My Writing Year - 2023

It's been a good year

My oldest son walking my mom in for Thanksgiving dinner this past October.

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I cooked and puttered about on Christmas Eve, listened to music and the sounds of loved ones’ conversation. And gratitude welled up in me.

This has been an exceptionally good year.

Part of that was about having no expectations. And working steadily since leaving my teaching post. I’ll share some reflections and a realization or two, and hope you find something useful.

At this time last year I had two novels, one complete and the second close to completion. Both were ready to send out with cover material by early February. I’ll share what’s happened with them, and other projects, and some realities of my writing life.

I’ll look at some of the process of working with a contract, and editing; traveling while writing; my efforts for promotion of published works; thoughts on putting together a list of places to send a manuscript to, what to do with that list… and more.

Writing is only one part of this life. I think it’s the best part, but we need the other elements to support the writing; it’s all part of the same work.