Happy New Year and 2016 Didn’t Suck

Diana Beebe, Mermaids Don't Do Windows, MDDW, Diana Beebe's Blog, science fiction, fantasy, Young adultHappy New Year!

The year 2016 didn’t suck that much. As years go, 2016 was not my personal worst. The year 2015 was my all-time low with 2004 running a close second.

It’s all about perspective.

The 2016 highlights of things that were pretty amazing in my personal life and in my professional life (excluding my kids’ accomplishments, because they’re shy), in no particular order:

  • After a 19-year career, I retired from my corporate day job as a technical writer. January 1, 2016, was the first day of working for myself.
  • We rescued a husky who needed lots of love to acclimate back into the real world after too much time in animal shelters. After a rocky start with her, I’m glad we have her in our “pack.”
  • My master’s thesis was published online. I always wished I’d been able to share a copy with Andre Norton. It kind of feels that I’ve been able to now. I wrote about it in this post.
  • I connected with other writers and literary people. I’ve seen several writing partners and friends get book deals and others have publishing success, too! They inspire me!
  • My work won First Place in a contest.
  • Love found me again. A long-time friendship became something more. This is perhaps the most surprising and unexpected thing to happen.
  • My first trip to Canada happened during my first visit ever with my brother and his husband.
  • RWA Nationals in San Diego was an adventure with incredible writing friends, old and new.
  • A visit with friends from college for the first time in years renewed old friendships.
  • I learned to love reading again for the pure joy of reading.
  • I taught myself how to roll my Rs so I can learn Hungarian. I didn’t take Spanish in high school because I couldn’t make that trill with my tongue. A few months ago, I studied some speech therapy techniques, and now I can make the sound! Mostly. LOL. I’ve learned a few other sounds that don’t exist in the English or French languages, too.

I’m grateful for many things! So what’s up for 2017? It’s going to be a busy year. What else is new? Here are a few of my goals:

  • Complete revisions on GLOW (Book 1 about genetically-engineered teens).
  • Complete the first draft of CHIME (Book 2).
  • Plan SPARK (for lack of a better working title for Book 3).
  • Complete the first draft of HEARTFALL (a fantasy).
  • Learn Hungarian as a third language. Lucky for me, I know a native speaker. 😉
  • Read at least 24 books. Two books per month doesn’t seem that unreasonable.
  • Write some summary articles for the Andre Norton website.
  • Use planners and calendars more efficiently. (Read “Use planners and calendars.”)

What good things did you experience in 2016? What are you looking forward to in 2017?

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