2016 Wrap-up

Listening to: Sweet silence

Mood: Reflective

This year has been an utter blur. It happened so fast I couldn’t keep up with consistent blog posts. I remember being a kid and thinking it took so long to get to my birthday (in November) and the Holidays, but now it flies by so quick as an adult and then the year’s over and we start over again.

It has been a year full of lots of up and downs, like any other, but for some reason 2016 has been my least favorite year in recent memory. My husband’s aunt, a hilarious, witty, all around amazing woman, passed from cancer (Fuck. Cancer.). My oldest dog Vegas, a lab mix the Hubs and I rescued 13 years ago, died from cancer in July (Again, fuck you cancer). Huge icons from my childhood also passed—musicians, athletes, actors and actresses—and while I’ve never met any of them outside their artistic realms, they still touched my life in ways that are incredibly personal. We also had Presidential election…it’s outcome happy for some, but to great many others it’s terrifying, to say the least. I don’t know what 2017 holds from a political perspective, but I plan t to continue fighting for the things I believe in. You should too.

There were definitely some good things that happened in 2016, don’t get me wrong. I traveled to Scotland in May and Bonaire in November. Vastly different trips, but both wonderful experiences. I received a much-deserved promotion at work (finally getting paid to do the job you were already doing is always something to celebrate). I read some fantastic books. Mindy McGinnis’s The Female of the Species and Susan Dennard’s Truthwitch being two of my favorites this year. I have been writing A LOT. I started working on a new book, but about a third of the way through I received some feedback on my YA Fantasy from my agent Mary, so I set aside the new one and dove back into that manuscript. All my books are labors of love, but my YA Fantasy is a story unlike anything I have ever written. It was not an easy book to write, and it’s not an easy one to edit. But I think (I hope) it’s going to be so amazing when it’s done.

Over on IG, I am going to post by annual “Top 9” today, but I thought I’d share my year in pictures here as well. I wish you all a wonderful, safe, and happy New Year! Bring it, 2017.