Saying goodbye to 2014

Here we are, the last blog post of 2014, in which I look back and try to decide if it was a good year or bad. But I think I’ve already made up my mind that it wasn’t so bad for me. This is not to say it wasn’t a shit year for a lot of folks, but with me locked away in my own little corner of the world, it wasn’t so bad. For every bad little thing that I can think of, I can also think of something good that kind of balances it out. And really, it’s not possible to make it through a whole year without some bad raining on the good, right? Right, one must look for balance of the two, not an overabundance of one or the other. Expecting a year to only be good is unrealistic, and finding a year to be all bad could possibly be a sign of too much cynicism. So, split the middle and take both in moderation, is what I say.

I wrote a lot less this year. It’s due not to a lack of creative energy, though, more like a lack of energy. I napped a lot, taking away from my writing time. And now that the weather has turned cold, I find it’s very hard to stay at my desk for more than a few minutes at a time before I want to run to the living room and shut the door to bask in the glow of the electric heater. It’s taken me two days to write this post with several escapes to the living room to that out, and I don’t see that improving until March, possibly even April.

I don’t really consider this a bad thing because I have a big queue of stories to release sometime next year, and when spring rolls around, I can get back to editing and writing to keep the backlog sufficiently full. I still don’t think I want to do anything with Mystical World Wars because of a lack of interest, but I might eventually return to it just to amuse myself. The muse seems content to leave that world alone to focus on smaller series, and I’m grateful that she’s no longer the relentless task mistress that she used to be. We’re in a good place, the muse and I, so I hope to continue that trend in 2015.

For the first time this year, I’ve “won” my Goodreads reading challenge of 50 books. I squeaked by the last two this week, something I didn’t think I’d manage because I’d been distracted by lots of shiny new video games. But I got to the end of my second playthrough of Dragon Age: Inquisition and decided I could stop there for a few weeks before trying out any of the other races, classes, and specializations. I want to give hubby a chance to play it, and he’s still amusing himself with Fallout: New Vegas and the various mods he keeps adding to it.

Anyway, the nice thing about my 2014 reading list is how many 4 and 5 star books I read compared to 1,2, and 3 star books. There were 31 4 and 5 star books compared to 19 books that scored lower. It’s all luck of the draw, sure, but this year, my luck was better than most previous years. It’s certainly not because I’m lowering my standards, because I’m still quite picky about what I like. But overall, I came away happy far more often than not.

Oh, and that score doesn’t include books I reread, or stories on Wattpad. When you add in those, the news sites and various blogs, this year, I’ve read almost as much as I used to in my voracious teens. I might not have gotten to read everything I wanted to this year, but I did read a lot, and that’s got to count for something.

I got an editing job that lasted several months, and with the funds I collected from that job, I was able to buy a PS4 and several games. This was great for my review queue, but maybe not so good for my sleep cycle. Playing games seems to take a lot less brain power than writing or reading, so I could go several long hours playing “just one more quest” until the wee hours of the early morning. At one point I commented to hubby that we ought to call my PS4 the “oh shit is it 5 AM already” machine.

Also, I should mention that the cat LOVES the PS4, or more specifically the heat exhaust pouring out of the back. It runs hot almost from the moment I turn it on, so once I turn it on, I know where to find the cat. Thus the PS4 is also the “personal space heater.”

I had a positive change in my health this year, due in part to my frequent walks with the dog and cat. The exercise really does help to keep depressions at bay, and because I’m much less stressed out, I greatly reduced the number of painkillers I needed. Those I took were the kind that dissolve in a big glass of water, and because of that, my stomach has finally healed to the point that it closes at the top properly.

This does have one slightly negative side effect, in that I’ve gained a few extra pounds over the last year from eating a bit too much. During the fall, I exploded a pair of pants while visiting a local piadineria. You might think I’m joking, but I’m not. I felt a pop and looked down to see a blob of thigh sticking out of a gaping hole in my jeans, and I thought that was the worst damage. But once I got home and took them off, I discovered many rips in the hips and ass seams. So yeah, I totally killed those jeans with my newly chubby butt.

I don’t really consider this a bad thing, though. The added weight has made the winter slightly easier to bear, and aside from needing to buy two new pairs of Levi’s closer to my enlarged size, I don’t look too bad. I probably should take the diet and exercise more seriously, but I see this as a part of getting older, and I don’t mind so much. In much the same way, I don’t mind having a few extra grey hairs or wrinkles on my face. I think in a way that my body is just now beginning to match the age of my soul. Besides, it’s impossible for it to still match the age of my brain, and who wants to look 13 forever?

Looking ahead to 2015, I’m hoping to read a bit more, maybe even make it to 60 books. I think I’m about where I need to be with games and book reviews here, and while I could stand to write a few more “think pieces,” I don’t feel the need to fill the empty spaces with articles better written by other bloggers. I expect to release fewer books this year, mostly because I’m not convinced that releasing a whole lot of books in a row has much impact on overall sales. It is true that in the months that I have something new out, all my other books get a bump in sales. But it’s a case of diminishing returns, and by the third month of new releases, I’m down into single digit sales. I still need to find some secret to getting triple digit sales, I guess, but considering the ever expanding size of the writing market, I still consider it a miracle that a nobody like me sales as many books as I do.

Unlike in previous years, I don’t wish 2015 is better than 2014. If anything, I’m hopeful that it’s as nice a year as this has been. If it turns out a little better or worse, well that’s okay, too. So I leave 2014 with a fond wave, and I welcome 2015 with hope that it is as kind to me as the prior year.

To all my readers, I hope that 2014 was equally balanced for you, and if it wasn’t, I hope that 2015 brings more good than bad to you and yours.