A Christmas greeting 🎄

What a year.

Hello. I’m sending you this email because we are friends, or we’ve worked together, swapped contact details at a conference, connected on LinkedIn, or our paths have crossed in some other way.

I’ve been meaning to send out a Christmas-type email for years. Then it becomes a New Years letter. Once or twice I’ve even drafted an Easter letter. But hey, 2020 has been a year of firsts in so many ways, and I’m going to make it my first to actually finish and hit ‘send’ on my Christmas letter.

I’d like to share a few of my firsts from the year past. In no particular order:

  1. 🇫🇮—>🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿  After 7 years living in Finland, and a year or so in a campervan, I settled officially to Scotland. I’ve even got a drivers licence and I’m enrolled to vote.

  2. 😊 My residential writing retreats crumbled with corona. And then were rebuilt online. I’m really, really happy with how these have turned out.

  3. 😔 Because of the covid travel restrictions, I’ve gone the longest time ever without seeing my mum and my family in Australia — 2 years and counting. 

  4. 📖 I rebranded and merged my writing services: I now offer my editing, coaching and retreats for writers as www.thewritekelley.com. I’m proud of the services I’m offering and the feedback I’ve received.

  5. 👶 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy in November. Sometimes I look at him and think ‘oh my god, I have a responsibility to this person for the rest of my life’. Whoa.


It’s been a strange old year — certainly with its shadows, but also with its bright spots.

Who knows what 2021 will bring... but my hopes for the year are to:

  • 🌱 Grow my writing group and deliver a course on writing memoirs

  • 🇫🇷 Brush up on my French skills

  • 🖌 Write and illustrate a story for my son, about our dog


I hope you’ve had plenty of brightness in your year too. This message is a little impersonal in that I’m sending it to many people at once, but I would genuinely love to hear back from you, hear about your year. Or, to be put on your list for your mass email. :)

Best wishes for a peaceful Christmas break, and an abundant and joyful 2021.

Jess.
(aka Jessie Cat, Jessie Jane, and Jess Kelley)

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