Welcoming 2026: book update, resolutions, and social media …
Happy New Year, dear readers xx
As we enter another year, I find myself in the best kind of mourning: the wistfulness of watching a wonderful December shrink in the rearview mirror.
It’s my favorite month, partially because of the magic of Christmas, but even more because for four blissful weeks, I allow my mind to totally run free. It’s a month of unhinged creativity: crafting, sewing, scrapbooking, and decorating. Writing, of course, but without any of the formalities. By the time January comes knocking, I’m overflowing with eagerness for what’s to come and a certainty of what I hope to achieve.
Romanticized reflection. That’s how I like to think about it. While the pressure to redesign your life each year is tragically overprescribed, checking in and setting intentions has always brought me a sense of calm. Am I heading in the right direction? Am I neglecting something that I desperately need?
Because if you don’t address those questions yourself, the world will happily fill in the blanks on your behalf. The answers aren’t useful unless they’re truly your own. That premade new year’s resolutions list you saw on Pinterest won’t feel good because someone else wrote it for you.
As for me? I prefer to keep my intentions simple. No resolutions, no score cards. These last few years, I’ve whittled all my inspiration down to simple phrases: to be witnessed; to not be witnessed; to finally do what I want.
That last one is difficult to pin down. Deliberately open-ended and easy to misconstrue. On the surface, it sounds a bit selfish, doesn’t it? But really, what I’m getting at is that I want to feel more free to follow my instincts and spend a little less time laboring over the “rules.”
I started small and all the social media from my phone. To no one’s surprise, it’s pretty great.
I didn’t consider myself to be someone who struggles with the mental effects of social media, but that’s the danger of grading on a curve. Though I’d curated my feeds for content that I believed inspired or offered peace, one can’t completely escape ‘suggested reels.’ Or the comments.
Because, oh boy, the comments.
You’re not supposed to have thousands of people in your ear telling you how to act, think, and look. It’s not healthy to be steeped in constant negativity and fear. The algorithm loves to show you what hurts—to the point where it no longer accurately represents that state of the world.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of bad stuff happening all the time. But if you’re reading this post, you’re probably fortunate enough to live somewhere that has good stuff, too. It’s all about keeping things in proportion. And for me, at least, cutting out social media made my corner of the world feel a little bit safer.
I did a lot of things that scared me in December, things I wouldn’t have had the bravery to do last year. I got a medically necessary but nonetheless impulsive gum graft. I’ve started driving again after a very long, motion-sickness-filled hiatus. Everything happened fast, and the only explanation I have is that deleting those apps gave my fried nervous system some breathing room.
Of course, my heart still stutters when I think about my business instagram. I keep up with my DMs via desktop, but I haven’t actually posted since October! Fortunately for anyone awaiting my next book, the activity of that account has no bearing on my productivity. If anything, sequestering myself has only ramped things up, though I’ve also learned my lesson when it comes to prematurely estimating publication dates.
This August, I threw a book out. Not completely, but mostly.
It wasn’t right for a billion reasons, hard as I tried to make it work. I consoled myself by saying that the new story wouldn’t take as long—like I said, I didn’t throw the whole book out. I’ve been picking over its corpse with a vulture’s thoroughness, tweaking the characters, adapting plot points so that they flow into the new setting.
But December brought with it a reckoning. I had to admit to myself that writing this new book was indeed starting again.
I can sincerely say that this story is going to be wonderful—at least, per my tastes. The relationship between my MCs might be my favorite thing I’ve ever written, and when I finally gave my husband the prologue, we both got that tingly gut feeling. This is it.
However, this gorgeous book is still taking its shaky first steps.
Autumn saw a return to the planning stage. I completely changed the setting, crafted another magic system, revised backstories and motives, and built an entirely new conspiracy for my characters to unravel while falling in love. It was a lot.
I’d hoped to publish my next book this summer. Between drafting, editing, cover design, marketing, and ARCs, that’s probably off the table now. 2026 still might be possible, but I’ll hold off on promises until I have a solid version of the book in my hands. Because more important than publication schedules is writing a story I fully believe in.
No matter what, the book is happening. As long as the Earth doesn’t go catapulting into the sun, there is a new Annika Snow novel on the way. This is the year of doing what I want, and what I want is to make something worthy of sharing with you.
Until then, thank you for being here,
Annika ❤️
