Farewell, 2018!

There's something about the end of the year that gets me excited. It's kind of like when a new school year begins, except for adults. 

I love a fresh start. It feeds my love of planning and plotting. The stores and e-retailers put out their new line of planners and calendars, and I gear up to dive in and beg them to take my money.

I'm that girl.

I have a planner for every aspect of my super busy life. I have a large author planner for all my business needs. (The Ultimate Authorship Planner by Audrey Ann Hughey) In addition to that I have what I call my everything planner, a small purse-size planner, a planner to track my health and fitness goals, a mental health planner (gratitude, morning pages, the Miracle Morning exercises, and scripting pages), an extra-large desk calendar for calendar journaling, and a regular wall calendar to keep track of bills and school schedules and activities.

You see, I have a bit of an obsession.

That's not to mention my publishing calendar and my editorial calendar. Those I printed offline and posted on the cork-board in front of my desk.

I want to say I'm armed (with planners) and ready for 2019 to begin. The reality is things change quickly.

That's something I learned the hard way in 2018. I planned for a big publishing year, and to some extent, that's what I accomplished. I made the USA Today and the Wall Street Journal Bestsellers lists. (An absolute dream come true!) I also had the opportunity to collaborate with some amazing authors. I learned a lot from them. Our efforts helped to fund some much-needed causes, like the fight against domestic violence and meeting the needs of two no-kill animal shelters and a farm refuge program for pets.

Amazing feats. Amazing causes.

I also started to come out of my shell on many fronts. I'm a homebody by necessity. You see, I have lupus, and unfortunately, it has a mind of its own. The last year has been especially difficult for me physically. Let's just say lupus and I don't play well together.

I had many ups and downs with my kids. Learning to navigate parenting adults and a teen at the same time should include training classes. I find myself in that weird space between Mom! and Not You! We're still working out the kinks and probably will be for some time, but at the same time, I couldn't be prouder of the wonderful human beings they have become.

And in addition to the many, many things above, I also managed to publish a few titles. Nine to be exact. I call that a win.

You can find all the books in my growing catalog here: Amazon

I love my job! love the ability to tell stories that I love. It took many long years to get to a place where I feel like I'm exactly where I belong. Writers are my tribe. I've made wonderful friends in the writing and reader world. I'm forever grateful for the life I have and eternally grateful for the people I've met along the way.

So, with that, farewell, 2018 and watch out, 2019. I'm coming for you!

Happy New Year!