As it turns out, there are advantages to getting snowed in. I just finished the fourth novel a few minutes ago—the first draft, anyway! Very pleased with how it turned out. It clocked in at 434 pages and a total of 113,249 words, which is also my longest by far. That said, the prologue no longer seems to fit, so that's 8 pages that will probably get nixed during the revision process. The book should hit shelves next year.

On the e-book front, the response to the free nonfiction book 8 Reasons Your Life Matters is beyond what I imagined. About 30,000 copies have been downloaded since its May release. But the exciting thing is the messages people have sent to let me know the book hit their hands at the right moment. I consider messages private, so I don't show them to anyone else (not even my family), but it reminds me of why I want to write. Thanks for entrusting those words to me. Your life has a plan.

Happy new year. And if it applies to you, happy frigid snow day!

Today's Playlist: The Blessed Unrest by Sara Bareilles