First, a reminder: special 99 cent pricing on The Marquess and the Midwife and Rosalyn’s Ring ends tonight at midnight! If you haven’t done so already, pick up your copy today!

One of the downsides of having a lot of years under my belt is watching the days-months-years FLY by! This year, 2019, was no exception.

Before the ball drops at Times Square, I’m pausing to look at 2019. Summing up, here’s the good and the not so good:

The Good

• My husband’s health stabilized and has been improving.
• My kids are doing well; and my grandson turned a lively age two, chatters up a storm, and his tantrums are not too terrible.
• A beautiful, healthy baby granddaughter arrived in September.
• The Winter Wishes Anthology (which includes my Christmas novella, The Duke She Despised) made the USA Today bestseller list to great reviews. It was also selected as the number one holiday anthology by N.N. Light’s Book Heaven.
• Haunting Miss Fenwick arrived on time as part of the Common Elements Project.
• I finished my last volunteer commitment, a regional conference. YAY!!!
• After having to cancel last minute in 2018, I made it to the 2019 20Books Conference in Las Vegas for an enjoyable, mercifully drama-free week with indie authors.
• I rebranded two books for an advertising push in 2020.
• I wrote a prequel story, “The Right Earl”, for the Sons of the Spy Lord series. It’s available free to all my newsletter subscribers.

The Not So Good

I am cursed (or blessed?) with a memory that’s also not so good, so I have to work at dredging up the bad stuff.

But I can’t forget the worst aspect of getting older: losing family, friends, and acquaintances. Author Sharla Rae died in the spring, Author Joyce Ward, who also wrote as Linnea Alexis passed away last summer, and author Cindy Nord died in the fall. Sharla was an author acquaintance from the local RWA chapter and one of the founding members of the Writers in the Storm blog. I’d met Cindy and her husband at a conference and continued our friendship on Facebook.

Joyce/Linnea  was one of the brightest light in the Orange County writing community. I’d see her at RWA chapter meetings, and she’d often pop up on Facebook Messenger, ready to chat. Her encouragement helped me through some of the black moments that all writers experience.

Among our extended community there were more very sad losses, too many to go into. In my immediate family circle, on December 12th, we lost a beloved member, Henry the Cat.

I know, I know, he was just a cat and a cantankerous one at that. But we all grieved his passing, even my son who used to complain about having to feed him when my husband and I traveled.

Henry was a lost little soul who showed up on our doorstep. Through persistence and those soulful blue eyes, he broke through my husband’s proclaimed dislike for cats. His story is included in Cats on the Keyboard, available on Kindle for free!

How was your 2019? Please share in the comments!

Image credits: Hourglass and Cherub, Stencil.com; Cat, the author; Book cover, Amazon