Happy New Year!
Every January I like to pause a moment to look over all I accomplished the previous year, and dream about the future. Without further ado, her we go!
Writing Accomplishments of 2024
Last year was a big writing year for me, with several notable publications.
What We Talk About When We Talk About the Apocalypse is a short story collection about disappointment and renewal. These are short stories written over the course of 17 years, and also hand-illustrated by me. What We Talk About is now available in print and ebook! Click on the link above for more information.
Quest for Aeloria was a co-writing project between me, my son, and ChatGPT. It started as a school project for my son in taking a piece of writing from concept to published work with the use of modern technologies. You can read more about our writing process here: “How My 9-Year-Old Son Wrote His First Novel With the Help of ChatGPT.”
The story of Quest for Aeloria was a concept of my son’s and it involves a young boy with cat-like abilities going ton a quest with his friends to rescue their parents and overthrow a tyrannical king. You can check out the link above to learn where to get your copy.
Writing Goals for 2025
In 2024, I started blogging more regularly and my efforts have mostly been split between writing Reviews and my Slavic Spirits blog series. I plan to continue blogging weekly. Blogs are posted at 7 a.m. on Saturdays, but you can also sign up for my Reader’s Club newsletter to receive a monthly email from me about writing updates, and with a rundown of what got posted that month.
Slavic Spirits is a bi-monthly dive into Slavic myths, folklore, history, and fairy tales. These blog posts are my opportunity to learn about my heritage (I am Polish-American) and also share what I’m learning.
Once I have enough material, I plan on turning this material into a children’s book sometime in 2026. I have already received emails and international interest in my blog series, so stay tuned for more entries and updates to come!
The Wood Maiden is a young adult, historical fantasy novel set in Central Europe during the 19th century partitions of Poland. It is the story of Dąbrowa, an orphan in Pomarania who discovers that she is a leshy—a tree-shifter. With the help of her young friend, Ancia, and Ancia’s Faceless Doll, Dąbrowa meets ghosts, rusałki, wodnik, vampires, werewolves, and sorcerers, and dragons as they travel across three empires in the hopes of getting to Zaświaty, the magical otherlands, where Dąbrowa and Ancia hope to attend a school for magical creatures and half-breeds.
This novel has been multiple years in the making. The idea started as a writing exercise in 2020, and in 2023 I attempted to write it as a short story. However, the more I learned about Polish history and Slavic mythology, the more I wanted to fully develop this world. I have been working on this book steadily throughout 2024. I have also been hand-illustrating this book. I hope to finally publish it this year.
Reader’s Club members will receive a FREE early access ebook copy of The Wood Maiden once it is completed.
Health Updates
As some of you know, I’ve had some issues with my health over the previous years. You can read my full 2022 blog post here: “You Only Get One Body. Take Care of It.” I’ve been working hard to maintain a healthy vegan diet and exercise routine.
I’m happy to say that all my efforts are paying off! At last physical, my doctors said that my health markers are all excellent and to keep doing what I’m doing.
Moving into 2025, I plan on continuing my vegan diet, and also continue doing resistance training three times a week, and jogging three times a week.
Travel
Last year was very special because my family had the opportunity to go on multiple vacations after years of not traveling. We drove to Texas to see the eclipse, and then to the Pacific Northwest to see the landscape and visit some friends. I absolutely fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. So much green! There were waterfalls that literally brought me to tears because they were so beautiful.
We also went on a bunch of ebike rides around the San Francisco Bay Area, where we live. We bought the bikes a couple of years ago, and they have brought us so much joy. Ebikes are definitely my favorite mode of transportation!
This year, my son, mother, and I have a big trip planned. We are going to Poland! I am very excited about getting to visit my mother’s country of origin. I haven’t been to Poland since 2006, and I haven’t been in Poland with my mother since I was a toddler. I’m very excited to see the country and how it has changed these past 19 years.
My only wish is that the American bike infrastructure was better. Bike paths cost a fraction of most roadways.
Polish Language Studies
In 2024, I spent at least a hundred hours reading, studying, grammar and vocabulary, and doing listening immersion in Polish. I would estimate that I’m an early B1 level in Polish as far as my comprehension, but I still have a long way to go before I will be fluent. This is definitely one of my major goals for 2025.
One of the major roadbumps I ran into in my Polish studies is that is really difficult for me to study Polish and write in English at the same time. They both use latin script, but the phonetic spelling and grammar structures are different enough that it has been hard for me to toggle between the two languages.
In my brain, it feels like thoughts and concepts do not exist in a place of words. It’s like they are floating in the air above a steep mountain range. I have to catch the ephemeral concept, and then make a decision about which side of the mountain range to descend to in order to describe the concept in a word—do I choose the English side or the Polish side? Crossing back and forth over this mountain range is hard, and my brain seems to want to stay on one side or another.
In talking to other bilingual people, this seems to be a common problem when one of the languages isn’t quite strong enough. My mother said that when she was learning English, she suffered through a full year where she had a difficult time speaking in either language—her native Polish and her target English.
A colleague of mine said that she struggled with switching between languages until she really started working on shoring up her weaker language by reading a lot in her target language to get them both at parity. I think this is what I should do too.
My goal for 2025 is to really lean into my Polish studies. I feel like I finally have enough vocabulary that I can pick up some Polish copies of my favorite books and start reading them.
Since I’m planning on visiting Poland later this year, I feel tremendously motivated to improve my listening and speaking ability.
My big wish for 2025 is to get my Polish as close to B2-level as I can.
Knitting
In 2024, I started knitting again after taking more than 10 years off from it. A lot changed in 10 years! I have thoroughly enjoyed bringing this hobby back into my life. You can read some of the following essays I’ve written about it:
The Weird and Wonderful Intersection Between Writing and Knitting
Gift or Burden: The Truth Behind the Sweater Curse
You can also find me on Ravelry @PolskaPurl to see my latest projects.
My Reading Life
Reading has always been a central force in my life, and it has only grown bigger these last few years now that it’s so easy to check out ebooks and audiobooks from my library. Freed from the financial constraints of paper, I can read as widely and prolifically as I wish.
Since 2020, I have been reading and listening to multiple books a week. I keep a list of the books I read, when I finished them, my rating, and what genre they are in. If a book doesn’t grab me by 10%, I put it on my DNF (did not finish) shelf. I only count books in my “read” pile if I made it past 40% and at least read the ending… but it pretty much always meant that I read the book all the way through.
In 2022, I read 166 books.
In 2023, I read 153 books.
In 2024, I read over 140 books, three of which were in Polish. I mostly read Polish history and YA fantasy.
I have been having an incredible time writing Reviews of some of these books and series. I feel like the review process is a brief and beautiful marker of my reading journey.
This year, I expect the overall volume of books I consume to drop considerably as I switch from reading and listening to books in English to reading books in Polish, which is my weaker language. If I can manage to read through 10 novels in Polish in 2025 I will feel pretty accomplished.
If you like what you’ve read so far, consider entering your email to join my FREE Reader’s Club. Reader’s Club members will receive a free ebook, and also monthly emails containing book reviews, the latest installments in my “Slavic Spirits” blog series, and updates on my works in progress, and much more!
