2022 has come and gone and I realized that in the hustle and bustle of the holidays, it’s been too long since I posted a blog entry. I have to apologize for letting this lapse for three weeks. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and end to the year. 2023 is a blank slate of possibilities and I’m excited to get into it. Before we do that, let’s look at the year behind us.
Drawing from the Well
I managed to make progress since my last blog. As usual, it’s not as much as I would like. The holidays sapped my time and my energy. This month, I aim to start getting up early each morning to write, much like I did to win NaNoWriMo in ’21. Still, progress is progress. I’m closing in on finishing this round of edits and that feels good, despite how rough this draft is. Once this is done, though, Book 3 goes on the shelf for a bit. Book 2 needs one more pass before it goes to the professional editor so I’m going to switch gears to that. I’ve got to keep this publication train running, right?
Arc I: 64/64
Arc II: 60/60
Arc III Part I: 24/24
Arc III Part II: 31/31
Arc IV: 44/44
Arc V: 9/59
Interstitia: 0/11
Total: 230/291
Filling the Well
I made it! I hit AND beat my Goodreads goal. My unofficial stretch goal was to meet last year’s final count of 103. I did that too. My super stretch was 105, but I never made it to that. Still, I’m very happy with what I read this…last year. The image above captures everything I read. We’ll have a new, more regular image starting next week for this year. I’ve already read two books this year, one business and the other Book 4 in The Aliomenti Saga. Every time I think I’m getting bored with that series, it pulls me back in. It still hasn’t scored a 5-star rating on any one book, but I can’t quit the series in the middle now.
We are DEEP in The West Wing re-watch. This show really is great, but I still have to pay attention because of how fast they all talk or I quickly lose track of what’s going on. Still an outstanding show.
Dragonflight maintains itself as a great ride. Blizzard has definitely learned lessons from previous expansions and is listening to its player base. This is easily the best expansion since Legion (four years ago) and has the potential to rival Mists of Pandaria and Wrath of the Lich King as one of the best expansions in World of Warcraft history. Time will tell, but for now, it’s a fantastic expansion.
Well Chat
2022 was a heck of a year. I accomplished a lot of goals. I published for the first time. I saw things I never thought I would see and did things I never expected. I end the year in a happier place than I ended ’21 for sure. All signs point to ’22 being an improvement. Was it all sunshine and roses? Of course not. A year is too long to paint with such a wide brush. Sometimes a day is too long for that. I want to focus on the positives, though, to build momentum for the new year.
For reading, as I said above, I read 103 books. That’s 20 non-fiction and 83 fiction, 56 fantasy, 24 science fiction, 1 adventure, 1 children’s book, and 1 general fiction. Of what I read, I had 4 2-stars, 19 3-stars, 48 4-stars, and 32 5-stars. In the past, my Book of the Year got scored a 6-star, but this year, we’re going to do it a little differently. I read so many good books this year, I can’t limit the 6-stars to just one book. My Top 5 Books, all of which I consider 6-stars, are Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, Crystal Caged by Elise Kova, Gallant by V.E. Schwab, Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, and Network Effect by Martha Wells.
See why I couldn’t have just ONE 6-star book this year? Now, picking the 7-star Book of the Year is tough. These are all great books. Only one of them actually moved me to tears, though, and that was Crystal Caged. It was book five in its series but really book ten in its world and it leaned on every ounce of that to make this moving and powerful, but what moved me to tears was an extremely human moment. I cannot recommend that book and its series highly enough.
We’ve talked at length about publication so I won’t drone on about it further except to say it’s been a dream come true. There was much more to my year than reading and writing, though. Thanks to my wife’s company, I saw an elephant and a Clydesdale at one wedding, set off fireworks at another, and participated in a wedding on a Christmas parade float. We saw plays, Carrier Underwood, and Lamb of God. We went to Vegas, North Carolina, NYC, and I went to Georgia and Texas. We adopted a kitten, said goodbye to one of our beloved dogs, and said goodbye to two grandparents. We weathered two hurricanes, though we’re still dealing with their aftermath, volunteered in our community, and had a killer Christmas.
The highest point of it all had to be adopting my son. This young man has been in my life for almost a decade and we have connected in ways that transcend belief. I love him more than I could have ever imagined and was honored that he wanted me to be his dad officially. It was a long, long process but it was worth every minute to give my son my support and my name. It’s still surreal to think about sometimes. It never stops being an honor.
It was a big, big year. 2023 is primed to be just as exciting and volatile. I can’t wait to see what’s coming. Thank you for coming along on this crazy ride.
May the tide carry you to safer shores.
BSG