Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

I haven’t been on in a while, and I thought I would drop in to let you know what I’ve been up to as the year draws to a close.

For me, 2021 has been busy. In my day job (as a lawyer), we moved our entire office after renovating a building in a two-month timeframe. Whew! This was the chief reason the blog went dark for a little while. I joked to a relative during that time, “I may have said I was busy before in my life, but I lied. I’ve never been this busy.” 😂  And yet, through the process, and now at its conclusion, we saw God’s provision every step of the way and end the year bursting with gratitude for that and for the people we have the privilege to serve.

I’ve spent a lot of time with my family this year. We’ve had a couple of tough diagnoses and medical emergencies. Those have been hard. But we’ve had some wonderful things, too. Through it all, I am thankful. It’s hard to communicate the extent to which you see God’s love and mercy in the difficult things as well as the beautiful, but it’s there, and I do.

Here at Tea & Rebellion, we have been able to squeeze in some content that I have enjoyed producing. I’ve introduced you to my next book, Thank God for Mississippi, with some fun content relating to what you can expect in the book. With the help of my sister, we did some posts in our “Ask the Historian Series,” where we navigated the thorny issues plaguing history today, in a way that we hope was clear-minded and helpful. I posted some reviews about what I was reading and watching. A project I hugely enjoyed was collaborating with Lance Elliott Wallace to produce a Q&A on Southern life and culture. And I started the year by releasing a Q&A and a series of “History Behind the Story” posts for Charleston Tides. 

As to the books, since that is what readers always have the most interest in…! We released Charleston Tides in February (I say we because it always feels like such a team effort, and I am grateful for all who help!). I finished Thank God for Mississippi this year, which will be published next year. I also completed drafts of two more books, one a historical novel set in 1840s Virginia, and the other a modern book, which is still fresh off the press, so more on that one later! The Monday after Thanksgiving, I made Southern Rain free on Kindle. This resulted in an entirely unexpected viral download that saw Southern Rain climb to #8 in Amazon’s Historical Fiction Kindle Store for a day. Of course, this was a boon for Southern Rain and the entire series, which has created a ripple effect that is still going on. I am fully cognizant of God’s provision and direction in the area of my writing as well, and I hope nothing I have said implies that any of this would have been possible without it. 

All in all, a crazy, busy year, but one which I will look back on with gratitude—for provision, for hope, for strength, for personal growth, for new beginnings, for small blessings, for family, for good books and good friends, for daily reminders of what it’s all about, and, not the least, for you, Readers.

Happy New Year.