Halfway through another January, I’ve already stopped to take a look at my goals and their trajectory, not to mention my rate of respiration.
I’m not doing that badly this year, compared to other years, but I think that may be because instead of working on adding to my year I’ve been trying to downsize; the clutter, the projects, and to destress in general.
Saturday turned out to be a great example of that. Through a series of fortunate events, I ended up actually having time alone to accomplish not only my yoga class, but three hours of editing.
Although I still have a long way to go, it’s a start!
I also put out a cute and frigid story, appropriate for the January temperatures where I live. Wendigo, a short story prequel for Emma Jane Cooper, the co-protag for the Raven and the Witch series released on January 11.
Emma Jane is a personal favorite of mine. She seemed to spring into my mind, fully formed, a paragon of resiliency. She’s amazing in her own right, and a big part of me wishes I could be more like her. I wondered what would it have been like for her, on her first solo mission without her mentor Samuel, to face evil alone.
That book link is here!
https://books2read.com/u/38rjxV
(But you can get it for free by joining my group, Summerland Gate, until Jan 31st only!)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/981341802029808/?ref=bookmarks
I thought of stories I’d heard growing up, and may or may not have been influenced by an episode of supernatural I’d watched a year ago or so.
(I tend to binge watch on Netflix with my husband. Sometimes, we’ll watch three or four seasons of a TV show in a month. Currently, on Lucifer, but I’m not wasting time, I’m researching”)
On January 18th, the fourth installment of the Raven and the witch Hunter series will release. I’d planned on doing a rapid novella series with this, but as things often do, reality and life happened, and the rapid became more like once every 1 to 2 months.
With the other projects I’ve got on the go, this will be the last installment for a while. But don’t worry – if you’ve enjoyed following Vanessa and Emma Jane on their adventures, I have another three plotted out. ( I just need time to write them haha!)
The link is right here!
https://books2read.com/u/4EyGME
And then on a personal front, January is a busy month. With the holidays over, work is busy as everyone returns to their usual routines. My youngest turned four on January 11th!
If you enjoy sheet cake the way I do, you will be pleased to know that I have approximately one quarter of a sheet cake left in my freezer, which may or may not be eaten in one sitting.
I have not yet decided.
My mother’s birthday is on the 18th, the reason why I chose to release book 4, the honeymoon, on Friday. I was lucky growing up; my parents always encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to. I never had any illusions I was special, just that if I continued to work at something and I really wanted it, I stood a much better chance at getting it if I just talked about it.
“Put your money where your mouth is,” was a very common phrase heard in my house. As we didn’t have a lot of money, that meant in general, I needed to work harder.
Of course, now I’m grown-up and I’m the mother with three small kids and a stepdaughter of my own. A lot of the things that used to make me crazy as a kid I now completely understand, and have so much sympathy for her, raising the four of us that I don’t think I would’ve ever had if I hadn’t had children of my own.
So I wanted to say Happy Birthday! I love you, Mom, and I’m sorry.
When you wished I had a kid one day just like me and then tried to take it back, that should’ve been my first indication how much fun motherhood was going to be. 😆
But I digress!
I’m looking forward to more adventures from my characters as the year progresses, and stay tuned for further publishing news and words on my upcoming releases.
For now, I hope that your January is doing what you wanted it to, and may 2019 be your year to work for your goals and achieve them!