Reflect and Resolve with Crystal Caudill

2020 was a challenge for everyone. I’m a caregiver for my mother-in-love who lives with us. The stress of watching her decline due to not being able to get out as well as the kids being stuck at home, really stressed me out and zapped my creativity. There were times I questioned if writing was really what God still wanted me to do and if I’d ever have the mental space to write creatively again.
But God. Aren’t those the two best words in the world? Through the stress of 2020, God taught me to give myself grace and lean more into Him every time I sat down at the computer. Sometimes I wrote two words, sometimes I wrote two thousand, but more often than not, I deleted more than I wrote. Writing with Him each day didn’t mean things went easier, but I did have peace, and I learned to surrender my writing to Him. It’s a lesson I’ll carry with me into the future, especially as my mother-in-love’s health grows more demanding.

Blessings of blessings, in 2020, I signed a contract with Kregel Publishing for my debut historical romance series about the Secret Service during the 1880s. This means 2021 goals include getting book one edited, polished, and ready for bookshelves in February 2022, as well as getting my first launch team together and figuring out the marketing/publishing world. It also means that I will be drafting and editing books two and three. I’m excited about what 2021 will bring, and I am praying, praying, praying that in-person conferences and reader summits will return. I miss mingling with other authors and readers.

Crystal Caudill is a tea-drinking, book-hoarding, history nerd. She spent her childhood hiding in a book or going on wild adventures across the country with her family. No matter where she went, stories filled her mind. Every history museum was ripe with potential, every shadow lurked with danger, and always a hero would emerge to save the day. Or least an imaginative girl from a long, boring car ride. While most people outgrew imaginary friends, Crystal’s characters took on lives of their own and spilled onto the page. It’s her husband’s fault she’s on a publishing journey. All because he sent her to a writing conference for her birthday. Since then, she’s studied the art of writing and crafted award-winning stories filled with history, danger, love, and hope.

When not writing or studying, Crystal can be found playing board games with her husband and boys, caregiving for loved ones, traveling with her extended family, hiding in a book, drinking copious amounts of hot tea, or connecting with readers. You can connect with her at www.crystalcaudill.com or by joining her newsletter crew at  bitly.com/CaudillNews.