that. I’m hoping I can do the same with the wedding! Fingers crossed!
2. Returning to more old fanfics and finishing them. I’ve noticed that some of my older fics have actually gotten reviews asking me to continue them, such as “Blood Warrior” and “Carnevale Di Felicità,” and I honestly do wish to return to those and finish them.
3. Finishing both of/either “Empire Knights and the Council of Six” or/and “Clockwork Angel” by around mid-2018. Granted, I don’t want to rush these, given how they ended up being bigger fanfics than I initially thought they were, but I also know there are other writing projects I wish to get to (see point two above). No matter how far or close I am to finished for these fics, however, I will make sure Geist and Kamiizumi’s wedding is written and posted on time.
4. Continuing to write my novel! I’m writing a draft of it right now, slowly, and I hope to get a draft or two done during the next year!
5. Continuing and finishing “SHERLOCK,” a fanfic of mine that was inspired by the song of the same name by a K-pop band called Shinee. You can read more details here as of why I plan to come back to this fic and finish it.
6. Get back into writing some analyses of something other than books, especially since I didn’t really get to writing any of those for this year.

So, those are things you can basically expect from me in 2018! Commentary posts on the TV shows and films mentioned here are most likely going to be found on my tumblr if you want to follow that, and all book analyses and reviews will be on this blog! Fanfiction is, and will continue to be, found on fanfiction.net if you want to check that out. I hope all of you enjoy my writing going into 2018 and that it’ll be bigger, bolder and brighter than ever!