End of 2024 Update

It’s finally done. 2024. When I first started writing this post, I started listing all the things wrong with this year and there were many! Then I decided I didn’t want to go out on a sour note like that, so… Here we are. Some of the high points? Going to see Olivia Rodrigo with my daughter. Going to see P!nk with a good friend. The Titanic Exhibit. Two new tattoos! Finally figuring out my particular brand of Neuro-Spicy and relishing in the joy of a happy, All-Spicy family, and a wonderful husband who takes care of me when I’m busy taking care of everyone else. My group of friends who are there for me when I spiral. Oh, and a great therapist!

And writing! We should talk about that! This was another year of poetry. I started a few pieces of fiction and worked on a few others, but I always seem to come back to poetry and imagery and how language works in mysterious ways to make us feel something we’ve never felt before. As a poet/editor friend said about one of my poems: “… is a sadness I wish I didn't relate so much to, which is probably why my first instinct is to avoid confronting it.” That’s what I’m here for, y’all. To make you feel things. To make myself feel things. To work through trauma (that which is ours collectively and that which is mine and mine alone). To play with the pretty, horrible, funny, sad, winsome, scary, unknown words and the pictures I can paint with them. I am planning on releasing a short collection called ‘Colo(u)rs: Poetry, Short Stories, and Heartbreaks’, hopefully sometime in 2025. Or 2026. Sometime, anyway.

I’ve also still been working on ‘The Other Side of Winter’. You’d think after 11 years I’d have this thing done already, but you would be wrong. This year, I’ve done more work with my editor and had two sensitivity reads done. What comes next? More revising! Huzzah! I’d really like to get to the point where I can start querying it to agents.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at some stats from 2024!

Publishing Stats:

• 57 submissions to 46 different publications

  • 2 photos

  • 1 story

  • 33 poems

• 14 pieces published in 2024 in 4 publications

  • 13 poems

  • 1 story

• 1 piece accepted in 2024 slated for publication in January 2025

• 1 live reading, video available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/EImn7J0w8fc?si=h8X3T2y_yNYUFm62

• 3 poems published in hard copy: https://www.doorisajarmagazine.net/issues/fall-2024

I have also, last minute, submitted two photos and seven poems to two publications. These will be reflected in the 2025 stats.

Website Stats:

• 1375 visits

• 26 different countries (ranked in order of most visitors):

  • UK

  • US

  • Canada

  • Germany

  • Australia

  • Italy

  • Spain

  • India

  • Philippines

  • Russia

  • Andorra

  • UAE

  • Austria

  • Brazil

  • China

  • Egypt

  • Georgia

  • Ireland

  • Iraq

  • Latvia

  • Mexico

  • Nigeria

  • Portugal

  • Sweden

  • Taiwan

  • Ukraine

• 29 US States (most visits to least)

  • WA

  • CA

  • IN

  • GA

  • OR

  • NY

  • VA

  • NC

  • FL

  • IA

  • TX

  • PA

  • MA

  • AL

  • CT

  • CO

  • HI

  • MD

  • NJ

  • SC

  • IL

  • KY

  • DC

  • NV

  • UT

  • MO

  • SD

  • PR

So that about sums up the year! I wish everyone a happy New Year and remember: Nazis are bad, slavery is bad, genocide is bad, healthcare should be free, housing is a human right, and reproductive health care saves lives! Go do something sparkly with the New Year!