Ah. There you are.
I made it through this year’s holiday season not doing the whole dysfunctional thing. Not one day did I have the my family isn’t a Hallmark family blues. Largely, it was because I was employing that zen trick called working on a project, but it was also because I didn’t attend any big gatherings by which I needed (felt like I needed) to measure myself. We call this progress. Also, you might remember that I was GRATEFUL because a health scare turned out to be…nothing. I take from this that the isolated Christmas isn’t too shabby for my psychological well-being.
So, the small bit of blues I’m feeling now? I’ve just finished a book. That always happens. I’ve just gone back to work and am rattling around mostly empty hallways while my fellow faculty enjoy another two and a half weeks vacation. I used to bitterly resent that, but now they give me money to ease the pain, and it does. 😛 Still, there’s that tiny funk that makes me want to eat some bread and go to bed.
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Which means it’s time for me to think a little more upbeat about what I have coming up this month. This weekend, which is only one day away, is another weekend to just hang and write. It is my hope to get the novella in shape for some betas, and then next week, it’s the new project all the way, from now until completion. So, yeah.
I plan to be gone for the three weekends following: friends in Minneapolis, a madrigal dinner in Ames, and a trip to Vegas for a women’s writing retreat. We will be spaing and writing, and NOT critiquing, which I think sounds okay.
So there are some good things coming. And some good writing and research coming up.
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It looks like it could be a really interesting year. This year, I will go to the following conventions: Wiscon, Convergence, and Icon. These are the big three I usually frequent.
I will also be attending a writers retreat in Las Vegas and another retreat in Colorado. Of course, I will be inviting all of you to Paradise Icon in November, which I will be putting together.
And there’s the big trip, the service learning trip to Viet Nam for two weeks in June.
Bryon and I are also eying Disney for next Thanksgiving.
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I plan to continue my movement toward expertise hours. That’s my way of measuring writing success. So far, I am on target. At the end of 2 years, I have completed 1228 hours. My original goals was to have completed the remaining 6000 hours in time to retire, and when I started in 2010, I imagined that to be 10 years. I don’t know if I’ll make the retirement goal or not, but I should make the expertise goal. I am actually 28 hours ahead, because I need 600 hours a year to make that goal.
And I have merely had one short story published this year: Mark Twain’s Daughter from Paper Golem. Lots of work behind the scenes.
Osteoarthritis and make-over stuff get their own posts, eventually.
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So, to the blues, I say why? Look at what you got going on? Why would you find time to be down? You’ll be going cool places and meeting interesting people, with lots of time for that work/life balance. Be grateful for what you got. Keep writing.
Of course, I could just be getting moody/broody for the next book. I have been known to be a bit of a method actor. Then again, I hope not. Or it could be a LONG year.
