2019 in Review

It's crazy how the year starts out with optimistic goals that ebb and flow when met with life's realities. Health, family, changing workloads, and challenging situations all play a part in what actually gets done...or doesn't.

First a look at what didn't:

• Love's Intensity has yet to be issued in print - I'd hoped to get this done in 2019 (reality check: I'd hoped to get this done in 2018 but stuff happened) in time or the October book festival in Collingswood, but proofreading has taken much longer than expected. Here's hoping for a 2020 printing.
• Posting on this blog every month - Too many obstacles. Maybe 2020 will be kinder than 2019.
•  If It Kills Me and Danny R.O.S.S. were never edited. Instead, they were both released back to me by a publishing company due to unforeseen circumstances.

Celebrating the tasks that did:

• Merged scenes from loose files for the two new stories and the prequel and sequel of Love's Intensity.
• Tweeted and posted to my FaceBook Author Page more often.
• Attended the 2019 USVI Literary Festival and Book Fair in April.
• Landed an impromptu in-person interview at WSTX radio in Gallows Bay, St. Crox at that time.
• Participated in Career Day at the Samuel M. Ridgeway School in June.
• SciFi 2030 battle scene in Battle of Kitee (posted on the Small Wars Journal site) made it to the semi-finals of the Mad Scientist Fiction Writing Contest 2019.
• Entered five other contests for stories and poetry. I'm glad I made the leap even though those didn't place.
• Finished the first draft for one of the new stories, #ZnT, with 62,500+ words in 287 pages a week before Christmas. It's now out with the Beta reader.
• Completed first edits for If It Kills Me.

So, as 2019 comes to a close, I raise my glass of sparkling apple cider to all the things I accomplished and all the hardships I pushed through to do that. Looking forward to an even better New Year.