2012 in Review…

Last year I posted a 2011 Year in Review. Not only was it fun to share the highs and lows of my year with you all, it was also fun to look back on all that had happened over the previous twelve months.

So, of course I had to take some time to reflect on 2012. While I wasn’t successful in ALL of my goals, I did meet many. I had tons of fun with my family, I grew as a writer and reader, and I made some fantastic new friends along the way.  It’s been a busy year, full of changes, hard work, and lots of fun…

January

I blogged about goals, and decided on RESOLVE as my all-encompassing word for 2012. I also mused about the struggles of rewriting.

 I survived a winter storm that threatened my sanity.

A Million Suns (Across the Universe, #2) The Fault in Our Stars
I started the year off reading and reviewing a couple of awesome books: A Million Suns by Beth Revis and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

At the end of the month, my girlie and I welcomed my husband home from  Afghanistan (yay!).

The DisenchantmentsI raved about another favorite of 2012, The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour.

February

I blogged about my preference for character-driven YA, and shared my Two-Minute Tension Test.

            
I celebrated Valentine’s Day with BOTH of my loves!

I turned thirty-one. No comment.

021I attended my husband’s Welcome Home Ball and had a *little* too much fun. 🙂

March

Pandemonium (Delirium, #2)I read and reviewed another 2012 favorite: Lauren Oliver’s Pandemonium.

I worked on a substantial revision of Where Poppies Bloom and resubmitted it to the agent I was working with at the time. (In case you’re wondering, I eventually came to the very difficult realization that Poppies isn’t going to sell the way it’s currently written. As of now, the story is “retired” and waiting for a rewrite that will hopefully come in 2013… Tough stuff.)

          
I had the pleasure of spending a long weekend in Vancouver BC with my husband. Such a fun, beautiful city!

Saw The Hunger Games. Awesome!

I blogged about my on-again-off-again struggles with procrastination (and why it’s not always a bad thing).

April

I successfully completed the A-Z  Blogging Challenge, which was so fun! Thank you again to all of the hosts and organizers!

I Rocked the Drop!


I met a few of my favorite authors (Gayle Forman, Nina LaCour, and Stephanie Perkins) during the Seattle stop of the YA or Bust Tour.


I was invited to become an Operative over at YA Confidential. Love my fantastic new blogging buddies!

May


I participated in Blog Me MAYbe, brainchild of writer/blogger/all-around-awesome-person Sara McClung.

I blogged about The Page Sixty-Nine Test, a writer’s trick I learned from clever author Gayle Forman.

         
We moved from Washington to central California, and made a big ol’ road trip out of the ordeal.

After we settled in to our new house, I shared a little bit about how I plot stories and write first drafts.

My husband and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary!

Under the Never Sky (Under the Never Sky, #1)I read and recommended Veronica Rossi’s stunning debut, Under the Never Sky.


I shared my miracle cures for writer’s block, and started tackling a major rewrite of my YA contemporary manuscript, Cross My Heart.

June

Amelia Anne is Dead and GoneOh, look! Another outstanding 2012 book: Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfeld.

Around this time, I scored a few amazing new critique partners. I can’t even put into words how grateful I am for Temre, Taryn, and Alison!

          
My cutie pie got her very first library card, and had quite the Marilyn moment.

July

I posted about “gap books” and committed to reading a few of mine (including The Book Thief), and brought the “One Space or Two” debate to my blog.

I read and gushed about Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue, my VERY FAVORITE book of 2012!

I completed my Cross My Heart rewrite! 

            
My girlie and I made the loooong trip to Phoenix to visit my parents, my brother, and my cutie pie nephew.

My husband and I saw Brad Paisley and The Band Perry… Incredible!

August

        
I helped my sweet girl celebrate her fifth birthday…

… and watched as she headed off to kindergarten. Very bittersweet!

September

I tackled a frustrating revision of Cross My Heart, one that came with some bad-but-unrelated writing news. I threw myself a pity party, but that pain in the ass revision eventually made Cross My Heart what it is today.

This Is Not a TestI posted about yet another phenomenal 2012 release: This is Not a Test by the infinitely brilliant Courtney Summers.

Took a trip to Washington to visit family and see Tim McGraw(!).

I posted about taking a break and why it’s important, jumped on the “Currently…” bandwagon, blogged about how running parallels revising, and shared my take on Banned Books Week.

October

I visited an apple orchard with my girlie, and blogged about method writing (which, for me, involves A LOT of baking and running).

