Amazing and Unexpected Things in 2024
This has been a fucking hard year, no lie. There were lots of bad things that happened and that I just managed to survive. But I’m trying to focus on some of the good things that happened, most of them unexpected because I reached a point where I stopped hoping for good things (even though I guess I didn’t stop working toward them).
1. Sold 3 books, including 2 books in a new mystery series starring Ada Latia, autistic lady detective.
2. Got a new agent (after my GOAT agent passed away unexpectedly in March).
3. Won an award at work, for, of all things, being a good team builder. Who would have guessed?
4. Won an award for art and had two pieces shown in a local magazine.
5. Showed one of my afghans at an art show at work (actually, showed it at two different art shows at work). Also:
6. Finally got my retirement money after genuinely coming to a place where I believed in would never happen after the divorce.
7. Signed up for the CDFA exam and passed it (on the second try).
8. Saw a movie, Heretic, that I wished I had written myself (it has been a long time since this has happened to me—I’ve gotten kind of numb to storytelling, sadly).
9. Had a coworker recognize me as a writer and tell me how much she loved my book The Princess and the Hound, back in the day.
10. Gained even more real friends than I had last year (though I cut a bunch of FB friends in another culling).
I celebrated my birthday for the first time in decades, going to visit my sister with some of my kids in September. I’ve taken time off to try to deal with some physical health problems. I met new friends and I spent more time with old friends. I went on a trip with friends to Palm Springs and went out to lunch many times with friends of all stripes, even though I have a tendency to stay at home as much as possible. I found new shows I loved (The Diplomat, Sow Horses, for instance) and I read A LOT of books, and a lot of nonfiction. I walked multiple people through all of my best information about divorce and found to my surprise that I wasn’t angry or sad about it for them. It’s just a thing to be worked through. Also, I lost a friend to cancer and found, to my surprise, that it doesn’t always feel like she is gone.
Most of my life, I’ve believed that I had to hustle to get anything I wanted, and that it still wouldn’t come. Even though I was a theist, I didn’t really believe God gave me anything without me “deserving” it. The universe has brought me some good gifts this year, even if there were many times I would have traded them back in for the life I used to think I loved.