And What a Year It's Been

I’m not sure I’ve ever been so glad to see a year approach its ending as I am to say goodbye to 2022. The year began with a beloved elderly family member going missing (fortunately, he was found before anything bad happened to him) and slogged along from there. A massive project that clogged my work schedule and delayed everything that followed until the beginning of this month, a second crisis (which also ended better than it might have), and an apparently endless series of tasks associated with moving that elderly family member into assisted living left me so tense that three days after my annual Christmas break began, I was just starting to realize that I am on vacation and can get up late or do nothing if I like.

Of course, even this year was not all disruption and chaos. I made the acquaintance of numerous lovely authors through written and podcast conversations; I received an unexpected payment from the New Books Network for ten years of interviews; I had some fascinating outside editing jobs; I acquired several new colleagues whom I enjoy working with; I got a clean bill of health on various issues that had cropped up since the pandemic began; I avoided getting Covid; and my husband and I adopted two gorgeous kittens who are a perfect joy—our older cat doesn’t agree, but that’s a subject for another post.

And last but not least, I finished another novel, the fifth in my Songs of Steppe & Forest series. Song of the Storyteller will be available in early January, as previously announced, and it was a huge amount of fun to write. I also made headway on the next book, and hope to get farther during this break. There are a couple of looming plot holes to fill and two sets of comments from my invaluable writers’ group to address (character inconsistencies, mostly). At the moment, both the story and its main protagonists feel very distant, but regular writing will fix that, and nothing else now stands in the way.

So that’s my year, in a nutshell. Let’s ring out the old, ring in the new, raise a glass of something bubbly, and hope for a less stressful 2023!

   Images: Stressed face, Happy New Year, purchased via subscription from clipart.com; kittens © 2022 C. P. Lesley