Well, 2020 definitely did not go how I expected, nor did the 3rd year in the Asylum for that matter. While I still consider 2019 one of the worst years of my life, 2020 definitely was not a great one all things considered. I had a lot of events planned and since these were all canceled, that put a serious dent into everything. Still, I got out of it pretty well, even if my mental health is not the best at the moment. But anyway, you are not here to read my whining. We need to celebrate 3 years in the Asylum!
As in the previous years, I’d like to take a look back at this past year and highlight some milestones. No memories this year as, well, 2020 was not a year for memories. Well, except maybe for the fact that I moved out from home and now I’m pretending to be a responsible adult paying for rent and bills and whatnot.
A New Name, A New Website, And A New Member In The Asylum
Well, just because 2020 sucked, it doesn’t mean life completely stopped over here in the Asylum. Last June I made a leap of faith and switched from WordPress.com to a self-hosted WordPress site, which meant a completely new look. I spent an ungodly amount of time getting it ready.
Then later in the year, I decided that we needed another member for the team. I was really happy that Arina was interested and eventually I choose her, believing she would be a great addition and that she would help me take the load off of Jen and my shoulders as we had SPFBO to deal with on top of everything. Check out the introduction post!
As the last step, we started off 2021 by changing the name from RockStarlit BookAsylum to Queen’s Book Asylum. You can find the explanation and all of my reasons in this post.
My Favourite Posts and Bits
I’ll pick some of my favourite posts from last year. If you want to see what my favourite books were, then I kindly recommend checking out our Jen’s top 10, Arina’s top 10, and my top 10 reads!
- Mike Shackle interview
- I launched this feature, To Be Continued… last March in celebration of the second anniversary. Throughout the year 4 stories were written by awesome authors, and even I took part in one of them! Check them all out: The New Sound, The Butcher Queen, The Enchanted Forest, and the SPFBO 6 Special Edition, Sanctuary of Arrows
- I wrote a pretty personal post about my feelings and thoughts at the time regarding disability, asking: Does Disability Define Me?
- Soon after Arina joined the Asylum, we got her to work! In celebration of Pride Month, she wrote this post: Written in Narrative – Does a Protagonist’s Queer Identity Matter?
- We were looking forward to Self-Published Fantasy Month, so we helped to make you guys pick your next poison with 15+ Underrated Self-Published Fantasy Books
- T. Frohock interview
Storytellers On Tour
Just at the beginning of March, Justine and I launched Storytellers On Tour, a promotional service for indie authors. Over the past year, we learned a lot about publishing, had to come over challenges, improved a lot, and overall hosted 66 events!
But it wasn’t all fun and laughter. We somehow found ourselves in the middle of a drama surrounding blog tours in general, which somehow ended up being way too personal. That was an interesting lesson about friendships. And it – among other things – prompted me to write a blog post about Things I Learned About Blog Tours in 6 Months.
We are always on the look out for bloggers to join us, so if that’s something that would interest you, find all the info you need below:
Find out more about Storytellers On Tour or join our team:
Thank You
As always, let me thank all of you who read, liked, shared any of our posts. It means a lot to me and the others in the Asylum. A special thanks to the awesome ladies without whom I wouldn’t be able to keep this blog going: Jen and Arina. You ladies rock! I also want to give a shout-out to my partner in crime, sister, and best friend, Justine for keeping me sane this past year. And who doesn’t get nearly enough credit for all the shit she is doing. And last but not least all the friends who go out of their way to talk to me every once in a while and cheering me up when I need it: Alex, Jenny, Pam, Nick, and Bjorn. I love you guys.
You rock, Queen🤘 I am ao grateful you kidna—uh, coerc— eh, blackmai— 😁 OK, OK INVITED me to join the team of the Asylum. You too don’t get half the credit for all the amazing shit you do but hey, you got one (very cool, I must say) super fan. This blog kicks ass and you do too.
Thank you 💜💜 I’m very happy I got to blackma…um, invite you 😁