My 2016 Year-in-Review

I know most people are already looking forward to 2017, but I'm always late with these things...

2016 was a year, huh?

I don't necessarily subscribe to the narrative that we've had more celebrity deaths this year (I think it's just a case of celebrities being relevant longer thanks to our more connected society), nor do I think the deaths of celebrities are any more valuable than the many, many people regular everyday people who lost their lives for stupid or heartbreaking reasons. That being said, the world really did seem to lose its collective fucking mind in the last twelve months.

But I'm not here to talk about politics or celebrity gossip. I'm just going to stick to my own life, and a few highs and lows of my own year. In no particular order:

1. Kids are awesome. My son, who turns 5 in January, started Junior Kindergarten and continues to astound with his rapidly-advancing skills. He's so sweet and caring and attuned to the emotions and feelings of others (he gets that from his mother, sure as hell not from me). He's also building 500-piece Lego kits with only minimal supervision (I'll take credit for that one). He saw Star Wars for the first time over the holidays and it BLEW HIS MIND. He was making "pew pew" blaster sounds in his sleep that night.

My daughter, who won't turn 2 until March, is amazing. Her vocabulary and motor skills are way ahead of where my son was at that age (she can pick up my wife's iPhone, unlock it, open Netflix and scroll to a specific cartoon). I don't know if it's the difference between girls and boys or what, but she seems like a freakin' genius.

Or I dunno, maybe I'm just easily impressed.

2. In July, I self-published my second novel, Hell Comes to Hogtown. It was a long process that was much longer and more challenging than I was expecting, but I'm quite pleased with the final product. Reception of the book has also not been as strong as I would have hoped, but it's early and I'm looking ahead long-term.

3. Submitted a few stories to magazines and anthologies, getting a head-start on my five year plan I mentioned at the beginning of December. I've gotten one rejection so far but I'm still waiting to hear back from two more, so we'll see how the New Year starts.

4. I actually have several writing projects completed or near-completed that I will be shopping around and/or releasing in the upcoming year. I would love to share some of those with you but after taking like 9 months longer than I planned to release Hell Comes to Hogtown, I'm not counting anything until it hatches anymore. Or talking about it online, whatever. You know what I mean.

5. I wrote another silly kids book for my kids and all my nieces (I have seven altogether) for Christmas. They all loved it because they're in it. That's my daughter on the cover. It features more of my terrible artwork, and I've had several arguments with one of my older nieces about it because of changes I made to her Pokemon in the story. I just keep trying to explain "parody" and "intellectual property" to her but it's hard with an 8-year old.

6. I gained like 20 pounds this year so I had assumed my exercise must have been way off, but after checking my run-keeper app-thingie I realized my routine has been pretty much on the same schedule as it has for the last three years. I guess that just means I've been eating staggering amounts of shit this year. Something to look into in the new year...

7. Life was all over the place otherwise, with two car accidents, my wife starting a new business, ups and downs at work, several illnesses and injuries, and a big trip half-way across the country with the kids and the dog to visit my parents. We're all still here and we're all still breathing so we'll keep plugging along. Life is a series of many steps, some hard, some easy, and there will be trips and falls along the way. There is no ultimate destination though (well, there is, but honestly you're not going to like it) so the best you can do is just enjoy the stops along the way.

Here's to hoping World War III doesn't start in 2017! At least try to hold it off until 2018...

Drowned in moonlight, strangled by her own bra.

Okay, I admit I took David Bowie a bit hard, and I'm still processing Carrie Fisher...

And Summer Ends... (#IWSG September)

I missed the August IWSG post (my second miss this year!) for a very good reason. No, not because I was on vacation, but because some idiot ran into our car. Again.

Which, incidentally, was the main reason I missed that previous post, too.

Like the last time, it was completely the other driver's fault and fortunately I was the only one in the car (no babies this time!) but for various reasons this one was much more complicated and involved fighting with insurance companies and numerous trips and calls to the police station, all while we were on vacation half-way across the country no less. I was fuming and seething for a week and thus missed the post.

Amazingly, it all worked out and didn't up costing me a cent, nor should it affect our premiums. That was a huge relief to find out last week. Hopefully the other driver also loses their license over this, but that's not up to me to decide.

