Happy New Year!

Somehow it’s already 2026—and somehow, February is almost here. I’m not entirely sure where 2025 went, but it feels like it passed in a blink.

For the past several years, I’ve written a year-end wrap-up followed by a list of goals for the new year. When I sat down to do that again, I realized something: many of my goals haven’t changed much at all. I still want to write and publish more, be present for my family, stay connected to the Deaf community, and take care of my health. In many ways, that’s enough.

There were parts of last year that were difficult, including the loss of a long-standing friendship. It hurt, and it’s something I’m still grieving, but we have managed a cordial relationship as we have mutual friends. Additionally, there were several family members whose health has declined, and my husband broke his collarbone, which caused us to figure out how to celebrate the holidays differently this year.

Last year also brought real progress.

I became serious about publishing, signed contracts with an editor and an illustrator, outlined future books in the Heritage Series, and continued running Signs & Stories Shop while shifting my focus toward my book. I also launched a Patreon, showed up a little more online, and attended a book retreat with good friends.

Looking ahead to 2026, here’s what I’m working toward:

• Publishing my debut novel (tentatively titled Water’s Grasp)
• Attending DeaFest as a vendor with both my book and items from Signs & Stories Shop
• Expanding the shop with more items including more cross-stitch, macrame, bookmarks, and stickers
• Finishing Once Upon a Deaf Tale Collection: Volume 1 and preparing it for publication
• Creating the ASL Videos for Once Upon a Deaf Tale Collection: Volume 1
• Writing Book 2 (and more) of the Heritage Series
• Sharing more writing and Deaf/ASL content, including on Patreon and Substack
• Making time for both creativity and family

It’s a long list, but progress doesn’t have to be fast to be meaningful. Slow and steady still counts.

But above all, I’m going to give myself grace more. I will also be using more SimCom on my video posts. This is a personal choice. While I prefer to be voice-off, ASL only in my videos and then do a voice-over and captions, it takes twice as long to create a video. SimComming in my videos will allow for me to make more videos and less energy. I would love to make more videos, so that is the reason I’ve made this choice.

Finally, the DEAFinitely Readers Book Club is doing a Reading Challenge this year! Join us during the year to read books with d/Deaf characters, ASL or other sign languages, and more. I’m so excited for this challenge!

Happy New Year, and thank you for being here with me.
Here’s to 2026.