I talked about Cross My Heart, my “Next Big Thing,” and scored some awesomely encouraging comments in the process!

I wrote six words of advice for Teen Katy, which Erin L. Schneider combined with the advice of many other YA bloggers/writers into this amazing video.

The Raven Boys (Raven Cycle, #1)The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater. Perfectly creepy-weird. I couldn’t help but sing its praises!

I indulged my girlie and “dressed up” for Halloween. Little Miss Merida just LOVES this holiday!

November

I took a risk and signed up for National Novel Writing Month for the first time. The WiP I worked on is an upper YA contemporary romance. What else? 😉

        
I ran (and finished!) the Big Sur Half Marathon, meeting a goal I’d set for myself ages ago. I was exhausted at the end, yet so proud!

I blogged about all the things I’m thankful for…

Saving June…and raved about another amazing book, Hannah Harrington’s Saving June (not released in 2012, but one of the best books I read this year).

In slightly less positive news, I parted ways with my former agent and began querying new agents. I didn’t blog about the ordeal until later, but this experience put a bit of a damper on an otherwise extraordinary month.

I WON National Novel Writing Month! (No matter that I haven’t touched the manuscript since November — I still love it! And, I plan on finishing the first draft and making in CP-worthy during the month of January.)

December

I accepted super-agent Victoria Marini’s offer of representation. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work with Victoria, and I look forward to seeing what the New Year brings in the way of manuscript submissions!

I got to go to Disneyland! Seriously. The happiest place on Earth.

I read and recommended yet another amazing 2012 book: Lovely, Dark and Deep by Amy McNarama. Love, love, love!

I celebrated my husband’s birthday WITH him for once. It was a fantastic day full of The Hobbit, Buffalo Wild Wings, and homemade birthday cake.


I co-hosted the Class of 2012: YA Superlatives Blogfest with  Jessica Love, Tracey Neithercott, and Alison Miller. Such a great turn-out this year. My To-Read list grew about a mile!

And last but not least, I celebrated the holidays with my husband and this sweet girl, and took some time to reflect on the passing year.

Phew!

Tell Me: How was your 2012? What are your hopes for 2013?

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38 thoughts on “2012 in Review…”

  1. Elodie says:

    Awwww re-reading all of this brought back a lot of smiles on my face! I remember when your hubby got back and how happy you and your cutie pie were!

    I loved getting to know you better this year, Katy and that we even branched out and started talking outside of our blogs 😀 Your friendship is definitely something I am glad to bring with me in 2013!

    So happy for you that you had a lot of ups this year and that even through your downs, you found something to smile about…

    Hope you and your loved ones have a fun New Year´s Eve and looking forward to celebrating more of your good news in 2013!

    • katyupperman says:

      I loved getting to know you better this year too, Elodie. I look forward to the day we can meet in person and sign our new releases for each other. 🙂 I hope you have a very Happy New Year!

  3. Rachel says:

    What a great post, Katy! I’m so glad I “met” through Blog Me Maybe (and maybe A-Z?).

    I really need to read all the contemporary books you listed here…I am behind on my 2012 YA debuts.

    I am excited to hear what happens with you and Victoria and your mss.

    Hope you have a fun New Year’s Eve – happy & healthy!!!

    • katyupperman says:

      I’m so glad we were able to connect as well, Rachel! It’s been fantastic following your writing journey and reading all of your book reviews. I hope you have a very Happy New Year!

  4. Erin Bowman (@erin_bowman) says:

    I love these photo/link recap posts you do, Katy! I felt like I was reliving the year with you. Can’t believe how much your girlie has grown in one short year, and so glad you got to spend this one with BOTH your loves. Here’s to an awesome 2013!! 🙂

    • katyupperman says:

      I can’t believe how much my munchkin has grown either! Makes me both happy AND a little sad! I hope you have an amazing New Year, Erin. 2013… your pub year!

  6. Temre Beltz says:

    I loved this post, Katy! Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful memories. It was so much fun to go back and relive with you the moments that I was here for and sort of hard to imagine a time when I wasn’t! Man, seeing your husband’s homecoming, definitely brought tears to my eyes. I am so thankful you were all together this year. I am so inspired by you too, Katy. You are loving, hard working, incredibly talented, and encouraging to us all. Thanks for a great 2012 and SO excited for what 2013 will bring your way. I have a really good feeling about this one 🙂

    • katyupperman says:

      Thanks, Tem! It’s hard to remember a time in my writing journey that you WEREN’T present. I’m so thankful for your friendship and feedback and unwavering support, and I cannot wait to see what the New Year has in store for both of us!

