A YEAR IN REFLECTION (GOODBYE 2019)

It's January 5th and I am just getting around to thinking back on the year that has passed as I set my sights on the future and the year ahead. 

2019 was a huge year for me, personally and professionally, and I'm grateful for every wonderful, inspirational, totally stressful moment.

On the personal side, my family made its biggest move to date as we charted our next adventure: from the suburbs of New York City to Juneau, Alaska. We made a two month holiday of the move as we said goodbye to the Lower 48. My son and I took an impromptu trip down to Orlando to catch Villains Night at DisneyWorld. Then, we said goodbye to our favorite east coast vacation spots--my former hometown Bar Harbor, Maine and Sunset Beach, North Carolina--before hiking our way west. An unexpected ferry workers strike kept us from the three-day ferry trip we'd hoped to take from Seattle to Juneau, so we flew instead. Since then we've been getting settled in our new home.

On the professional side, things have been booming! I was welcomed into the Havenwood Falls collective in late 2018, and 2019 saw the publication of three contributions to the universe from yours truly: Of Salt & Stars, the #1 Amazon LGBT Fantasy (May 2019), The Drowning Bride (December 2019), and a short in the 2019 Havenwood Falls Holiday Anthology (December 2019). I also contributed to the Black Spot Books anthology A Midnight Clear, which reached #1 Bestseller status on Amazon in both Fantasy and Horror Anthologies as well as became a Barnes & Noble Bestseller. I've been doing a steady stream of reviews on incredible upcoming fiction at The Nerd Daily, as well as participating on judging panels for both the Women's Fiction Writers Association's Rising Star Award and the Speculative Literature Foundation's Diverse Writers/Worlds Grant. All of these experiences have been absolutely phenomenal, and I am so grateful to the publishers, editors, and writers who gave me the opportunity to contribute. Most of all, I am grateful for the readers, bloggers, and other bibliophiles who made all of those moments possible. I write because it's what is in my heart, but I'm an author because of you. 

All of those wonderful things aside, perhaps the best part of 2019, is all the work that went into unannounced projects that will be coming your way in 2020 and beyond. New books, new projects, and some exciting new developments are all on the horizon, and I CAN'T WAIT to tell you all about them. But I promise you, they're going to be fun ;)

As we all step forward into the New Year, I wish you all love, light, and happiness. May you be successful in your ventures. May your creativity flourish. May your hearts be ever full, and your minds ever open. And may 2020 bring you nothing but blessings, cheer, and fulfillment. I look forward to sharing the next year with you. 

-xo 7J