The 2020 Wrap Up

Oh man. This year has been a whirlwind. I looked back at my post from January with all my hopes and goals for the year and felt a little bit like I was looking at the words of a stranger. Granted, I do recognize myself in it, because some of that relentlessly, determinedly positive person is still here within me, but I also feel some sadness because life veered so far away from expectation. 

Still, as the relentelessly, determinedly positive person that still resides in my heart, I do have to look at the good things. Those are always the things I like to focus on at the end of the year. And there have been good things this year. 

Did I hit every goal? Nope. Big nope. It was a second year of not getting my new series started. 

I did start writing Bondage Buddies, the first book in the Master of Marquis series back in February and became completely derailed by the pandemic. After about two weeks of trying to force myself to write it, and only being able to produce one chapter, I finally bowed to the realization that I was not going to be able to write it. Definitely not on the schedule I'd written out for myself. 

In fact I was so behind that I ended up jumping straight past several of my plans and digging straight into The Lady for the Dirty Heroes Collection. Which... doing that project may or may not have been a great move for Golden Angel. At the time I'd thought about writing it as Sinistre Ange and I do wish I'd held a little tighter to that thought. 

One thing I can say about 2020 is that it has been a year full of learning for me. Not just learning about myself, though that too, but also a lot of learning about authoring (as opposed to writing) and making decisions for my books and my pen names. I don't want to get too deep into that because I should save some of it for when I do my blog post about my hopes and goals for 2021, but suffice to say The Lady may eventually be moving to becoming a Sinistre Ange title and I am shifting away from writing any Kindle Unlimited books as Golden Angel. Though Sinistre Ange will continue to do so. I wish I had given her a little more love this year and not just packed her into the end. 

Ack. Speaking of packing in. Once I got over the hump of Bondage Buddies, I really did pack it in. So much. 

Partly because of the big goal for 2020 that I did hit - becoming a full time author. For which I am so, so very grateful. Seriously. It is the best thing that's ever happened to me professionally and I am so much happier for it. Being able to concentrate on writing and getting books out is amazing. 

However - back to that learning thing - if being a full time author for half a year now has taught me anything, it's that I still can't write quite as fast as I wish I could. Sometimes I can! I really can! Their Harlot Bride took me 3 weeks to write. Everything came together perfectly for it. I had the enthusiasm, life wasn't too crazy, my anxiety was feeling pretty good, etc. I thought If I can keep this pace up, I'll be golden (heh heh, pun intended).

But of course, I could not keep the pace up. Life intervenes. Sometimes the baby doesn't sleep through the night and that means neither do I (I'm a lighter sleeper than hubby so even when he gets up to take care of her, I'm awake the whole time too). Not long after I finished writing Their Harlot Bride, I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder. I now have to go to physical therapy twice a week (and have been since late August), which is 2 hours out of my work day twice a week. Which, doesn't sound like a huge thing and I thought it wouldn't make too much of a difference, but it's harder to get into the mental space on those days and my shoulder often aches and makes it hard for me to concentrate because I'm fairly constantly in low level pain. 

And it's creative work. Some days I'm depressed. Some days I have anxiety. Some days I am incredibly distractible and nothing I do can get me back on track. And some days I can write full out and nothing and no one can distract me and everything is flowing and its glorious. But not every day is like that, even when I have three weeks of it in a row. Eventually, I falter again. 

So I'm learning to schedule for that. 

I am so excited about my schedule for next year, but I'll get to that in my next blog post. 

Back to the positivity! Another big thing that happened for me this year was becoming a USA Today Bestselling Author after the second annual Dirty Daddies anthology hit the list (in the top 50 too!). I was SO thrilled. I love being an admin in the Dirty Daddies Party Room on Facebook and I had so much fun with the first anthology and just as much (if not more!) with this year's. While Daddy Doms are definitely not all that I write (heck, they're not even a majority of it), they have such a special place in my heart and I know I'll be looking forward to the anthology every year (Foosball Daddy... 2021... it's happening... I've already warned them! lol). 

So seeing that on my covers now has been a highlight of my year. It's a cool thing to have. 

Even though I didn't get out every book that I was hoping to this past year, I am really proud of those that I did and that's a pretty big thing. I'm also happy to say that I will be starting work on Bondage Buddies again, before 2020 ends, and the preorder for it is already up. The first book in the Deception and Discipline series (which according to me in January was supposed to release this past August... *sigh*) is written and I am so in love with it. A Season for Treason releases next month and it is kicking off SUCH a fun series. So those were two of the biggest things that I didn't get done this year, but they're still happening and I'm taking that as a big win. 

Other than that, I'm just grateful for everything I do have. My family and friends are healthy. Those family members and friends who have caught COVID have all recovered so far, making us extremely lucky. My daughter is amazing and astounds me daily, as well as brightening my day with her sunny outlook and happiness in the smallest things. My husband is wonderfully supportive and let me put him on a book cover this year, which I've been dying to do for ages (Logan, if anyone didn't know =). 

And I am so, so grateful for the many readers who have picked up my work, enjoyed it, and kept reading. The thing about dreaming about becoming an author is that it's not a dream one can achieve on their own - it's a community effort. And I am so lucky to have so much support from fellow authors, from my PA, from my beta and ARC readers, from anyone who picks up one of my books. 

I saw a meme going around that said something along the lines of 2020 teaching them to be grateful for the things they have, and I feel like that was very true for me. I am so grateful for so many of the things I have.

No, 2020 did not go the way I expected, but I am proud of the books I released and I am excited about those still to come. And, you know, looking at it - I really didn't do too bad. 

January - Pirates, Passion, & Plunder Anthology (no longer available... keep an eye on my 2021 releases for the story I wrote for it ;) & the Venus Rising Quartet Boxset

February - Black Light Roulette War (which, the couple I wrote WON the war!!!!! #crazyexciting) and Blood Lust as Sinistre Ange with Raisa Greywood

March - Chasing Tail (the first Big Bad Bunnies boxset)

April - Chasing Her Lion (finishing out the Big Bad Bunnies series! #shedsatear) and Chasing Tail... Again (the second Big Bad Bunnies set)

July - The Lady (I still love this story even though I think I should have written it as Sinistre... a filthy retelling of Lady and the Tramp?! Yes! lol)

August - Re-releases of the Poker Loser Series - Forced Bet, Back in the Game, and Winning Hand. This one made me really happy, to have one of my oldest series get a new life (yay better editing and new covers! lol)

September - Logan (woo hoo! I finally got to write my Dad Bod Doms book! AND put hubby on a cover!) and the Dirty Daddies Anthology (USA Today Bestseller, baby!)

October - Their Harlot Bride (getting to write a Bridgewater book was SO freaking cool. I'm still thrilled and honored that I got to be a part of this). 

November - Serving Her Sentence as Sinistre Ange (I only made people wait... what? 3? 4 years? LOL) and the Poker Loser Trilogy Boxset

December - His Pretty Kitty as Sinistre Ange (another SA title that was loooooong overdue) and Steamy Stocking Stuffers (woo-hoo! so many anthology stories that no one had access to after the anthologies went away, until now!)

I mean... that's a packed year. A little too packed at the end, like I said, but that's just about how much energy I have to put into releases. I still love all the books. I also know I won't be able to do the double releases that I've done for the past two months. It's too much! But I'm so happy they're finally out in the world, especially because I'd started to think His Pretty Kitty was going to end up being another book that I'd promised for 2020 and had to be pushed back till 2021... but made it in just under the wire! 

I hope everyone is having a good holiday and staying safe and well. Let's go into 2021 and hope that it will make up for 2020!

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