I can’t believe it’s actually over. This year has been a massive roller-coaster for all of us, and looking back, it’s difficult to comprehend how much has happened in the last twelve months. Between COVID-19, politics here in the United States (and across the globe), and a million other events that popped into the news and were subsequently swept away in quick fashion, I’m ready to have a more boring 2021.
All of that being said, 2020 was an exciting one for my work as an author. I’ll discuss how things have gone in each area later in this article, but I just want to thank everyone who has followed me through my work on The Frostmarked Chronicles, my fantasy series based on Slavic mythology. It’s been a labor of love since January of this year, and I’m blown away by the response so far. With that, let’s dive into my writing, reading, and miscellaneous progress in 2020.
Note: As I continue working on A Dagger in the Winds, the first book in my Slavic fantasy series called The Frostmarked Chronicles, I’m accepting advance readers (early reviewers) for the book! If you’re interested in free side novellas attached to the stories as well as early insights into the series, you can also join my monthly newsletter.
Writing and Publishing
The End of The Prism Files
The end of 2019 marked the last of my (first draft writing) for The Prism Files, my debut dystopian series. I learned a lot through the writing and publication of those four books, and though the series didn’t have the success I had hoped for it (at least in terms of sales), I’m glad I did it. By the time White Crown, the final book, was published in August of this year, my writing and storytelling skills had grown a lot. I had basically no idea what I was doing at the series’s start, but through writing and publishing it, I put myself in the place I need to be now for The Frostmarked Chronicles.
The Dawn of The Frostmarked Chronicles
Before A Dagger in the Winds, the first Slavic fantasy book, I had finished writing every book in a month to three. Granted, those dystopian books were significantly shorter than epic fantasy, but it took me about four months just on the first draft of A Dagger in the Winds. I then took that draft and flipped it on its head.
You see, I had originally intended The Frostmarked Chronicles to be alternate history fantasy. At the end of that draft, though, I realized creating my own world gave me more creative freedom while still being able to base things on Slavic mythology. That meant rewriting the story with largely the same plot but with massive changes to world and events that happened throughout. I also decided to take the story from just one point-of-view character, Wacław, to two, adding Otylia. I had never written from two POVs before, but this allowed me to expand the story both for this book and future ones in the series. It took months and months of rewriting effectively a new book. In the end, though, it was definitely worth it.
The time it took for A Dagger in the Winds to be written, re-written, and then edited meant it wasn’t until autumn that I got the book to alpha readers and then November that the first set of beta readers saw it. The process has been long. What I’ve learned has been invaluable, though, and the book is far better for it. I’m confident that this time and work will ensure the quality of both the publication of A Dagger in the Winds and the quality of the text within it.
Speaking of the book’s publication, I’m still on pace for a July or August release of A Dagger in the Winds. I am also a week or two away from finishing the first draft of Book 2 in the series, and I intend to release that one in winter of 2021 if all goes well. The Rider in the Night, the first Frostmarked side-novella (free for my newsletter subscribers) is also lined up to be released around the same time as A Dagger in the Winds. I’ve loved developing the world and characters more in these two stories, and I’m very excited to be showing you more about all this content as 2021 goes on.
Slavic Saturday
When I started doing Slavic Saturday, my blog and video series about Slavic mythology and history, I didn’t know what to expect. I was still pretty new to YouTube and just had piles of research I’d done for The Frostmarked Chronicles, so I threw it out there. Between YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and my website, the response has been overwhelming.
I never expected thousands of people to be reading my articles and watching my videos, but here we are. On YouTube, my videos have received 8.5k views this year, have been watched for 377 hours (holy cow!), and 192 people have subscribed to my channel. Considering 2.3k of those views, 112.3 of those hours, and 51 of those subscribes were in the last 28 days alone, the growth has been awesome. I’m loving sharing mythology with more and more people (especially as my video quality increases).
My website has also had about 8,600 unique visitors this year from around the world from over 100 countries (top countries in order: US, Serbia, Poland, Croatia, Canada, UK, Slovenia, Slovakia, Germany, Australia). Compared to my basically nonexistent following last year, that’s awesome. Thank you again to everyone who has read, enjoyed, and shared the posts!
For 2021, I’m looking forward to more Slavic Saturdays with a variety of styles. I’ll still be doing posts on individual gods, demons, etc. as well as redoing some of my older posts to increase them to the quality I expect of them nowadays, but in addition, I’ll be doing some more introductory videos to Slavic mythology as well – lists of five gods to know and things like that. I’ve heard from quite a few people that it’s hard to find a compiled intro to much on Slavic mythology, so hopefully I can provide some of that to the best of my ability.
2020 Reading
Yes, authors read too! We can’t just read our own stuff all the time. I’ve been reading a lot of epic fantasy this year, both because it’s my favorite genre and because it can be good to see how other authors utilize things like magic and grand conflicts in their own stories. I’ll go over what I read this year in order, what I recommend (in case you want some ideas), and what I’m reading next year.
The Shadow and Bone Trilogy (Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo
At the start of the year, I finished the second and third books in Leigh Bardugo’s initial Grisha series, Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising. I picked these up because I absolutely loved King of Scars, the first book of the Nikolai Duology in the Grishaverse. They were fun, easier reads, but I definitely preferred Bardugo’s later writing. There’s the cliche love triangle in this series that I struggled to get over. That being said, though, the Grishaverse is a fun world to read in, and I enjoyed getting to see more about the background for A King of Scars. This series also is about to go onto Netflix in TV form, which will be cool to see.
Six of Crows Duology (Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo
My binge of the Grishaverse continued with the highly recommended Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. Much of what I said for The Shadow of Bone Trilogy applies here, but I really enjoyed the depth of characters in Six of Crows. She grew a lot as a writer, and though there’s a lot of unnecessary flashbacks, you get to know the characters really well. I recommend the duology, which is definitely a more meaty read than the first Grisha trilogy.
