It is February, and I have been an author for six years.
I am bad at celebrating anniversaries, in much the same way I am bad at figuring out what I want as a birthday gift. I just...don’t? I’m someone who tends to prefer activities over things — as a child, I went to Disneyland for my birthdays1 and Bear and I take advantage of our October anniversary by doing all the spooky, haunted shit we would do regardless.
But more than that, I’m just bad at celebrating myself in general. It’s the thing about being someone with a lot of luck; I don’t often think I have much to do with my own accomplishments. I’m bad at working, and I’m even worse at working hard — even my good grades at school were achieved with the barest minimum effort.
Publishing is probably the hardest I’ve ever worked at anything in my entire life.
I have a strange relationship with my own ambition, which is to say I don’t really have it. All I want, truly, is to be able to execution the creative vision in my head into something concrete and something real. Something that brings me joy when I read it.
And in that respect...I have accomplished a lot in ways that have nothing to do with luck. I have two books out in the world — and another on the way — and external success and publication does have a lot to do with luck, the execution of my art is mine and mine alone.
I’m pretty proud of that.
So, to celebrate, I’ve decided to host an anniversary JJubilee for the month of February. (No, that is not a typo. It’s JJ-ubilee.) I’m bad at gifts, but I love a good time, so I’ve decided to bring some extra Wintersong content out of the vault to share with y’all. Inspiration posts, origin stories, and more, including a surprise gift for my readers.
The calendar of content is below.
I’ve been an author for six years y’all. It’s been a wild ride.
There are multiple advantages to growing up in LA, and the proximity to Disneyland is honestly one of the greatest.