about December

Hello from the end of December! This is such a strange, liminal time of the year, and I always find myself getting restless for the new year (not New Year’s Eve, though) so I can shake off whatever happened in the previous one. It always feels like a clean slate, even though there are only a few hours separating the end and the beginning.

I try not to get too excited or anticipatory because I’m incredibly superstitious, but there are a few things around the bend that I’m really looking forward to. 2025 has been a little weird on a micro level, though vastly better than 2024, which truly tried to end me (to the point I wondered if someone had cursed me). This year has brought a lot of change, a lot of goodbyes, a lot of letting go of things and sometimes even people, but now I’m approaching January 1st feeling settled in all the ways that I wasn’t capable of last year. Even my birthday a couple days ago just felt nice, versus the disaster-shaped 2024 me that couldn’t celebrate the anniversary of my entry onto Earth at all (I say this in a haha way, though it really wasn’t funny last year when I was going through it!!). I’ve made a very conscious effort to be present in my day-to-day life this year, which has accidentally made me focus on the little things—simple moments, tiny pleasures, little moments of connection with someone whose name I’m never going to know in a checkout line or a really long lunch with a good friend.

Anyway, I hope you have little—or big—things to look forward to in the new year, and I hope that the rest of this year treats you all well. My newsletter grew a lot in 2025—I’m assuming because it’s the only place I can be found, haha—and I’m so grateful for anyone who ever reads the random things that fall out of my brain, who say “me too” on posts that feel particularly vulnerable (almost all of them), who have stuck around despite me having nothing tangible to offer you. I’m constantly hungry for community, a side effect of growing up everywhere I think, and you’ve all provided that for me in a year when I needed to step away from the constant churn of social media. You’ve been here for me when I needed to say hello, and I don’t want to go into 2026 without saying thank you for that.

As always, a few things before I go:

• The ebook of You, with a View is on sale for $1.99 on Amazon JUST for today if you’re in the market for it! It’s the story of Noelle Shepard, who, while navigating the recent loss of her beloved grandmother, finds a letter from her gram’s secret, long-ago lover amid a pile of old photographs. When she posts a video searching for the mystery man, it goes viral, leading her to find him via his grandson, who just so happens to be her old high school rival. A road trip ensues, among other things (hehe). It remains one of my very favorite things I’ve ever written and you can get it HERE. Today only!

  A reminder of how hot they are, in case you need it:

  

  art by horreurscopes

• A Risk Worth Taking, my holiday novelette—ironically, more of a New Year’s Eve book than a Christmas book—is available for $0.99 through the end of the year! You can find it on Amazon or any other preferred retailer.

• The only thing that makes me miss being on social media (as me, anyway) is that I want to be in every Heated Rivalry discussion that’s happening on every corner of the internet. If you follow me on TikTok, you already know this because I repost every single diabolically, beautifully crafted edit that exists on that app. People have pointed out so many gorgeous things about this show, but I have to say my absolute favorite thing about it is the way the camera finds the tiniest moments and makes them feel so monumental—a look or a little touch, even the way they breathe. It’s one of the hardest things for me as a writer, that I can’t show you what I’m seeing in my head. Watching this show gives me a glimpse at what it would feel like to project a fictional world so perfectly and with such care and precision that we are all spiraling about it.

• I finished Alicia Thompson’s forthcoming In Every Possible Way in the early morning hours of my birthday and I couldn’t have entered into a new year of my life any more magically (literally, in the case of the book, because there is a magical realism element to it). It’s tender and hopeful and deeply immersive, and I never wanted it to end. Alicia always crafts her characters in a way that feel grounded and real, to the point that I grieve a little at the end when I remember they’re not. It also mostly takes place in Ireland, and I’ve been looking at plane tickets ever since (which is huge, if you know me, because I hate to fly). Anyway, it’s available to request on NetGalley and I can’t recommend it enough.

• Also, Stranger Things?! I forgot what it feels like to just be OBSESSED with things, but man, my cup is running over right now.

• I have to share the ornament my dear friend Emma made for me, with my gram’s handwritten “love you” on it. The older I get, the more I really cherish the small ways love endures, from a friend who takes time to create a thoughtful gift to a granddaughter who still wants to share the holidays with one of her favorite people despite her earthly absence. It’s so nice to have her nearby in this way.

Okay, that’s really it for the rest of the year, since me and my January 15th deadline are in the middle of a very intense staring contest. Have a restorative holiday and the exact entry into the new year that you’re hoping for.

Love you, take care of yourselves.

xoxo

jess