This year has gone by too fast and I feel like I am still trying to catch up. I have gotten a lot done this year from my graduation at the University of Utah with my BA (finally) to a PAID poetry reading at the Utah Arts Festival in June, to finishing the first rough draft of my book Ghost in the Woods for NaNoWriMo.

Since it’s the end of the year, I thought I would give a quick update on what I’m listening to and reading.

Spotify “Alina’s Top Songs of 2018”

Goodreads “Currently Reading” List

There are A LOT of books on my “Currently Reading” list and I am trying to widdle it down a bit before the New Year but I guess I’ll see how successful I am with that. One book that isn’t on this list that I’ve been reading every day now is Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay, my copy is really old and falling apart. I had to spend a good hour last week taping pages back together into the seam of the book. I’m about halfway through it and I love it, Millay is amazing with Sonnets and she makes it look so easy.

Highlight of my 2018:

Going to “An Evening with Neil Gaiman” last month was amazing. Gaiman had some great advice to give and thankfully many questions from the audience were geared towards writing and publishing. It was also so much fun to hear Gaiman read a little from some of his books.

Last Adventures: Discovering “Found Poetry”

Last week I sort of stumbled on “Found” poetry. It’s a form that I am sure I’ve come across before but up until now haven’t given a second thought too. Found Poetry is a form where people can find poetry in everyday life, like text, billboards, magazines etc. For instance, I was inspired to mess around and try “finding” some poetry in a local newspaper at work this week.

FOUND POETRY on my Instagram story highlights

I was pretty surprised at what I found and now I am hooked. My hands are stained from newspaper ink, markers, pens, and I have already begun putting my found poems together in one notebook making a sort of hand-made chapbook. (I will make an official post about my Found Poetry soon)

Conclusion:

I am stoked for the New Year and I am working hard to set up my work and myself for an even more successful year. What am I working on right now? Submitting my best-polished work to literary journals and magazines, putting together a small chapbook of my poems to self-publish (maybe) on Kindle, and finishing my book Ghost in the Woods so that I can start submitting it to literary agents/publishers.

What do I want to accomplish in 2019?

Honing this blog into a more coherent and substantial literary blog, maybe even monetizing it, providing more content to my followers/readers that can actually help them.

Sidenote:

A couple months ago I finally set up a Patreon Creator Page. My Patreon is different from this blog in that it provides “behind-the-scenes” access to my creative process, work (including rough drafts), and special updates. This is a more personal online venue where my followers can show their appreciation for my work by becoming Patrons and giving a little bit of $ to contribute to my writing.

Right now I am offering Help/Tutoring to those that donate $20/month to my Patreon.

Be a PATRON! Subscribe to my Patreon for one month ($20) and receive one on one help with your writing for an entire month!

It’s been a great year and I can’t wait for 2019!

I want to say Thank you to all of my Followers, subscribers, and to any readers that stumble on this post. Thank you for reading!

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

-Alina