My 2024 In Review

I was thinking about this post one night and...I realized I wanted my first 2025 post to pack a punch. So...what do I do?

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That is a very good question.

Instead of doing anything drastic and dramatic, I'll give a little 2024 review.

2024 was a busy year, full of work, horses, writing, school, and God. I matured a lot that year, my soul and body, and in my writing. My penmanship has come a long way, so far that I have begun pursuing finding an editor, someone professional to read my novel and say: 'Hey, this is pretty good, here's what you can do to make it better...' It is a bit of a scary endeavor, considering I'm just a teenager without millions in the ban account, but it's necessary, I think.

Aside from writing, I also dove deep into God's word. Guilty as charged, I didn't start on new year's 2024, so I haven't read through as much as I'd have liked. I'd have to say my favorite part of studying God's word is (not the highlighting, I know. Sadness.) but finding the connections and creating the web of red string. It's thrilling to read who God really is from a page that he breathed into true words. And it is even better to be able to red those words and translate them into blog posts to share with you.

But, a teenage girl doesn't only read the Bible and write books all her life, does she? The correct answer is no. I listen to music while I write. *winks* I mean, I guess I do other things too. My mom's flower garden is my only job, a seasonal weeding/planting/picking excursion that allows me to be the avid reader I am. It is a summer job that I am grateful for on another level. I've also been busy schooling, riding horses, and hanging out with my amazing friends. School includes a variety of science and literature courses that, if I may, enhance my knowledge of the real world so well that I am able to write certain aspects more realistically. Say I tried to write a physist before, and then I'd have started gathering information and suddenly all these trig functions and Newton's laws would smack me in my face.

Now I'm smart. *smiles vigorously at my spelling mistakes*

And, of course, I couldn't write this post without also including my favorite 2024 reads! The list below is written from best book to least good, not date read. ;)

a) The Reckoners series by Brandon Sanderson (Steelheart, Firefight, and Calamity)

review: Oh. My. Gosh. These three books are something to behold, a story that made me laugh and cry and hyperventilate through my tears. I could rant about this book series for literally ever and still have more to say. Brandon has written prose like I have never seen it before. Trust me when I say the standards have been raised.

b) The Otherworld by Abbie Emmons

review: I got this book for Christmas and finished it a few days ago. It was a love story (yes, rant all you want) but the writing was also really good and made the story feel so very, very realistic. It was written by an online writing coach who has a lot of great advise and this book is the picture to say that yes, she does indeed practice what she preaches. It is a standalone.

c) The Shatter Me series by Tahreah Mafi (it is a six-book, three-novella journey)

review: The first book was the bomb.com. It was immersive and structured well and the prose (in the first book, because it changes throughout the series) reminded so much of my own writing that it sucked me in. I would not reread it, but it is something not to forget.

d) Heirs of Neverland by Kara Swanson (Dust and Shadow)

review: Kara Swanson is an instructor at a writing course I took in 2024 and now in 2025. She wrote these Peter Pan retellings with a magical twist (obviously) and created some very complex characters that lit me on fire.

(If it's not weird, I'll put my own unpublished book in here....)

e) Do You Remember Me? by Claudia B. Liedtke

review: This was my last finished work in progress. It had me weeping into my hands and wishing for an easier story for the characters. I thought I'd written my heart novel in 2023, but now I think I was wrong. This book was my heart on pages, and it was so worth it to write. It is the story of an amnesic who had to fight the world to get her mind back. This one is also a standalone.

I was talking to my mom about a movie my family and I had watched not too long ago (if you want to know what it was, it was The Wild Robot). And she was talking about how it wasn't really that sad, because you knew these two characters couldn't stay together...ever. And I came back with: 'It's not the ending it's the journey.'

2024 was the journey. It was tough, if you want it in a nutshell. It was something I hope will not be relived in the coming year.

I am excited to bear this year with you, my friends. I am ready to blast through this life and move on a path of righteousness through God. May he bless you and keep you in his arms this year. Amen, my friends.

Stay Faithful,

Claudia