NaNoWriMo is now well behind me, and I successfully won another year (it only cost me quite a few days of sleep-deprivation at work, but I’m honestly pleased with the bulk of the draft it yielded). Christmas is less than a week away, which would be concerning if I hadn’t managed to successfully behave like an adult and get shopping out of the way ahead of time for a change. As the end of the year rapidly approaches, whether I’m ready for it or not (and, honestly, despite how good 2017 has been on a personal level I am all about those sweet, sweet 2018 mid-term elections and several other, exciting things I’ll get to later).

This post is a sort-of recap of my year since the last posts I made, a loudly-stated-because-it’s-on-the-intenet commitment to getting off of my ass so as to work harder towards getting more things published (self-published as well), and a return to WordPress…because I renewed my damn domain name, so I may as well make use of it. (Fun story: I had to open a new tab and verify this, because I honestly could not remember if I did or not.) Onward!

The week Franco passed away was, worth noting or repeating, the week preceding my wedding. I’ve been married a few days over four months now, and I’m happy to report I’ve not yet woken up to her preparing to smother me with a pillow. Yet. That’s not to say my behavior doesn’t merit that as a response, by the way.

Because it does, most of the time.

My wife and I are expecting a small person in April, which means I will have two children (as my bundle of energy and attitude, the six-year-old-going-on-seven I am lucky enough to call my step-daughter, is the first of course). We aren’t finding out the child’s gender until the actual day it’s born, which has been a great source of angst for everyone who isn’t my wife and me. As I have said many times, and will continue to say: I am happy so long as the child is born healthy, with ten fingers, ten toes, and no tail. I’m even willing to allow some wiggle room should there be additional digits. Telling people there are plenty of gender-neutral colors is apparently similar to saying I plan on dunking the child in barbecue sauce and leaving it with a hungry bear, apparently.

On my third attempt, and honestly much to my surprise, I was offered the position I’ve been hoping for since learning of it in the training room at my place of employment. I had my first official half-day today, and I’m equal parts excited and anxious (because, really, it’s a new job with new responsibilities, so that little voice in my head that should be providing encouragement is already telling me the ways I may screw up).

I treated myself to a Nintendo Switch, which I occasionally play but largely use as a decorative conversation-piece in my living room. I finished the first draft of Dissonance in Harmony and started the long and painful editing process, but I honestly can’t remember when I actually finished the damn draft. Maybe it happened last year and I’m not remembering right.

Here’s hoping you’ve all had a good year, all things considered.

Up next, sooner than later: my collection of books YOU (yes, YOU) should buy from authors I know because they’d make fantastic Christmas presents.