2023 is off to a weird start
I had lots of plans for Winter Break and the start of 2023. Travel! New look for the blog! Lots of progress on my writing! Late brunches and desert hikes and lots of lounging in my PJs. Well… some of that happened. Long-Suffering Husband and I drove to Vegas right after Christmas (he won, I didn’t–as usual). I worked on the Blog Refresh from Hell that I started last Winter Break. I flew to Sacramento, drove to my hometown, hung out with friends, visited some places near and dear to me. Flew home ready to finish up the website refresh, work on my novel, and have those late brunches and desert hikes.
And then I got COVID.
I’d been one of those irritating COVID dodgers featured in the news every now and then, to the point that I’d started to believe the hype. Maybe I had some genetic quirk that made me immune. Maybe scientists would want to study me and my superior immune system to learn how to genetically engineer other people to be more like me.
Maybe I need to get over myself.
That probably won’t happen, but I am (slowly) getting over COVID. I still can’t taste my food properly, my head feels like it’s stuffed with quilt batting, and I get tired walking around the block. But I’m upright and walking (OK, not right now. Right now I’m sitting at my desk typing. Geez, y’all are such nitpickers.) And I did get a lot of time to lounge around in my PJs.
For the first week, though, my brain was as foggy as the Central Valley in December, so I got no writing done. Which is why I’m writing my New Year’s post in the middle of January.
Before we get to the rest of this post: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! Grab a treat, take a seat, and let’s get to it.
Looking back at 2022
I had grand plans to do several “looking back at 2022” posts over the break, but, yeah, that didn’t happen. (Yes, I can hear you sighing with relief. Geez, y’all aren’t very supportive.) So I’m going to reduce an entire year to a few bullet points. Here we go:
My year in writing
I’ve whined before that 2022 was frustrating and not one of my more productive years. That’s definitely true, but I did manage to finish and publish a few pieces. In chronological order of publication:
- “A Christmas Duet,” a creative nonfiction piece about my mom’s last Christmas, was published in Harmony Magazine, the literary magazine of the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Tucson.
- “The Future Held in Store,” the first poem I’ve ever shared with, well, anyone, won 3rd prize in the Arizona Authors Association annual literary contest.
- “Walk Me Home,” a short suspense story, won first prize in the Arizona Mystery Writers annual short story contest.
- “The Fine Print,” a short horror story, was published in ‘Twas the Fright Before Christmas in Deathlehem, the latest holiday horror anthology from Grinning Skull Press.
- “Adam Carmona and the Saguaro Ripper,” a thriller short story, has been accepted for Trouble in Tucson, an anthology published by the two Arizona chapters of Sisters in Crime in conjunction with the annual Left Coast Crime conference. More to come when it’s published.
I also made some progress on revising my second novel, Delta Dawn (a/k/a The Revision from Hell), but not nearly as much as I’d hoped.
And for my day job, a colleague and I edited a book on leadership in health sciences libraries. It should come out in the first half of 2023.
Because I’m a hopeless navel-gazing nerd, here are some stats for my year in writing:
- Hours: 319.2
- Words: 70,068. Not great, but then I spent most of my writing time revising, which doesn’t usually generate much of a word count.
Here’s a graph from Online Writing Log showing all that activity:
My year in blogging
Here’s some more nerdy navel-gazing, this time with blog stats:
- Views: 4628 (up from 3161 in 2021). Most (868) came from the two link parties I participate in, Weekend Coffee Share and What’s On Your Bookshelf.
- Visitors: 2346 (up from 1723 in 2021)
- Comments: 1468 (about half of those are my replies)
- Most-viewed posts: I’m co-hosting the IWSG blog hop! and No, I don’t want to live in a fictional world. Both of these were IWSG posts when I was co-hosting the IWSG blog hop. Co-hosting brings lots of extra traffic.
Other highlights
I just wasted a couple of hours browsing through my 2022 blog posts to remember what I did last year. Answer: not a lot other than a bit of travel, mostly in and around Arizona.
