How odd, my friends, that it has been a year exactly since I last sat down and wrote here. This wasn’t planned, I just noticed it as I sat down to write.

“Nobody reads personal blogs anymore”, I’d tell myself. “If you’re just going to be talking to yourself, what’s the point? You can do that on all of your social medias.”

There have been several times in the past year that I thought about writing. I’ve even gone as far as to open WordPress and stare longingly at the blank screen. Inevitably I always convinced myself to not post anything after all.

At which point I’d go back to my social medias and scream into the void. I do seem to spend a lot of time on Facebook for someone who never gets much engagement unless she’s complaining about something.

I’m tired of always complaining about something.

It is past time I reconnect with the Cozy part of my Feral Coziness.

REWIND

I accomplished a few things in the past year.

Through most of 2024 I was entering a monthly flash fiction contest, and through most of that time I placed in the top 5 every contest, even getting grand prize twice. The winnings, and the positive feedback I kept getting on my entries really reignited my passion for writing. And writing used to be THE passion in my life.

So, in November of 2024 I put out a collection of short stories. I had been talking about it off and on for years, and one day I decided to quit talking about it, to quit making excuses as to why I hadn’t done it yet, and just did it. And that started a pleasant chain of events.

Putting out On Darkened Wings and Other Short Horrors turned into me finally being brave enough to submit work to other anthologies and a couple of them were accepted. That in turn led to be being asked to write something for an invite only anthology. Then I was invited to join The Butchered Writers, a horror writers group that I had been stalking reading for several anthologies.

So, between November 2024 and October 2025 my work had ended up in 9 anthologies, with more to come for sure.

In non-writing related news, I started a new medication in May for my diabetes. I had been on metformin for a while and it wasn’t having the effect on my A1C that my doctor wanted.

A common side effect of this medicine is weight loss, and lose weight I have. I’ve lost enough weight to create a 7 year old child. 60 pounds in 5 months is no small feat. Of course, it is because this medicine has kept me horribly sick in every possible way for the past 5 months, but.. the good news is that my blood sugar seems to be pretty stable about where it ought to be so hopefully I can ease off ALL my meds soon.

CURRENTLY

My left hand is itching like crazy today. That means fortune is coming my way, right? Goodness knows I could use some. I have about $8 to my name right now.

I do have a lot of irons in the fire right now, though most of them are non paying, so I don’t see wealth coming from them any time soon. But lets see what I’m up to:

1. I’m putting together Bushy-Tailed Demons, a collection of squirrel themed horror stories. – It started as a novella (in progress) by me, and I’ve decided to make it into an anthology with some of my author friends.
2. I still need to finish 2 articles for The Butchered Writers webpage.
3. I need to get a couple of stories finished for the 31 SHORT STORIES being offered on the Butchered Writers webpage in October. That’s like a whole collection for the price of NOTHING.
4. I’ve got a frog commission to do, and I need to make a couple more frogs to put up for adoption aside from that.

LOOKING FORWARD

First and foremost I want to start blogging again. Not as self promotion, or to monetize, but because I used to have a lot of fun blogging, and damnit, I want to have fun blogging again. I want to talk about the books I’m reading, the crafts I’m making, the life I’m living and maybe….just maybe…I’ll find a secret tribe of personal bloggers to share my life with along the way.

I’m also hoping to work crafting/creating back into my life somehow. I don’t know how because I’m ALWAYS at work, but somehow. Right now I want to start making block prints on cards and clothes, and hopefully open a shop online again….etsy or Depop or storenvy or something somewhere.

I also haven’t given up on the idea of doing a newsletter type deal. I just can’t decide if I want it to be done digital as a PDF download, or if I want it to be more physical and mail it myself. Or if I want a combination of both. That might be a 2026 thing though, as I can’t get the logistics worked out in my head right now.