Can you believe it’s been over a year since I posted to this blog?! 😱 And it was such a busy, crazy year, too, filled with things I could have shared in several posts! Although, the busyness might help account for why I didn’t take the time to stop and write everything down and post about it … plus the fact I spent many months avoiding almost anything that had anything to do with anything writing-related (yes, an emphasis on “anything”).
It still takes a lot of emotional effort to come to the laptop and think about a new writing project. 😭
So, for what it’s worth, here are the highlights over this past calendar year:
D1 graduated high school in May 2022, and in August, we drove her down to Arizona to attend Arizona Christian University outside of Phoenix. Those first several weeks without her around the house were tough, but as I’ve said before, thank goodness for video chats and texting! She’s been quite busy with schoolwork as a music composition major, but overall, she’s thoroughly enjoying college life. She had spring break last month and flew to MA to visit her paternal grandparents and a bunch of cousins. I know it was rejuvenating for her.
D2 is a sophomore in high school and racing to finish home school by the end of next week. Which means this mom has a lot of grading to keep up with! D2 continues to love horses and barrel racing, so we’ll see what God has in store for her after high school. She’s not sure if she’ll take a gap year or venture directly on to college. Thankfully, she has some time to figure that out.
On the writing front, my second book, Tinsel in a Twist, had come out in October 2021, as a sequel to Tinsel in a Tangle, but by mid-January of 2022, the ebook of TIATangle vanished from Amazon, as its publisher withdrew from the business and reverted all book rights to the authors. So, I spent a significant amount of time in 2022 sprucing up my used-to-be-first novel to self-publish it by the fall of 2022, because one can’t have a sequel without a Book One! 🙄 The copyright dates are now in reverse order to how the story events occur chronologically, but I guess that just makes the books … quirky …? 😣 The audio book for TIATangle is also now officially scrubbed from Amazon, so I need to figure out what I’m going to do about both books when it comes to the audio versions. I want to respect narrators for their time and effort to make an audio book and pay them accordingly, but it’s not cheap, and as you’ll see why below, I don’t have the necessary funds right now. I’m considering narrating the books myself, but that is a steep learning curve, and it begs the question of whether I could do it successfully. 😬
As for new writing, well … that remains to be seen. I recently had some inspiration for another Christmas-related story, picking up with the next generation in my Santa-village of Flitterndorf, but while I think I finally managed to come up with goals, motivations, and conflicts for my main characters, I still don’t have much of a plot. 😆
While the creative-writing side of me took a major hiatus in 2022, I redeemed the time with a lot of knitting and eventually decided to “open” a shop on Etsy. I also took part in a couple of craft fairs with a friend this past Christmas season. The fairs were fun, and I sold enough products (and books) to make the effort of being there worth it. But on Etsy? Not so much, as I haven’t sold a thing. To be fair, I haven’t promoted the fact I have a shop there, until now. I only have so much time to knit, and if I hope to do more writing this year, my knitted stock will eventually run out, so I’m conflicted. (What’s new, haha!) I think I’ll hold out to the one-year-mark and if I still haven’t sold anything online, I’ll “close” my shop. There are a few new items I have yet to post, but if you want to check out what I offer, click here.
Hubby quit his job back in September—with my blessing—and the Lord has provided for us financially to allow him to take some time to figure out where to go next. Back into a state job? Into the private sector? Or start up his own business? His heart really wants to start a business, but he’s hashing out the details to see if that’s financially feasible. I’m not a risk-taker like he is, so I keep lifting this whole situation to the Lord, as I don’t want to stand in Hubby’s way if the Lord is asking him to think and act outside-the-box. Thankfully, I know he’s doing his own fair share of praying, so I’m not worried. Just maybe a little impatient with God’s timing. 😜
And that’s my past year in a nutshell. The less-emotional version of it, anyway—haha! I hope to be more present here this year, but seeing as how it’s already April, I guess we’ll see. I never claimed to be good at this blogging stuff! In fact, I claimed quite the opposite. 😂
Given that I’ve hung onto this post for several weeks as I tried to decide how to end it, I will do so simply since this upcoming glorious weekend has made the perfect ending: May you all have a blessed Resurrection Sunday! Because Jesus, being fully man and fully God, took our sins upon Himself and died in our place and conquered death and rose again three days later; because He sits at the right hand of God and intercedes on behalf of those who believe in Him; because He lives, we can face tomorrow … and we look forward to an amazing eternity in His presence. ❤️
Scattered Whimsy 
Great post! It’s nice to hear how things are going! 🙏❤️
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Laurie,
Had to add at least one comment. Thanks for sharing. I see several challenges in the future.
Love, Dad
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