2023: The F*ck Was That?

When I say this year was a lot… This year was A LOT. The first seven months were incredibly stressful, which I think will reflect in things like word counts once we get to them. So, what the fuck happened this year? Let’s break it down:

• January – 12,043 words
  • This is my peak depression month. I do not make life decisions in January and February. But January 2023 was worse than usual, because my spouse was in a car accident that totaled his car. The good news is that he was completely unharmed. The Kia Soul did everything right and protected him when he was t-boned. But, we were suddenly a single car household after each having our own cars for over a decade. We were also a single-income household at the time.
  • After taking most of December off from writing the book, I’d picked back up and made some solid progress.
• February – 11,787 words
  • We were just figuring out the insurance for the car and it looked like things were going to be okay…
• March – 16,090 words
  • And then a pipe failed in our crawlspace, spraying scalding water for at least 24 hours. A weekend without water while we waited for repairs, then a slew of people tromping through our home, tearing it down to the studs while we bounced between AirBnBs for three weeks. Somewhere in this time I attended a game writing conference thanks to a scholarship from Willamette Writers. I recall having a lovely time, but was still mostly shellshocked at the state of our home.
  • I did have a short story publish in March, “In the Librarian’s Garden” in Tree and Stone Magazine.
• April – 1,150 words
  • Trevor landed a remote temp job and we decided we’d rather be at home than continuously moving around town, so we brought our stuff and our dog, back home. We had no hot water, no heat or a/c. We bought an electric kettle to take warm sponge baths, and visited the in-laws weekly for real, hot showers. we had no kitchen, no couch, no where comfortable to be beyond the bed. And in the moment it all seemed doable. Survivable. 
  • All writing momentum stopped, the stress too much for me to focus on much else.
  • A bright spot of the month was attending Norwescon with my writing BFFs for the very first time. I also attended the Terroir Creative Writing Conference at the end of the month with a member of my critique group. 
  • Another story released in April, “The Lament of Kivu Lacus” in the anthology Life Beyond Us.
• May – 5,544 words
  • My boss at the high school informed me that there was a chance my position would be cut to part time, and if not, then it would be changing substantially. I knew that part-time wouldn’t work, and the looming changes would me miserable. So, I applied for a new job…
• June – 2,930 words
  • AND GOT IT! I put in my notice just before the summer break, and spent the last few weeks of June enjoying a newfound love of vegetable gardening. At this point, the house is still not done. No heat, no a/c, and no hot water. We hadn’t cooked for ourselves in months.
• July – 5,565 words
  • My summer vacation ended, and I started my new job the same week our house was officially done! There’s a lot to worry about – new routines, a 45-minute commute, unpacking the dozens of boxes (which still isn’t done), new health care coverage. All that fun stuff. But i had the Willamette Writers Conference to look forward to…
• August – 4,924 wordsExcept I got a terrible migraine and had to leave the conference early. I also had another short story publish, “Human, Still” in the anthology Saltwater Sorrows. 
• September – 11,442 words
  • Life finally started to settle down. I felt more comfortable in my new job and Trevor was offered a full time remote position with his company. The house was done and (mostly) unpacked, and I’d found some success with a new migraine treatment regimen. 
  • Writing on the novel resumes in earnest.
  • Another story released in September, “A Lullaby for Mattie Barker” in Luna Station Quarterly. 
• October – 8,238 words
  • Things really settle into place and writing hits a fever pitch. I finish the rough draft and dive immediately into revision. 
• November – 7,586 words
  • Revisions continue at a blistering pace. 
• December – 4,019 words
  • I finished revisions and sent the novel to a handful of beta readers. As of this writing, I’d heard back from two of them, and the consensus so far is overwhelmingly positive. 
  • I sold another short story, to be published in Summer 2024! I’ll share a more official announcement once I’ve signed the contract.

So, yeah. This year was an absolute rollercoaster, the first half probably one of the most challenging spans of time I can recall. And then the last half of the month seemed determined to make up for it, with productive months and good news.