my 2024 wrapped
+ what i'm looking forward to in 2025
happy new year friends!!! after spending most of the last year off the grid (get it?? grid?? because I deleted my instagram???? ugh sorry I hate myself) I thought it might be fun to do a little roundup of what I was up to in 2024:
spent 339 days off social media. now, was I really off social media? no, I love to scroll!!! sue me!!! but my Ava Wilder accounts were on ice for almost a full year, which was absolutely the right move. I’ve been back for a few weeks now and having a great time, with some new boundaries in place to ensure I stay having a great time.
broke 3000 hours playing the sims 4 (not all this year, I promise!!!)
read 105 books! I posted some quick thoughts about several of them on Instagram & saved them as story highlight on my profile.
some foreshadowing for the later part of this newsletter lol walked 1765 miles, or 1.8 Vanessa Carltons. not all of it was walking, but most of it was, and when the weather is nice enough to do it outside, it’s usually the best part of my day.
drove 1335 miles (1.3 Vanessa Carltons) from OKC to our new home in Virginia. or, more accurately, my sister drove me and our cat in my car, while my husband drove all our belongings in a 28-foot uhaul. nobody enjoyed it but we all survived!
hit a 186 day streak in BeReal, my favorite social media platform now. My friends list is ~10 people I love, and I get so much delight from seeing what’s up with them every day!! it also helped me make peace with my front-facing camera, even though it makes me look like Mark Zuckerberg.
attended 6 book events, both as a conversation partner and an audience member, and got to hang out with so many amazing authors, booksellers, and readers! (I wish I had gone to more, but I am about an hour away from all of these bookstores so going to them can be a little bit of an Ordeal.) these are in chronological order so you can follow my journey of growing out my bangs over the course of the year:
I’m not sure what my event schedule will look like this year, but I do know I’ll be attending my first two book festivals (Love Y’all & Steamy Lit) where, now that I think about it, I’ll be seeing most of these authors again!! plus a bunch more!! hell yeah!!! (also, I’m going to try my best to keep my events page updated 🤞)
traveled to Miami, London, Nashville, Western Massachusetts, NYC, OKC (as a visitor this time!), Santa Rosa Beach, and Las Vegas.
attended four weddings in three of those places, two of which involved people named Rachel (with one more Rachel wedding on the horizon in 2025)
literally me
quit writing (sort of)
I had been at a point for a while where it felt like being an author (mostly the part where it turns my inner monologue into this on a loop) was taking more out of me than it was giving back, and I needed to take a big step away and re-evaluate what role it should have in my life going forward.
I also had run into too many problems with the book I had under contract and knew I was not going to be able to finish it.
my publishing team was incredibly supportive and understanding about giving me time and space to figure out my next move. they are the best!!
also extremely grateful to my loved ones near and far who put up with me being annoying about this for months and made sure I knew they loved me and were proud of me no matter what 🥹
un-quit writing like two weeks later
psych!!!!
drama queen alert!!!!!!!
no but pretty much immediately I realized that what I actually wanted to do was finish the book I shelved at around 30k words in early 2021 & had never been able to fully let go.
they say the way to get your spark back is to work on a project just for you, and they’re right! I had fallen in love with this book before publishing broke my brain, and since I knew it was unlikely to go anywhere now, it felt safe to work on without fear or self-consciousness.
well, less fear and self-consciousness than usual lol
ever since I got my first book deal in 2020, I have lived in a constant state of fear and anxiety about what will happen if and when this all goes away. it took until this year to truly understand that if my writing career as I know it comes to an end— whether it’s by my choice or not— I will be okay! so I should stop beating myself up over every little thing because none of it actually matters! all that matters is whether I still enjoy writing books, and it turns out, I do!
finished the first draft without telling anyone on my team I was working on anything
went back and rewrote it from the beginning
surprise dropped it on my editor
she reverse uno surprised ME by wanting to publish it!!!!!
it’ll be out fall 2025 (exact date tbd)!!!!!!!!! 😭😭😭
hopefully I’ll be able to reveal the title & synopsis very soon, but it’s another celebrity romance (probably my last in this subgenre– I think now I’ve said all I have to say on that front). It’s a departure from my previous books in a few major ways, but similar in others. I worked really hard on it and love it a lot. If you liked my other two books, I think (hope?) you’ll like this one! If you didn’t, you are probably not subscribed to this newsletter so I’m not going to worry about you!!
made some early moves on book 4 and I am sooo excited about it 👀👀👀👀
reached level 3210 in Project Makeover
what a year!!!
despite having many things to look forward to, I also have a lot of unease about what’s in store for us in 2025, a feeling I’m sure many of us share. I’ll be looking for as many moments of joy and accomplishment and connection as possible, and I hope you find some, too.
okay I think that’s it, love you byeeee!!!!
Rachel Getting Married is fabulous!!!! I hope your weddings were happier than that one, though! Love the photos from readings too!
New subscriber here, recommended by a friend!👋Thank you for sharing the necessary pivots and big steps back that allowed you to find your way back to where you wanted to be. I have been on submission to publishers for close to a year and it can feel soooo soul-sucking and disorienting. Timely read for me - thank you!