Personal

I’ll be honest: while some good things came out of 2023, this year broke my heart – and tried to break my spirit – in a lot of ways. I can’t say it’s been my worst year. I have a lot of competition in that area! But the challenges and the setbacks have been … well, a lot.

However! Some fantastic things happened too, and I’m still here and so are you. These are worth celebrating! And as I’m always that optimist with a positive mental attitude, I can find more good things to list than bad, despite the challenges I faced. I’m going to share both good and bad parts with you – lets’ start off the new year with a clean slate!

First, the not-great stuff.

Health has been number one, as I’m sure regular readers/supporters are well aware. It’s caused delays, cancellations, and disappointments because it’s impossible for me to predict when I’ll get a flare or have a setback that keeps me away from what I want to do. I had two surgeries this year, and they fixed one issue and gave me a bunch of other issues, yay! I won’t complain because the surgeries are life-saving, but I hate that the after-effects make my life so unpredictable. It keeps me from doing all the events and other fun outings I’d like to do. I want to be out and about and meeting you!

That’s part of number two, as well – fatigue and brain fog have slowed down my writing and podcasting, things that bring me joy. I launched two podcasts and have only done two episodes for each, which was not the plan. But that’s given me reason to reassess a lot of what I do [again] and how I want to do it versus how I’m actually able to do it. This disease is all about learning curves and being able to be flexible in order to do what I want. I hope that y’all can be patient as I’m repeatedly forced to recalibrate my trajectories. I promise that I have some fun plans in the works!

But good things happened, too!

In the positives column, I got the manuscript for A Third Kind of Madness finished on my end and sent off for editing. Yes, I’ve been waiting for a while on it. That’s given me time to start working on a new story, one that’s not tied to the Eleriannan storyscape [gasp!] though it is set in Baltimore. It’s tentatively called A Small Light in the Darkness, which if you’re familiar with my earlier writing, is a phrase I’ve used often to describe the kind of person I want to be in this world. I started out with the idea that it would be a short story but it hasn’t decided yet if I’m right about that. You’ll hear more about it in the future, because you know me, I never can keep quiet when it concerns my stories in progress. That’s probably a fault, but I just get too enamored with my characters to not brag about them. 😉

Taking a rest from thinking about A Third Kind of Madness has been good, as well. It allows me to come back to the work excited and fresh once I get the edits back, and it’s given me some space to think about what I want to offer along with the book once it hits the metaphorical shelves. I already have a few fun merch ideas planned, like [REDACTED FOR SPOILERS] that are referenced in the story.

Back to things that were good this year… I attended Balticon 57 in person, something that I’ve wanted to do since becoming an author! Balticon was the first con I ever attended, back when I was a nerdy 12 year old who didn’t know any other nerdy people. It was like coming home! I was able to participate as an author virtually during the pandemic lockdown, but it wasn’t the same as being there. I even was able to do an author reading with some other authors from Broad Universe! That was a dream come true.

I also was a speaker on my first panel at a con! This was the virtual Flights of Foundry, which is an event that I dearly love. The topic was Stories of the Fat Body, and I was honored to be included with panelists Jennifer Hudak and Jennifer Spirko and moderator Celia Lake. We had a lively discussion about tropes, good and bad fat representation, our own experiences, and what we long to see more of when it comes to fat characters in stories. A fantastic experience all around!

I made new connections with authors, readers, and communities. And I worked on building my own community, a work in progress for sure! My Ko-fi supporters increased and I had great reception for the things I shared with them. And both my books were nominated for MANY categories in the Indie Ink Awards! [Did you vote? You can still vote – I think voting closes on January 1st so hurrryyyy] The list of categories that were selected for both books is amazing and humbling. It’s an honor that y’all see my stories in this way and worthy of nomination.

What’s coming in 2024?

Well that’s the real question, isn’t it? I have plans, my friends. Look for upcoming posts in the beginning of January that will give you all the details, including fun things that I’ll be doing with the Magic Seekers community, my Word of the Year and what it means to me, podcast episodes to come, and a loose schedule of what I’m hoping will happen in the upcoming year.

I hope that you’ll join me, and if you’ve got big plans, feel free to share them! Wishing you a safe and joyful New Year’s Eve and a wonderful start to 2024.