The Last Two Months Have Been Crazy, Stupid, Insane—And I Survived (Barely)

If the last two months were a person, they’d be that friend who texts, "Let’s grab a quick coffee!" and then somehow you end up on a spontaneous road trip to a different state, questioning your life choices. My full-time job, the holidays, and the general chaos of existence all collided into one giant whirlwind, and now here I am—mostly intact, highly caffeinated, and in need of a long nap.

November: The Madness Gateway

November started off all innocent, like a well-behaved puppy in its first few months of life. We all know once they hit puppy teenagedom, it's all over! The election was a fever-pitch of debates and down-right hatefulness. That's how it ended, as a maniacal teenage puppy running chaotically from one thing to the next. My To-Do list grew longer than my attention span, and that was BEFORE the Thanksgiving Rush!

Thanksgiving saw a nice gathering of family. We stayed on my side of the family, because my husband's was out of town. It was relatively quiet, and I couldn't have been more thankful for that!

December: The Full-Blown Chaos Fiesta

December didn’t just knock on the door; it kicked it down and threw confetti everywhere. It completely covered my end-of-year projects in a layer of last-minute demands. Oh, and let’s not forget the joy of navigating packed stores because you thought you had all your gifts sorted (you did not). If I had a dollar for every time I said, "I’ll deal with it next year," I could probably afford to hire an assistant just to deal with it in January.

January: Revenge of Winter

Just call her Leutenant Dan, because she ain't got no legs!

Still, my end of year goals remained unfinished even into the New Year. January brought record snowfall to my area, and I am not a fan of exciting weather (or times for that matter). Despite having plenty of time to do things, I was anxiously paralyzed wondering if my trailer roof could handle thirteen inches of snow. (It did.)

So now, I have redone all of my goals for 2025.

Poetry: Instead of 1 poetry collection, I'll be releasing 2 (maybe even 3 to make up for the disappointment before Christmas!) poetry collections. The next installment of Scenes in the Den, Stains on the Ceiling, will be published next month in March, and the following installment, Handprints on the Glass, will be published in August. If there's a third (Lights on the Wall), it will be coming the beginning of December.

Novels: The 2nd book of Wintermoor, Paying the Price, will be released this June! I'm super excited to continue this quartet and series. I am continuing (albeit slowly) on the Dystopian. Every single time I start working on it, the world devolves more and more into the possibility of my conceptual idea. Am I single-handedly ushering in this terrible age with my imagination? Surely not! At least, I hope not, because... Yeah, that would be terrifying.

Anyways, I am super sorry I haven't gotten Stains on the Ceiling released, yet. Please have patience with me! I am a one-person show.

As always, find some nuggets of joy in your day and take care!

AMH