This was a terrible year for the world. Personally, however, it wasn’t bad. Here are some things that happened to me this year, in no particular order:
1. I wrote a play and it was put on in a staged reading! Read about it here. 2. I won the Playa Flamingo Writing Residency through Atmosphere Press, which allowed me to write in Costa Rica. More pictures here.3. Speaking of travel, we also went to Austria and the Czech Republic. It was a terrific trip! Here I am standing on the top of a ruined castle where Richard the Lionheart was imprisoned after being captured by Duke Leopold of Austria in 1192. That’s the Danube River in the background.
4. Our friend Paul Peterson passed away. I’m going to miss him so much. I loved how passionate he was about all his hobbies and what a sweet, generous person he was.
5. I wrote a lot.
This is a shot of the white board of my office, where I was recording the word count on a new draft of a novel. I not only wrote a novel draft this year, I wrote a nonfiction book proposal and a play. This is on top of multiple articles, short stories, and part of another long WIP that might just be yet another book. 6. I was invited by the Carmel Public Library to speak about the MacGowan Sisters to an enthusiastic and kind crowd. Read more about that here.
7. Speaking of Carmel, I wrote about Langston Hughes’s time in the city in the 1930s, which was published in Alta. More here.
8. Speaking of Alta, they also published my piece on Anita Loos and the origins of the novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. More here. 9. I FINALLY landscaped my front yard! Here it is in progress. This was a big deal for me. It was one of many home projects I took on this year, with more to come in 2026. 10. And finally, I was quite delighted to receive a Special Mention in the Pushcart Prizes. I have never been nominated before, to my knowledge, so I’m happy they liked my story.
