Good Bye 2022, Hello 2023!

This is the time of year when we traditionally reflect on the past year and list our hopes for the new year. Seems like Every Single Year for the past few years I predicted it would be better than last year. Man, I suck as a prophet!

2022 started out great for me. I had beat the colorectal cancer and had written a big chunk of a new fantasy romance called The Storm King. But in June I had a routine scan (routine being that I had moved for quarterly scans to scans every six months) and a spot was found on my liver. I had a biopsy that confirmed it was cancer and then in July I had ablation. That is where they shot microwaves into the spot on my liver to cook it dead. (sounds fun, right?) In September it looked like that was was successful. A few weeks ago I went for my regular routine scans (I am back to scans every three months) and things look good. There is a spot they want to keep watch on, but it has not grown in the past 6 months, so they don’t think we need to do anything about it unless it starts to grow. So watch and wait, with scans scheduled for March 2023. Right now I am stage 4 with mets (metastatic cancer) to liver. But there is nothing that needs treatment right now so maybe this is the end of it. Maybe not. Time will tell. I feel pretty good.

In late October my baby brother Rob died of a heart attack. He was way too young. Here he is last Christmas. I never even knew that he was proud of me being an author. I did know until I met some of his co-workers at his funeral and they told me that he bragged on me to them all the time. He wasn’t a perfect guy by any means but he had a big heart and I miss him.

So. 2023. What are my plans for the next year? I am going to try to ENJOY myself more. Stress about the day job less. Knit more. Make a Mood Blanket. Take days off work for the fun of it instead of only taking time for medical stuff. Finish the little short story Lobo’s Mate. Finish writing The Storm King and The Fire Prince. Start The Ice Lord. Read for the fun of it. Have more fun. Life is too short to not enjoy it!

I wish you all the very best 2023! I won’t predict it will be better than 2022, since that seems to be a curse. 😉 But I hope we all find less stress and more fun in the new year.

Happy Reading!