The Brightness of New

2025 for Authors, Readers, and Dreamers

Reflections on the brightness of a new year, new goals, and new projects

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash

New year, new me… or new year, same old me?

The conventional wisdom of New Years bothers me. A dreamer personality with just enough delusion to think I can accomplish my goals, I find the idea that people magically change on New Years to be… misleading.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of a new year. I love the idea of a clean slate, a fresh start, an empty notebook. I love the brightness, the shininess, the luster of hope. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that we do not magically change overnight, that real lasting change takes time and follow through, and above all CONSISTENCY.

This year, my word of the year is CONSISTENCY. The theme: PROGRESS OVER TIME

Hopefully, my tentative book release schedule reflects that theme. I am committed to writing consistently and learning and growing over time.

Tentative Book Release Schedule

• Late April 2025- RISING, book 2 in the For the Stars Trilogy. The sequel to REACH. This book follows Reach and Llama as they confront their heritages on Mars. It takes place entirely in space and mostly on Mars. I think you’ll love the Mars colonies, the increased romance (still no spice!), the side characters, and the fairytale vibes in at least one part of the book.

• June 21st(ish) Superior Hearts Series book 1- as of now, it’s still untitled! Originally going to be called A Superior Heart, I realized that this moniker fits the series so much better. This summer camp romance has nods to the Twilight obsession that caused the movies to constantly be on our dorm tv channel, and my friends who developed an extreme love for vampires…I didn’t, but hey, I amassed a lot of knowledge that needs to be put to good use. This book is a romantic comedy with faith elements. It’s been so fun to write Catholic characters, summer camp, a cougar (actual animal), and a main character who loves shipwrecks even more than I do.

• September 1st -NRG (titled but not sharing, yet)- a second romantic comedy taking place in a National Park. This is the kick off to a BIG series that I hope to spend many years on. The title reveal will be in July on Instagram! This book is just starting the drafting process, but Paige and Beck are adorable. And Paige’s grandma might have a broken hip, but she sure has a lot of ideas about Paige’s love life.

• November 1st- FALLING (book 3 of the For the Stars trilogy) This book exists in the roughest of all forms right now, idea format. I’m dreaming, and thinking, and also finding that I need to plot more heavily than ever before because I need to tie up loose ends and plot teasers from books 1 and 2. As a complete and total pantser, this is terrifying, but I’ll do it for you.

Books to check out

REACH A boy who’s government thinks he’s half-Martian is torn away from his home in the name of science. Reach uses chess and game theory to understand the reasons of the government and simply, stay alive.

This YA dystopian sci-fi book is full of plot twists, nefarious secrets, space, no spice forbidden romance, and chess. It’s also my book! It’s on Kindle Unlimited, and Amazon in paperback and eBook format.

EMPOWEREDS I am reading this on Kindle Unlimited right now- the swoon. It’s SO good.

The Curse of Swords and Slippers : An Epic Tale of 12 Dancing Princesses

Fantasy is such a popular genre right now, and while it’s not my go to genre, I like to read a book or two periodically. Keeps me well rounded. The blurb for this book is fantastic. Rival houses? Peasants? Forbidden passion? A witch bent on revenge? SIGN ME UP! It’s up next on my TBR!

Time saving hack for busy authors and readers

January is my least favorite month of the year. My husband works long hours, I feel lonely, isolated, cold, and it’s still dark outside at 5:00pm. Over the past 12 years, I’ve learned a few hacks for how to manage this ‘season’ of busyness.

CROCKPOT is KING

Our family loves soups and bread. (I think the kids mostly just eat the bread, but they do get exposed to different flavors, so I’m ok with it.)

My favorite unexpected soup: DILL PICKLE SOUP

Here’s my recipe

-5 cups veggie or bone broth

-1 3lb bag fingerling potatoes, washed, diced

-1 white or Vidalia onion, diced

-1 jar Claussen pickles

-1 can Great Northern Beans

-1 can corn

-1/2 cup heavy cream or whole milk

*This is NOT a traditional dill pickle soup recipe, but I’ve tweaked it to make it fit our family’s needs. (Traditional recipes include carrots, but two of my kids are allergic to carrots, so we leave that out)

Step 1

Gather crockpot and supplies

Step 2

Wash and dice potatoes, onion, and pickles (reserve the pickle juice), drain and rinse beans

Step 3

Place all ingredients except the cream/milk into crock pot. Pour 1/4-1/2 cup of pickle juice liquid into the crockpot. Stir, and salt to taste.

Step 4

Leave it alone for 4-5 hours, until potatoes are tender when pierced with fork. 30 minutes before serving add the cream/milk. Serve with crusty bread and butter on the side.

Happy 2025! Wishing you a lovely new year!

And as always,

thank you for being here!

Olivia