As 2024 comes to a close, I find myself looking back on a year marked by changes—the most significant being that I finally became a homeowner. The house is everything I could have hoped for: a single-story property with a basement and a garage, all within walking distance of some of my favorite stores.
Of course, it hasn’t been without its challenges. During a heavy rainstorm, I found that the window well floods, allowing water to seep into the basement. This discovery set off a series of unplanned projects, including clearing out clogged gutters, constructing custom window well covers from greenhouse roofing panels (since no pre-made options fit), and ripping out damp, ruined carpeting. It was as unpleasant as it sounds. Thankfully, the space has since been transformed with new vinyl tile flooring, and the smaller basement room has been converted into a dedicated writing area. It’s also where my rabbit, Wednesday—named after Wednesday Addams—has taken up residence in a pen I set up for her. Afterall, every writer should have a plot bunny.
I’ve had this darling bunny since October. She was an impulse buy after the sad passing of my hamster, Hazel. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I spotted her at the pet store and couldn’t resist. When I saw her, I thought, “That is a spooky girl bunny. I must have her.” Wednesday has even benefited from the garden in my backyard, where I’ve grown romaine, kale, and various herbs before the weather turned too cold. Also, tomatoes. An extreme amount of tomatoes, which, while the rabbit did not indulge in them, has led me to the creation of pasta dishes and even homemade pasta sauce.
It has been truly amazing getting to not only no longer be living in the location where so much harm had been done to me, but also to get to experience so many firsts in my new home. There’s been something particularly special about celebrating holidays like Halloween in my own home, as well as getting to make it into a space I love and feel safe in.
On the writing front, this year brought its usual share of creative challenges and community engagement. As always, I participated in my area’s November writing events, but in light of the ongoing controversies surrounding NaNoWriMo, our group has branched off, rebranding as the West Michigan Authors Alliance. We’ve renamed our November event “TNT” (That November Thing).
For this year’s project, I began something new, an enemies-to-lovers story set in the future, involving a prince and a dragon-shifter. I was the first to reach 50k in my group, and the manuscript is about halfway complete. The same goes for my Bones WIP and the second book in my series.
Looking ahead, my goal for this year is to complete at least one of these projects. This will most likely be my Bones WIP as it’s the shortest of my current works (most likely being around 60k-70k when complete), after that’s done, it’s back to book 2 of my series, as that’ll also probably be shorter than my newest writing endeavor.
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