My Year in Review 2019

2019 was a rough year for me. Ever since the car accident last January that eventually led to me being diagnosed with cancer, to the surgery itself, to the radiation treatment afterwards, last year was rough, and a lot of it was whiled away playing video games. (If anything can be considered accomplished last year, it's putting a dent in my backlog.)

Between mid-January and September I hardly wrote anything, though I still put down a few paragraphs here and there. People told me not to feel guilty about it, that it's self-care, but sometimes I couldn't help wondering, was all this self-care needed? Maybe I was just being lazy?

But I did do a number of things!

I launched my Ko-fi for my blog, which ended up being the primary way friends reached out to help me with the financial costs of treatment. People contributed much more than I expected and I am extremely grateful for that, though if I'd known I probably would have set up a GoFundMe instead, since I suspect that everything that went through Ko-fi is going to be taxable.

Mostly, I want Ko-fi to be a place for my readers to drop a tip and then help choose which game I'm going to play next when I hit critical mass. I know that gaming has little to do with writing (other than the times a game inspires a story), but it's also my biggest hobby, and gives me something to write about when I have nothing fiction-related to post.

In additional to Ko-fi, I also set up Curious Fictions as the primary online repository for my reprint fiction. Though not everything is there, a fair number of my shorts and novelettes are available to monthly subscribers. You can read as much or little as you want, and there are five free stories as well if you'd just like to check it out.

Curious Fictions also saw the debut of my original novella Jack of Spades, which is currently only available to subscribers, though the first chapter is free for everyone. Jack of Spades is an older work of mine that I really enjoyed writing, but eventually pulled from the market since it needed a rework and the Hunger Games had come out (that shows you how old this is) and I felt people might find the two a little too similar. In retrospect, especially now that I have gone in and done the rewrites, I don't think the similarities are really what I needed to worry about it. It was fixing the plot!

Also, to push me back into writing, I participated and completed NaNoWriMo 2019, even though I took time to visit two local conventions and visit family over the Thanksgiving holiday. Completing my 50k even though I had all those other distractions going on was a good boost to my morale.

Moving into 2020, my health appears to be good. At least, there's no sign of the cancer returning, though of course I'm continuing my check-ups. Most of my health expenses from last year are taken care of now, though there's still the possibility of another bill floating around due to some doctors billing their work separately from the hospital.

I want to thank everyone for being so supportive during my illness last year, and here's to 2020 being better!