The end of a year, the first of a year…the whirlwind, a moment of peace, then whoosh! Another January is off and running!

It takes half the month for me to catch up from holidays and the rest of the month to get ready for a new year. The catching up is mostly packing up, and when I was (much) younger, I’d do it all on New Year’s Day. Then I pushed the clean-up through the Feast of the Epiphany. And now…well, let’s just say I’m done by MLK Day (ish).

I’m pretty okay with that. But before MLK Day, I had a work deadline–a post due over at the Muffin. Eek!

Fortunately, it coincided with Mister Man’s birthday. And as I think about him especially on his birthday, and how grateful I am to have had him in my life, it was easy-peasy to write “What You Need for a Successful Career.”

Shortly after I wrote that post, I came across some sad news from an old friend, Elizabeth Dulemba. She’s an illustrator–now an art professor–and we served together in SCBWI Southern Breeze. She’s one of those generous people in the arts who always seemed to be lending a hand to someone or something. If you’re in SCBWI–particularly in a region in the southeast–you probably know her. You may not know that she recently lost her husband, Stan.

Well, not lost, really. I’m sure that like my Mister Man, her Stan is always around, watching over her. But it’s tough when someone leaves too soon, and as much as one might feel that loving presence, there’s plenty of practical stuff to deal with every day. So I’m sharing her GoFund Me page for him/her if you’d like to help.

Eventually, which is really just another word for saying I could no longer make excuses about “Christmas Cleaning,” I got back to budgets, and To Do Lists, and Work. And work was primarily my cozy mystery, which is really not work at all if we’re talking the writing of it. The formatting of it, and all that jazz, is a whole ‘nother story. If you’re thinking about indie publishing, you might want to read my last Muffin post, “Know Thyself, Writers (And Would-Be Publishers.)“

I’m very close to being done with the front cover, the back cover, and everything in between! Next up is building the new website and marketing and such, and honestly, I’m already exhausted just thinking about it. So Libs and I are going to take a nap to rest our brains.

Right after I wake up Libs and tell her we’re heading upstairs.