…and just like that we are welcoming another new year.
The list of my writing accomplishments in 2019 is a very short one – consisting of four or five blog posts and a couple of thousand words on my work-in-progress. For the non-writers in the audience a couple-thousand words is usually considered a moderately productive weekend – not a year.
2019 now stands as only the second calendar year since Living the Dream was released in 2009 in which I did not release a new book. The last time was 2017 – but I made up for it by releasing two books in 2018 (24 Minutes and Doomed to Repeat) – a feat which I am going to try to match in 2020.
So despite not releasing a book – 2019 was still a very good (nearly flawless) year for me.
The one downer of the year came in late March when I had to say goodbye to my longtime buddy Philbert.
I rescued Phil when he was only 8 or 9 weeks old and he was with me for 16 ½ years before succumbing to liver failure.
Other than that brief blip of sadness – 2019 was the year when, after thirteen years in Florida, I finally purchased a home of my own! It’s a modest place, but it’s in a beautiful area and it suits my needs perfectly. It is indeed my home.
My previous living arrangements ended in January, followed by a few weeks of homelessness where I stayed with a friend before moving into the new place in mid-February.
I had begun work on my next novel (tentatively called Rising Tide) in August of 2018. Progress was moving nicely until the whole moving thing got in the way – bringing production to a halt for a few months while I got settled.
Once I resumed writing in May I still hadn’t developed a routine so the word count wasn’t exactly soaring and Rising Tide hovered at the point of being about two-thirds complete until last weekend (I know…SLACKER!).
Last weekend I finally gave myself the kick in the butt I usually use on procrastinating writer friends who shall remain nameless.
In two days I matched the total word count of the previous four months!
I still have a long way to go – as I said the book is only about two-thirds complete – but I’m finally back in the groove!
The best part is that even though I didn’t do a lot of writing in 2019, I did come up with two really good (at least I think they’re really good) story ideas. Thus my biggest challenge of 2020 will be deciding which one to work on first!
I hope your 2019 was more productive than mine and I hope your 2020 is the best year ever!
As always – thank you for reading
Photo credit: Monique de St-Croix 
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