Hello Readers,
Welcome back to my author's blog, Happy DETours!
What a Year!
I am feeling truly grateful for 2024! It has been filled with so many blessings that I want to recap quickly before the year is done!
Both my debut YA novel, Pretend and my debut children's book, She Who Walks Above The Trees, won 1st Place in The BookFest Awards for Spring 2024.
Both books went on to win numerous awards in book festivals around the country.
My youngest son graduated on the Dean's List as an Electrical Engineer in May. He was offered and accepted an Electrical Engineering job before he graduated by his co-op placement.
My book Pretend, was featured on the NASDAQ board at Times Square in New York City at the end of May.
Found out over the Summer of 2024 that my oldest son and his wife were expecting. This will be my first grandchild (a girl) and after having all sons I can now buy lots of pink! My little grandbaby pie is due in 2025!
On July 9th, my second children's book, She Who Swims Above The Seas in The Adventures Above Series launched. It debuted at #1 on Amazon's Hot New Releases List and stayed in the top 3 for the entire release month!
My author journey and my new book release were featured in the newspaper and online at the beginning of September.
Several local bookstores & toy stores started carrying my books.
I began booking author events and have had an appearance event nearly every week/weekend from summer all the way through the end of December.
I finally went wide with distribution and my books are now available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble; Books-A-Million (BAM!), Bookshop.org, Walmart and many other online forums around the world. I'm even on Booktopia's website in Australia!
Won the Grand Prize at a writer/author conference I attended in late October.
Book 3 of my children's book series is in for editing and the storyboard illustrations are in full swing. Expected to launch in Spring 2025.
Book 2 (the companion novel to Pretend) is nearly finished. My beta readers are already doing their first read through submitting notes and thoughts. Expected to launch in Spring 2025.
When I started this 2024 recap blog, I expected to have just a handful of highlights. But as I was actively recalling events, more and more came to mind. I knew I was busy this year but this was definitely next level. And speaking of the next level, it doesn't stop here. I expect 2025 to be just as busy if not more!
I am already booking author events into March, two of my books are launching in the Spring, my first grandchild is due, I'm awaiting news from award contests for my second children's book, and an upcoming magazine article that I hope to share soon. I also have some new book partnerships and collaborations that I'm super excited about as well as some other cool book news!
So, stay tuned!
Here's to another great year in 2025!
Happy New Year & Happy DETours!
Jenn
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