So it’s the last day of 2009, and since everyone is reflecting on the year and decade we’re about to send off into the history books, I guess I’ll jump off that particular bridge, too.
2009 was a Really Busy Year. “Busy” has been the word around the house pretty much ever since we started with the procreation thing, but this year just seemed like it was busier than the ones before it. I finished a novel (“Terms of Enlistment”) and a few short stories, sold a few articles here and there, and wrote about a third of the follow-up novel to “Terms of Enlistment”, called “Lines of Departure”. I switched to longhand writing in January, so I’ve written pretty much every word of the current novel (and roughly the second half of the one before it) on paper with a fountain pen. By now, it’s pretty safe to say that the longhand method doesn’t slow down the rate of production much for me.
(Strangely enough, I don’t like writing non-fiction or short prose in longhand. For articles or short stories, I break out the Neo, dust off a typewriter, or just type stuff directly into Word on the PC. Blog posts are drummed straight into the computer as well, using Windows Live Writer.)
As far as family business goes, 2009 wasn’t a bad year at all. Quinn turned four, Lyra turned two, I turned thirty-eight, and Robin turned *mumblecough*. There were no deaths, no diseases, and no major sicknesses in our families, and we’re all reasonably healthy and free of lingering maladies. I didn’t get to see my German relatives this year, and haven’t seen them in person since 2005, but the Internet and that new-fangled telephone device help a lot to stay in touch and shrink the distance mentally.
The Oughties, on the other hand, were a mixed bag. I started the decade by being served divorce papers, and continued it with a layoff during the popping of the tech bubble. My grandmother died in 2007, my canine buddy Sam died in 2002, and there have been the first natural deaths in our graduating high school class, which is something that’ll make you feel old quickly. There was the unmitigated Bag of Suck that was 9/11, of course, and the financial woes of the recession. On the plus side of the ledger, I met Robin in 2002, we got married in 2003, I became a U.S. citizen in 2004, Quinn was born in 2005, and Lyra was born in 2007, so the Oughties have that going for them. I also finally got serious about writing, finished three novels since 2006, went to Viable Paradise, and made a ton of new writer friends. I also started this here Interblogs thingie in 2001 (on Blogger back then), and I’ve made hundreds of new online pals, many of which have turned into real-life friends.
So, all in all, I guess the closing decade held a lot of joy and grief, much like every decade before it, and we all enjoyed the fun bits and endured the sucky ones, much like in every decade before it. I have a sneaky suspicion that this trend will continue unabated into the…what the hell are we going to call the coming decade, anyway? The Ones? The Ought-Tens? The Tweens-N-Teens?
However the past year and decade have turned out for you, I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2010. Personally, I think it will be a pretty good year, and the start to a fine decade.
