Monday Meanderings

It's been a crazy year, probably one of my most tumultuous and change-filled.  I've been tested, frustrated, run mad, and come out stronger for it.  I've finished numerous short stories, poetry pieces, and a novel(la), had a novel accepted for small press publication and begun edits, started a new part-time job, had a work location close, change in bosses, change in responsibilities, added a new student, minor car accident, unraveled a health mystery, chopped my hair and dyed it purple, started fostering for a canine adoption group ...

I'm not entirely sure that's the complete list.

Nothing has been simple or straightforward; it's all been complicated, twisty, and often piled atop each other in a way that no one would believe in fiction.  "Come on, it just happened to occur in that order?"  It may not have been easy on my nerves, but I think I'm stronger for navigating it all.

To those setting New Year's resolutions, I salute you.  Sure, it's an arbitrary unit of time, but so are most self-imposed deadlines ... and deadlines can be liberating.  I believe in concrete goals, no matter when you choose to set them.

For myself, at least on the writing front, I will not be setting long-term goals - not because I'm a hypocrite, but because achieving my goals ultimately depends on someone else (an editor, agent or publisher).  I can take as many steps as I can find in the right direction, but success needs a green light from someone else.  I'm thinking particularly that my next hopes are to get an agent and a short story in a pro-level anthology.

So I have ... hopes?  Hopes for the New Year and new change.

But I'd take a calmer year, too.