The author at her friend's house a few years ago, poaching a grainy selfie in front of a fabulous tree!
You might be thinking "she wants a new agent".
Well, yuh huh! That's a given.
I also want a five book deal, script approval, and director's credits.
Another research trip would be fabulous! I really would love to set a book at El Morro! Maybe one in Canyon de Chelly.
I'd also love to stroll through Rome or Buenos Aires with my husband. We'll be celebrating our 30th anniversary in June. Actually, I'd LOVE to take him to my favourite little hogan in New Mexico, and then down to Bosque Redondo and show him the world and the history that captured my imagination.
I'd love a new kitchen, too.
I'd love a new set of nerves for my feet.
I'd love a new spine!
I'd REALLY love my extended family to stay healthy for decades to come.
But to be honest, I WANT 2018 to be OVER.
Yes, I know it'll be over in a few weeks, and I will not miss it AT ALL. Yes, there were some great times, but there were also more than a few craptastic times, and a few not minor health scares that shook me and my family up.
There were professional setbacks that I knew were coming, and that I tried to prepare myself for, and that I tried to take control of before someone else took away that control, but crap happened, and it hit hard.
But, let me say this, even though I appear to be on the outside looking in, I firmly believe that I am in a much better place career-wise now than I was before.
Dear reader, whether or not you share my faith, I must articulate something...mine hasn't gone anywhere. In fact, it is stronger out here on the rim, simply because I am out here on the rim.
Whether I sign with a big agency out of New York or London, or a boutique agency out of Los Angeles or Seattle?
Career wise?
I will be fine.
One of my current favourite songs that is in almost constant play is Michael W. Smith's Surrounded.
The line that got me, hooked me, and holds me is "It may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by You"
So, no matter if my health is not so great, if I never sign with an agent again, if I have to go it alone in my career (which for a few of my friends, is exactly how writing should be), I am not alone.
Neither are you.
And that is the essence and meaning of Christmas, that God Almighty, in His infinite mercy, sent His son, so that humans would never have to face life here, and all of eternity, alone.
I want you all to know that.