👋 that was the year that was!

I had big dreams for a year-in-review newsletter this week. 2024 was a big year: we moved into a new house and started making it a home, I published my debut novel, I turned this newsletter into an Actual Thing, I started working on a second book — lots happened, and I had stars in my eyes about a long, thoughtful reflection.

But 2024 was also my first full calendar year as a parent of two, and if it taught me anything, it’s that perfect is the enemy of good, and sometimes, getting something done is better than working so hard to do something perfectly that you don’t do it at all.

Coincidentally — or ironically, depending on how you think of it — my “word of the year” for 2024 was endurance. 

Writing about endurance back in January, I had broken it down into three areas to focus on for the year: balancing urgency with longevity, building and sustaining community, and finding joy and delight. Rather than looking at the year as something to be endured, I was looking for ways to build my ability to endure, and those three aspects were what made the most sense at the time.

Looking back now, I think I was right. The Shelly of December 2023 would rather not have written a year-end newsletter than to write one that didn’t share exactly what I wanted to share, every word chosen with absolute care, the whole thing edited to perfection. The Shelly of December 2024, who has gotten more than one pep talk about just getting shit done, babe, is willing to say goodbye to this year with a reflection that’s short, sweet, and to the point — but you know, there’s some joy in that, too.

All that being said, 2024 was a pretty wild year, and there’s a lot that I’m super proud of! In the spirit of a New Year’s Eve countdown, and also because we love a good listicle, and because we’re wistful for our fanfiction days, and definitely not at all because we are Too Tired For Proper Newsletter Organization, let’s do a “5 things that happened in 2024 and were pretty cool, and one thing we’re looking forward to in 2025!” list!

1. We moved into what will hopefully be our Forever Home! Relocating from New York to our old stomping grounds in Western MA (where my partner and I met as kids at summer camp — I know, I know, I know) has been a longtime dream, and this year, we finally made it happen. We’ve been here just over six months now, and every day it feels a little more like home.

2. I published my debut novel, and got to achieve my dream of an in-person book launch at Bluestockings bookstore in NYC!

3. And speaking of my beloved Rules for Ghosting, she made some headlines of her own! We spent a week on the USA Today bestseller list, got amazing reviews at BookPage and Shelf Awareness, snagged some coverage from LitHub, Geek Girl Authority, and Book Riot, and even ended up on year-end lists from the New York Times and the Chicago Review of Books!

4. I read 47 books (not counting rereads!) in 2024 — the most I’ve read in a single year since before I had kids! Figuring out a combo of snagging an ebook of my current hard-copy read from my local library to make it easier to read when I’d normally doom-scroll.

5. I worked with 11 organizations and individuals to help them work toward the next stage of their projects, either through fundraising, digital strategy, copywriting, editing, manuscript coaching, query critiques, or a combo of more than one of the above! I did more diverse work than I’ve ever had in the past, including branching out into new areas of coaching and editing, and it was an absolute joy to do — fingers crossed that I’ll get to do even more in 2025!

+1 thing I’m looking forward to in 2025 — aka, finishing my draft of book two and getting out on sub! I’ve been having a blast drafting this one, and while I was hoping to finish my first draft by the end of this year (midnight tonight, actually!), going back to the drawing board to really dig into some structural edits for the back half of the book is going to make it stronger in the long run, and hopefully means an easier editorial process with my agent and a smoother ride to getting on sub by this summer. I genuinely cannot wait to introduce you all to Delilah, Emmett, Roscoe, and their road trip of a lifetime.

2024 was absolutely a year that required endurance, and I’m glad to say that I made it through, even when sometimes it really looked like I wouldn’t (and that’s a newsletter for another day; this is the optimism one!). We’ve got a hell of a lot to do as creators, organizers, activists, and humans in general in the year to come, but for tonight, I’m just glad we’re all still here, all still fighting, and all still enduring.

Let’s see what comes next. 💜