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Tag: blogoversary

4 Years of Adventures

My, how time has flown! Adventure Awaits is past its toddler stage and is now four years old! (Who am I kidding, though; it’s still a Very Small Child.)

Despite my spotty absences in the past seven months, I treasure this space. And the reason I treasure it is because of you! This is a gathering place for book dragons and adventurers and old souls. I’ve met so many wonderful people in the comments here. So thank you! If you’ve ever read a post or left a comment or two or a hundred, I appreciate you!

To celebrate four years of bloggerly adventures with all of you, I’ve dreamt up some reminiscent lists. Read on, friend. There might be some announcement-type items at the end.

Four Friends I’ve Met Through Blogging

I could probably list 400 friends I’ve met through Adventure Awaits (okay, maybe not quite that many), but four that spring to mind are . . .

  • Jenelle Schmidt – half of the brainpower behind the Silmarillion Awards, a lovely author, and supermom of four hobbits
  • Mary Horton – if it weren’t for her adorably long comment years ago, I never would’ve met this lovely friend who steadfastly holds to the light
  • Blue – this fellow old soul deserves a gold star for her loyalty and faithful commenting
  • Emily – who became my Scottish pen pal and critique partner thanks to bonding over each others blogs

These four ladies are dear friends whom I probably wouldn’t have met otherwise! And I honestly could sit here all day listing so many more, along with friends I met elsewhere but have since connected with through blogging as well. YOU ARE ALL AMAZING.

Four Guest Posts

We’ve seen a modest number of interviews and guest posts over the years, but here are four particularly good ones.

Four Special Things I’ve Written for the Blog

  • hey dreamer // a love letter to creatives and dreamers everywhere
  • The Cage // a creepy story for Halloween
  • Fantasy in My Veins // not a fictional story, but a tribute to the mark that fantasy has made on my life
  • Rewritten // a self-aware look at the torture characters go through (mwahaha)

And as a bonus (yep, we’re breaking the rule of four), here’s Ann Marie. As it turns out, this is one of the very earliest inspirations for my main work-in-progress, The Brightest Thread. I didn’t know at the time that a spark from that flash fiction would become a faint echo in TBT!

Four Struggles of Blogging

  • Finding ideas! I’m out of practice due to college life, but blogger’s block happens even when I’m posting regularly.
Searching For Inspiration - Writers Write
  • Taking the time to visit other blogs. I’ve been almost completely MIA on my friends’ blogs lately, and I want to find a way to change that!
  • Imposter syndrome. You know how it goes. “Who am I to speak to others? What do I have to teach? I’m no expert. Who am I to inspire anyone? I’m as messed up as they are. I’m not like what people think I am.” It’s a load of garbage, but we probably all face those thoughts from time to time.
  • Balancing authenticity and privacy. I love sharing life with you all, but sometimes it’s hard to know how much of life to share online.

Four Joys of Blogging

  • Connecting with followers and other bloggers. You all are the best, okay? I can’t say it enough. It’s the relationships formed that make this so fun and rewarding!
  • Writing discipline. Not counting these past few months (*cough*), blogging has helped me regularly exercise my writing muscles. Holding myself accountable to a schedule means learning how to show up to the table even when the Muse declines the invitation.
  • Reflection. My monthly Subplots and Storylines posts are signposts showing me how far I’ve come, inspirational posts cause me to reflect, and others force me to define my thoughts. It’s a good exercise, putting what’s in my head into actual words.
23 Awesome Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About “The Lego Movie” Vitruvius’ line, “Ah, we gotta write all that down ‘cause I’m not gonna remember any of it, but here we go,” wasn’t originally in the script. It was only added when Morgan Freeman said it during filming because he was frustrated with all the line changes.
  • Making a difference. I won’t bother to quantify what sort of difference I make here. That’s impossible. But I have long dreamed of lighting hearts aflame with words. Publishing is a long, long journey, so it has been pretty incredible in the meantime to send words into a corner of the world and (hopefully) fan a few flames.

Four Things I’ve Learned About Blogging

  • It’s not about me. I mean, YES, obviously I talk about myself here. Quite a bit, in fact. But I am gradually learning that the purpose of my journey is not me. My highs and lows are, in fact, a means of connecting to others taking their own journeys. And so I try to structure my posts as a means of illustration and companionship to make your path a little better.
  • It’s okay to talk about me. Doesn’t that contradict the first point? No, because part of that companionship is me being me. Offering up a piece of myself, however silly and trivial or deep and heartfelt. We need each other. It’s actually inspiring to hear someone ramble about what they’re passionate about or share a story of what they’re going through! I can recognize that in others, so it’s about time I recognize that in myself.
  • We are lazy readers. Short paragraphs. Lots of images. Lots of white space. Easy to read fonts and light colored backgrounds. Please and thank you.
  • When the well runs dry, there’s a good chance you’ve stopped adventuring. This applies to all of life, all of creativity. You can’t write about new things if you’re not experiencing new things. It’s hard to produce good content if you’re not living life, dreaming dreams, meeting people, getting things done, etc. Get out and go on an adventure. Live a life worth writing about!
I got You're free-spirited and adventurous.! The Color You Love Most Will Reveal A Deep Truth About You

Four Ways I’m Going to Improve as a Blogger

College is over in just one month! Which means I’ll have time to sweep out the dust bunnies around here and start posting more often. I’ve learned a l o t in the past couple of years, and I’m excited to start executing on some of those things! So here are four ways I plan to improve as a blogger.

