Snowed in on the porch

I'm barely getting this email out in January, but whew, it's been a cold one here in Pennsylvania. Lots of frigid temps and this week, lots of snow! My kids and I have been enjoying a laid back week of snow days and two-hour delays, AND lots of hot drinks and blankets. I've brought a couple of extra out to the porch, so it's nice and cozy out here for our monthly chat!

Weekend at Tiffany's

January is not my favorite month. But there is one special highlight I've looked forward to the last few years, and that's a mini writing retreat with some of my writing friends that I host in my carriage house. We spend the weekend eating good food, drinking lots of coffee and tea, playing games and watching movies, AND, believe or not, getting lots of writing in. It's the perfect remedy for a cold and dreary month.

They say that writing can be a lonely career, because most of it is spent by yourself in front of a computer, but I am very grateful to have such a full and wonderful writing community ❤️

Writing update

If you follow me on Instagram, (you can do so here if you don't and would like to) you may have seen that I took almost all of December off from writing. After I typed "the end" at the beginning of the month, I did not touch my work in progress until January. It was a really nice break, but I'll admit... it made it kind of difficult to jump back in to start on revisions. I'm happy to say that I pushed back that initial roadblock and I'm elbow deep in editing. It's a bit daunting... there's a lot of story to wade through and a lot of changes I need to make. This is my favorite stage of the story writing process, though. It's where I take this lump of a story, all messy and not super well defined, and begin to clean it off. Chisel a little here and there, polish the heck out of it, and hopefully at the end it will look more like a jewel than a lump 😉

I'd love to have the major revisions done by the end of February, but I also don't want to set unrealistic goals for myself. My kids and my day job are keeping me pretty busy, and not hitting timelines that I've created has caused more stress than motivation with this particular story. So I'm going to work diligently, make sure I'm taking care with these characters (and oh boy, they need so much care, bless their hearts), and worry more about giving the story the time that it needs. I continue to appreciate any and all prayers!

Something exciting for the YA readers

I may not write YA (Young Adult) books, but if you spend much time with the online book world (bookstagram, book threads, booktok... and I don't know what else) you may have seen some chatter lately about the desperate need for more clean books in this genre. You would think it would a no brainer for books geared toward teens to NOT have explicit content, but that is sadly not the case. I have two teen readers in my household, and I have to be SUPER vigilant in checking out the books they're interested in to make sure they aren't filled with foul language and open door scenes.

Why am I talking about this?

Well, because two of my friends from the amazing writing community I mentioned above have done something incredible to bring light into dark places. They've started Sparkler Magazine -- a quarterly young adult flash fiction magazine. Four times a year they will publish flash fiction stories (700-1000 words) that are "everything clean and creative." If you have a YA reader, or are one yourself, I encourage you to check them out! AND if you are writer, submissions are open for their first edition. To learn more about Sparkler and/or sign up for their newsletter, click HERE.

What I'm reading

I'm back on the reading train! Over Christmas I read Courtney Walsh's latest, "My Merry Mistake." It's the third in her Holidays with Hart series and a perfect addition to her growing stack of Christmas novels. If you haven't read her romcoms yet, seriously... go read one now. Her books consistently make me laugh out loud. Don't be fooled by her lighter stories - the characters still have lessons and arcs that stick with you.

I also recently finished Bethany Turner's "Cole and Laila are Just Friends," and I had a hard time putting this one down. It's a swoony and tension filled friends to more story, and there were many times I yelled at the book, "Just kiss her already!" 😂 Bethany is another author whose romcoms are hilarious and the romance is swoony, but the characters definitely have beautiful growth.

Author Spotlight

I'm super excited to start spotlighting different authors in my newsletter each month. Each of these authors are represented by the same literary agency I am, so I encourage you to check them out!

This month's author is Kendra Broekhuis.

Kendra Broekhuis writes stories on life’s heavy stuff with a dose of humor and a lot of love. She is the author of the novels Nearly Beloved and Between You and Us, as well as the nonfiction book Here Goes Nothing: An Introvert’s Reckless Attempt to Love Her Neighbor. For her day job, she stays home with her four kids and drives them from one place to another in her minivan. She and her family live in Milwaukee.

Sign up for Kendra's newsletter and receive the first chapters of her novel, Nearly Beloved. You can sign up for her newsletter HERE and check out Nearly Beloved HERE.

A little bit about Nearly Beloved...

Dylan Turner works hard to keep her life predictable, though she would never call it that—she loves her routine, two guinea pigs, and minding her own business. But when her dad dies and the DNA test results in her inbox say he’s not her biological father, the life she’s so carefully built starts to unravel. Craving answers and getting none from her mother, Dylan follows a sparse trail of clues across the country to where she grew up. It’s a journey full of unexpected encounters, including a friendly co-worker and another familiar face from her past—one she isn’t sure is a solace or an obstacle. As Dylan digs deeper into her family’s secrets, she can’t help but wonder, is a comfortable lie better than the pain of knowing the truth? Woven with emails, interviews, texts, and journal entries, Nearly Beloved is a heartfelt tale about looking for answers, even if they aren’t the ones you were expecting.

My coffee cup is empty, so I guess that means our time together is over for now. Thanks for hanging out with me, and I can't wait to chat again next month. I'm especially excited for February because it's the month of LOOOOVE. 😍 See you then!

Until next time,