Happy New Year 2023

In case you missed it, here are some New Year’s Eve reflections I shared in a recent newsletter. I hope you enjoy reading them!

Is there any other time in a person’s life when we think about what’s ahead of us and dream about it? When we think about past mistakes and try to have a super shiny year to replace those bad memories?

Have you ever had breakups you missed at New Year’s? Friends you’ve lost, mostly because something was said that wasn’t kind, or you didn’t hold your tongue. Does anybody else out there have some of those regrets?

I always think of New Year’s Eve as a restart button. We make new commitments, and desire to eat better, drink less, do more exercise, or lose weight. I used to cut out pictures of all the things I wanted to accomplish and add them to a big book, something I could sit and look over. It was something I could use to inspire me all during the year.

I also used to save client letters (before we all went digital) in a big box on my desk. I’d read them over, remember the wonderful people I’d helped, even the ones who were pains in the a__ that I helped, and they thanked me.

But just like a wedding reception, when I was younger, I used to think about who I might meet at that party—that fantasy of an unexpected stranger, a temporary hookup for now, that turns into a Happily Ever After.

I once went to a party with one person and fell in love with another! I had to hide it, I felt so guilty. Have you ever done that? Or, have you ever partied with someone you knew you would never see again? Just someone you enjoyed and could see yourself spending the rest of your life with? But, circumstances being what they were, you knew you would never act on that. But you loved every minute of the dangerousness of being close to someone you could fall in love with if you let your heart do it.

I think about those things all the time. On one of those musings, I came up with the story of Brandi and Tucker. Brandi was a plus-sized girl, used to one-night stands, and who wanted just one perfect night, a New Year’s Eve at her best friend’s wedding, filled with gorgeous Barbi dolls and hunky SEALs. All she wanted was one perfect night she could pretend there was a wedding in her future—someday!

And, of course, she met Tucker. You don’t want to miss this book if you believe in miracles and improbable hookups. What were the odds that this man loved big women with huge chests? I’ve put the whole series into KU, so it’s no longer available on Apple, Nook, or Kobo.

We are all miracles, aren’t we? We’re like clothes pinned to a clothesline—all of us, hanging in the breeze. Together we think up and live fantastic stories, don’t we? We are truly the lucky ones.

Let’s keep it a secret from the rest of the world, okay?

All my New Years fantasy love to all of you,
oxox
Sharon