  • We are moving house! Yes sirree, if you missed the mentions in earlier posts, Adventure Awaits is going to pack up and move to a self-hosted website. Blogger has served me well, but I would like to step it up in terms of design and professionalism. Tentative moving date is the end of April/sometime in May! Don’t worry, I’ll keep you all in the loop and make sure that migrating to the new platform goes as smoothly as possible.
  • Post regularly. No explanation needed there!
  • Hone my focus. I’m going to zoom in on my niche (once I define what that is for me) so that I can offer you sharper, more valuable content on a consistent basis!
  • Launch my super secret project. Yeah, everyone and their pet dragon has a “super secret project,” and yeah, you might’ve forgotten mine because it’s been forever since I dropped a hint. But! It is stillll on the backburner! And I’m more excited than ever to get it going for real. (Note: the fact that this secret project is listed under improvements as a blogger might be a big hint in and of itself.)

Well, friends, let’s pass out the chocolate cake and break out the balloons. Thanks for popping by for my fourth blogoversary! I’m looking forward to many more years with you!

Image result for divergent four gif
(I couldn’t resist, Four.)

Q&A Vlog Part 2

I’m waving hello from St. Louis, Missouri, where Realm Makers is currently underway! (If you couldn’t make it this year, please read THIS POST on Musings of an Elf. It’s everything I’d say to you right now.)

As promised, the second half of the vlog is here! Just a couple of notes this time:

  1. The timeline is a bit off, because I mentioned, “by this time next week, I’ll be at Realm Makers,” not knowing that I’d split the vlog over two weeks.
  2. The guest post I referenced is this one over at The Author’s Chair.
  3. All credit for the music (a song called Movement) belongs to Chasing Noise.
  4. The dragon makes an appearance at last!

I hope you enjoy the rest of these ramblings. Do feel free to shout out suggestions for that question I ask a bit closer to the end. And if I haven’t caught up on comments by the time this post goes live, I do apologize. I’ll reply to everyone once I return home, and also share a giant Realm Makers recap like I did last year! Then it’ll be back to regular content here on Adventure Awaits.

Once again, thanks for watching! You all are the best!

Q&A Vlog Part 1

At last, the vlog has arrived!

Thanks again for all the great questions, everyone! I had so much fun answering them, the vlog turned into . . . ahem . . . an hour-long video. So because no one wants to sit and watch sixty minutes of dorky chit-chat, and because I’m running short on time on my end, we’re splitting this thing into two parts! If I can, I hope to get the second half ready for next Saturday, when I’ll be at Realm Makers.

Little disclaimer: I filmed this on my phone, which was running so short of storage that I had to film it one piece at a time, upload to my computer, delete from my phone, and then continue. So there are awkward pauses in between that my miniscule video editing skills couldn’t avoid. Just pretend we’re facetiming or sharing Instagram stories or some other such casual thing, and let’s not pretend that I’m some polished YouTuber. That would take a great deal of imagination.

So without further ado, here’s the first segment!

EDIT: The background music is Lost in Las Vegas by Two Steps from Hell. Full credit goes to them!

Belated Blogoversary + #MyFirstPostRevisited

Adventure Awaits turned three at the end of March, and I promised some kind of party, didn’t I? But I’ve arrived so late, even my wizard status can’t excuse my tardiness. Gandalf is ashamed of me. As they say, “better late than never,” so here we are! Help yourself to angel food cake and strawberries, because that’s what I just ate, and we’re going to happily live in the delusion that I can offer you a slice via the internet.

 

Blogging is a discipline I’m so glad I started. Sure, there are weeks (like this one) when getting a post up in time is a struggle. Life gets busy and sometimes I run out of inspiration. But I love sharing my heart here. Yet what I love even more is YOU. All of you who read, comment, and keep coming back–you’re the reason Adventure Awaits exists! I hope your own journey has been impacted, even in some small way, by mine. Because life is story, after all, and we’re all living epic tales of our own.

 

In the fashion of last year’s blogoversary, let’s kick off the party with some quick stats! Measuring growth is fun, right? It’s like penciling in your height on the pantry wall.

Stats

 
  • 161 followers across Google Friend Connect and Bloglovin’ (It was closer to 140-150 at the time of my actual blogoversary, I think . . . which is about double what I had last year . . . Anyway, I’m so grateful for every single one of you!)
  • 204 posts
  • 216,678 pageviews

Top Ten Countries



Most of those pageviews come from . . .

