In October this year, my husband and I took a trip to Catalina Island off the coast of California. We are luckily close to this jewel–a short airplane hop and an hour on the ferry away.

We’d gone there the year before as well, to attend the annual jazz festival. Three days of concerts by very talented musicians was both restful and invigorating. There are no cars allowed on the island (or very few, anyway), which means I walked everywhere, so the trip was good for my physical as well as mental health.

As I sat in the beautiful ballroom of the casino, I realized that in this year, I’d healed in a big way. The year before (2023), I spent burned out, grieving, and seeming to make bad decision after bad decision. My mom had passed away in late 2022, after a long time of declining, with me there for every minute. It was a tough time, and once she was gone, though I was glad she was no longer miserable, I spent a long while numb and sad.

I had a very hard time writing in 2023. I managed to finish a couple of books and I think two novellas, but had to turn down offers to collaborate with other authors in anthologies (unless it was for a backlist story) or offers to do book signings or conferences.

The stories were there in my head, but getting myself to sit down and write a paragraph was almost impossible. I could manage maybe 500 words (about two pages) if I really pushed, and then I’d be done for the day.

I’d also contracted with Dragonblade Publishing right before my mom died to write some historical romances. I had to go back to them and admit that I couldn’t possibly produce the books in the time-frame I’d at first agreed on. (I am still working on book 1, which shows the extent of my troubles.)

It was very frustrating, and I was pretty sure I was witnessing the end of my writing career. I wasn’t certain how we’d make a living, because my husband is disabled, and I don’t have any other job skills.

To say that by the time I reached Catalina Island in Oct 2023, I was a mess, is an understatement.

But something happened to me there. I’m not sure exactly what. It could be that I’d had enough time to finish my first stage of grieving (it had been almost a year). Or maybe it was the first time in several years I’d been able to stop.

Somehow, in that art deco ballroom from 1929, listening to the amazing musicians play their hearts out, my creativity came back to me.

It was like a light in a dim room being turned up, showing everything in bright colors instead of subdued hues. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I felt this relaxed glow, like everything was going to be all right.

By the time the concerts had finished, and we were winding down to go back home, I’d come up with an idea for a Christmas novella featuring Kat Holloway and a renewed determination to write my books.

I couldn’t start anything right away, because I’d booked a conference back to back with the vacation (one of those bad decisions), but once I finished that, I opened my laptop and started writing.

Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding came out, and then the final chapters of Bear Facts, which I had been struggling to write for about eight months (I never take that long on a book).

Not only could I write more than a page at a time, but I also did some useful planning. I marked out the year (2024) with books in series I needed to–and seriously wanted to–continue.

Once I finished Bear Facts, I dove into another Captain Lacey, and then Wing Dancer, the newest in the Stormwalker series (which I’d been trying to write for years). I managed to have a book out every couple of months in the first part of 2024, including Speculations in Sin, in the Kat Holloway mystery series (one of the few books I’d managed to write in 2023).

I then had to step back and write another Kat Holloway for Berkley (A Silence in Belgrave Square, which is being edited at the moment), and finish the dang book for Dragonblade! (I have about 10K words to go on that, yipee!)

In the second half of 2024, I had a novella out in October (A Measure of Menace, a Kat Holloway story). I’ll start publishing afresh early next year, starting with more Shifters.

I’m writing a lot more now, though my pace has slowed per book over what I used to do, and probably will not get any faster than that. However, I’m feeling good about where I am in my writing life. In October 2023 I was half-panicked, half resigned, thinking I’d have to give up writing for a living.

I’m in a good place to retreat to write books and make them the best they can be. I have French, German, and Italian editions consistently releasing, I’m having a blast fixing up my web store, finding the freedom there to set up things I can’t elsewhere, and I’m also having fun doing seasonal sales. Who knew I’d enjoy retail so much?

Anyway, when I was sitting in the art deco ballroom this year (2024), I realized that my comeback year had started there, in the very same seats we’d occupied in 2023.

Music, historic architecture, and the blue beauty of the Pacific Ocean had seeped into my soul and helped me heal.

Thank you for reading my tale. It’s been a hard road, and it’s not over (my husband has MS, which is a daily struggle, and we lost another of our beloved cats this year), but it’s a bit easier. I’d lost my confidence and any sort of serenity, but I am enjoying this calm while it lasts.

I wish everyone Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

Many more books to come!