New Year, New Newsletter
Fancy meeting you here
Winter - January 2025
You made it! I’m so glad you’re here.
Happy New Year! I hope that 2024 was kind to you, and if it wasn’t, then good riddance. May 2025 bring calmer seas.
I’m VERY happy to close the door on 2024. What a year. We’ll get into that below.
I’ve been stewing over all the things I want to accomplish in 2025, setting up my planner for the new year, and making a point to set goals for fun, not just to be productive.
I have a really good feeling about this year. So, thank you for coming on this journey with me.
Plop down somewhere comfy, grab a yummy snack or beverage, and let’s get to yappin’.
2024 was the hardest, weirdest, most liminal year of my life—and I’ve had some really rough years. But this one was different. It was quiet. It snuck up on me.
I’ve mentioned it on socials, but my dad died (very suddenly) at the end of 2023. He wouldn’t get to read my debut, FALLING STAR, and I was left with those messy feelings.
I still planned to publish my book in 2024, even though it needed so much work. I tried too hard to be unbothered, while shadows skittered along the edges, hovering like a specter that would haunt me until I looked into its eyes.
We all know you can’t ignore a ghost or a monster in a horror movie. We know what happens when you try to.
Finally, I asked for help. The more I asked, the easier it was to look my monster in the face—and all I saw was myself. Raw, consumed by grief, and afraid that my dreams would die too if I didn’t keep moving.
So I slowed down. I delayed my book several times. I worked on myself A LOT. I got diagnosed with ADHD and got medicated. I moved to a new town that I love. I haven’t felt this content in my own head in a long time.
Right now, my 11-month old corgi Macaroni is recovering from her spay, but here is a photo dump of some of my favs throughout the year. Her birthday is coming up on January 31st!
I’m guessing you know what FALLING STAR is about, since you found your way here. If you don’t know, my book is a sapphic romantasy about a skeptical princess who learns she is a reincarnated goddess and goes on the run with her bodyguard to find the scissors of fate before her newlywed husband catches her.
Unfortunately, I don’t have a release date for FALLING STAR to share at the moment. I probably won’t for a few months.
I had to go back to developmental edits for a lot of loose ends, plot holes, and character arcs I wasn’t satisfied with. The last thing I want to do is publish a book I’m not proud of. It will take the time it takes, and be better for it.
I started using Pacemaker to set writing/editing goals, and it lets you account for skipping days, going heavy or light at the start or end of your timeline, and is very flexible for whatever your needs are. I highly recommend trying it out if it sounds like something that might help you.
My therapist suggested practicing mindfulness to help with my anxiety. Slowing down and checking in with yourself allows you the time and space to savor moments. I wasn’t doing this. Hell, I could hardly remember the last time I had without feeling guilty about not working on my book, or being productive in some way.
My very good friend Meg told me to add rest days to my weekly writing routine. I struggled at first, and inevitably gave in.
Guess what happened? I was enjoying the days again. I made time to read, to draw. Finally, I was excited to jump back into my book again too. But more importantly, I was able to pry my nails from the rigid floorboards of improbable deadlines I’d laid down for myself.
Please take breaks.
Each project we work on, whether it sees the light of day or not, is a learning experience.
For some reason, I thought FALLING STAR would need minimal rewrites and edits and be ready to publish only after a few months of work.
How silly of me.
I could blame that confidence on the fact that I published FALLING STAR as serial fiction first. I thought of it as more of a 1.5 draft. But when I re-read it, expecting it to have the pacing and flow of a novel, I wanted to throw myself into the sea.
I can’t really blame anything or anyone, though. I learned how to write a new style of fiction, how to be economical with my words and ideas, proved I could keep to a schedule AND finish a project, and I allowed myself to be vulnerable, and exercised my own knowledge of craft by swapping with a critique partner.
I couldn’t call that a loss. I also couldn’t call FALLING STAR publication ready. Not even close.
Once I accepted that, which took most of 2024, I finally figured out all the things I wanted FALLING STAR to be that it wasn’t. I still have lots of work to do on it.
As I mentioned earlier, I don’t have a publishing date yet, but you can add it on Goodreads and StoryGraph!
FALLING STAR does have a cover (IT’S AMAZING) and lots of stunning commissioned art that I have been sitting on for FAR too long.
When the time comes, there will also be eARCs! I’ll begin sharing all of that when I have more news, so stay tuned!
One thing I can share with you now, is the rough draft of my cover copy! Here she is!
Find your scissors. Sever your fate.
It was Evrin’s idea to run. Once they say their vows, Asterin only needs to bypass her bodyguard—and estranged childhood friend—Oriana. Something she's good at.
No longer willing puppets, she and Evrin will escape the fates chosen for them—both their crowns and the legend of their divine births. But their wedding day turns into a bloodbath just as Evrin reveals the truth he learned during his recent absence: all the stories are true. A dead god told him so.
Forced to flee with the bodyguard she tried to leave behind, Asterin is cast into an unfamiliar world, where the gods she’s refused to believe in are real, and they’re not the worst things on the road.
Joined by a fallen god, a mortal navigator, and a charming blacksmith, Asterin must find the scissors of fate before her haunted past catches up. Still, when she can’t even wield her new, unstable power, Asterin strays off-course to claim more. Nobody else will die so she can live. Not again.
But when more power comes at a price, Asterin might have to sacrifice her future to put the past to rest.
The work doesn’t vanish when we pause to take a break. It’ll be there waiting for our return.
Here’s how I’ve been resting my brain and refilling my creative well.
Music:
My music has been all over the place lately. Mostly I’ve been listening to video game or show soundtracks, if I’m not listening to my writing playlists. But here are a few honorable song mentions!
Books:
Games:
Movies:
Shows:
I don’t know why I put the poster for Arcane season 1 here. I only watched season 2. Probably just because Arcane is my favorite.
I hope that this letter was a nice little break in your day. I hope that you rest more this year, too. Rest stops are crucial. My best ideas come when I step away from my work and come back. Remember that it’s okay to slow down and savor moments.
You can scrap something you’re unhappy with and start over, and over, and over again. You might not be in control of a lot, but you are in control of that.
We will always be a work in progress—always learning and changing—and there is comfort in that. I promise.
From my glowing box to yours,
Jasmine
