The Big End-of-Year Thank You
My annual review of what’s kept me busy this year
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Learn more here.
Image credit: cottonbro via Pexels
I think it’s important to take stock at the end of each year. There’s something about looking back that makes us grateful, thoughtful, and inspired. Even when a year has gone south, the looking-back process can promote new determination for a better year ahead.
That said, I’ve had a great year filled with new clients and returning clients, and a healthy dose of variety.
Who I’ve Worked With This Year:
Karen Keil: Karen is a fantasy writer and has the dubious honor of being the first person I worked with in 2019. She’s currently working on a trilogy, and I edited Earth Fire, the first book. I will be working on Soul Fire at the very beginning of 2020. I’m very excited to see these books in print soon! Her blog features some great world-building tips, too.
Chilu Lemba: If anyone ever deserved the nickname “The Voice,” it’s this guy. Chilu is one of the voice artists you’ll hear most often on radio and other media in Africa, and he’s a rapper as well! After editing his memoir, I felt as if I’d grown up with his entire family, and I was as excited about his life achievements as they were. His book, Finding My Voice, is available through Amazon and other book retailers the world over.
Kim M. Watt: I had the joy of working on two more books this year from Kim, and honestly, I’m not sure which one I liked more, A Manor of Life & Death or Game of Scones. Each cozy mystery made me laugh—and made me hungry. Thank goodness there are recipes at the end of each book for all the goodies I read about. I also had the pleasure of meeting Kim in person and staying at her home in Yorkshire Dales (UK) this fall, and now I want to live there.
Marcia Caton: Last year, I worked on Marcia’s first book, My Babysitter Is a Smartphone, and this year I had the privilege of editing a memoir she helped a friend to write, Now I Can SEE the Light. I’m looking forward to seeing those books in print!
Jay Mackey: I got to work on two vastly different books for Jay this year, and each was terrific in its own right. The first, The Third Rescue, is a stand-alone novel that’s some pretty intense YA sci-fi, and—oh yeah—it’s set in LAS VEGAS, baby! The second book, Runner Boy, is the first in a YA dystopian series, and follows one family’s journey as they deal with a completely changed world after an electromagnetic pulse takes out all communication, electricity, and more.
Jeff Barton: Jeff is a writer who decided he was tired of being unhappy, and was unwilling to settle for keeping the status quo. He completely changed his life, and then he wrote a motivational bookabout it—How I Took Back My Life and How You Can Too: A Guide to Regaining Control—so he could help others. It was wonderful to work with him and to see what drives him.
Jewel Allen: I’ve beta read for Jewel before, and was glad to do a round of editing on A Cowboy’s Love Song, a followup to the one I beta-read (A Cowboy for Christmas) last year. She’s a prolific writer of romance, so if that’s your go-to, you won’t be lacking for choices if you visit her Amazon page!
Ray Price: Ray is a pretty cool guy who thought it would be fun to write a children’s book, a prequel (pigquel, if you will) of the classic Three Little Pigs. His book, Build with Bricks, is currently being illustrated and should be on the market in the early portion of 2020.
Pemry Janes: Pemry writes fantasy. Doggone good fantasy, in fact, that comes complete with adventure, necromancers, demons, dwarves (nice guys), elves (very bad guys), a smart aleck living sword, and all kinds of good stuff. I got to edit his first book, The Living Sword, and am currently working on the second in the Living Sword series, The Living Sword: The Road Ahead, which will be published in the very near future.
In addition to all that copyediting, I also enjoyed quite a bit of beta reading this year. Eight different authors’ worth of beta, in fiction and nonfiction. Most of the books were beyond terrific and I can’t wait to see them in print so everyone else can enjoy them too. Keep your eyes open for books from Mark Murata, Craig Durrant, Nancy Kazar, Carolina Cruz, Rebekah Fox, John Mayer, April Brunk, and Richard Bradburn in 2020. You won’t be disappointed.
I had the privilege of being one of the judges for this year’s annual anthology for the IWSG (the Insecure Writer’s Support Group) and am really impressed with the short stories I read. The ten winners will be published in the middle grade historical adventure, Voyagers: The Third Ghost in May of 2020.
Twenty-three unique authors (plus ten more for the IWSG short story entries).
Twenty-seven different projects.
Over two million words edited.
All in all, a jam-packed year! Add to that the addition of a daughter-in-law early in the year (AND SHE’S A WRITER!), my first time being a bridesmaid in a wedding (seriously! at age 54! lol), an informative international editing conference in Chicago, and a long-awaited trip to Scotland, and I think I’ve wrung the most out of the end of the current decade that I can manage.
I’ll be taking the next couple weeks off to spend with family and friends, so I’ll see you all again on January 9th!
Here’s to an amazing 2020 and beyond!
