Happy New Year to all of you!

Writers do this thing where we’re always writing something in our heads. We get super twitchy if we’re more than arm’s length away from some means of recording it. As I write this, I’m sitting in the teeming dining room of a local fast food resturant with my three ‘big kid’ grandlings who are bouncing between the play place and their lunches while I strive to keep an watchful eye on the mayhem that ensues where children on school holiday intersect  on a playground. 

I’m generally not a fast food eater, but this is a unique “Nana and Grandlings” event that has special meaning for us. This summer, after hurricane Beryl came through, leaving us without power for two weeks in sweltering heat, I found a fast food provider about ten miles away that had power and a play place. So I grabbed the kids, who were cooped up, hot, and cranky, and we headed out. Mom and Dad got a break, 2-year old twins finally napped, and the big kids ate lunch, slurped ice cream and soda with ice, and played for yes, four hours, in the A/C while I hand wrote chapters in the current project. That afternoon we all–finally–felt hope after a devastating experience. So taking the kids here harkens back to a milestone that has a special place in my heart.

Today, we’re here after having finished building our first gingerbread house. A prepackaged affair to test the concept before taking on a bigger project, so maybe not much to write home about. But, we’re already talking about what we want to do for next year. So, I’d call it a success, even if the pictures look otherwise. Another precious milestone. 

I’m coming off the last frienzied push to get Kayavan Rising published–something I had all but given up hope of accomplishing. That story concept, over a decade ago, marked the beginning of what was to become a new career. I’d put down my authorial pen during the college, graduate school, and young child rearing. Actually having the start of the series in print is an important milestone for me.

Not that every project isn’t some sort of milestone. It is, but this one feels particularly significant, maybe because this year was marked by several difficult milestones, ones that I’d hoped never to see.

Not all milestones are positive ones. Like Beryl, the next big storm after Harvey(that I wrote about here) , that was a milestone I wasn’t looking forward to crossing. But it happened. We weathered that storm in the most literal of senses, and came out the other side. 

Other milestones left their marks as they came crashing down on us while we did our best to avoid them. I’m still trying to shake off the dust from a few of those, and sort out the new way of the world in their wakes. I wouldn’t mind fewer of those in the year ahead.

As I look out into the new year dawning on the horizon, I wonder what milestones will leave their impresions on 2025 and what sort of memories and marks will they leave in the rearview mirror.

What 2024 milestones are you leaving behind and what are you looking forward to in 2025? Tell me in the comments!