2021 in Review

Generally, as we move into a New Year it’s time to look back at the old one. But what can we say about 2021? After being locked down for most of 2020 in the grip of a global pandemic a vaccine was developed and this time last year we were all hopeful that we’d finally see an end to it. But the virus has mutated, cases are rising fast and we start 2022 with more uncertainty.

I have been a bit quiet on the blog because I had nothing I wanted to say that didn’t seem like whining. The writing has not been happening at all – I just found it a struggle to write anything. I’ve also been suffering a crisis of confidence. Since both the small publishers I was published with have ceased to be over the last two years, rights of most of my published works have been returned to me and I have been endeavouring to get those works back up on Amazon. This has required re-reading and reformatting for Kindle publication, and becoming convinced that not only are all the WIPs I’m currently working on rubbish, but everything I’ve wrote in the past is also rubbish, and why am I calling myself a writer?

However, in trying to get past this and focus on the positives, there are a few good things that have come out of the last year. I’ve always hated exercise. Swimming I could tolerate and I have been doing this off and on most of my adult life. But when lockdown began and I couldn’t swim I realised how much I missed it. Once the pools opened again, in the middle of 2020, I made a point of booking sessions and going regularly. Since then I’ve been swimming three or four times a week for forty minutes at a time, usually first thing in the morning before starting work. Between that and my weekly training sessions – 25 minutes of one-on-one exercise with a personal trainer outdoors, so they were mostly able to continue during the pandemic – I’m probably fitter now than I’ve ever been in my life. Which is really saying something.

Berry Pomeroy Castle, which we visited in October 2021 – allegedly one of the most haunted places in the UK.

We did get a few long weekends away in the UK this year, while overseas travel was off the cards. There were also a few days out with friends, which I will never take for granted again.

I’m thankful that we got to go to Canada this year in November, over four years after our last visit, and were able to catch up with family and friends. We were there only a week, but it was so nice to be able to see – and hug – people. Canada didn’t open its borders to international visitors until September, and then we had trouble finding time that both Hubby and I could take off work to visit. I am very glad we got over there when we did, because not long after that the Omicron variant became a global concern and international travel started shutting down again.

So what of 2022? It’s not starting off too well, but let’s hope that we start to see a return to some semblance of normal life soon. We have some conventions and gigs planned this year – all things which have been postponed several times since 2020 – but I don’t want to be too hopeful because things still seem too uncertain to make plans. There has already been a lot of disappointment over the last two years, with so many things I’ve been looking forward to being cancelled.

Taking things one day at a time seems to be the best approach for 2022. I would like to make more time for friends, as I have missed seeing people these last couple of years. I have a new appreciation for our D&D games, as one thing we have been able to do this year is to have people round the table for face-to-face games, and it’s been such a pleasure having that social interaction.

Me at York Cathedral, June 2021

As for the writing, I need to focus more on it and get past this fear that nothing I’ve written is worth reading. My three previously published horror novels – SUFFER THE CHILDREN, THE WHISPERING DEATH and OUTPOST H311 – are now available again on Amazon in Kindle format – all at the bargain price of 99p, I might add – and the first two Shara Summers novels will be up there shortly.

After struggling with the sequel to OUTPOST H311 – writing an apocalypse novel in what felt like a real apocalypse just wasn’t working – I eventually decided to abandon it. I now have an idea for a new horror novel, which will be my main project this year. It’s early days yet, and I’m still working on plot and characters, but after two years of virtually no writing, I will take whatever the Muse chooses to give me, frankly.

And of course I have neglected this blog for the last two years, so I will be more disciplined about putting up posts. I will try not to whine, because I don’t think that helps anyone, but I will do what I can to post about something, even if it’s not about writing. The My Life in Music posts seem to be getting good reactions, so I’d like to carry on with those.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2022 turns out to be a better year than the past two have been.