January Check-In
What happened for me in January?
Read on…
Happy New Year!
I hope you all had wonderful holidays filled with loved ones and peace and joy and good food and excellent health!
Unfortunately, my household was down with the sickness in a very not fun, not Disturbed way. The kids had coughs. My husband had a cough and a killer ear infection AND a burst eardrum (he still can’t hear out of that ear), and my parents who had driven North through snow and sleet and holiday traffic ended up sick as well so they didn’t even spend Christmas with us!
I managed to avoid the illness, BUT I was curled up with morning sickness because the first twenty weeks of pregnancy is never particularly fun for me.
Even so, Christmas was wonderful! The kids loved their presents! They were filled with joy and awe and wonder that Santa knew just what they wanted! My daughter, in her 3-year-old appropriate lack of self-discipline, apparently ran downstairs to look at all the presents before waking me up. I’m still shocked that she didn’t actually open any, though.
Now, onto the writing stuff!
As the famous line of a well-beloved work of cinematic history goes, Hold onto yer butts!
2025 is going to be a big year for me. BIG.
As you may have seen, I’ve recruited beta readers for Maryann. *cue cinematic tuba blast á la Hans Zimmer*
I’ve begun sending out the manuscripts. I’m ECSTATIC.
I think new eyes on the story is just what it needs to tweak the last little things I can’t put my fingers on. God bless my husband for his noble duty in reading and rereading this book (and lamenting a character I deleted because he wasn’t necessary but by golly does my husband mourn his loss nearly every day). It’s time I gave the man a good rest and let someone else scrutinize my writing!
I hope to have beta feedback in by Valentine’s Day so that I can spend the latter half of February sprucing up Maryann, making her shine so that I can begin sending out queries!
Y’all, it’s been too long. Yes, I send work out to literary competitions and publications and wait for those rejections or acceptances to roll in. But as a teen and young adult, I was so used to performing and auditioning for people that it feels weird to not be giving my work to others for them to yay or nay. I’m actively looking forward to entering the query trenches!
Hoorah!
Other writing news
I have a new blog post up! If you don’t check on my blog regularly, you may miss the posts I add once or twice a month. I usually add this newsletter or an edited version of it a week or two after I’ve emailed it out, but I also do my best to put original content on there, too.
This month I’ve added a post about my 7 predictions involving horror literature for 2025.
Check it out here!
I’m also gearing up to begin a somewhat ambitious web-based, “choose your own adventure” style gothic horror narrative. It will be exclusive to newsletter subs (yay you!) and will be a somewhat interactive, text-based adventure!
I’ll be giving updates as time goes on!