Dr. J.’s 2017 Year End Review

I write this post sitting at my childhood dining room table. This month has been a bittersweet time for me. I have lost two family members and supported another during an emergency surgery. Writing has not been my number one focus for December, but I wanted to take this time to make an abbreviated update on what I have accomplished this year.

REFLECT AND TAKE STOCK.

I always stop and remember December 29, 2015. That was the date my first story went out into the world. It is hard to believe that was only two years ago. In May as a founding member of Wicked Pens Writers, I helped to select our colleagues. What a wonderful group. This year my work was accepted with Bedtime Diaries, Radish Fiction, and Bellesa. I have a story in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year Volume 3 and Big Book of Submission Volume 2. I was named a Top 100 Sex Blogger of 2017. I am very proud of these accomplishments.

PEOPLE WHO HAVE MADE MY YEAR and left their mark.

Mischa Eliot, Oleander Plume, Kayla Lords, John Brownstone, The Wicked Pens, Kink Crate, Professor Sex and Eliza David. This is my crew. Rachel Thompson has made my social media world, and I can’t thank her enough for her insights. I met sex researchers and therapists, David Ley, Michael Aaron, and Heather McPherson in NYC. I also met Romance Writer Tamara Lush, Rebecca Brooks, and writer/editor Lenora Solomon. I went to  Orlando in July and met a lovely group of new group Romance Writers on Radish that Tamara Lush introduced me to along with Radish CEO SY Lee and Editor Katherine Pelz.

The neat part of the year was meeting my fellow Wicked Pens writer, Jill Shannon in New York. Wicked Pens writer Pandora Spocks and I have met in Orlando twice. On our second get together, I introduced her to my Tallahassee and Amelia Island crowd. Meeting each one of my Wicked Pens Colleagues is on my bucket list.

WRITING PLANS FOR THE NEXT YEAR.

I have several stories in the works: Tops and Bottoms Club for Radish. This series is a spin-off story from ‘When the Sheets Talk’, Rafe and Beth had begun including others into their sexual activities and now they begin to discover the joys of a sex club. The novella in the works is called Our Lucky Charm. It is an erotic romance sports story set at a Petanque tournament. My novel called In Deep is in draft mode. It’s about a grieving sailor, Jericho Stone who needs fast cash to save his family boat.  He takes a job making sexual fantasies come true and must work with a woman, Katja Holst intent on discovering her body’s sexual desire, so she feels worthy of a relationship.

To date, I am scheduled to attend two conferences- Amelia Island Book Festival in February and Florida Writers Conference in October.

I am excited that I have a new member to add to my team. Chasity Gosnell Mahala has agreed to be my PA. So 2018 is looking good.

As always, my locals keep me grounded. Tracie, Kristi, Heather, and Darryl along with the rest of my WIPS and Pen Ten members. Thank you for your love and support.

NON WRITING LIFE

This new year will be very different with my house construction project finished. The first of the year will include landscaping and the creation of a petanque court in our yard. Travel will be a significant part of the year. Several trips are planned to visit friends in Orlando. I’m looking to select a river cruise in Europe. Look out Angora Shade.

Lastly, Happy New Year to all my followers and readers. I wish you the best of everything in the new year. Thank you for joining me on my journey.