That end year post (a week late)
The picture is of my daughter's stuffed otter, watching patiently as we recently took a ferry ride in the rain. Like the patient otter, I'm taking a moment to look back at 2021 (a week late as I started the new year with a migraine). I’m a bit of a sucker for dwelling in the negative—I have to work hard not to. A side effect of that is that I tend to overlook the positive. So I thought I’d take some time to list my creative accomplishments for 2021:
First up, writing related things:
final edits completed on Fractured Orbits (original draft done in 2020). There'll be more on this one soon.
edited The Alien Artifact (original draft done in 2020)
first draft of Stella Falling (working title)
worked on some short stories — including a draft and an outline for new Case Files.
set-up and ran the Armchair Alien SubStack, also a Ko-Fi site.
wrote for the blog (not a lot, but I did some posts like this one)
read over 15 non-fictions books — plus took notes as I’m that kind of weird. I highly recommend Decoding Greatness and Threads of Life.
read over 20 fiction books —The two that have stuck with me are The House in the Cerulean Sea and A Psalm for the Wild-Built.
Non-writing things:
First off, I made a bathing suit (because I got annoyed when I tried to buy one). I'm surprised at how well it turned out. And here's a view of it (to the right), by the way, I love polka dots.
This is my first one, usually the first item of clothing based on a new pattern I make doesn't fit, so I always plan on making at least 2. I was pleasantly surprised that the first version fit. I wanted to swim some laps, and I'm now ready to do so.
I also made two quilts (on a whim, I took a workshop on quilting) and I sewed various other things (shirts, pants, underwear, etc).
I started knitting again (working on socks and a hat, next up a sweater).
I also learned how to needle felt — sold tones of needle felted mushrooms at a local craft fair (who knew mushrooms would be so popular). I did some drawing (not as much as I’d like, but some). In my backyard garden, I grew a ton of tasty veggies like potatoes, beans and leeks (and there are still plenty of fresh things to harvest). Finally, I painted my bedroom a lovely bright yellow (it was a darker purple before, so I had to put on many, many, many coats).