Starting the new year
Blog changes
I did finally finish the Blog Refresh from Hell, as you probably noticed when you landed here. This was an entirely DIY effort, which is why it took so long. WordPress can be complicated, and my design skills are… not great. But it’s done. Some of the formatting is a little wonky, but it’s done.
What’s new?
- New theme (Ashe Pro)
- New branding. No more black and white desertscape. And an actual logo.
- Mood boards for my 2 novels in progress (see ’em on the Writing page)
Looking forward to 2023
I don’t do new year’s resolutions, because every time I do, this happens:
I do sometimes set goals (more on that process here). This year I’m not even going to do that. Instead I’m going to hop on the bandwagon with some of my fellow bloggers and choose a word that best expresses my intentions for this year. That word is:
Persevere
As noted above, 2022 was a challenging year for me, writing-wise (and in some other areas too). This year I want to be kind to myself, but I also want to keep moving forward, even if it’s only a little at a time. So I shall persevere. Kind of like this:
New year, new memes
Over a week of laying around the house with COVID provided way too much time for meme-hunting. I now have enough memes for at least a month of posts. Here we go:
Outdated holiday memes
I have a whole batch of Christmas memes I didn’t end up using because COVID. I’ll save most of them for next year, but this one’s too good to wait:
OK, back to our slightly less out-of-date new year’s content.
That’s one resolution I’m confident I can keep.
Pretty sure I can keep that streak going for another year.
Me on New Year’s Day:
Spoiler alert: it didn’t work. Instead I started the year like this:
This next one also seems appropriate:
Domestic bliss
I’m trying and failing to remember the last time I had an empty laundry basket.
My son is 24 and still acts like this in the car, only with different topics.
Last week it was a water filter for the refrigerator, but yeah.
On the work front
I’ve spent my entire professional career in higher education. Can confirm.
As long as we’re talking about universities:
Never before has my life been described so accurately.
And finally:
I’ve been at Stage 3 for the last 20 years.
How about you? Do you have a word of the year? A theme? Goals? Wishes? Or the dreaded resolutions?
25 Comments
Bobbiem91
My word of the year? Whatever. My goal-to get one book fully edited. My wish is to get it printed. And my hope is to get my new website up and running with a blog and…wait a minute…forget that. I do need to sleep some time.
Janet Alcorn
Sleep? What’s that?
Your goals seem reasonable. Good luck with the website! Definitely easier said that done.
Elizabeth Seckman
I was also one cocky Covid dodgers. I was exposed over and over and it never got me. And then, I decided I was taking a week off of work to hole up at home and finish a book. Second day home, I got Covid. It still makes no sense.
I hope you’re feeling better soon. 🙂
Janet Alcorn
How weird. I’m pretty sure I got it on my flight from Tucson to California. Dude next to me was coughing and sniffling and not wearing a mask. I wore mine but took it off to eat and drink. Stupid me.
Natalie
Janet, I hope you feel much better soon. Congratulations on your 2022 accomplishments and your blog changes! It takes time, efforts and making decisions but you did it. Thank you for your weekend coffee share.
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! I have to remind myself that big accomplishments come from small decisions. It’s easy to blow off work in the moment, but those decisions are also cumulative.
Joanne
Oh so sorry to hear you had Covid! Glad you’re on the mend though. I know a lot of people who have managed to dodge it and finally succumbed at the end of 2022/ beginning of 2023… I’m just waiting for it to hit our house (my husband had it in 2021 but no one else had caught it back then or seems to have had it since). Our streak can only last for so long…
Janet Alcorn
Fingers crossed y’all can avoid it. I’ve been lucky–my symptoms haven’t been too terrible, and I seem to be getting some energy back.
trent
Sorry you were struck by Covid! I hope the new year improves as it moves away from the beginning. Oh well. At least some things don’t change, like that there are still plenty of meme action on your blog. Hope you continue to recover and have a great week!
