Happyy New Year, my dears! I've been trying to think of something profound to say, and I don't think I've managed that at all. 2018 was a difficult year for many of us. The world has felt as if it's burning down around us, and last January feels as if it was eighty years ago. For me, personally and professionally, the year had its ups and downs, and I'm trying not to dwell as much on the bad parts and the losses right now, trying to start the new year with hope and optimism.
2018 saw two of my books published. I love and am so proud of The Merchant's Love and A Dance of Water and Air, and I'm so happy they're out in the world where you can enjoy them too. These stories and characters have a special place in my heart. I also wrote two books, though for a while I wasn't sure I would ever finish the second. Writing was difficult the second half of the year, maybe the whole year. But, A Harmony of Fire and Earth, the sequel to A Dance of Water and Air, and The Spymaster's Secret, the next book in the Tournai series, were both finished somehow. Harmony is already in edits and should be out in March. I submitted The Spymaster's Secret to NineStar just before Christmas. I took a writing break after that, to clear my head and clean the house and get ready for the holidays, but it's time to start writing again—and it's felt very strange not to be writing for so long! I have a contemporary royalty romance on my agenda and also Tournai 8, which is Griffin's book (with more dragons). We'll see what happens from there. I'd love to write more this year...I have far too many ideas that want to be written.
Sometimes I feel like the accomplishment is that we survived 2018 with our sanity mostly intact. I hope 2019 is a better year for everyone, that it's kind to us all, that it brings health and happiness and love and wonderful new books to read and so many good things. That's my new year's wish for all of us.