At the start of 2021, I decided to be better about blogging. I would post something once a week, no matter what happened. Of course, the universe heard me make this promise to myself and the universe decided the best reaction was to say “challenge accepted.”
It’s never a good thing when the universe says “challenge accepted.”
I will say things fell apart in new-to-me ways. There are no cases of COVID in my immediate family (Wear your mask! Get the shot!). Instead what happened were a series of annoyance level illnesses that were complicated by the COVID protocols. There were also emotional issues that lead to changes in my life and have left me feeling adrift about my career as a writer. I am currently in the process of pulling myself together and getting things rolling again.
The current problem absorbing the majority of our attention is my sister’s house. The full story isn’t mine to tell, but they have been living in a hotel room since last July because of damage to the home. That expense and the repairs will be covered, but getting to the point where the repairs will begin has been a comedy of errors piling on errors that my editors would insist I cut because it is unrealistic.
It’s not all slow-moving disasters, though. My microfiction Pangram was released in Ink: Queer Sci Fi’s Eighth Annual Flash Fiction Contest this year. I will be making an official announcement about Chaos Wolf’s sequel soon. And I have a few irons in the fire that aren’t ready to be mentioned but are ticking along.
So what are my plans for 2022? I will admit that I am scheduling things fully expecting another wave of COVID to wipe them out. It does make it hard to be enthused, but I’m trying to plan them in a way to pivot to online only. The big event this year will have the majority of it online, but there are a few in-person ideas I had that I really wanted to do.
What are these plans? Glad you asked.
- Finish the first draft of Lucy Harker, which will be retitled, and get a good way through the rewrite. In theory, I would like to publish this in 2023.
- Attend BayCon, assuming that new COVID restrictions do not shut it down again this year.
- Releasing Chaos Hunt in the middle of this year. An official announcement will come out once I have a few more things accomplished.
- Begin writing Chaos Kin. Its outline is about a quarter complete and I want to have it a little further along before I begin writing.
- Get the costume(s) ready for CostumeCon 39, which I hope to attend in 2023.
- Finish three short stories I have languishing on my hard drive.
Of course, if 2022 turns out to be anything like 2021 and 2020, I’ll be happy if I only get one of these done.
So let’s start writing on that blank page.