2023: A Year in Review

[osprey_archer]

Ten Things I Did This Year

1. My niece was born! (Admittedly I personally had no hand in this happening, but nonetheless it must be included.) Nowadays she likes to click her tongue and beam when the grown-ups click back. The big people are speaking her language!

2. Published The Sleeping Soldier.

3. Quit my job at the library.

4. Set out on a two-month long road trip.

5. Hit $20,000 lifetime earnings from my writing. It only took five years! (Okay, ten years if you include the Jennifer Montgomery pen name, but in fact almost all of the money comes from Aster Glenn Gray, which launched in 2018. Like, you could take out all the money I made from previous pen names, and I would still have reached $20,000 in the same month.)

6. Finished a draft of Sage, henceforward to be known as Diary of a Cranky Bookworm, which I intend to release sometime in 2024, although it may take me some time to finish edits, because…

7. I’ve been hired for a new job!. I will begin work as an academic advisor at Purdue University on January 4!

8. The New York Times included The Sleeping Soldier on a list of the Best Romance Books of 2023. This sold quite a number of copies, including, curiously, an unusually high percentage of paperbacks, and also resulted in my third-ever thousand dollar month. Five months after my most recent release!

9. Moved into a new apartment.

10. Got a second cat! Baby Boy was being bullied by another cat in his house, so now he lives with me and Bramble. Bramble and Baby Boy like to play-tussle and boop noses.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Congrats on all of the things!!!

[landofnowhere]

Congrats on the job and the NYT rec!

[konstantya]

Congrats to everything, but especially 7 and 8? Definitely all worthy of celebrating, though!

[asakiyume]

OMG! YOU HAVE ARRIVED!! CONGRATULATIONS ON NO. 8 OMG OMG!

[oracne]

Congratulations on the NYT and on the new job! And the new cat! And the new niece! And everything!

[asakiyume]

Oh yeah, and in the most recent missive from me I asked about how things ended up with Baby Boy, but now I see! Hurray! (Honestly the stars in my eyes took about 15 minutes to clear from no. 8)

[philomytha]

That all sounds like a most excellent year! *pops champagne*

[rmc28]

Many congratulations, especially on 3, 7, 8 & 10 :-)

[thisbluespirit]

Aw, congratulations on many of the things, especially getting actual earnings out of your writing! And another cat, of course, because cat. ♥

[phantomtomato]

Congratulations! And good luck with the academic advising; students are amazing and also quite trying. 😅 Purdue is a wonderful school, so I’m sure you’ll get to work with great kids!

[regshoe]

That is a good year's worth of achievements, congratulations :D The cats sound adorable, and I hope the new job goes well!

[galadhir]

Congrats on the new job and the NYT mention! That's quite an achievement. Also on the niece and cat! :)

[ethelmay]

Ooh, congrats all round! An old college friend of mine works for Purdue, so I have good associations with the name despite knowing little about it.

[lucymonster]

Congrats on an awesome year, and especially the new job and the writing success! A NYT rec is HUGE, wow.

[rachelmanija]

8: WHOA!!!! How exciting!

Er. The cat is exciting too. SORRY CAT. You get an icon!

[littlerhymes]

Congratulations!! You did so much this year <333

[minutia_r]

Oh hey, congratulations!

[skygiants]

I feel like I have not seen anywhere near enough photos of Baby Boy!

[ladyherenya]

Adding to all the congratulations -- that's quite a list of good things!

I hope starting the new job goes well.

[silverusagi]

Congrats on the new job!

[lokifan]

Nowadays she likes to click her tongue and beam when the grown-ups click back. The big people are speaking her language!

Cuuuute!

Congrats on The Sleeping Soldier (which I really wanna get to, such good reviews!) and the earnings - that's such an amazing accomplishment, as is Best Romance Books!!!

Baby Boy was being bullied by another cat in his house, so now he lives with me and Bramble. Bramble and Baby Boy like to play-tussle and boop noses.

:melts:

[msilverstar]

So glad you escaped the bad job sitch and found another one where you can do good!