Happy New Year everyone!

I would like to start my first talk story of the year celebrating my cover reveal for Bitter over Sweet!! It’s so pretty!!! Look at those centipedes!

I am so excited to see it at AWP! If you are planning to attend, I will have special copies there!!

I also want to celebrate the micro anthology I curated for Mythic Picnic!

It was a fun project: putting out the submission call, reading the subs, and choosing just the right mix of micros for my theme of Refresh, Renew, Reimagine. I am so grateful to everyone who submitted and to everyone who agreed to be a part of it! Thank you so very much!

Having the anthology go live on New Year’s Day was wonderful and I spent much of that morning figuring out a way to post it to Bluesky - which I eventually did!! So if you are on twitter (X) - please check it out here! And if you are on Bluesky - please check it out here! I hope that you find a micro that resonates with you!

Being that it’s the new year and all, I don’t really set goals anymore. I like to set intentions. Intentions are easier to be positive about. Easier to think about without pressure. Because, you all, I put way too much pressure on myself.

So my intentions for this year are to be kinder to myself, and to realize my limits, but at the same time, to not be afraid to push myself to try new things to make my life better.

Last year was a crazy roller coaster of amazing things from winning a big prize to learning to ride a motorcycle for the first time. And yet, there’s this weird lingering feeling like I didn’t accomplish anything. You all… when you hear that stupid voice, tell it to shut the hell up.

Finally, I hit my rejection goal right on the very last day of the year - and finished out the year with 202 rejections! I have not submitted anything yet this year but I have a lot of stuff to work on for Bitter over Sweet so hoping to get to that soon.

So here’s to the new year… sending light, love and creativity!!