Not a catchy title, I know. I’m not feeling particularly artistic tonight.

Trigger warning: pet loss

This month was supposed to feature author guests AJ Mullican and S Lucas, and a winter holiday reading round-up. This season was supposed to be my second time winning NaNoWriMo. This year I was supposed to finish the Assassin’s Heart series and draft the second Vyrkola Clan book.

Instead, this was the year our apartment flooded, twice. The year I got covid. The year my car broke down (thankfully that was a simple fix). Worst of all, this was the year my dog died…twice.

Following the passing of my sweet baby Parker this summer, my partner and I adopted a new dog, Jessi. She was only three years old and supposed to be our new forever family pet, but things took a turn this fall. To make a long, unpleasant story short, we had to put her down last week.

I’ve fallen behind on a lot of my plans, and I feel like I’ve let author friends and readers alike down. But I know that those friends and readers know I’m human. And I hope you’ll all be understanding of why I’ve been AWOL this season. December has been rough.

I have high hopes for next year. A part of me feels like 2023 can’t possibly get worse than 2022, though saying such feels like tempting fate.

2022 wasn’t all bad. I ended the year engaged, as I’d hoped, with a wedding in the works for next summer. We bought a house, a huge life milestone I never would have imagined this time last year. And I really love this little house. But ending the year with this loss has put a dark shadow over everything good and light this year in my memory. It’s hard to celebrate things like Christmas, New Year’s, a new house, or my upcoming birthday when all I have room for inside is this gaping, screaming emptiness.

This post feels like a bit of a mess. I hope it makes sense. I hope you all can be understanding of my absence, and the silence that will probably continue on this website for the next several weeks. When I return I hope it will be with happier news.

Give your furry family members extra cuddles for me this winter. Hold your loved ones close. Don’t take a single holiday with your people or your pets for granted.