The Ranger of Marzanna (The Goddess War, #1) by Jon Skovron
I was really excited to see this book by Jon Skovron, since it was epic fantasy with some roots in Slavic mythology (sound familiar)? The cover was also stunning, so I was hyped, especially since it had roots in Polish mythology specifically. Overall, he also builds his own world, and though he includes less directly connected to Slavic mythology (besides Marzanna, goddess of winter, and Živena, goddess of spring) it was an enjoyable read with that Slavic feel to it. If you need something to read before The Frostmarked Chronicles to get a bit of mythology, check it out. The second book’s cover is absolutely beautiful as well (you can see it below in my 2021 reading list).
The Lord of the Rings (Books 1 and 2) by J.R.R. Tolkien
Does this even need an intro? Tolkien’s crown jewel is a requirement to read for any fantasy author I feel like, so I finished the first two books, The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, in 2020. I plan to read the final entry as well as The Hobbit in 2021. Tolkien’s world here is amazing and vast. You can just feel the depth of its history, which I love. His prose style and mine are incredibly different, and I struggled with that a lot, but it is a fun read. Definitely recommend them if you haven’t read them yet.
The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) by Katherine Arden
Another Slavic-inspired book, this time more Russian and focused on historical fantasy and folklore. It was a fun read, though my style and Katherine Arden’s are just different. Overall, I think it’s a good book that just wasn’t for me. So despite me not reading the rest of the series, if you’re interested in it, I recommend giving it a shot. There’s a lot of character building in it that gives you a lot of depth into the lives of the people in the era.
Mistborn, Arc 1 (Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson
I hadn’t picked up any Brandon Sanderson until Mistborn: The Final Empire, and oh my gosh, I did not know what I was missing. I’ve followed Sanderson for a long time as an ardent watcher of his BYU YouTube lecture series for fantasy and sci-fi authors (highly recommend), but hadn’t read anything by him. This series is absolutely awesome! I haven’t picked up arc 2 of Mistborn because I’m trying to follow a recommended order of reading the Cosmere (Sanderson’s expansive universe most of his stories take place in), but the first three books are fun and unique. The magic system is unlike anything I’ve ever read. The world is unique and interesting, combining heist, dystopian, fantasy, and bits of sci-fi. The first book is definitely the best in my opinion, but all of them are really enjoyable. So far, it’s the best series I’ve ever read. Highly recommended!
Elantris (Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson
Now fully embracing the Cosmere, I decided to go back to the beginning in preparation for Sanderson’s very long series, The Stormlight Archive. This was his first published book, and though it lacked the polish of Mistborn and took some time to pick up (typical of Sanderson books) I loved it in the end. Once again, he manages to turn fantasy on its head a bit, combining different tropes in new ways. He does plan to have a sequel to this as well as far as I’m aware. I recommend it!
Warbreaker (Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson
Another one of Sanderson’s standalones that is going to get a sequel eventually, this was my last step before diving into The Stormlight Archive. It, like Elantris, isn’t quite as good as Mistborn in my opinion, but the characters are very fun in this one. While the plot is winding and sometimes odd, I kept reading for Siri’s character and Lightsong’s wit. It definitely does not go at all how you expect for much of it, which is a strong point for Sanderson often, so I definitely recommend this one as well!
2021 Reading
The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1. Cosmere) by Brandon Sanderson
This is my current read. I’m about 550 pages in, which would normally be the equivalent of a book or two of many other series, but that makes me less than halfway done with The Way of Kings. I can tell already this is Brandon Sanderson’s master stroke. The length is a lot, but I’m loving all of it. The world and conflicts are already awesome and I haven’t even found what the core conflict is much. Really looking forward to finishing this book and the rest of the series.
The Stormlight Archive (Books 2 – 4) plus Edgedancer (Book 2.5) and Dawnshard (Book 3.5) by Brandon Sanderson
Like I said, I’m really excited for the rest of this series. I received them as a gift for Christmas in hardcover, and their covers and art within are absolutely beautiful! Hoping the story is just as good! There’s a good chance I don’t get to all of them this year due to the sheer length of the books, but they’ll be the main series I’m reading for a while.
Rule of Wolves, Nikolai Duology #2 (Grishaverse) by Leigh Bardugo
I really enjoyed reading King of Scars in 2019, so I’m excited to read Leigh Bardugo’s second entry in the duology when it comes out in March. I’ll use it to split up books in The Stormlight Archive, because I can only read so many 1,200 page books in a row.
The Queen of Izmoroz (The Goddess War, #2) by Jon Skovron
Best cover I’ve ever seen. Sure, The Frostmarked Chronicles will have beautiful covers, but dang! This is amazing. Looking forward to seeing how the story continues when this comes out in April.
The Song of the Sirin (Raven Son, #1) by Nicholas Kotar
This book has been out for a few years now, but it’s fantasy inspired by Russian folklore, making me very excited to read it. Like my own publishing, it’s independently published, which is an extra incentive for me to support Kotar with the purchase. I’ve heard great reviews about this series, so I’m looking forward to starting it sometime next year.
The Bridge on the Drina by Ivo Andric
This is a switch-up from fantasy, but it’s something I really want to read. I watched a documentary about World War One this past year and hadn’t realized how much the Serbs went through in the war. It’s important to learn from both stories beyond our world and within it, and though it’s a work of fiction, I’m looking forward to understanding a bit more about Balkan history.
Conclusion
And that’s a wrap! If you have any recommendations for books, let me know. 2021 should be a fun year for both writing and reading, and I’m honored to be along for the journey with all of you.
Happy New Year!