Optimism. Maybe this year will be clear, sharp, allowing for vision.
I sold two new stories in 2019, after spending a year or so working at recovering the skills to write short fiction. To my complete dismay and pleasure, both stories sold to a market I have traditionally been unable to crack—Analog. Diligence and energy permitting, I intend to write and sell several more stories this year.
Other than that, I do not have much to say about 2019. We lost friends, our dog, suffered unexpected disruptions. Personally, politically, creatively it was not much of a year to remember.
So rather than do the usual retrospective, I will only say that going forward I intend doing all I can to make the next 12 months better.
I have the best partner anyone could hope to have. Without her, I believe I would be a gibbering idiot in a padded cell somewhere. I have excellent colleagues. I work at a place that is an intellectual and spiritual oasis, a garden in the midst of so much wrack and ruin. I have friends.
I have work.
In the coming months, I intend doing more with my photography. Changes on my art site have commenced, modest to be sure, but I intend calling more attention to it. Please, if you are in any way inclined toward hanging original work in your home or office, pay a visit.
But more than that, I intend publishing more. I’ve been too long absent from the short fiction  environs. I have novels waiting in the wings. I have more stories in process.
It may be that in a couple of years I will have more time to devote to all of it. We shall see.
But whatever happens, 2020 offers a chance to be more and better—for all of us.
So. Be well, be clear, be alive. We’re living in the Future.
Travel well, travel far.
