Updates, Both Personal and Professional

Warning for discussion of death.

The Personal:

I don’t know about the rest of you, but 2022 has been a hell of a year so far.

In February, we lost my Uncle John. He’d been fighting off cancer for years, so this wasn’t completely unexpected, but it still hurt.

Then in March, my mother-in-law was admitted to the Emergency Room. She was hospitalized for two weeks, and passed on the 14th.

A week later, while we were still recovering from that, my brother’s wife died suddenly and unexpectedly.

It’s been a lot to deal with. My brother has been coping the best he can with support from friends and family. For the kids and I, it all tore open some wounds from when Amy died in 2019.

To paraphrase Bruce Willis, I can’t f***ing believe this. How can the same thing happen to the same family twice?

We’re getting through it. I would very much like to not have to get through anything like this again for a long time, please.

So that’s what’s been eating up a lot of my emotional energy these past months. I’ve still been writing, though!

The Professional:

I rewrote Project K and sent it to my agent earlier this year. He wanted me to revise some things before we sent it out on submission, so I did that and got it back to him just over a week ago.

I also got edits back from my editor for Terminal Peace. My turnaround is really tight on these, since the book comes out in August, but I’m on track and should have those finished in a few more days.

In between all that, I wrote a short story for an anthology, and that editor has a few revisions they’d like me to do. That’s on the To Do List right after Terminal Peace.

Then, finally, I’ve got an essay I need to write for a different market by May 1.

And now you know where my mental energy has been going lately.

The Takeaway:

I feel like I’m pretty much keeping up with it all, but please don’t toss me any more chainsaws to juggle until at least May.

And stay healthy, y’all!