Janet Alcorn
Thanks! Only 3 things are certain in this life: death, taxes, and memes on my blog. Hope you have a great week too!
Kelly Wellington
Heh….meetings. I suspect that near the end of my library career, my managers were trying to find ways to exclude me from meetings. Derailing committee meetings is a demanding art and I had refined my techniques over the years. I could, at times, do so with legitimate ‘concern’. Well, ennui.
Janet Alcorn
Ha. I don’t mind productive meetings–clear purpose, clear agenda that we actually stick to, clear outcomes. But the ones in which people have to comment on everything to nth degree instead of actually getting stuff done? Those drive me crazy.
Karen
Happy New Year! My last Amazon package that arrived & I wondered what it was, was shapermint high waisted leggings. I wore them 1 day & will probably never wear them again. My shape did not look like the advertised picture..LOL! Too bad your pj days had to involve Covid. The year is still young. so there is still time for lots of pj days. I love those kinds of days. I enjoyed the memes. A Christmas Duet such a lovely memory with your mother. Reading it brought tears to my eyes. #Weekendcoffeeshare
Janet Alcorn
Thanks so much! And yes, plenty of additional PJ days ahead.
Janet Alcorn
And also – happy new year! I don’t think anyone’s shape ever looks like the pictures in clothing ads.
csuhpat1
Just to let more of myself come out every day.
Janet Alcorn
That’s a nice one! It’s sad how much of ourselves we keep buttoned up.
leannelc
Hi Janet – my husband and I are still flying under the covid radar, but I know it will probably get us this winter. Sorry to hear that your lucky streak ended and that it hasn’t been fun. Love the new blog look – I think about re-doing mine but am sticking with the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” theory for now. Happy 2023.
Janet Alcorn
I hope you and husband are able to stay COVID-free. It wasn’t horrible, to be honest. I was mostly just really tired with mild cold symptoms.
Glad you like the new look! The old look wasn’t exactly broken, but it was more of an old-school blog than an actual author website.
Julie
Lol “blog refresh from hell”! I’ve been thinking for years to refresh my layout and “About Me” page but it’s quite the project!
Janet Alcorn
Yep. Working on a website is a bit like a home improvement project. You start out thinking, “I’ll just fix these two things and leave everything else alone.” Then you get into it and discover you can’t fix those things without doing a complete remodel and spending a bunch of money and even more time. *sigh*
joylenebutler
Glad you’re recovering. I hear it takes a while and you need to be patient. Or not. Congratulations on the 3rd place award. I’m not sure how I feel about 2023. I’ll have to think about it. I thought about it. I’m going to ignore that it’s 2023.
Janet Alcorn
Ha! I’m a big fan of the “ignore it and it will go away” approach to, well, anything I don’t like. 2023 sounds like a sci-fi movie.
diedre Knight
Hi Janet!
I swear, I’m bringing my own garden bench next time I stop by – because this (your blog) truly is worth grabbing a seat for 😉 Of late I’m between two blog-sites; streampebbles.com (wordpress), and Pensive Pens Post at blogspot where I post my IWSG blogs. I have to admit blogspot is infinitely easier to navigate. But you can do so much more with wordpress. Or, at least I think I can 😉
I’ve got to rein-in my girls (dogs) and save the seat of the landscaper’s pants!
Until again, dear local friend 😉
Janet Alcorn
Thank you so much, and so sorry for the very late reply! I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up all year. Absolutely bring your own bench–or better yet, a comfy ol’ Barcalounger. I’ve used both Blogspot and WordPress, and you’re right – Blogspot is easier, but WordPress is more powerful. I ultimately went with WordPress, because someday I may be selling books on here (she said hopefully), and I don’t think I can do that with Blogspot. Also, I like the WordPress pingback system; it makes it easier to be part of a blogging ecosystem.
I’ll stop by both of your blogs momentarily.