My Christmas letter...

Hi folks!  Can you believe the holidays are already upon us?  My gosh this year went by in a blink. 

 

2011 has been crazy for weather here on the east coast!

Record-breaking snow in January.

A tornado in May.

Record heat in July.

A hurricane in September that knocked out power and closed schools. 

And a historic blizzard that knocked out power lines all over Connecticut just in time for Halloween.

And no sign of a white Christmas.  :-(

Not your average year by any means and along with these memorable weather events came some of our own family memories.

My daughter turned sixteen this year and had a hell of a birthday bash. She got a job at the local Friendly’s soon after her birthday in March and continues to work and dance and have a generally crazy schedule this school year. She hasn’t gotten her license yet because of her crazy schedule but we’re hoping she can fit the required classes in between now and the end of January and have her license before she turns seventeen.

My son has been just as busy as my daughter. Between basketball, baseball Jukido and guitar lessons, he's one busy boy. He earned a blue belt this year in Jukido this year and is looking forward to getting to the next level. He also asked me to write a book with him this year and what a blast to be able to get into my son's twelve-year-old mind!  He has some very intriguing ideas and I've had the joy of teaching him how to flush them out and create something fascinating.  We're hoping to get the first installment of The Death Chronicles out in 2012.
My husband has been having fun with his pool league and playing paint ball with the neighbors in the spring and fall when we aren’t making the trek to our summer place. During the summer we live for the weekends on the beach and it was a challenge this year with my daughter's work schedule, but we still had time to enjoy Maine. Now that the season is over, we’re focused on the holidays and trying not to get hung up with the mental countdown to opening day in May.  Our day jobs have kept us on our toes too and my husband got some well deserved accolades at work - he was honored with a service excellence award this year.  

As for me, it's been a busy year on the writing front. Beyond releasing three novels and two short story anthologies, I took the plunge into the publishing realm this year with a writing colleague of mine. Jason Halstead and I opened the doors to Novel Concept Publishing, LLC in May and we’ve been blessed with some stellar submissions. As of December 23, 2011, we have three published authors under our label with two more queued up for early in 2012. I can’t begin to tell you how fulfilling it is to help another author hone their book into a sharp captivating story and see it published. The only thing that has outshines that experience was hitting the number one spot on Amazon’s Horror/Occult list in November. Now we just need to get our authors to that acclaimed milestone…

On that note, I bid farewell to 2011 and want to wish you all a happy and healthy 2012!