Look Back on 2021
This was definitely a year… as bad as the last, not to me, but it presented its own challenges so I think I am more tired from 2021 than 2020. But, I also feel more sure about my goals and dreams and more determined to do them.
Kyle and I got to make the house truly ours, started a little garden and celebrated one year in our home. It’s still a work-in-progress and one of my biggest goals for the year is to upkeep our garden and get more harvest from it. We now share our home with two amazing roommates; Jonathan and Noah, started hosting a monthly game night as well as our first Thanksgiving and celebrated our six-year anniversary. Sadly, this year we bid goodbye to our beloved guinea pig; Kaz. He passed away from old age after living his best life for eight, nine years. We miss him everyday.
We stayed pretty close to home this year apart from a number of beach trips to our new favorite beach and up north to North Fork to visit my tattoo artist. She and her wife have a farm in the mountains with a herd of goats and an adorable Airbnb. It was a lovely stay and I got to see her again when she did a guest spot in LA bringing my total tattoos for the year to three and some of my biggest and most painful pieces.
I really dove into writing this year, many stories and teasers you can see here or on my Patreon. I worked on the Wanderer short stories, getting up to eight with two more planned and the first one won Silver Honorable Mention in the L.Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future contest. I edited my Nano novel from last year, World Under Fire, whose title has changed to Sky Heart. I’m deeper into editing this novel than any other before, even planning on giving it to beta readers and getting it ready for self-publishing in the near future. And I have a sequel planned as well. And, of course, I had nanowrimo 2021 which gave birth to How Not to Kill A Faery Prince which I had a blast writing and will definitely return to.
I started posting Reels on Instagram, veering away from vlogs here though there might be more in the future. I’ve also just been trying to post more authentically and much more writing/author stuff. I posted a lot on this blog for like six months at the beginning of this year then honestly ran out of steam and ideas. There will still be posts here, but they will be fewer as I really want to focus on my novels.
This year had a lot of major ups and downs for me. I experienced the worst burnout ever that I still haven’t recovered from after being over worked and not setting boundaries. On the other hand the most of October was amazing and I had the most perfect Christmas. But, something was still…off.
I have a lot of changes I want to make in 2022. I want to form healthy habits and routines that stick and can carry me through hard times. I want to make time for things that are important to me and that I want to do. I want to fully embrace the life of a working author and takes steps toward making it my everyday. I want to be happy and present everyday.
With those lofty goals, bring on the new year.