A Satisfying End to 2023

Happy New Year.

I'm getting this post out a few hours later than usual because I spent New Year's Eve refining and submitting an anthology of my short stories - with a Dec. 31 deadline. I'd been thinking of creating an anthology for a long time, but didn't realize I had more than enough stories to do so. Once I sent it off, I stayed up until morning working on copyrighting stories that hadn't been yet. As I was doing that, I realized I wanted to swap out one of the stories for one that hadn't made it into the manuscript. Since it's already submitted, that's not an immediate option, but I've made a note for pre-publication. Whether or not that publisher takes the book, their deadline got me to pull it together - a satisfying end to 2023.

Looking back, I accomplished quite a bit this year:

1. I helped my son move twice - first from near me to about ten hours away, then a little closer (but not much). At least he's near his brother now, so I can visit both at the same time. It's only one long day's drive.

2. I put my place up for sale, thinking there was nothing to tie me here, looking at real houses and applying for jobs back in NY. After a few months in a sluggish market, I decided to settle in and make the place mine. I painted the roof with insulating paint and remodeled the sunroom.

3. Meanwhile, I got books and screenplays into contests and kept several short stories submitted at all times. The screenplays don't announce winners until sometime in the next couple months, but Tough Times made it to the finals in the YA category of Kindle Book Awards. The anthology decision will be announced later this summer.

4. I also updated my website, and then got this blog going twice a week and linked it to Facebook and Instagram. I even "boosted" a couple Facebook posts. First steps on the way to improved marketing.

5. I found a critique group online that's helping me with a novel I first wrote in 1981 - I'm aging the characters and making it more contemporary.

6. I started going to a local writer's group and unintentionally became the leader - though I've drafted an executive committee to assist.

7. My income improved primarily through writing gigs, a few editing gigs, and teaching an online reading/writing course for the community college as an adjunct - and developing another course for them. Royalties still trickle in as much as can be expected with virtually no marketing.

So, looking back:The first two items above were unexpected and demanded focus for months - and they were not part of my 2023 plan. Neither was taking charge of a writer's group, which is time-intensive. Seeing the request for anthology manuscripts was a December gift that spurred action on something from the back burner.

Lesson learned: whatever I plan, however I prioritize today, expect to adapt.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

This photo is from 2021. For the first time in thirty years, my brother and I spoke - for eleven hours. I am so glad we did, because he passed away this week and I'm left with good memories of that day.

He was born seven years after "the family" and I came along another seven years after that - so our siblings were grown up and out of the house before I started school. We didn't always have smiles for each other, but that eleven hours of talking covered a lot of ground and I'm left understanding him - and myself - better for it. I am most definitely thankful for having that time with him.

I am also thankful that my kids are planning extreme travel next week so we can all be together for about twenty-four hours, barring illness, travel, and work complications.

I'm linking three other posts - one a short story, another about my family, and OMG, which is another reason I give thanks - they all lived.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A Day That Changed Everything by Beth Moran

I read an amazingly ready-for-publication Advanced Reader Copy with the title How Not To Be A Loser. The novel opens with the protagonist giving a tongue-in-cheek description of what her life has become, capped by an amusing incident where she can't cast aspersions on her son's fear of spiders when she can't even look outside an open door. The author does an excellent job of giving hints of what has happened in the past - information that trickles out in bits as the story goes on. She does the same with what is to come, and it's not quite certain until the end just how things will turn out. A thoroughly enjoyable read with many light moments, while drawing the reader into the world of someone with agoraphobia.