Goodbye 2025! Here’s My End-of-the-Year Author Wrap-up

It’s the last day of the year and the eve of my birthday. That’s right. I’m a New Year’s kid, and tomorrow, I shall complete my 30th year around that big, burning ball in the sky we call the sun. But that’s not all.

While tomorrow marks me one year older, it also marks another year in the querying trenches for my debut novel, FAVOR, a romantic fantasy that follows the journey of a captured woman who is trying to earn her freedom from the king she’s been sold to.

The story has changed so much over the past year that I feel like I’m querying a brand new book, and though it makes me feels better to think that I’m starting from scratch, to forget that I haven’t been pitching this project for three long years, it’s not that easy, especially with 150-plus rejections under my belt. (I have no idea if that number is actually correct. I’ve stopped counting.)

But this year, amid the rejections, I’ve also received full requests and R&Rs (I have one of each out at the moment), and that means I’m close. I’m so damn close to landing an agent I can feel it. But, I can’t operate off of good vibes and juju. It’s 2026, and I want this book out!

So I’ve made a crucial decision.

The batch of queries I have out right now will be my last. If nothing comes from it, then I will be self-publishing this book in 2026.

Now, before you start pointing fingers and yelling “Quitter! Quitter! Chicken dinner!” just know that I have considered self-publishing before. In fact, that was the original plan. But three years ago, I lost my job and didn’t have the funds to publish this book the way I wanted. 2025 was no kinder. In July, I was laid-off again. (Capitalism and corporations, am I right?) So, as you can see, I’m clearly no stranger to being knocked down, but that means I’m also no stranger to getting back up and trying again. And I’ve done that so many times with FAVOR.

Most of 2025 was spent doing revisions after receiving some very extensive notes from one agent in particular. She gave me some incredible advice, and you guessed it. She’s the R&R, and the new manuscript is sitting in her inbox as we speak. But, even if she doesn’t offer representation, even if no one does, I’ve decided on my own that this book, seven years and seven drafts later, is ready to be published, and I’m incredibly proud of it regardless.

It’s been one hell of a journey so far, but I have an optimistic feeling that everything is just getting started.

So, Happy New Year, and happy birthday to me!