Hi.

Been a long time, eh?

Or perhaps it just feels like a long time. What is time? The 2020 pandemic has thrown all sense of normal out the window, but even a pandemic can’t stop another birthday from coming and a new FFY from arriving.

In some ways, my usual post-birthday post seems undoable this year. Did I do anything? It feels like I didn’t, like I shut down for the first 8 months of the year. But that’s the exact reason I wanted to do this post–to remind myself of everything that I did accomplish, depression & pandemic & all.

This past year I:

• published Creampuffs to Amazon
• visited the UK for the first time since I was a child
• finished editing Space Crazies
• started putting together an anthology for G&V with the Pillbug
• created a query package for Space Crazies
• hit 200 submissions by December 31st
• sold two short stories in January
• started editing Fletcher & Cooper
• submitted over 50 queries for Space Crazies
• sewed 100 masks to give away to friends, family & community
• designed & launched A Quiet Afternoon for G&V
• marketed the shit out of AQA and actually made a profit inside a month
• did 100 submissions in 8 months
• cracked 100 rejections in 8 months
• attended two zoom cons!
• wrote two short stories (a bigger accomplishment than it sounds, given the pandemic)
• renovated my home office

It’s not a bad list. I really wanted to add “learned to rollerskate” to it but tsk tsk, I’ve been waiting for cooler weather so as to not, you know, die. It’ll be on the list for next year. Happy 40 FFY!