Happy New Year, everyone! Despite strong evidence that, globally, 2015 was a garbage year, I really enjoyed mine. I had novel experiences, made new friends, paid my rent, and consumed many meals and beers. That, in a nutshell, is the recipe for happiness. 2015 was also my first full year running this website, and it went pretty well. I didn’t always post consistently, and November accidentally whizzed by without a inter-word from me. But what matters is that, every so often, I sat down at a computer (or smart phone), and strung some words together that made me chuckle. I hope you enjoyed them, too! Here are my 10 favorite posts from 2015, in order of appearance, which I hope you’ll revisit if you missed them the first time.

1. How to Write a Novel in 5 Short Years: On the long and winding road to the first draft of “Groan,” now tentatively titled “Once and Future Eva.”
2. It’s Ya Birthday: Comparing life goals at age 23 vs 32.
3. Cat vs. Baby: Settling (not really) the age-old debate: should you cat? Or should you baby? I’m still #teamcat, but ask me again in two years.
4. Reunited, and It Feels So Good: My friends and I attend our 10-year college reunion (cripes!). Behold the top 10 comments you’ll hear (or say) at your 10-year reunion.
5. Hey Jude: This wasn’t a “favorite” post, per se, because it’s about a friend who died this year. But he was a really cool guy.
6. Internet Spam that Makes Me Feel Better About Myself as a Person: An uplifting post in which I make inspirational posters out of my favorite blog spam.
7. Putting Yourself Out There: Exploring the joys (and hell) of putting yourself out there, after the close of my 2015 Capital Fringe Fest show, Ambien Date Night.
8. 5 Lessons from the Women’s Fiction Writers Retreat: I learned so much from WFWA’s first annual writing retreat in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and share a few take-aways here.
9. Celebrate Everything: I finished drafting my second book! In much less than five years! Enough said.
10. Holidays, Before and After Small Children: In a dark twist of fate, we spent Christmas day without any kids this year. And it. was. weird. (And nice, too, obviously, mom, but also weird.) Luckily, my niece and nephew arrived the day after Christmas and order was restored in the world again. Kids totally change holidays — for the better.

Well that’s my blog-year-in-review, which is a little bit of a life-year-in-review, in its own way. I’m so excited for 2016 and hope you are too. Buon anno!