Happy New Year, y'all!

It's 2024, although I fully anticipate I'll be writing the date wrong for at least the next four months, possibly longer. It seems my brain's reluctance to step into the future grows deeper with every passing year, and I suspect that eventually, when I am old and withered, I will probably plant myself at a point in time and refuse to go any further. My great-grandchildren will be wondering why I am still insisting it is 2046 in 2080 and other family members will remind them that Great-Grandma decided to abstain from the passage of time decades ago. Maybe they will dig this newsletter up as proof that it is not dementia (although maybe that too; it does run in my family), just stubbornness.

We decided this year that while we wanted to ring in the new year with friends, we did not want to put much effort into it, so we invited some folks over for a pajama potluck and game night. We spent the last few hours of 2023 sharing food and laughing over board games (some that we enjoyed: Abducktion, Tsuro, Ransom Notes, The Crew, Machi Koro) and Jackbox Games in our sweatpants.

At midnight, we toasted with prosecco and sparkling cider, and by 12:30, everyone was headed home because we are old and sleepy (the teenagers in attendance left while it was still 2023; neither the young drivers nor their parents were particularly enthusiastic about driving after midnight). It was a lovely end to the year, and I wouldn't be surprised if we decide to wrap up future years in a similar way.

Until I decide to stop observing them, of course.

A look back at 2023

A year doesn't seem like a very long time (at least once you move past the age of 25 or so), but when I think of all the things that happened in 2023, it's a little mind-boggling. Here are some of the highlights.

• We fostered 7 dogs throughout the course of the year, three feisty sets of puppies (Hinkley & Anaya; Jutson & Hunt; Tophey & Marilyn) and one 10-month-old bouncy bundle of sweetness named Bonnie (who came to us in the last few hours of 2023, and instantly made herself the star of the evening). Bonnie is not available for adoption quite yet, but will be soon!

• We saw five amazing live shows here in Nashville as part of their Broadway series: Les Miserables, SIX, Ain't Too Proud, Into the Woods, and Wicked.
• I'll Stop the World was selected as an Amazon First Reads pick for the month of March, and both the audiobook and the Kindle version managed to snag a few snazzy orange banners across various categories, with the Kindle edition peaking at #7 in the entire Kindle store.

• I had the most amazing book launch in the history of book launches, with my friends and fellow authors David Arnold, Court Stevens, Julian R. Vaca, and Lauren Kung Jessen all playing pivotal roles in its success. Friends from high school and college traveled in, my siblings surprised me by showing up at my house out of the blue, everyone humored my ridiculous '80s theme, East Nashville Beer Works was the absolute consummate host, and friends from all over Nashville and the surrounding areas showed up in droves to celebrate with me. I could truly not have asked for a more wonderful debut launch experience.

• Our family took a trip to the U.K. where we visited museums and historical landmarks and castles across England and Scotland, saw Heathers: The Musical on the West End, enjoyed high tea, took a couple ghost tours, cruised along Loch Ness, distilled our own gin, delighted in delicious food, and lost ourselves in gorgeous scenery.
• I participated in nine book festivals and conferences, including the annual American Library Association conference, and got the opportunity to panel with some fantastic authors, including John Scalzi, Claudia Gray, Mindy McGinnis, Vanessa Riley, and Walter Mosley, among many others.

• I was on TV a few times.
• We did a lot of work on the front of our house by building a new front porch and installing a gorgeous custom iron door, and completely redoing all of our flower beds. I have gone from loathing the way our house looks from the outside (I originally did not even want to look at the interior of this house; that is how much I hated the exterior) to loving it. As a downside, I now have a dreadful addiction to ordering plants online. I lost track of how many bulbs I stuck in the ground this fall. Spring will be a gorgeous mystery.
• I was invited to visit several different book clubs who had selected I'll Stop the World that month, and met so many amazing and generous people. It was so fun to talk about my book with passionate local readers, and I would love to do more book club visits in 2024. If your book club is interested in reading one of my books and would like me to pop by, please let me know!

• I conceived of, sold, wrote, and edited You Shouldn't Be Here, in that order, which was a brand new and extremely terrifying experience. Despite a significant period of time where I was convinced that the book absolutely sucked, I'm really proud of it now, and excited for it to be out in the world (this year!). If you haven't done so yet, I'd love if you'd add it to your shelves on Goodreads, and/or consider preordering.

