2013 has been a pretty good year to me. No major crises and a great many good days. I had the privilege of continuing to write full time, largely due to Lisa’s insistently generous support.

The most notable event was finally getting married to the aforementioned Lisa after 23 years of being together. The reason we did it, honestly, was so I could keep my health insurance and legally establish that we are each other’s next of kin. So, not very romantic, but I’ve discovered that being married actually does feel awfully nice, and I like it.

We had a lovely honeymoon, driving down the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. I also traveled to three (three!!) writing retreats this year: Blue Heaven, in an amazeballs house on the North Carolina coast; Dragon’s Lair, along the Russian River in Northern California; and Goat Heaven, at Sarah Prineas’s house in Iowa, where her Nubian goat, Cinnamon, hoofed me in the nuts. Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am to be friends with such brilliant, talented writers who are also terrific, generous people who keep me from wanting to hide in a bunker.

I turned partially vegetarian in August, in that I stopped eating birds and mammals. It started as a one-week experiment, but with the exception of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I’ve kept it up and will continue to do so. My reasons for choosing to abstain from what are some of my favorite things to put in my mouth aren’t deeply thought out. I see a lot of cute animal pics and vids on the Internet. It started to make me feel bad to eat them. That’s pretty much it.

I enjoyed a family reunion when my brother, sister-in-law, and niece made a rare visit to Los Angeles. Sitting around a dinner table with them and my parents felt good and right.

On the career front, I completed Book 2 of the Osteomancer trilogy and am working on Book 3 and have seen ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies) of Book 1, CALIFORNIA BONES. My editor and publisher are making me feel that the company’s really getting behind this series, and I’m excited and hopeful for a good release in June.  I’m also very much looking forward to working on a new novel or a new series next year.

Short stories? Well, I wrote one. Only one. Which is pathetic. But it’ll be in Flytrap sometime next year, so that’s cool.

In sum, a good year. To my friends, correspondents on Facebook and Twitter, and anyone reading this, I hope your 2013 had good in it, and I wish you success, satisfaction, comfort, and happiness in 2014. There is so much bad suck in this world — illness, environmental omg-we’re-all-effed, all kinds of horribleness and suffering. But in the words of The Doctor:

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

May your good pile soar tall.

Love,
Greg