Looking back on what we have accomplished is something many authors do when starting a new year. Mine will look a bit different from the norm for 2024.

In 2024, I had four projects released into the world. On May 22, I published Vague Directions: Into the Woods, originally a short story published several years ago by Boroughs Publishing. I rewrote the story and made it into a novella. On my birthday, June 7th, I celebrated by publishing my second poetry collection: Everything Begins in the Belly. These poems were written during my dance years when I performed in a troupe and taught beginning belly dancers. July 16th, I published Another Change of Scenery, a revised novella, and part one of a trilogy, followed by the second book in the trilogy, Down a Back Road published on August 31st.

Each book I published in 2024 consisted of work I had written prior; none were brand new works. Revisions can take just as long, if not longer, than writing a new book.

One of my goals upon returning home from the hospital in the summer of 2023 after I was able to read a line of text again, was to publish the work I had sitting around. Files full of stories and others full of poems which did no one any good sitting in a file, instead of sending them out into the world to be read.

While I haven’t put all the work in my files into the world, I did publish a good chunk.

I did not publish any brand-new stories. I started some, but they just aren’t done. That is a goal for 2025. To publish both new ones and revised ones.

In 2024, I attended a large book convention, my first time as a disabled author. It wasn’t a good experience. I was almost ready to stop going to cons. Then I was invited to go on the first Love Lit cruise in Feb 2025 and I said yes. I will be one of ten authors and I’m looking forward to that.

I’m also going to the Sunshine State Book Festival in 2025.

Both are new to me events.

Things that happened to me in 2024, slowed me down, but they did not stop me. My word for 2024 was Unstoppable.
My PT guy says he can see that in me.

I don’t count how many words I write in a year. I really don’t want to know.

In 2024 beginning in June, I worked hard at UNC Chapel Hill neural PT sessions as well as doing PT exercises at home. I had Dr. appointments, bi-weekly lab visits, a new MRI, and 2 Mammograms. (I can’t drive because of my disability, which means my hubby drives me to everything. I use a walker.)
Not even going to begin to try to count all of that.

In 2025 my 2x a week PT continues and there is improvement. My 2025 goal is to walk without the walker, and I’m going to do it.

Things I haven’t done in 2024 – I did not fall into a wall once. Unlike 2023.

I learned on Oct 8th that the inoperable blood clot in my brain is gone.

In December I learned there is no evidence of a stroke in my brain and only some scar tissue.

Plenty to celebrate.

Whatever my accomplishments or failures, the main point is, that I am still alive, I still believe “every day we are alive is a beautiful day,” and I live by that.

Every single day I am thankful for this beautiful gift.

I have never given up, never allowed myself to feel like a victim, and refuse to have a victim mentality. I have remained positive, and strong. I have encouraged others with my words and my behavior and tried to set an example they can learn from.

In 2024 I made the great step of refusing to engage with anyone behaving in an emotionally abusive way, whether online, in business, or my personal life. I must take my oxygen first, and my main goal, my job, is to heal myself and to live my best life.

The word I have chosen for 2025 is … Unlimited.