• I got to celebrate the book launches, tours, and deal announcements of so many friends, and am so extremely excited for all of their successes and to see what the future holds for them.
• We debuted our very last Thoman Family Halloween Costume, since our oldest heads to college next year and it feels wrong to do the group costume without her.

• We traveled to Florida to spend Thanksgiving on the beach with my parents, siblings, and their families. It was the first time we've all been together since before the pandemic, and the first time for most of us meeting my newest niece.
• I attended my 25th high school reunion, which was weird but fun!

• I joined approximately one million new social media platforms. Currently the Twitter replacement I'm most active on is Threads, followed by BlueSky (let me know if you need an invite; I've got a few). If you're on either, please come and find me!
• I maintained an anemic but stubborn Duolingo streak all year long, and then before I could decide whether I wished to continue it into 2024, the decision was made for me when my subscription automatically renewed. Another year of Spanish it is! I am by no means good at the language yet, but I'm better than I was a year ago.
• We bought a car, our first auto purchase in 17 years, and our first new vehicle purchase ever. We never saw ourselves being new car people, but the current used car market, at least in our area, is a little absurd at the moment and wouldn't have offered us a much better deal than buying new. So we traded in our 2002 Honda Accord (I forget how many miles it had on it, but I think somewhere in the vicinity of 230K); it was valued at whatever spare change the dealer had in his pocket, plus a couple sticks of chewing gum. We now have a 2024 Subaru Ascent, and I can honestly say it feels like driving a spaceship (in a good way). Bluetooth! Heated seats! Remote start! What will the future think of next!
• I walked with some dear friends through what was likely the hardest and darkest year of their lives. I wish I could say "but I'm so glad they're through it now," but some things aren't so easily wrapped up. All I can say is that I'm glad they're still here and hope that 2024 proves to be a year of healing. It may sound odd to include these in a yearly retrospective, but it feels wrong not to at least mention the things that were so monumental to people I care about. Friends (you know who you are), if you are reading this, I love you, and wish you peace, comfort, and healing as you continue on.

Looking ahead

Now that we're into 2024, I'm thinking about my goals. While I have a lot of things I'd like to do and achieve, I'm trying to remain mindful about what things are actually realistic and within my control. So you won't see anything here about film options or bestseller lists, since while those things would be amazing, there's really nothing I can personally do to move the needle. Here are the things I think I can do:

• Help Bonnie find her perfect forever family. This one should not be hard; she's truly the smartest and best tempered foster we've ever had, and is sure to make some lucky family out there–and their dog(s)–extremely happy.
• Continue fostering dogs when we can.
• Finish edits on You Shouldn't Be Here, also not a daunting goal! We're in copyedits right now, and they're going pretty smoothly. Next up is a couple rounds of proofreading (one day I'll do a newsletter on the production cycle of a book), and then it's all in my publisher's hands until release.
• Finish drafting my post-apocalyptic haunted house horror novel, and get it into my agent's hands sometime in the first half of the year
• Co-write a book with a friend, and get that into my agent's hands.
• Read at least 40 books.
• Work at my treadmill desk for at least 2 hours a day, 5 days a week. (This thing has revolutionized my productivity.)
• Celebrate my oldest as she graduates high school and heads to college.
• Take a family vacation.
• Do my best to promote the events I agree to participate in, and then do my best to have a good time while I'm there and learn something I can carry with me into the future, no matter how many books I sell or how many people show up.

