2023 is wrapping up and I’m seeing all the year-in-review posts on my timeline. I honestly thought about not doing a recap of 2023, but I decided to. And I’m glad I did. This will likely be a little long and very rambly, but I hope you’ll stick with me.

First, I was actually quite pleased to see my word count and book count for the year. Not because I had a goal or needed to prove anything, but because I truly thought it would be much lower. You see, 2023 felt like my worst year in publishing since the first couple years I put out books back in…well, quite a few years ago. But when I added things up, I realized that even with the struggles, physically and mentally, slow-and-steady still got me somewhere.

In the interest of transparency, let me make some notes about the image above:
– Lucas and Dean was already finished in 2022. I just held it until January 2023.
– Secrets, Lies, and Key Lime Pie was partially finished in 2022 and it’s a co-written book.
– Heatwave was started in late 2021/early 2022 and I just finished it in 2023.
– The two box sets aren’t “new” stories.
– The short story is like 15k. I still count it, but it wasn’t a lot of words.
– The audio is all on the narrator. All I did was listen to the files as he brought the story to life.
– The foreign translation was completely out of my hands.

Now, none of that is to downplay my year. I’m proud of all of it. Just pointing out that a lot of times things LOOK one way and are actually very different behind the scenes. Right now, I have a story 100% complete, but it won’t be published until February 2, 2024, so I’m not counting it in my 2023 (well, the words counted). I also started a series and then needed to put it aside for a bit; I plan to return to it in 2024. I wrote a short for a 2024 anthology, but no one will see it until the anthology goes live in April.

I’d like to take a moment to look at that word count. I had soooo many days in 2023 that I didn’t write a dang word. But by the end of 2023, I expect to have about 260,000 words recorded and that’s damn impressive. Maybe it’s more than others wrote. Maybe it’s nothing compared to how many words some people got down. But I’m not them, I’m not competing with them. For me, based on where I was in my head and heart a lot of 2023, 260k is f*cking amazing.

My 2023 included gaslighting by someone I considered a friend and that sent me into a tailspin and I’ve dealt with more depression for 3/4 of this year than I’ve ever dealt with. The drama with that former friend was very painful and had me in my head A LOT. But I’ve worked through it and come out wiser and stronger on the other side.

I watched my daughter graduate and take her next steps into adulthood. I’m dealing with the daily stress of having a son working towards his license. The fear and worry that comes with parenting is sometimes overwhelming- daughter drives 40 minutes to and from school each day; son is now riding with a friend who has his license. Just those two things has my head spinning most days.

Aside from the mental and emotional stuff, I’m dealing with some physical stuff that has progressively gotten worse during 2023. (I have an appointment on January 9, 2024! Surgery is likely the next step, but if it can get rid of the pain, I’m on board.) Between migraines and this other pain (and a full-time teaching job) there were sooo many days I just couldn’t pull myself out of bed at 3:15am to write. But I gave it my all on the days when I felt good, and it paid off with 260k words.

I don’t count 2023 as a loss or the worst year ever, not at all. I learned more about myself this year and I count that as a win. I know the real me better than I’ve ever known myself. I have true friends who love me for who I am, family who supports me, colleagues who like and respect me, fellow authors who I count as friends, and the best dang readers EVER.

Not to mention, I’ve still got these amazing characters in my head begging for their stories to be written. As long as their stories keep living in my head, I’ll keep putting them on paper. Will 2024 be better than 2023? Maybe. But 2023 wasn’t a bad year for me. It was maybe more overwhelming, slower in some ways, and forced me to pause and take care of ME a bit more, but I appreciate what 2023 brought to me and taught me.

In 2023, outside of writing (which I adore) I also got to:
* watch my daughter complete her senior year
* watch my daughter wrap up 4 years in show choir with the biggest wins of her career
* watch my son flourish in band
* watch my son make every single honor’s class look like cake
* spend a weekend with my mom just the two of us exploring Michigan
* enjoy some gorgeous nature
* go watch Hamilton with my work wife
* watch my daughter start school and become more and more an adult with each passing day
* watch my son be sweet as can be as he asked someone to homecoming
* start seeing glimpses of what my relationship may be like as the kids move on
* formed great friendships at school
* plan a trip to Europe with my family
* visit with friends – these people truly make my life so much better
* and so very much more…

So, see ya later 2023, and thank you. 2024, I hope you’re ready.

Now that Fairest of All is on preorder (find it HERE) I can share the playlist for this story. Here’s the Zane and Holter playlist to give you the vibe of this story- the first three songs are part of Zane’s…well, I can’t tell you that just yet.