  7. Carly Richardson says:

    Sweet Katy! Haven’t seem you in years but reading your blogs makes me feel like college wasn’t that long ago. So happy to hear you are doing so well! Wishing you, Matt and sweet Claire a wonderful 2013!

    Lots of alpha love!
    Carly

  8. Carrie-Anne says:

    I really enjoyed reading your post and seeing all your lovely photos. Those are a lot of great things that happened for you this year!

    I read some really good YA historical this year, and some not-so-awesome YA historicals. One of them I ironically found just days after I presented my final project for my YA Lit class. I would’ve loved to have used that book in place of a less than well-written book that was among my selection. I completed two of my own historicals, did some work on a hiatused contemporary historical (1980s), and began my third Russian historical novel in November.

    • katyupperman says:

      I need to read more YA historical… I’m very much a contemporary girl, but I’ve never been disappointed in a historical. Maybe you can recommend some good ones?

      • Carrie-Anne says:

        One of my favorites from my YA Lit class was Allan Wolf’s The Watch That Ends the Night, a novel in verse about the Titanic. I’ve also enjoyed Paul Dowswell’s The Ausländer, a unique take on life in Nazi Germany (a young ethnic German from Poland is adopted and eventually clashes with his new family), Anne C. Voorhoeve’s My Family for the War (following the life of a Kindertransport child in England from 1938-45), Mal Peet’s Tamar (set in Holland during the last year of WWII, and in England during 1995), and Margi Preus’s Shadow on the Mountain, about young Norwegian resistance fighters during WWII.

  9. Dahlia says:

    Aw, what a fun and very special year!! Glad to see that even your agent parting remedied itself quickly and with a vengeance! Here’s hoping for more wonderful things for you in 2013!

  12. Jaime Morrow says:

    Wow! I can’t believe 2012 is over already. I remember when all of these things happened and you posted about them. Crazy that that much time has passed! It’s been great getting to know you better over the course of this year, Katy. I hope 2013 brings you nothing but awesome things. 🙂

  13. Nicole McLaughlin says:

    What a year!!!!!!! I have truly enjoyed being an on-line witness to not only your writing journey, but the daily peeks of your beautiful family. You have been an inspiration along the way, and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you. I feel big things coming and I’m excited for 2013 for both of us. 🙂 So glad I’ve gotten to know you. Someday we have to be in the same place at the same time. 🙂

    • katyupperman says:

      Thanks so much, Nicole! I’ve loved reading your blog throughout the last year… Here’s hoping 2013 is THE YEAR for both of us! And yes, let’s make it a goal to meet up one of these days. (I would LOVE to have you do pictures for us… That would be aMaZiNg!)

  14. Ghenet Myrthil says:

    Even with the ups and downs, you had such a wonderful year! It’s been so fun following your blog (and Instagram!) in 2012 and I’m excited to keep following along and see what’s in store for you in 2013. 🙂

    • katyupperman says:

      Thanks, Ghenet! I’m so glad we were able to connect through our blogs. I’ve really enjoyed reading about your writing journey. Here’s to amazing things in 2013!

  15. Rebecca B says:

    Congrats on a on-the-whole wonderful year! I love keeping up with your adventures via blogs and Twitter. I’m excited to see where life and writing takes you in 2013! Happy New Year 🙂

  17. Lisa Otness says:

    Katy! I just love reading your blog! I am so excited for you and all of your writing, so awesome! Thank you for all of the book suggestions 🙂 I am reading the Shiver trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater and LOVE them! I just added a few more to my list after reading this blog, so thank you! You guys seem so happy, just a lovely little family 🙂 I would really love to catch up with you next time you’re in WA.
    Love,
    Lees 🙂

    • katyupperman says:

      Lees! I was so excited when I read your comment… So fun! Thanks for reading. Sometimes I forget that people I actually know in my “real” life are following along. 🙂 I hope you enjoy the SHIVER trilogy. Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorites. Her THE SCORPIO RACES is amazing. And yes, let’s definitely try to catch up next time I’m in Washington. Maybe this summer? ❤

      • Lisa Otness says:

        Your blog is so fun to read! I would really LOVE to catch up!!! Please, please, please let me know when you’re in WA & we’ll meet up! Enjoy sunny CA, wishing I was in the sun instead of this miserable Seattle rain 😦

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