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2025 Recap and 2026 Goals

 

January: A surprise 36-hour trip to Vegas

2025 was a ride. One that I would desperately hope not to repeat. 

I increased the number of times I left the house for fun by nearly 50 percent compared to last year, while significantly decreasing the amount of travel relative to the last couple years. My husband and I went on a whirlwind trip to Vegas in January; a friend and I road tripped to South Bend in February to celebrate another dear friend's incoming baby; in May my sister and I hiked in Virginia; and throughout the summer I took three separate trips to Wisconsin (one with friends, one for work, and one for family). The rest of my house-leaving involved meeting friends, going to the library, and searching for my new favorite local coffee shop (which I found, eventually, in November!)

At the day job I weathered four rounds of layoffs (with no guarantee that we're finished yet), and I got promoted to a role that I wanted and felt was earned, while simultaneously dealing with imposter syndrome since many of my colleagues work another decade before hitting that milestone. My team published two massive reports that I'm wildly proud of, and a colleague and I crash-wrote a paper in a week and a half that should have taken 3 months, which a mentor said was the best paper she'd read that year. To get there, we just won't talk about the month of September, or the number of midnights I spent still writing and re-writing.

We watched the world seem to crumble a bit more every day since January; we spent countless pprecious moments with loved ones.

Highs, and lows.

After 6 excruciating weeks in the ICU we lost my grandmother; and after 9 short months welcomed our insatiable little dragon home. 

2025 was a year of loss, and  a year of blessings. For the coming year I hope for peace, in every interpretation of the concept. 

2025 Goal Status: 

  1. 👍 Finish and query Predacide. I sent my last query in August. While the reception wasn't what I had hoped for, I did get some requests, and I do love this book. I'm proud of what I learned through this process. 
  2. 👍 Draft Beekeeper. Beekeeper went out to beta readers, and I did one round of revision after that. Then life got crazy, and I let it sit for a couple months. Big surprise, the long-running advice to let your work rest...actually does work? When I re-read Beekeeper in November to decide if I was ready to query, I felt like my eyes had opened to a myriad of things I could improve on. I've spent the last month fiddling with my outline and revision notes, and while I did not finish a final query-ready draft by the end of 2025, I feel great about the next steps on this book. 
  3. 👍Beta read 4 books. I beta read 5 books this year, so I count this as a win!
  4. 👍 Generate 2 new ideas that excite me. I've got 7 partial short stories that could be spun into something else, although I don't have any energy rtight now to consider what those might be. 
2026 Writing Goals: 
Given the young dragon situation, I'm trying to be generous with myself regarding my 2026 writing goals. The main purpose of these goals is going to be to keep me engaged with a creative practice, even if that practice is going to look a lot different this year than ever before. 
  1. Finish and query Beekeeper. If I've estimated correctly, I've got one draft left to go before this can go out the door. That has to be reasonable for a full year, right? 
  2. Beta read at least 2 books. While one book per quarter has previously felt like a bare-minimum lift, given that I average about five hours writing up notes for each book I critique, on top of the time spent reading, this feels like a good comprovise to keep a hand in contributing to my community without overloading my other commitments. 
  3. Read 2 craft books. I've gone one book on deck already, so I feel good about my ability to complete this one, and have been thinking it might be a good season for a re-read of Bird by Bird. 
  4. Don't set any word count goals. I want to set a goal on drafting a new idea, or participating in some challenge or another, but I won't. This is a season for gentleness and going slow, so my goal is not to challenge myself beyond what life is giving me already. 
December's dragon


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