  1. United States
  2. Russia
  3. Canada
  4. France
  5. Ukraine
  6. Germany
  7. United Kingdom
  8. Netherlands
  9. Australia
  10. Ireland
It shocks me that this little place has grown at all in the past year, what with me going off to college and being less consistent here than I’d like. Here are some wild and wacky (and some predictable) ways people have found my blog:

Search Results

-larryboy and the fib from outer space (what? why???)
-rooglewood press (makes sense)
-josiah dyck (oh, look, that’s my brother!)
-a girl who walk alone on the road (. . . this girl who walk alone needs to get better at grammar)
-allison tebo the reluctant godfather (why yes, I was part of her blog tour)
-adventure award wise counselor (ah, good times)
-five enchanted roses: a collection of . . . (it cuts off the end of the phrase, but I know which book that is, and it’s excellent)
-rooglewood press contest (not like I entered any of those, LOL)
-adventure awaits blog (very sensible search result)
-Tracey (oh, so we’re on first name basis now, Google and I?)
-summer book haul (always a good thing!)

Top Ten Most Popular Posts

I’m always somewhat bemused as to what gets a lot of pageviews and what doesn’t. Whatever the reason, here are my most-viewed posts of all time! Numbers 1, 3, and 9 are some of my personal favorites.

1. Realm Makers 2017 Recap
2. Sunshine Blogger Award
3. Retellings – Love ‘Em or Hate ‘Em?
4. Beautiful Books – Writing Goals
5. Subplots and Storylines – November 2016
6. Book Review: Five Enchanted Roses
7. Subplots and Storylines – October 2016
8. Silmarillion Awards – Wisest Counselor Nominations
9. Why Fiction Matters
10. Problematic Opportunities and Opportunistic Problems

 

#MyFirstPostRevisited

 

Over half a year ago, the ever-creative Victoria Grace Howell @ Wanderer’s Pen tagged me to participate in #MyFirstPostRevisited. Thanks, Tori! I thought it’d be fun to incorporate this into my next blogoversary! The rules of the tag are as follows:

 
 
  • No cheating. You must highlight your first post. Not your second post, not one you love… the first post only.
  • Link back to the person who tagged you (thank them if you feel like it or, if not, curse them with a plague of ladybugs).
  • Cut and paste your old post into a new post or reblog your own bad self. (Either way is fine, but NO editing.)
  • Put the hashtag #MyFirstPostRevisited in your title.
  • Tag five (5) other bloggers to take up this challenge.
  • Notify your tags in the comment section of their blog (don’t just hope they notice a pingback somewhere in their spam).
  • Feel free to cut and paste the badge to use in your post.
  • Include “the rules” in your post.
  • Completely silly rules that I’m making up as I type:
  • Write your post while wolfing down your favorite dessert.
  • Do 10 cartwheels after you hit “Publish.”
 

Well, I did just eat cake. But I’ll neglect that last rule, because if I attempted a cartwheel, I would break something. Like my head. Or a piece of furniture. Or my pride. Let’s have a look at my very first post from March 31, 2015!

 

Welcome!

 

Well met, fellow travelers!

 

I suppose introductions are in order. My name is Tracey Dyck, and at the moment, all the clever ways I planned to succinctly introduce myself have scurried out the back window and left me with a blank page. So let’s start with the basics, in no particular order.

 

I am:
-19 years of age

-Canadian
-a homeschool graduate
-a writer
-a God-chaser
 

And now for some random facts.

 

I feed on words. The smell of spring is hope to me. My bookshelves are congested. I have awesome parents and three awesome younger siblings. I live in the Prairies. I read and write pretty widely, but fantasy is my homeland. I write because I need to, and because I hope that someone else needs me to. New notebooks call to me. I take pictures of shadows. I sketch. I am a slayer of evil dragons and a friend of good ones. I am an introvert. My space is organized chaos. I love the colors of the Caribbean, of watermelon, and of new leaves. Please take me to Narnia because I left my heart there. I love children. Dark chocolate trumps milk or white. Captain America is, without a doubt, my favorite Marvel superhero. Apparently my personality type is the same as Batman’s, though I fail to see many similarities. I laugh easily and cry easily. I am a paradox because a sunny optimist and a cynic coexist in my brain. I adore humor. I am a girl of strong convictions. Jesus is the difference in my life; He is my anchor, my shield, my fortress.

 

Now, what should you expect on this blog? Good question. Even I’m not entirely sure. But I think you’ll find a mix of the big and the small, the important and trivial. A blend of life and faith and anything story-related. I aim to post about once a week, but that schedule may change as I settle into it and find out what works.

 

Life truly is a grand adventure! I sincerely hope that this place will be a rest stop where you can brush off the dust of your travels, warm your hands by the fire, and find stories in the coals. I hope that this is an armory where you can sharpen your blade, shine your armor, and stock your quiver. Here is where our quests intersect. Let’s swap tales, remind ourselves of the light, and look for the story the Author is weaving in each of our lives. To the wanderers, the wayfarers, the voyagers—I bid you welcome!

 
* * *

Surprisingly, that actually wasn’t as cringey as I expected. I still hope this place is a rest stop for questers on their journey, I’m still looking for the heart I left in Narnia, and my bookshelves are more congested than ever!

Thanks for celebrating with me, friends! I appreciate each of you immensely and feel honored to spend time with you in this space. Next up is that vlog I’m working on! (Hopefully. Somebody send me a bottle of Extra Time, please.)