Thursday, December 18, 2014

Favorites of 2014

I see many of my blogging friends have been writing posts of their top 10 books of 2014. Honestly, I’m not sure I even read 10 books this year. I probably did, but it just wasn’t a great year for reading. I had too much else going on. So, I’ve decided to do a different kind of list. Instead of just books, I’m going to encompass a variety of favorites and highlights that have really stood out to me from this past year. :)

Top 3 Books

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3. The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan

I’m a big fan of the Ranger’s Apprentice series, so it was incredibly fun to revisit the world when I never expected there to be any more books.

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2. A Cowboy Unmatched by Karen Witemeyer

I was so excited to read this story of Neill. It completely lived up to my anticipation. Who doesn’t love Karen Witemeyer’s Archer men?

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1. Chasing the Lion by Nancy Kimball

This was definitely my top read of 2014. It quickly made its way into my top 3 favorite books/series of all time with The Lord of the Rings and Books of the Infinite. You can read my full review here. I can hardly wait to read book two. It’s at the top of my most highly anticipated future releases.

Top Movies

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The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

My brothers and I went to see this yesterday morning, and I thought it was spectacular. I pretty much loved everything about it . . . well, maybe not the sad parts. Yeah, I cried, like, five or six times. Basically on and off through the whole last half hour of the film. And I’ve never cried during a movie in the theater before. So that’s saying a lot. I thought it was a perfect end to The Hobbit Trilogy, and I absolutely loved how it so seamless connected with The Lord of the Rings. It’s definitely my favorite movie of 2014.

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Dawn of Planet of the Apes

I grew up watching the old Planet of the Apes movies, so it has been really fun to watch the new ones. I recently watched this second movie for the first time with my family and thought it was an incredibly well done movie. One of the best I’ve seen this year.

Top TV Show

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Scorpion

Oh my goodness, I cannot begin to tell you how much I adore this show. It’s amazing. I love everyone in it (which is unusual), though if I had to pick a favorite, I’d pick Toby. And I ship him and Happy so hard. ;) It’s a perfect show if you feel like you don’t quite fit in with “normal” people.

Top Writing Moments

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The release of Resistance was a huge moment for me this year. It was my first release as Jaye L. Knight as well as the beginning of the biggest adventure series I’ve ever worked on. It was definitely frightening right at the beginning wondering how readers would like it, but it’s been an amazing experience so far.

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Winning a Readers’ Favorite award was absolutely incredible. I never imagined getting to that point in my writing.

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And, of course, there was the moment Resistance hit #1 in Christian Fantasy on Amazon. That was very exciting. I had no idea when I first published Resistance that I would hit all these milestones in the first several months.

Then there was finishing book 4 of Ilyon Chronicles, which had been giving me fits. I wrote 88,000 words in eight weeks between June and July. Definitely a big writing accomplishment.

And last, but certainly not least, one of the biggest highlights of the year was getting to know old friends better as well as gaining many new friends and fans. It has been an amazing experience, and I can’t wait to see how 2015 goes.

5 comments:

  1. I love lists like this! Now I have some things to check out.

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    1. It's always fun to look back at the highlights of a year. And yes, I love seeing other peoples' lists, though my TBR list is insanely long already. :P

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  2. Jaye, I am so honored! I know you have a gladiator in your Ilyon Chronicles series so that one is working its way up in my TBR pile. Honestly if I'd known how much being an author would take away from my time to read, I might not have done it. But as someone once said, there is no agony like an untold story inside you. That's some truth. And book 2 is coming. Hopefully in May. Much love - Nancy K

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    1. Your book definitely deserved to be my top read of the year. :) I can't wait for my mom to read it. It's true, writing takes away so much time to read. But there's no going back now. ;) And I will be counting down the days until book 2!!

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  3. Such wonderful writing achievements!!!

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