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Out with the Old

I'm not really sure I have anything relevant to say, but this is the last chance I will have to do this in 2014, so I thought I might just list a few goals and lay out a tentative plan for the coming year.

1.  Find a home for Antiartists.  I'm still not sure what this means.  Whether I find an agent to represent it, or if I find an indie publisher that accepts unrepresented manuscripts, or decide to pull the trigger and e-publish, I think it needs an audience, needs to get out there, so I can move on and let it go.

2. Finish the new novel (working title: Flagg).  I've got 25,000 words so far, and I would like to finish it sometime before the end of 2015.  If I can work with any semblance of discipline, this seems to be a pretty modest goal.

3. Develop some kind of network of readers and writers that I can feel comfortable sharing with.  This is important, I know.  Ugh.  Other people.  Gross.

4.  Stay positive, and keep moving forward.  Obviously. 

 2014 has sucked on a massive scale in both a global and personal sense.  Crashing planes and murdered children and riots and protests and wars and death.  The world, as I have known it, seems to be falling apart around me.  My family has experienced and endured profound and painful loss.  I personally cannot remember a time when we as a people have seemed more ready to destroy ourselves with greed and ignorance and willful malice.  I'm getting old, I guess, and things seemed better back when I wasn't so connected to this unwanted influx of information.

BUT:

I am humbled and eternally grateful for my family who have all been incredibly supportive and beautiful and brilliant.  I have a good shot I feel at making something of this writing thing.  I mean, holy shit, I finished a novel.  I WROTE A NOVEL!  This is literally one thing that I promised myself that I would do before I died, and it is done.  And it is good.

We started this thing last year at New Year's Eve, we got a jar, and we would write on a slip of paper all the good things that happened throughout the year and when New Years came around again we would dump them all out and get a chance to remember all the great things that had happened to us that year.
 
I can't wait.  Mostly I filled it with silly stuff; they released a new version of my all time favorite video game, my team won the Super Bowl (GO HAWKS!), and things like that.  But also in there are real life events.  My kid learned to ride a bike, he learned to tie his shoes, I finished writing a novel.  And I bet there are things in there that I just forgot, cool things that passed me by and fell out of my memory and blew away on the wind...

I think going forward here, in addition to writing about writing and trying to publish, I will also put up some things that I have written that have no home, that just need some eyes and minds and hearts to read them.

You are out there, readers, I know it.  You are mostly silent and watching, but I can tell you are there by your glowing eyes in the dark (and by my view counter).  Speak up, let me know what you think, just say hey, whatever.  Take a moment. 

Take care of one another, be safe, love each other through hard times and good times.  Let people know how you feel about them.  Smile more, love more.  If the world wants to crumble into dust, I will not go out crying in despair, or screaming in anger and hatred.  I will sing and laugh and love until I have no more breath.

I will not give in.

I will keep trying.

Have a happy New Year. 

Welcome 2015, you brand new beautiful bastard.

Still Writing, RP            
   

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