Year-End Review

          Hello out there! This is your friendly Canadian author. Its been one hell of a harrowing year, so while I don't normally do one, I think I'll use this platform to finally do a year-in-review post. I must admit, I usually have this idea to do one and then forget and never end up posting one. That's because while I love posting these, I am always exhausted after Nanowrimo and I never seem to pick it back up before mid-January. This year, since I wasn't working a full-time job, I had the time and energy to do blog posts and keep working all through December. Which was good because it was amazingly busy. I'll get back to that later though. 

          I'll start in January. I was working away at book 2 in my novel series and had actually begun editing it before I got hurt. For those of you who didn't know, or forgot, I ended up falling head first down an escalator. I was seriously hurt, and for the next four to six months, I pushed myself way too hard. I've never been a good sick patient and always try to get back too soon. I honestly probably could have been up and about and a hell of a lot healthier had I just settled back and healed, but instead, I kept forcing myself ever upward. And I can't say that I'm back to 100% yet. I am healed enough for government work, of course. I do notice that I get headaches when the weather is changing though and that I tend to get depressed more often than I'd like to admit. Fortunately, neither is debilitating, even if I do tend to take it easier than normal when something is acting up. 

          Despite that setback, I started pouring my heart into my art again. I say despite, but it was really closer to because. My head hurt and I couldn't read or look at screens for very long, which was driving me mad while I healed. For two or three months I couldn't write at all, just because trying to write down my thoughts actually hurt and would cause headaches. Fortunately, drawing was easier, perhaps because all I was trying to do was make something pretty. In February, I entered a picture I'd coloured into Rhonda Parrish's cover contest. She had a lot of art she'd had commissioned for her anthologies but wanted one of the picture's coloured for the cover. I was honoured when she chose mine for the front cover of the anthology. So, I had my first very official publishing credit to my name early in the year for cover colouring. 

          September was a time of loss. My husband and I lost our cat, Kuro, to liver problems and within a week of that, I lost my long-time job with the Cooperators. I had worked there for over ten years, but my position was phased out. Honestly, I welcomed the chance to spend a few months dedicating my life to my writing. And while I am looking for a new job already, I haven't found one yet. 

          In October, at the very last moment possible, I published my short story, Fated. Unsurprisingly, it didn't make waves or even many ripples (though I did receive my first review on it just a few days ago and it was a five-star review. Please, if you want to give me the gift that keeps on giving, more reviews are the way to go), but I was honoured to be able to contribute it to Rhonda Parrish's Giftmas project. They did incredibly this year, surpassing their goal of $750 to be donated to the Edmonton Food Bank. In the end, $1,127 was raised, which will really help the food bank get food to the needy this holiday season. 

          Finally, I sent in my first novel to my editor and received it back in early December. Since then, I have been working hard to work on all of the edits and just a few hours ago, I managed to finish them. No, you didn't hear that wrong. The novel is done and as edited as its going to be. I've got a shiny new title and I'll be ordering a cover for it tomorrow, though, with the holidays ongoing, I assume it will be a few days before I have a cover to share with all of you. However, I am going to be working hard behind the scenes to get this novel out to you guys as soon as possible. I will have pre-orders going out as soon as I have an idea of how much the physical novel will end up costing, so if you're interested in getting a signed copy, please subscribe to my page here or keep up with my Facebook page, since I'll be putting the news up there as well. 

        What did you end up doing for New Years? Did you have any successes that you want to share? Please, tell me about them in the comments below!