![\"\"](\"http:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/muppets-statler-and-waldorf.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nNormally I like to reflect on the year that was and the year ahead the week of my birthday\u2014but 2018 ended as it began\u2014an Emergency room visit (this time, kidney stones) and an unexpected visitor (my daughter, which was a delight).<\/p>\n
The end result is twofold\u2014my \u201cNew Year\u2019s Message\u201d is late, and I\u2019m grumpy.<\/p>\n
That last bit is not unusual for my curmudgeonly self.<\/p>\n
But it IS a new year, 365 (now 364) days of new opportunity, hope and excitement. At least I\u2019m endeavoring to make that my focus.<\/p>\n
Shall I begin again, then?<\/p>\n
Happy New Year!<\/p>\n
The year ahead is already shaping up to be a busy one.<\/p>\n
Things I\u2019m looking forward to:<\/p>\n
- \n
- My Son will graduate from College in May.<\/li>\n
- My Daughter is transitioning from music to English as her major in college<\/li>\n
- I will be graduating from Emerson with an MFA in August.<\/li>\n
- Boskone, StokerCon and ReaderCon are on the docket for the year and I just renewed my Horror Writer\u2019s Association membership.<\/li>\n
- NECon in July<\/li>\n
- Season 9 of The Word Count Podcast<\/strong>(which kicks off in January)<\/li>\n
- A visit with my sister, mum, and cousins in Florida<\/li>\n
- A Summer excursion to Maine.<\/li>\n
- Extended stays by family at the Boston home.<\/li>\n
- Completing Bayou Whispers<\/em>and shopping it around.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There are probably other things I\u2019ve forgotten, but I\u2019ll add them to the \u201cmust dos\u201d list as I remember them.<\/p>\n
2018 was the first year I haven\u2019t published a story since 2015\u2026I plan on correcting that. I have seven short stories now ready for submission (one is already under consideration) so I hope to up the count of published works from last year\u2019s dismal \u201czero\u201d to \u201cgreater than zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this month I\u2019ve kicked off \u201cNENoWriMo (New England Novel Writing Month)\u201d for a few local writer-type friends and I. And I need to eventually decide on the fate of The Prodigal\u2019s Foole <\/em>\u00a0and the Arcana Chronicles<\/em>series I began to pen earlier in the decade.<\/p>\n
Working on my health is a major factor as well\u2026I have my annual cancer check (post Thyroid cancer) in March and the Neurological rehabilitation is a long process which will continue as well.<\/p>\n
There is a lot to look forward too in the New Year. So perhaps I should table a bit of the curmudgeon and look for more of the positive. That sound suspiciously like a\u2026*shudder*\u2026\u201dresolution.\u201d<\/p>\n
All things considered\u2014it\u2019s not a terrible change to attempt.<\/p>\n
From my family to yours\u2014make 2019 YOUR year. Kick ass. Make me proud.<\/p>\n
Just turn the music down and get off my lawn whilst making me proud, okay?<\/p>\n
Peace.<\/p>\n
RBW-JAN 2019<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2019. Well, shit. That happened fast! Normally I like to reflect on the year that was and the year ahead the week of my birthday\u2014but 2018 ended as it began\u2014an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2168,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c40-myblog","category-s6-myblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2167"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2169,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2167\/revisions\/2169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rbwood.com\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}