So we made it! Praise be to God as so many people didn't. What an amazing year it's been. I can say hand on heart that this has been the best year of my life. Every month something significant happened. I knew that this year would be all about my career and God really showed up. The Author School grew and we did more events and one-to-ones. Hashtag Press turned 1 years old and we've published our 10th book. Yay! At The Lil' Author Skool, we published The Originals and found our next bunch of young writers to be published next year. The Lil' Author Skool is my passion project but it's done so well with very little put into it so next year I'm going to run it how I run my businesses and I want to see how big it can get. Emily Knight I am...Awakened has done so good and is nominated for 2 book awards. My third book, Beats, Love and high top trainers has 7 publishers interested (well now 6 as one couldn't deal with all the black girl magic. Ha!). My career has just soared especially after winning the Trailblazer Award and I mean, my year started of with being interviewed by Cosmopolitan magazine and ended with visuals for my movie pitch. I'm just getting started.
I found that this year I really felt whole in myself. I saw people's characters whether that be in business and personal and it was a real eye opener. I met so many influential people this year and even though I struggled with feeling like 'should I be here?' I realised damn straight I should be here! The stuff I didn't get this year has been aligned in a way that it will happen even better next year! I'm excited. The whole year has been a highlight but here they are any way :)
- Cosmopolitan interview- Black Panther. I never thought I would see an African Marvel superhero on screen!!
- World Book Day school tour
- Winning the Trailblazer Award 2018 and getting to go to all the fancy dinners and events. I was the first black person to win!
- All the amazing concerts I got to see - Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Lauryn Hill, Britney Spears, On The Run 2, Kevin Hart. I'll even throw in the mess of Wireless Festival because I did get to see some good acts
- I did the most interviews and panels this year such as the Trailblazer panel at The London Book Fair and SYP Autumn Conference
- The London Book Fair and being there for 3 days straight and seeing my face everywhere. Unforgettable.
- Discovering Narcos and How To Get Away With Murder (I know I was late on this train)
- SYP mentor
- Joining the BookBrunch Committee
- Everything to do with The Author School
- Hashtag Press turning 1 and all the gorgeous books we published
- Multiple publishers interested in Beats
- Witnessing March For Our Lives and Emma Gonzalez epic speech
- Publishing The Originals and having it featured in The Bookseller and InTo Magazine
- The Knights pop up blog and Lox being drawn with the best tattoos I have seen on a character
- Walking into Pages of Hackney bookstore and being asked to sign my books on the shelves and just seeing my books in various bookstores including Waterstones
- The World Cup and Nigeria's epic kit
- Beychella
- A black lady marrying into the Royal Family. Gwarn Meghan!
- The Hate U Give. Meeting Angie Thomas and watching the movie at an exclusive screening at the BFI. Sucked that I missed my tickets to the premiere
- Me and Helen's diversity blog and speaking up about the nonsense in publishing
- Talking to Malorie Blackman
- Meeting with a director at HarperCollins
- Free entry into Comic Con and meeting Jason Momoa
- MY WAKANDA 30TH BDAY PARTY AND THAT CAKE!!
- Youth Takeover show which was legendary
- Jamilah and Sam's wedding
- The gorgeous Bookstagram pics of my books
- Misty the show. So good I had to see it twice
- Hashtag Press books all over the gaff and in flagship stores!
- My pic of black books for Black History month that went viral amongst the Book gram
- MJ Off the Wall exhibition
- Publishing 10 books and our first picture book
- Emily Knight I am...Awakened being nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2019 and shortlisted for London's Big Read 2019
- Getting Spice Girls tickets for me and Lola. I CANNOT WAIT!
- John Boyega tweeting at me and Helen
- Talking on London Live about my book
- Yolanda Adams commenting on my dance video
- Roasted marshmallows. I totally get it
- Getting a new literary agent and having NYC agents approach me
- 36 years of marriage - Mama and Dad
- Securing all my authors for book 2 via The Lil' Author Skool
- The hottest summer in years
As is life, there have been some negatives. The Florida shooting really freaked me out and just how someone can get in a space to murder people so causally. The way the survivors rose up to make a change is the most inspiring thing I have seen.
Fergie went missing for almost 2 days which actually broke my heart.
R.I.P the legend that is Stan Lee.
The CLPE report of 1% of books published in 2017 had a lead ethnic character and 4% featured ethnic characters. Then you get publishers like the one interested in Beats who thought there was too much colour in the book. Makes me so mad. I will keep talking and writing about diversity until there is a massive change.
Going Bournemouth during the heat wave and all we got was a bloody storm.
Fucking Brexit.
2019 is going to be HUGE. A game changing year. Let's go!
Happy New Year!!
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