2008 in review

[pbray]

According to the BBC website, studies have shown that making New Year's resolutions can be bad for your mental health, so that seems a good enough reason to me to put them off. However I can't resist the urge to join the rest of the lemmings in attempting to sum up 2008. Not so much for nostalgia, as in writing up an AAR or "Put a stake in it, it's done."

Reading
The Bad: By conservative estimate, I added at least 100 books to my to-be-read pile. While doing my small part to keep booksellers and publishers afloat, the sheer size of the TBR stack is discouraging, and I'm halfway tempted to just bury all the books in a hole in the backyard and start again. If the ground wasn't frozen, I'd be more than halfway tempted.

The Good: I discovered several new authors that I enjoyed. Plus, with the help of friends on LJ I helped my sister find new mystery authors to devour, much to her delight.

Writing
The Bad: A project that I really like was rejected, sent out, rejected again. Also, for various reasons including lack of deadline pressure, my writing productivity dropped.

The Good: THE FINAL SACRIFICE was released in July, and received nice reviews. And the project has been resubmitted elsewhere, so I'm optimistic.

The Bad Part Two: My longtime critique partner jennifer_dunne fell in love, got engaged, moved out of state and is no longer available for rapid critiques. Come to think of it, I'm still waiting for her to critique the chapter I sent her in November....

The Good Part Two: fireun has now joined jpsorrow in critiquing and motivating-via-fish sessions. fireun not only appreciates fine prose, she's also a beer-friend, something that was sorely lacking.

Life
The Bad: Failed to achieve the mythical Work/Life balance that my employer claims to believe in, including a specactular failure in August when my scheduled vacation days for Worldcon somehow morphed into me carrying my laptop around Denver and having to work several hours each day. And owing to the state of the market, early retirement to become a full-time writer appears dependent upon lottery winnings or bestseller status, rather than 401K savings.

The Good: I still have a day job, which means health insurance and regular paychecks.

In conclusion, 2008 wasn't the best of years, but it wasn't the worst either. Here's to a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year for us all.

Comments

[mc23.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard of this study before, but I think you will love this one.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2796559/Thinking-can-make-you-fat-study-shows.html

I must be thinking an awful lot. :0)

[fireun.livejournal.com]

(beer friend, we need to have some beer time! i can has beer! and i can has time away from the store! i need you to join me in these things! much love, your beer friend)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

We must! I came back sick & dragging from Florida, but am now recovered and fit for human company. We will plot tomorrow night.

[fireun.livejournal.com]

alas, now i am sick and dragging. might actually try and get to the doctors tomorrow before work. *sigh*

[pbray.livejournal.com]

:-(

Hope you feel better soon!

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

I like this approach -- think I will do this too, later. Not right now: must shower and hunt up long underwears and take offspring skating. (SP does not know how to skate, and I am laughably out of practice, but I promised we would go, so go we must...)

Happy 2009! :)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Ah, I have fond memories of skating and polishing the ice with my butt :-) Hope you guys have fun.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

We did have fun -- and SP was actually very good, for her second time on the ice ever. Predictably, I have now had to sign her up for 6 weeks of skating lessons and promise to buy her skates and a hockey helmet...

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

And owing to the state of the market, early retirement to become a full-time writer appears dependent upon lottery winnings or bestseller status, rather than 401K savings.

Yeah.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'm not even going to open the 4th quarter statement when it arrives....

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I just wish I could take those financial geniuses who engineered this mess aside and thank them for tossing this curve ball at me. I realize that compared to many, I'm not as affected by this. But I am still affected, and given how I write, the loss of that extra year or two when I could have been writing fulltime...oh well, doesn't do to dwell on it. And as you said, health insurance and steady paycheck.

[kythiaranos.livejournal.com]

My TBR pile is daunting, too. I'm going to try to be more diligent about finishing things and then posting about them. Also, not visiting the bookstore every 15 minutes.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I became diligent about not taking free books at cons since it wasn't fair to just add those to the TBR pile when the books could go to someone who would read and recommend them.

And I'm buying fewer books than I once did, but spending more since I'm reading more nonfiction.

[jlawrenceperry.livejournal.com]

2008 was a success if only because I got to hang out with you!

[pbray.livejournal.com]

It was cool hanging out with you too! Any chance you'll be at Balticon again this year?

[jlawrenceperry.livejournal.com]

Nope.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

:-( Yeah, I thought that's what you said.

Will be interesting to see what happens to cons in 2009, giving the overall economic situation. I expect many people will be electing to stay close to home or being very selective about which cons they attend.

[jlawrenceperry.livejournal.com]

I'd like to get to ConCarolinas again. That was a very positive experience, got on a few panels whilst remaining relatively obscure.

I'll have to try ConGlomeration here in Louisville and see how it's improving. They had Ben Bova last year but I didn't go.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I'd give serious thought to ConCarolinas if it didn't conflict with Balticon this year. But overall, I'm going to fewer cons in 2009 than I did in 2008.

[jlawrenceperry.livejournal.com]

Nevermind the fact that flying into Charlotte is a TOTAL ripoff.