Look Back on 2024
There have been many small moments this year more than big, life-altering events, but it was exactly the year I needed. It was nice to slow down, rediscover things, spend time with my husband and loved ones. Many things progressed, while a few were put on the back burner for me to tackle in the coming year, but here are a few things from the past 12 months.
Starting, as always, with writing, this was my first year being a full-time indie author. I wrote a whole blog post of my thoughts regarding this and how it went, but I will say, I am extremely grateful for all the support I have received this year and the small community I am building with my books. I published Sky Heart’s sequel, Ice Heart, and a standalone pirate fantasy, Blood Sails, which was the first book release I feel like I properly celebrated. In addition, I wrote a sequel novella for each that I published on my Patreon, and completed my D&D-inspired series of novellas titled The Curse of the Wanderer Inn that I also published on Patreon. That didn’t leave me a lot of time for other writings, but I still completed the first draft of a new novel that I’ve been calling Project Demon Host which is my largest first draft yet, sitting at over 90k words. I am excited to share more of this project in the New Year as I am hoping to publish it autumn 2025. One last fun thing is that I found out both Sky Heart and Ice Heart’s ebooks were purchased by the Brooklyn Public Library!
My husband, Kyle, had a lot of free time this year, with the job market being terrible for his field. While he did use some of it studying and passing his FE and PE exams in mechanical engineering, we got to spend a lot of time together and with our friends. There was many Renfaire visits (one where we got caught in the rain), day trips to Little Tokyo and Solvang, and regular monthly game nights where one of the times we played giant Uno. We also celebrated 9 years together as well as one year married and had the ultimate International Hobbit Day (Bilbo Baggins’s birthday) by having all seven hobbit meals while marathoning the Lord of the Rings extended editions.
Our baby boy, Strider, turned 3 this year. He has really enjoyed having both Kyle and I home all the time, getting two walks a day, and playing with his soccer ball in the backyard. We are in the process of creating him his own Instagram account to share all the photos and silly videos we take of him.
Our garden was one the things that took the back burner this year, but we still managed to have a happy herb bed (containing Italian basil, parsley, thyme, and green onions) and ever-growing blackberries. Kyle also made blackberry pie with our crop for the first time and they were delicious. There is a lot of work that needs to be done, but we will get to it once we paint and reorganize the office. Expect a blog post full of pictures and plans coming next month.
With all the writing and editing this year, it was surprising I had any time for much else. But, this was definitely the year for hobbies. I got really into watching anime (even started a figure collection with my husband), read 50 books which was double my original reading goal, and made progress in Undertale, which I have been playing on my switch forever now and am hoping to finish in the next month or so.
Not included in my reading goal, I also reread and annotated the All for the Game series, inspired by the fourth book coming out in the spring. I hadn’t read these books since 2017 and the chokehold they have on me is insane. I think about them multiple times every single day and cannot wait for the next two books so I can annotate the rest of them. To say these books are a huge piece of my personality would not be an understatement, they are a part of me at this point.
Speaking of chokeholds, I watched the anime, Wind Breaker, as it was being released and I don’t know why it drew me in as much as it did, to the point I have now bought the manga so I could get more of this story and characters. I am so excited for season 2 coming out in the spring. My favorite character, Kaji Ren, reminds me a lot of a certain Andrew Minyard and I am so hyped to get to see more of him.
The freedom I have had this year has really helped me develop and perfect my ideal routine, to the point I no longer feel overwhelmed with all the things I “need” to do. I am excited to carry it into my New Year and all the things that await. Part of this process has been helped by a new person in my life. For years of my practice as a witch, I have devoted to Loki as my patron and Brigid as my matron, keeping the sense of balance. But, through many self-discoveries this year, I realized that Loki is just my deity, the one who was always there and will always be first. He is shifting, he is chaos, he is masculine and feminine equally. That left me in slight imbalance as I looked for a new patron. Luckily, there was one already waiting. At the start, I had tried to devote to Hades as I had with Brigid and while I felt a connection, he didn’t reply. Now I know it wasn’t the time yet. Last year at Mabon, I felt his energy very strongly, his way of getting my attention, of letting me know it was time. He has been a great help, his grounding energy a balance for Loki and Brigid’s fire and water. I look forward to working with him more and just returning more to my practice that I have neglected a little bit this past year.
The self-discovery I mentioned earlier was something I talked about in my June newsletter. I’ve struggled with gender identity for a lot of my life and this year was finally when I found the label that works best for me; genderfluid (they/he/she). It is something I am letting myself discover slowly, figuring out exactly what it means for me before I decide whether to talk about it with the people in my life. (To those reading this, I love you and I appreciate your support.) I am looking forward to this journey and will hopefully start to feel comfortable in my own skin. Just last year, I cut my hair short for the first time so we’ll see what happens in this next year.
Here’s to an even better and brighter 2025 and I hope you all have a safe and blessed holiday season!