2019 Year in Review

2019 was a difficult year for me, both personally and in my writing. I prided myself in that I had released one new book for each of the last five years and I fully expected to release another book in 2019. Life got in the way and I never achieved that goal.

My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in August and is currently undergoing chemotherapy. In December, my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given two to four weeks to live. She passed away just before Christmas.

I've always used writing as a form of self-therapy. It allows me to express my joys and fears in fictional stories that I probably wouldn't be able to say out loud otherwise. Only my close friends and family know how close to real life my fictional stories really are.

I did do some writing in 2019 and I was planning to release a new story called "Choices". It's the story of an older man who heads off to a Las Vegas nightclub called "Choices" to attend the 50th anniversary of his university graduating class. He soon discovers that this is not an ordinary nightclub because he starts having visions questioning all of the important choices he's made in his life. Should he have retired earlier? Should he have had children? Did he marry the right girl?

I quickly wrote the first five or six chapters and then stalled. I didn't know where I wanted to go with the story. Then life caused me to take the story to some very dark places, many of which I couldn't write down, even in a fictional sense. I have since recovered (somewhat) and hope to release the story within the next few weeks. We'll have to see if I actually deliver.

2019 wasn't a total "write-off". I still managed to sell some books and tried using AMS as a way to promote them (with limited success). At the end of the year, I managed to come out slightly ahead on the profit & loss statement.

In September, I was interviewed by VK Tritschler, an author from south Australia. She asked some good questions. If you're interested, here's a link to the interview: https://www.vktritschler.com/post/fro...

Ironically, my wife and I were supposed to visit Australia in 2019 but we had to cancel that trip due to her health. I'm sure we'll get there someday.

I also recorded several of my poems and short stories for a local radio station called "Voice of the Shuswap". It was a lot of fun and I'm planning to record an audio version of "Choices" within the next month.

Here's hoping for a much better 2020.