This year has been a series of ups and downs.

The thing about New Years Resolutions is – inevitably life just gets in the way.

We started out the year loosing our 5.5 year old male Corgi, Kuma, to a freak accident. Literally started. January 1st. It was traumatic. I miss him every day.

My friend Jami and I, opened the doors on Chimera Editorial Services, which has been going really well for us.

Then a couple of months later I amicably parted ways with my agent, and decided to self-publish my post-apocalyptic trilogy The Domino Project. So far Chameleon and Hybrid are both out in the world, with Parasite to follow in February.

We went to Disney, then my parents visited. In June we also went to Branson for a few days. Lots of fun for several months.

In August I launched Chameleon, had an awesome book launch party with a lot of awesome friends, hit the #1 at the local bookstore for launch week, and had a pretty solid launch that I’m quite happy with.

The kid also started school in August and she LOVES it!

And then the roller coaster that is having a book out there began. Good sale days, bad sale days, trying to figure out how the hell the Amazon algorithms calculate who can and can’t review your book. Family is a no, but apparently so is anyone you’ve ever spoken to, even briefly – that they can track.

That roller coaster, especially the reviews, is the cause of a lot of stress, and many days battling the sucking abyss that is depression. I’m not sure why authors do this to themselves, but hey, it’s not like we can turn off the writing gene…

Pitchwars came and went, and I had a lovely time with two amazing mentees. I ended up not being able to juggle everything on my plate (remember, I have a toddler) and I left my internship. Still adore the agent I interned for, because she is wonderful, but it’s freed up a bit of stress on my part.

Hybrid released in November, and is doing okay. Edits on Parasite are almost done and it’ll be out on February 22nd, so the trilogy will be complete.

And Christmas is here. I’m hoping to take a few days off over Christmas.

So… what does this mean?

It means that for 2016, I’m not going to make resolutions. I’m just going to plod along and let what gets done get done. Because every time I make resolutions, I get upset when I have to compile the year.

Here’s to a 2016 that brings more ups than downs.