Happy Holidays!

I’m composing December’s newsletter a bit early this month because I’m going to be spending my holiday on the road. Between work, a Christmas party with my friends, visiting my family, and visiting my husband’s family across the country, I’m going to be very busy the second half of this month.

I like to take time in December to reflect on the year I just had, to look at what I accomplished, what changed in my life, and think about what I want to accomplish next year. 2024 has been a roller coaster for many, myself included, both personally and on the world stage, but I’m going to keep this focused on my 2024 writing journey.

I feel good about the past year. While I didn’t meet all of my goals, I still accomplished some things. I always set goals in the new year, and those tend to be a bit lofty, but I don’t beat myself up if I do not complete them all. I also take time throughout the year to reevaluate and adjust these goals. It’s hard to predict how a year will go, and we need to be kind to ourselves. It took me a long time to learn this lesson, but that’s probably the best advice I can give anyone – be kind to yourself. Too many of us aren’t.

In my writing life, along with compiling my first collection, I published two short stories – My long title story nicknamed “Tithonus” with Air and Nothingness Press and a piece of flash fiction, “The Leap” with Iron Faerie Publishing. I wrote a blog post about Tithonus earlier in the year, but I haven’t written about The Leap yet.

The Leap began life as an entry in the NYC Midnight 250 word contest. This year, I participated in two of the NYC Midnight contests. While these contests do cost money, and my general principle is to not pay to submit, this contest has large prizes and comes with feedback from three different judges on your story. Getting feedback is, to me, worth the cost. I also enjoy the challenge of it. Each contest has three rounds and, depending on which one you enter, you get a genre and two different prompts. Under a tight deadline, you have to write a story incorporating those prompts and try to beat out the other people in your randomly assigned group. I have yet to make it to round 3, but I still find value in the contests. They have pushed me to write comedy twice now, which is a genre I do not write in regularly. I think it’s good to step outside my comfort zone once in a while. That said, I’m going to take a bit of a hiatus on these contests and focus on other things in 2025.

I’ll be outlining my writing goals in more detail in early January once I get through these holidays, but I already have some plans in mind. Stay tuned!

What about you? Do you make resolutions for New Years? Do you reflect on your year at the end?

Announcements

Not much this month, but I have two exciting things happening next month, both on January 12, 2025:

Thin Slices: A Collection of Horror Flash Fiction - Launch Day! Currently E-books are available for pre-order, and on January 12, the paperback will be available.

I start Moanaria’s Fright Club course, which is a 10 week course specifically for horror writers that will run until mid-March. I’m excited to dive into this new challenge

Writing Update

I’ve restarted my 250 word per day plan and as of writing this, I’m on a 15 day streak. Why 250 words? It’s manageable, it’s so small that it’s embarrassing to NOT do it, and it’s just enough to get me going that I often write more than 250 words. It may seem small, but 250 words over the course of a year is 91,250 words - a full novel.

I’m still plugging away at my thriller, Rescued, and this month I spent a good portion of my time working on a sci-fi short story for a themed call that I hope gets selected.

Monthly Posts and Reviews Round-Up

Blog Posts:

• Series Review: Vampire World - An overview of a 6-book action series I really enjoyed reading earlier this year

• Publication Tales: The Client - some background on the first full length short story I ever published

• Ten Short Stories I Read This Year that Stayed With Me (on Blog December 22) - I focused more on short fiction reading this year, and here are ten that resonated with me. I plan to make this an annual post.

• Top Books I Read This Year (on Blog December 29) - Year 4 of listing the top books I read at the end of the year.

On Horror Tree:

• Interview with Mia Dalia

What I’m…

Watching

This month I said goodbye to one of my favourite shows - What We Do in the Shadows. Although I am glad that the show did not overstay its welcome and went out on a high note, I am still sad that it’s ending.

Two more serious shows that I’ve been getting into are Penguin (just when I thought I was all superheroed out), and Dune Prophecy (a clever, strong show, but it’s best watched with someone who knows the books, like my husband, to fill in the gaps).

Playing

I picked up two new games - The Casting of Frank Stone, set in the Dead by Daylight universe. It’s a classic horror movie, and I am enjoying it. I’ve also started Dragon Age: Veilguard. As a fan of the previous games, I look forward to flirting with everyone and killing lots of bad guys. I’ve only just scratched the surface on these two titles.

Recommendations

Trackbear - A new, simple, tracking app made specifically for writers. It’s free to use (supported by donations), and I’m enjoying it. It was easy to figure out and I think I will continue to use this to track my progress/word counts.

Earning a Living as a Writer by Jane Friedman - I have been working my way through this series and finding the advice in it invaluable. Jane Friedman has been writing for a long time and her whole site is full of great writing advice.

Free Story

This will be the last free story from Thin Slices, as the countdown to launch is almost complete. Here is one of my Christmas themed drabbles to give you a chill while you wait for Santa Claus to creep down your chimney in the dead of night:

Under the Mistletoe

It’s midnight Christmas Eve and my dead wife is waiting for me under the mistletoe. I took her skating weeks ago and watched helplessly when the ice cracked beneath her and the frozen lake consumed her. I screamed at the heavens, but God wouldn’t grant my prayers for her return.

So, instead, I made a deal with darker forces.

Now frost covers the tree, and she beckons to me. I take her hand and chills course through me when our lips touch. Together, we will return to the lake.

Her icy kiss is the last gift I will ever receive.

Thank you for reading this month’s newsletter. Want to help me feed my book addiction? Consider supporting me on Ko-fi.