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I didn’t write much this month, nor did I teach any lessons for anything. I ended the year with a word count of 1456 for December. I wrote one poem and some short journal entries. The only big writing related thing that happened was being voted in as the secretary for our local area writers guild for next year. Next week, once I’ve compiled all the information, I’ll do my annual Writing Year In Review.

Real life had various holiday parties, Christmas with the extended family, etc. I went on a reading spree towards the end of the month and finished all of those partially read books that I’d left languishing earlier in the year. Some of them I had just 10-20 pages left on, some were more like 2/3 of the way left to go. So my December Goodreads list looks funny this year – “What She Left Behind: A Haunting and Heartbreaking Story of 1920s Historical Fiction”, “The Kill Fee” (Poppy Denby Investigates, #2 on audio book), “Aesop’s Fables” (audio), “Understanding Alcoholism as a Brain Disease” (homework for couples therapy), “FICTION FORMULA PLOTTING PRACTICE”, “Thriving with Adult ADHD: Skills to Strengthen Executive Functioning” (homework for my personal therapy), “The Creative Writing Student’s Handbook”, “A Kiss for Midwinter” by Courtney Milan, and “Clockwork Boys” by T. Kingfisher (audio).

I did not write as much as I’d hoped this month, as I was recovering from surgery, so my word count was the same as last month: 5100. I did not end up attending the 20Books Conference, due to that same recovery period. I did try to attend as much of it as possible from my living room over the internet, but that was hardly the experience I had hoped for. By the end of the month, I wrote a couple of poems and started back to work on the Lake House Mystery.  

In other real-life stuff, my youngest son developed some sort of terrible rash all over and had to go through allergy testing…only to find out he’s not really allergic to much at all. It was very weird. We celebrated Thanksgiving here at home, since I’m still not feeling my best self. I also read “Spare” – the memoir by Prince Harry, which was an interesting read.

This month I finally upped my word count a bit and made it up to 5100 words. I wrote one really long poem and some flash fiction. I outlined and did an entire worldbuilding set up for a short story to send to an anthology that ended up deciding not to publish this year after all. That was a bit depressing, but I guess at least I didn’t write the whole thing before finding that out.

In regular life, since I had the spinal surgery, I’ve been on meds that make it hard to think, so I’ve been crafting a lot more this month, rather than writing. I spent a bunch of time setting up an LLC for my arts and crafts business. I’m working on that project with a friend and we hope to launch a website or Etsy store early next year.  I wrote two board game inspired cross stitch patterns and crocheted three different sized Meeples, which I’m hoping to sell on consignment to a new local board game store. I also read “The Marriage Spell” by Jayna Morrow (which I beta read for earlier this year).

This month was another fairly fallow month. I only wrote about 1600, mostly in short journal entries, though I did write one poem about tailgating at a funeral that people really liked (well, most people. Some people were really confused by it.) I also helped a local area poet figure out what order to put her poetry anthology in. I also prepared and presented a lesson on “Including Weather in Our Writing” for the ODWG.

In real life, the last of my mom’s brothers passed away (hence the poem), which devastated our family. I flew up to Wisconsin for a few days to spend time with the extended family. Once I was back home, in a bid to cheer me up, my family did a Lord of the Rings marathon day where we both watched all the Lord of the Rings movie and also ate a Hobbit inspired menu all day long. It was truly epic! I saw a spine specialist about my back and got signed up to have a spine MRI. I also crocheted a few things, like a cat doll, a dress for an actual cat, and a cardigan for a friend. I started making bracelets with another friend for the upcoming Taylor Swift Concert Movie. I also read Gone Girl for my UUFT book club and while I enjoyed it in some ways, it also really bothered me in others.

This month, I only wrote about 1700 words. Real life took up a lot of my time, but after such a productive month in July, I figured I needed some time off. I did write one little piece of flash fiction that has stuck with me all month that I definitely need to submit somewhere.

In real life stuff, I started physical therapy for my spine and hip and went to a bajillion sessions of that. I also (with help from the husband and kids) rearranged my entire writing studio. My midkid finally finished Drivers Ed and got his drivers license. My youngest kid bought a car online and passed the old car to the midkid, so now I have all three kids driving cars of their own. My husband and I also celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary.  I finally finished reading “An Indigenous People’s History of the US.”

This month, I wrote 25,341 words, mostly on the Hannah Project. I also wrote an essay for an upcoming anthology for the UUA, covering UU and people with disabilities, with an emphasis on my own personal experiences as a semi-disabled person in a small UU fellowship.

In addition to those things, I  helped prepare for and run a local area writing conference and helped another local writer make decisions about cover art. I prepared and presented a lesson to the Open Door Writing Group about goal setting and how to reset your goals once you’ve gone off track.

In real life stuff, I had an MRI of my right foot, finally, and found out that despite it being my foot that hurts, it’s my spine that’s probably damaged. I traveled across the country with my middle son and my dad on the aforementioned Pilgrimage (also known as The Corn God Trip). I was sworn in as vice president of the board of my local UU Fellowship. I also finished crocheting a blanket that was meant for babies that turn five this fall.  I also finished a cross-stitch pattern that I’d started in 2022 that had never mailed me the final pattern pieces. My children will talk about this summer in the future as the summer I watched a lot of murder mysteries in order to commit murders of my own devising. I also finished reading “Winter’s Orbit.”