Every Saturday at 1pm Eastern US time, the Bluestocking Belles host a one hour discussion on the Belles Brigade Facebook Group. We take it in turns to lead, and I have January, so hosting a conversation about the new year seemed inevitable. The thing is, 2020 sucked in multiple ways for many many people. And 2021 has started in a way that has prompted all sorts of jokes. You’ve heard the one that goes, “They told me to cheer up because things could be worse. So I cheered up, and things got worse.” Or the conversation between 2020 and 2021. 2020: I’m the worst year anyone alive has known. 2021: Hold my drink.
Sure enough, in the week after I set up the event for yesterday and promoted the topic, things got worse, with a tragedy in my family, bad news on the Covid front, and the sad situation that unfolded before our eyes in Washington on Wednesday.
So I decided to take a different approach. Rather than focusing on the year as a whole (the one that’s been or the one that’s started), I asked people to think of one thing last year that gave them joy, and one thing they hope for, that they can remember at this time in January 2022.
I thought I’d share with you my answers, and I’d love to hear yours. Please put them in the comments.
A number of things have given me joy this year, but the one I’m choosing to focus on is finding and buying the townhouse that we intend to have as our home for the remainder of our lives or for as long as we can continue to live independently, whichever comes first. We’re doing a lot of renovation, but it is going to be perfect for us. On the book front, I’m grateful that my plot elves came back to work part way through the year, and the long gap in publishing that resulted from their silence ended on 15 December. I’ve two books finished and coming to a store near year in the first third of the year, two more heading towards their beta read, and several others planned.
In January next year, I want to be looking back at plans come to fruition: a finished house and garden, the completed four books in The Children of the Mountain King series 1, another Golden Redepenning, and three books in the Lion’s Zoo series all ready to publish in 2022, when I get the rights back to House of Thorns.
Your turn.
It’s a pleasure to read your refreshing thoughts on all of this. I also had personal losses and health problems last year, but one thing that gave me joy was publishing my first book (nonfiction). Like you, I’m feeling mortal and working on downsizing. I offer you my condolences on your own tragedy and wish you the best with your plans for the year. Please keep writing your short stories–I just discovered them in 2020 and love them!
Congratulations, Laurel, on your first published book. What a good feeling, it is, to finally see it out in the wide, wide world. Thanks for your kind words about my short stories. I’m currently writing the one for the February newsletter, and my inspiration has been the song, The Carnival is Over. Apparently, it was originally written in Russian late in the nineteenth century! Who knew?