Dawning of a new year... what will it hold?

Happy 2020 everyone! It's always a time of both sadness and happiness for me when ringing in a new year.  Sadness when I leave behind a year which may have been the best of my life or the worst.  I remember years ago when my Dad died, I didn't want the year to change.  I know, it sounds strange.  You would think that I would have been glad to leave all that sadness behind me, but I wasn't... I didn't want to have to say "He died a year ago" or "He died last year."  It seemed to place his death, my loss, far behind me and I wasn't yet ready to do that.   

But this year I'm looking forward to writing more.  I have two manuscripts that I'm working on and love both of them.  One will be another Oyster Point mystery with Jack and Jamie becoming tangled in more cold cases and surprisingly, with old loves.   We can only imagine how Jamie feels when Lizz reappears - divorced.  And Jack, how jealous will he become when Mike resurfaces from Jamie's past?  Think back on all the loves of your life and just imagine how you would feel if one of them popped up unexpectedly.  It's interesting to see how people deal with that... myself, the past is the past.  As I've said so often, there are no second chances... If you lose one, another will hopefully come along and another and finally, you'll find that very special one or not.  That's just how life is as the song says, filled with "traces of love."

No one walks through this life unhurt, at least no one that I've met.  And so when the Times Square ball drops and we start with a clean slate, we toast the new year hoping for the best... lots of love, happiness and good health with family, friends, and loves of our life.  But we never forget the ones we leave behind last year or the year before or tens of years before.  They are always lodged in a little place in out hearts.  And when they choose to pop up in our consciousness for some reason, they are greeted with tears or smiles... but they are always, always remembered.  

And so it is with my characters.  When their past crosses their path unexpectedly, what will they do?  Give in to trying to recreate what they once had or have the strength to admit that the past should sometimes stay in the past.  How lucky am I as a writer that I can test out both premises... fall back or move on.   

My second manuscript is another time travel; "The Looking Glass Labyrinth" being the first that I wrote.  I'm introducing two new interesting characters with their own life's baggage.  So far I like both of them... Elle, a semi-forensic scientist, who's trying to clean out a family home and sell it after her parent's divorced, and Gabriel, an architect  hired to restore a nearby Victorian, who is looking to buy a house in the historic town.  They are an interesting mix.  Elle's long kept secret might take her to 1845 to unravel the mystery of a missing woman who had lived in her house.  

Wish me luck with both of them.  I'm hoping to have one ready for submission to my publisher by April.  We shall see.

Again, happy new year and follow your dreams.  I am!

Till,
Judi