So Long 2024, Greetings and Salutations 2025

Looking back to look ahead.

This is the time of year for reviews. We look back on the year’s highlights, from our biggest accomplishments, to favorite family moments, to the best books we read. I always spend the last couple of weeks in December reflecting on how far I’ve come so I can plan where I want to go, focusing on the things I’ve checked off my list of resolutions, the insights I’ve gained, the happy surprises I’ve stumbled upon so I can march into the new year with positivity and lessons learned. Reflecting on past goals achieved helps me set new ones, giving me the confidence to set a high bar.

As 2024 comes to an end, I’m celebrating many highlights, both personal and professional. As far as my writing, I’m thrilled to look back on my successes and use those as building blocks, momentum for all the things I’d like to do in 2025.

I sent out 61 pitches this year, the most I’ve ever sent and exactly one more than last year. Progress! (And to be clear, when I say 61 pitches, that doesn’t mean I wrote 61 different pieces. I wish I had that kind of time and creativity while juggling a day job and trying to revise and sell my memoir! Some of those pitches were for pieces rejected by a different editor, some were literary magazines that allow simultaneous submissions.)

Of those 61 pitches, I received 8 acceptances, 24 rejections, and the rest were no responses. That’s an excellent ratio for me.

My biggest writing celebration came in June when I signed with an amazing literary agent for my memoir. I made a somewhat last minute decision to attend the Nonfiction Writers Conference and sign up for the Pitch-the-Agents live event. That life-changing decision led me to an agent I love working with and the biggest professional accomplishment of my career so far!

I know in this challenging publishing world, a lot of luck is involved, but I also worked really hard to chase those dreams, and I’m proud of that. When I first started writing publicly, my little blog in 2010, I never imagined I’d be where I am now. I take nothing for granted as I continue to work hard while also keeping my fingers crossed for a little good luck sprinkled in.

Below are the nine pieces I got published in 2024. (I know I said I had 8 acceptances, but one was accepted in 2023.) My work included a reported essay, a craft piece, other personal essays, two creative nonfiction pieces and, somewhat shockingly, a poem.

I can’t wait to see what 2025 brings.

Brevity Nonfiction Blog

Writing with chronic pain isn't always easy. But I figured out how to make it work for me. I wrote about it in my craft piece called How Chronic Pain Changed My Writing Process.

Grown and Flown

I wrote about my life as a competitive swimmer and how I'm relieved my kids ended up in different sports in my essay for Grown and Flown called I Was a College Athlete, I’m Relieved My Teens Chose Different Sports.

TODAY Show

For TODAY, I wrote a reported essay about my divorce a decade ago and the cultural trend of women and divorce today called Divorce is having a moment. And I wish it had happened 10 years ago.

MER - Mom Egg Review

I wrote a creative nonfiction piece called High School Graduation that was a 535-word sentence (yes, it’s all one sentence) that got me my first appearance in a print literary magazine, MER’s Ages/Stages Issue. You can watch me do a reading of it in the following video around minute 13.

HuffPost

I wrote about the Golden Bachelor divorce, hope and the pursuit of happiness at any age in my HuffPost essay The 'Golden Bachelor' Divorce Came As A Shock — But The Show Did Offer A Message.

Roi Fainéant Press

My creative nonfiction piece for Roi Fainéant Press called Muscle Memory is about swimming, past and present, and the tricky nature of memory.

Maudlin House

My first published poem! I wrote this poem in 2009 and found it in an old notebook, massaging it a little and renaming it This Is How The Marriage Ends. It was published at Maudlin House on my 48th birthday.

Next Avenue

Another essay about my chronic pain, this one for Next Avenue about how I refuse to let it stop me from doing something I love: traveling. It’s called Chronic Pain Made Me Question My Ability to Travel.

HuffPost

For my second HuffPost culture essay of the year called I Binged ‘Ted Lasso’ To Deal With Burnout And The Lessons It Taught Me Were Priceless, I reflected on why the show Ted Lasso is so special to me as the possibility of a fourth season was announced.

Recent Reads

I narrowly achieved my Goodreads goal of reading 35 books in 2024 (in part because I spent the last week of December with a nasty cold or flu or something and couldn’t do much else besides read). Here’s what I read this month to help me hit that mark:

• Swan Song by Elin Hilderbrand

• The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave

• A Reason to See You Again by Jami Attenberg

• Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Wishing you all a happy and healthy new year!

May you be happy.

May you be healthy.

May you be safe from harm.

May you live with ease.💫