The vacation was rocky, as in addition to the car accident the baby also got sick for a few days, but my older son had the time of his life getting to visit (and be spoiled by) his grandparents, getting to play with his cousins and go camping and to the beach and a variety of other things. So if nothing else at least he should have good memories of the trip. And hey, I also actually sold a bunch of books to my relatives, so that was pretty fun. I have no idea if any of them will actually read them, but it's still awesome that they're being supportive.

Actual picture of me and the boy.

All that said, I actually did get a good bit of writing time in since I've got back to town, and have actually made some solid progress on several projects. Projects which I won't discuss since I've learned my lesson about hyping things before they come to fruition. I'll just keep it to saying I'm happy with the way things are progressing. :-)  And you know what? After a very busy and stressful two weeks on "vacation," it was actually very nice to get back to a regularly writing schedule.

Speaking of writing schedules...

IWSG September Question: How do you find the time to write in your busy day?

I've mentioned this a few times so any of my regular followers (both of you) have heard it but it's worth repeating. I have a young family and a full-time job with a hour-and-half commute each way, so I don't really have a lot of free time... except that I've taken to use that commute time for writing. My latest book, Hell Comes to Hogtown, was written almost entirely on the bus with my laptop on my knees.

Actual picture of my writing office.

It's not an ideal way to write, but you do what you have to do. It's part of my daily routine now, and I actually feel pretty crummy if I don't get my morning and evening bus-writing time for some reason (usually because I fall asleep). Just like any priority, if you want to write, or if you have to write, you find a way to make it work. If I didn't have the bus, I would probably just end up sleeping even less, which is probably not healthy because I don't sleep much as it is...

Oh and hey, one other nice little highlight of August: I got my first reviews for Hogtown, and so far, so good! I mean, Amazon deleted them for a few days, but then they came back, so huzzah! We're off and running.

Till next time...

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.

Fingers Crossed for June (#IWSG)

The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.

May was the first time I missed a IWSG post in a year. I would love to say it was because I was busy celebrating my 36th birthday, but actually it was just a shitty week and I didn't feel like writing anything, not even bitching online.

On Monday I had some major computer glitches and lost 2 months worth of work on my current WIP.  Usually I'm pretty obsessive about backing up my work, but for whatever reason I hadn't made a copy (at least off the laptop) since I had started my final round of major edits and revisions. I guess we all need that reminder every now and then to back-up, back-up, back-up.

On Tuesday my wife got into a car accident with our one-year old in the vehicle. Fortunately they were both okay, but the car was messed up pretty badly. The other driver was charged with reckless driving and our insurance covered everything, but it was still a pretty scary couple of hours while I was stuck home with our other kid, unable to do anything while my wife was dealing with the police on the side of the road somewhere. Not to mention the weeks of dealing with the insurance company that has followed.

Oh and did I also mention an absolutely atrocious meeting I had with my boss in there, too? I won't go into the details on that one, but here's a visual copy of the minutes:

The good news is we've mostly recovered from all those hiccups. I've pretty much finished redoing all the work I lost on my WIP, and I think it's even better this time around. We just got the car back and insurance took care of everything. Except for the over $1000 that we're still waiting for them to pay us back for various things, but whatever, we will get it back eventually. And by then it will come as a pleasant surprise. And work has settled back into a reasonable routine without too much weirdness.

So yeah, May started pretty rough but we're past it now and we're looking forward to the summer (and to finally releasing my new book!) It's a new month, a new page and all that. Onwards and upwards! Huzzah!

Now please enjoy this hypnotic GIF for hours...

Why I'm Afraid of Cars

The fear of driving can be severe enough to be considered a phobia. It is often great enough that people will avoid driving at all costs, and instead find someone to drive them or use public transportation, regardless of how inconvenient or expensive. There is no Latin term for this fear, though it is comparable to hodophobia, the fear of traveling. (from Wikipedia, and you have no idea how much I wish that read "hobo"-phobia, which should be a real thing.  I'll see you again on "H" day)

It's not that I'm afraid of cars themselves or driving or even of getting hit by a car... I actually was hit by one once while crossing a sidewalk. I rolled with it and bounced off the hood before hitting the pavement. I walked away with just a few scratches and some mud on my coat. Freaked the goddamn hell out of the driver though, and I do kinda hope it gave her nightmares.