A Year in Review

Happy Holidays! I’ve had such a wonderful year, I wanted to share the highlights.

I’ll start with the best news of all. Both my children are in college this year. WooHoo! It was a little shaky there for awhile, but they pulled through. My son just graduated from High School in June and is a freshman at the local community college on his way to Portland State. My daughter is now a Junior at Oregon State. What could be better than this?

And then there’s my publishing success. I’ve spent most of my life writing, and just as many years collecting those rejection letters. But this year I struck gold. My paranormal/suspense novel ALEX was published with Solstice Publishing! The e-Book came out at the end of May with the print version following in the middle of July. It was absolutely amazing to hold my book in my hands the first time.

Speaking of firsts, I had my very first book signing EVER on November 5th for ALEX at the Oregon Book and Author Fair in Central Point. Over fifty authors attended, and let me tell you, it was great! Not so much in the sales area, though I sold a few copies and ran out of flyers. But it was the interaction with other authors and readers that made it such a memorable experience.

With the success of ALEX, I searched and found the perfect home for my short romances with Breathless Press. I’ve had so much fun publishing through them! The staff and other authors who’ve signed with them are wonderful people and so supportive of each other. I couldn’t be happier. I also have a short ghost story released from MuseItUp Publishing. This was actually the first short story I sold, but they didn’t publish it until October to go with their Halloween theme. It worked perfectly.

What else? I’ve taken some great vacations with the family and also with just my husband. We visited Lake Tahoe for my family reunion. Me and Mark (my gorgeous mate) spent a romantic weekend at the Crater Lake Hotel. I’d say Mark is my soul-mate, but he’d think that was corny. I couldn’t think of being with anyone else, though. We also spent a week in early summer in eastern Oregon. We went to Kai Strand, my very talented sister-in-law’s, book signing for her children’s story ‘The Weaver’. Afterwards, we spent a few days at the John Day Fossil Beds. An intriguing, beautifully unique area of Oregon.

And now I’m fully immersed in the holidays. Oh, Happy Birthday to me, by the way! My Birthday was on the 12th. I tell my family that if we just pretend I don’t have birthdays anymore, then I’ll never grow older. They simply smile and throw a party anyway.

So, there you have my life in a nutshell. I think the gift I’m going to ask Santa for is that every writer seeking publication will know, at least once in their lives, the joy of holding their published book in their hands and experiencing the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that I’ve been blessed with.

Hope you have a very Merry Christmas!

Dianne Hartsock
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