• Continue applying to book festivals that interest me, hope at least some of them say yes.
• Plan the You Shouldn't Be Here launch party, and have a great time.
• Maaaaaybe do a wee book tour? Still pondering this. If I did, it would likely only be Tennessee and the surrounding states (Kentucky, Georgia, eastern Missouri, possibly others if I get good leads in more areas), since driving is the only way this would be economically possible (fun fact: most authors fund their own book tours, and this would be no exception). I think it would be fun, but it's also a daunting proposition with a lot of logistics to work out. If you have done this and have wisdom to share, please do!
• Continue taking on at least 1-2 freelance articles per month, just to keep that muscle from atrophying.
• Continue my Duolingo Spanish streak through the end of the year (with permission to use streak freezes whenever I need to, as long as I don't run out).
• Actually go to the freaking doctor when I'm supposed to, including the dentist and eye doctor. We spent so many years with no money and crappy insurance that I keep forgetting that I now actually can–and should!–make a point to prioritize preventive healthcare. (I'll have you know I've already made my first dental and optometrist appointments for 2024; just need to follow through and then schedule the next ones.)
• Celebrate the accomplishments of the people I care about with at least as much gusto as I celebrate my own.
• Spend more time in hobbies - gardening, TV and movies, puzzles, video games, finally assembling my book nook kits I got for my birthday and haven't had time to even begin. I've spent most of my adult life feeling like I need to be "productive" with my time, and have never really figured out the mysterious concept of "self care." But in the past few years, I've finally come to realize that taking time for things I enjoy, even if they're not producing income or tangible results, is valuable in and of itself, because it helps me live a less stressful, more well-rounded and fulfilled life.
• Prioritize spending time with friends and family. As an introvert, it can be easy to let this one fall by the wayside, especially when I feel like I have a lot on my plate that I "should" be doing. Since I don't tend to crave company, I can go for a very long time without seeing the people I care about in person before I really notice. And since social interactions take energy, it's tempting to just hermit away at home when I'm feeling tired or overwhelmed (which is often). That means it takes a lot of intentionality to remain in people's lives and show that I value them, but I have never regretted dipping into my limited introvert energy supply for the people I care about. It's always worth it.
• Continue working to make the world a better place in whatever ways I can, including but not limited to: using my privilege, money, and resources to help support worthy causes; signal boosting people doing good work; expanding my own horizons through reading and listening and learning as much as I can from other people's experiences and knowledge; trying to always engage with others with compassion and respect; never feeding the trolls; and reminding everyone I know to register to vote (including my eldest, who turns 18 this year and is very excited about her first trip to the polls).

That seems like a long list, but I think it's all within my grasp.

Honestly, I already know that the hardest things on there for me will be the treadmill (I love it, but in my heart of hearts, I am an immensely lazy creature) and the hobbies. Which sounds ridiculous, but I know myself (and what I've been discussing with my therapist for the past four years), and I have a deep-seated belief that spending time and energy on myself is selfish and therefore bad. Which is not true! Intellectually, I know this! But man oh man, is it hard to take intellectual understanding and turn it emotional. I'm going to try my best, though.

Also that Duolingo streak is going to attempt to be the death of me, but I'm determined to triumph in the end. And then cancel my subscription immediately.

How about you? What are your goals for this year, or have you decided that yearly goals are not for you and you're just going to take things as they come?

2023 Media Highlights

As we all go forward in 2024, determined to live our best lives, here are some of my favorite books, movies, and TV shows that I enjoyed in 2023, in no particular order.

Books

​I Loved You In Another Life by David Arnold

​The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

​The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

​Ghost Tamer by Meredith R. Lyons

​How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix

​The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

​Finding Me by Viola Davis

​Babel by R.F. Kuang

​In a New York Minute by Kate Spencer

​Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

​Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson

​Wanderers and Wayward by Chuck Wendig

​The Violence by Delilah S. Dawson

Movies

​Matilda: The Musical​

​Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves ​

​Theater Camp​

​Barbie​

​Oppenheimer​

​Fast X​

​The Marvels​

​Talk to Me​

​Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse​

​Godzilla Minus One​

TV

Apple TV+

The Afterparty

Bad Sisters

Lessons in Chemistry

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters

Hulu

The Great: Season 3

The Handmaid's Tale: Season 5

Fleishman is in Trouble

The Bear

Only Murders in the Building: Season 3

What We Do in the Shadows: Season 5

The Other Black Girl

A Murder at the End of the World

Netflix

Erased

Black Mirror: Season 6

Derry Girls: Season 3

Dark: Season 3

Never Have I Ever: Season 4

The Fall of the House of Usher

Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story

Paramount+

Ghosts: Season 2

Yellowjackets: Season 2

Star Trek: Lower Decks

Disney+

Doctor Who Christmas specials

Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Max

Our Flag Means Death: Season 2

Amazon Prime

Good Omens: Season 2

​

What did you watch and read over the past year that you enjoyed? I'm always on the hunt for new recommendations.

Particularly in books, I aim to read much more nonfiction in 2024, as I really slacked off last year. I would also love some documentary recommendations, series or feature length, since I barely watched any in 2023.

That's all I've got for now. Thank you for being with me here, at the start of a new year. Let's all go do great things.