Brighter Days Ahead

Image by Himanshu Singh Gurjar on Unsplash

This year got off to a shaky start for me. Two weeks in, I was informed that my job was being cut due to budget concerns. Since I had the option to return to my former position, I wasn’t technically laid off. Still, I was shocked at how much it hurts to feel you’re doing something of value only to have your job deemed unnecessary.

I spent a few days in a stupor of denial, resentment, and general gloominess. And then I pulled myself together, dusted off my resume, and got to work.

Now, ten weeks later, I’ve begun training at my new job and finally feel like I can put this behind me. Like many seemingly negative upheavals to one’s life, looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing. My new job closely matches my old one in terms of pay and hours, yet it comes with more benefits, like affordable health care premiums, tuition reimbursement, and a 401(k) plan.

Also, starting a new job is always kind of fun.

Writing wise, I won runner-up in a Women on Writing contest in late January, which means my story was published! It’s a YA flash fiction piece about a girl wrestling with guilt over having the perfect life yet still feeling sad. You can read “Gratitude” here.

I’m especially excited to have “Gratitude” published because I realized at the end of last year that I’ve been on a publishing streak since 2012. The above story means my streak will not be broken, at least not this year!

Something else I’m excited about is that my current WIP, The House on Linden Way, is now officially on submission. I wrote a query for it earlier this month and sent the first chapters to my dream agent, who requested a full. Here’s the query:

While passing through her hometown a decade after she left, Amber Blake impulsively revisits her old house on Linden Way. She only means to stay a moment, to show her 3-year-old daughter Bee the place where she grew up. But when the kindly new owners invite them inside, Amber cannot resist.

Soon Bee is missing, the owners have disappeared, and Amber finds herself in a house full of ghosts. Time takes on new meaning as she loses herself in living memories and a past that does not wish to be forgotten.

As Amber fights the powerful lure of a childhood she’d long left behind, her tenuous hold on the real world slips further from her grasp. Is it merely nostalgia she’s battling, or something far more menacing? Who haunts the house on Linden Way, and where are they hiding her child?

Well, does that sound like something you’d want to read? If so, keep your fingers crossed. I have a good feeling about this one, and things can only get better.