Master List of Progress Reports - 2013

2013: Year In Review

No new chapters posted again.

The first few months I spent grieving over the death of my cat Felix. Her loss hit me hard. She'd been with me since her birth in 1995. I was only 18, so she'd literally been with me my entire adult life (almost 18 years). Even now, as I'm writing this in February 2015, I miss her a lot (and I still haven't gotten any new kitties because I'm afraid they could never measure up to the relationship I had with her, though I'm trying to make room for the possibility because I do miss the companionship).

I spent January in a funk, trying to continue writing as a way to block out everything else, but it didn't really work. By February, I knew I needed to take a step back and get my physical world in order, since I'd completely let the house go. Cluttered surroundings just aren't conducive to a calm environment, which I need, not just to help me focus on my writing, but also simply for my well-being. But even after spending two months on sorting and purging and organizing and cleaning, the job still wasn't done (the Christmas tree was still up in April). Granted, it's not like I was spending every waking minute on it, but the energy I did have was exhausted after focusing on cleaning for two months. I needed a break and happily returned to my stories.

April was my best writing month of the year. I spent 20 out of 30 days working on my stories, first The Vampire Hunter, then The Enchanted Queendom. I continued my momentum into May, working on TVH again and then shifting to Lights of Life.

My wife and I also finally got our wills done, something we'd both wanted since our handfasting in 2004, so everything seemed to be coming together for me.

Then June hit and I needed to get us ready to visit my family for a vacation at the beach (the sister I only see every 2 years, so it's a big deal). I was also getting more serious about creating my jewelry business, so I was spending time working out those details, though it remained a hobby until the middle of 2014 (more on that in the archive for 2014). Then there was my wife's cataract surgery, which was scheduled for after the beach trip, but there were all these little details leading up to the surgery that had to be taken care of and since I'm the detail person, they fell to me. And of course, even though it's probably the safest surgery you can have, we were both still nervous about it, and anxiety is not helpful to my writing, so June was basically a complete wash.

July was a little better. My wife's cataract surgery went without a hitch, so I was able to get back into my writing groove in the latter half of the month.

Then came August and I thought my world was over.

First, I injured my neck, which caused nerve issues that made me feel like I was on the verge of passing out all the time. So I started an intense rehabilitation therapy regimen of getting spinal adjustments from my chiropractor every few days, neck traction several times a day, ice throughout the day, a massage from my wife every few days (okay, that was a perk :) ), pain meds and muscle relaxers twice a day (which left me foggy or asleep), and as much bed rest as I could stand, which also meant no time at the computer or holding a book to read, since that would cause my shoulders and neck to tense up again.

Then my gut went to hell, making me feel like I was going to pass out whenever I went to the bathroom. I also started having weird hot flashes and sweating, the kind I normally get when I've forgotten to eat (I'm hypoglycemic), but they didn't seem to have anything to do with that, since they were occurring during or after I'd eaten. After a little research, I learned it probably had to do with my vagus nerve throwing fits for whatever reason. I was able to pick up some tips on how to cope with these new symptoms and by the end of September, things had calmed down enough that I was able to get back to something resembling normal.

That led into October being another great writing month, something I had sorely missed after all the medical drama. I was very focused on Lights of Life and that continued through the beginning of November, after which I took a bit of a break for the holidays, though I still managed a decent amount of writing in December, which allowed me to post 2 new chapters at the beginning of January (more on that in the archive for 2014).

Moral of the Story

Life is almost never what you want it to be.

It just is what it is and you have to deal with it. In the middle of all that medical crap, it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel (and not imagine it was a train), but I found ways to cope and get through it, and I was even able to get quite a lot of writing done, as well as begin forming the foundation for my soon-to-exist jewelry business. Those are lessons I hope will stay with me, no matter how bad things get sometimes.