Looking Back, Looking Ahead
Hello dear friends!
Sometimes you wander innocently around a corner in life and meet up with something totally unexpected that changes everything.
The past couple of weeks mark the first anniversary of receiving my cancer diagnosis and the beginning of the flurry of tests and treatments that followed.
This year, the hard-core treatments are behind me, I’ve been declared cancer free, and the treatments that remain are much milder and aimed at preventing the cancer from coming back.
My energy levels are still pretty low, but gradually improving. I’m told I should expect recovering from the treatments to take about as long as the treatments did, so I’m trying to be patient.
I’m also looking ahead with excitement and working toward meeting some of the goals that had to be set aside last year. Here are some things I’m working on:
Website update: Last year, my host company upgraded their system, and I want to take advantage of the new features. Because of the nature of the upgrade, I can’t just shift the old website data into the new system, so I’ll be rebuilding the site and manually copying over the important parts. This will be a gradual process, and it’s likely that some parts of the old site won’t be transferred to the new. My life seems full of slightly messy new beginnings right now, and this is going to be another one of those. But if there’s something you want to make sure I include, comment below, because I want to take your opinions into account when organizing my priorities.
Branding refresh: The website reconstruction has provided a great opportunity to refresh my branding across my author platform. Watch for an updated logo, new headshots, and more consistent color and design as the new branding rolls out across my social media. (And if I miss a spot, I’d love it if you gave me a friendly nudge.)
Book 2 of the Vanir Dragon Series: Progress has been slow (chemo-brain is a real thing, and takes a while to wear off), but book 2 is in the hands of some alpha-readers/critique partners. Looking at preliminary feedback, I can see some places that need a little more work, but overall things look promising. I plan to begin revisions as soon as my rebranding hiatus comes to a conclusion
My 50 by 50(-ish) Project: After my birthday last summer, I decided I wanted to do 50 of something creative before I arrived at my 50th birthday this year. I was still deciding what it should be when the cancer diagnosis caught me by surprise. For a while, I was so focused on my medical situation that I pushed the 50 by 50 project to the back burner, and then it was too late—there wasn’t enough time left. But after some introspection, I decided not to let cancer take this from me too. So, I tacked an “-ish” on the end of “50 by 50,” picked self-portrait photography (because I also need to get more comfortable in front of a camera), and carried on. I’ve begun posting my photos on my social media feeds. Check them out if you haven’t seen them yet!
A surprise!: I’m working on something behind the scenes that I hope you’re going to like. I’ll share more details once I’m confident it’s actually going to work out. Cross your fingers!
Viper fans, please know I haven’t forgotten you! I can see by my sales figures that there are more and more of you out there, and I promise book 3 is coming! I’m so grateful for your patience while I get the pile-up sorted out.