No writing advice today, just a few remembrances…
It’s been an interesting year.
In January 2012 we helped my remarkable father-in-law celebrate his 95th birthday. In a little more than a week, we’ll hopefully help him celebrate Number 96.
In June, my bride and I reached our 42nd Anniversary.
Last August, I drove in the annual Woodward Dream Cruise again. For aficionados of the muscle cars manufactured in the 1960s and 70s, it’s an event made in Heaven … or, at least in a Detroit that was a lot closer to one forty years ago.
Participating in my ’81 Corvette and with a brother-in-law who makes each new old-car sighting an event in itself (“Omigod, just look at that red Challenger, would ya!”), was as enjoyable as you can imagine.
In 2012 I finished, and published, three books. Two … “Zebulon” and “Tinker” … were each well-received collections of short stories.
My debut novel, “Reichold Street” was finished in March 2012, and I was surprised (and pleased) when it was selected as a 2012 Readers Favorite Gold Medal Winner. My wife and I traveled to Miami during the International Book Fair to collect it.
Just knowing reviewers actually liked it was a prize unto itself.
In October, based on the positive results I enjoyed with my writing earlier in the year, I was both flattered and honored to be asked to make a presentation on self-publishing at the well-attended 2012 Rochester Writer’s Conference at Oakland University.
During 2012 I also entered the National Novel Writing Month (Nanowrimo) event for the first time, with the full intention of writing the required 50,000 words in the month of November.
The fact I only managed 16,000 … and about two-thirds of those are so bad they’ve already been edited away … made me realize writing to word-count bores me to death. I won’t join the Nanowrimo 30-day marathon again next year, but at least I can say I tried.
On the negative side, my pension and healthcare underwent a radical change in the past year and it still upsets me enough that I don’t want to talk about it more than I have to.
Suffice it to say, my former employer shouldn’t count too heavily on my ongoing support in the retail arena. Loyalty is, after all, a two-way street and they just made the road in my direction practically a dead end. I’m definitely going to shop for the best deal from now on.
Instead of enjoying sandals and shorts in the sunshine, which would make all sorts of sense, we instead welcomed eight inches of snow here in the North yesterday, just as we have for years (I think ‘welcomed’ is probably too kind a word).
On the plus side, I’m in good health; still have an adequate home, food on the table, successful children, wonderful grandchildren and a beautiful wife who loves me in spite of myself. That’s not too shabby. In fact, it’s pretty damn good.
That’s why, as I ponder resolutions for the New Year, I know I only need to make a few:
(1) Keep writing and finish my next book (two in 2013, if I’m lucky); (2) Love my wife as she deserves to be loved; (3) Love and enjoy my children and grandchildren; (4) Be kind to my family, neighbors and friends; ditto that to people in need; (5) Be considerate to everyone; and … most of all … enjoy life.
That is, after all, what it’s all about.
Please Watch the Book Trailer for Ron Herron’s Gold Medal-winning “Reichold Street”:
Painting With Light 