Wrapped with a bow

It's time to wrap it up!

December Wrap-Up!

I’m officially on deadline. Well, I’ve been on a deadline for a while now. I didn’t finish NaNo and then readjusted my deadlines and now I am two weeks until I need to have Puck finished. Well, less than two weeks by the time you read this. Which isn’t terrifying at all. (It is times like this when I wish for a sarcasm font.) I’m also 98% sure I am changing the title of Puck, I just don’t know to what yet. Hopefully, it will come to me as I finish up this draft.

Truthfully, being on this tight of a timeline reminds of me last year when I was up to my eyeballs trying to finish a draft, edit the draft, and publish the book in a week. It is still a miracle that it happened. The Hunt for Christmas was put into the world through the sheer determination of me and my editor. This is why you should always have a great editor to push you to keep going.

Other than being on deadline, I’m wrapping up my first semester as a teacher! By the time you read this, mid-terms will be winding down and I’ll be heading into the first Christmas break I have ever had where I actually get a break. It’s rather exciting for me.

Then of course there are Christmas parties, Christmas activities, and everything else I’m going to squeeze in during this time. So writing and all things Christmas are on the agenda. What are your plans?!

What to read as we get closer to Christmas

Is there anything better than reading cute Christmas stories during the Christmas season? Well, watching cheesy Christmas movies are a close second but I always love reading all the cheesy, Christmas-y, rom-coms I can get my hands on. Here are some of my favorites.

Check out this sweet read here. This book had me laughing, cringing along with the main character, and getting all heart-eyed at the ending. Such a sweet, easy read!

Check out this read here. This was such a fun book to read! I read it last year and have been saving it for this year to read again. Sarah Sutton is one of my auto-buy authors. As I have said about most of her books, read it now, thank me later.

Yes, I will plug my own book. It’s a Christmas book and very appropriate.

If you told Avery Turner that she reminded you of the Grinch, she would probably agree with you. When asked about her feelings for Christmas, she would probably tell you that Dr. Suess based the Grinch off of her. It’s not that Avery is a grumpy person or even a mean person. In fact, she would love to tell you how happy she is all the time. Avery just doesn't like Christmas.

Now Avery finds herself in the middle of a small town that should have been named Christmas Town, USA. She can’t walk outside her dorm room without feeling like Christmas threw up on her and she still isn't warming up to the idea of Christmas being a thing. She’s lived her entire life keeping Christmas in the not-friends zone and she has had no intention of changing that.

Enter Hunter, the man who might have been the inspiration for the movie Elf. He eats, sleeps, and breathes everything Christmas. He is Avery's polar opposite when it comes to Christmas. He believes Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year and he is determined to get Avery on board.

Will Avery finally learn the real meaning of Christmas or will she turn Hunter into a grinch?

Looking for other books?

Check out my other books, they make great gifts!

"& Jesus" is a 30 day devotional to help you dive deeper into a relationship with God through journaling. These daily devotionals have multiple journaling prompts to help you dig deeper into God's word. Each prompt is designed to get you writing, get you talking with yourself and with God. Take the next thirty days to see how writing can be beneficial in your life.

As the girl who was always picked last at home, the loud obnoxious one around her friends, Ashleigh Underwood has a very real idea of what it is like to be abnormal. If the drama in her life didn't make that clear enough, all she had to do was look around to the exasperated looks of her friends to know that her life was exhausting. Her brother with a disability, her mom and her terminal illness were just the headlines of a life filled with more problems than solutions.

Ashleigh was determined to change that. She was constantly striving to obtain a sense of normal. If she could just have a life that looked more like her friends or those of the girls on TV, she would have figured it out. Maybe then, she wouldn’t be the exhausting one in the group.

In Chasing Normal, Ashleigh goes through her chase and what happened when she finally got to the finish line.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas! Keep writing and keep reading!