Last Week of the Year

This is normally when I take stock of the year and plan out projects for the next.

2022 was NOT a good year. (Read it in Judy Geller's voice, aka the fabulous Cristina Pickles from Friends.)

I'm nearly 250K behind in my annual word count. Delayed one novel and dropped the ball on two others that I'm trying to finish. Whatever free time I scheduled was utterly taken over by personal stuff.

Four deaths in the family. In fact, I have paperwork from the attorney for my mom's estate I need to fill out and return. DH and his sisters have been doing their best to clean out their parents' house. Some of this was stalled by one sister breaking her wrist and another one contracting COVID-19.

The kicker was the text we got from GK in the wee hours of Christmas morning. He left his apartment to head to work (military works 24/7/365), only to find broken glass where his car had been parked. We were on the phone with him for a total of four hours. The first hour was when he was waiting for the police to come. The other three were after he got home later that night.

I was proud of him for dealing with the police and the insurance company, or what he could get done since this was a major holiday. But he needed to vent last night. Today was the first day of his leave, and he planned to come home. And his car being stolen was the cherry on top of a series of crap in trying to get his leave lined up.

GK made an appearance at his staff sergeant's Christmas party last night, but he didn't get falling down drunk. He was determined that hell or high water, he was driving home for his leave.

So while we wait for his arrival today, I'm looking at my calendar. My first half of 2023 will be spent catching up on all the projects. By catching up, I mean writing. I probably won't publish anything new for the next six months that doesn't already have an pre-order date.

After I update and release everything I need to, then I'll see about the projects of the heart I want to write. Most of those are already listed on the work in progress list on my reader website.

It's the best I can do. I didn't realize how shredded emotionally I was until today. I'm not even hoping the last seven days of the year will be smooth. I just want to survive them without having a mental breakdown.