A Roundup of 2017

By aaforringer on December 30, 2017 • ( 0 )

Well 2017 is closing and my life progresses.

Accomplishments for the year:

53,519 words written and sent out into the world.

43,114 of those words were strung together to create some fiction.

2907 of the fictional variety expanded my Outfitters Universe

8,605 were of a personal nature and insights into my day dreams.

1,800 words were paid for and are now owned by a periodical publishing company.

I like to think I strung some words together in a coherent and entertaining manner. The biggest falsehood I created was Tending the Stones for the Lock, which was an almost weekly urban fantasy story. It is truly a first draft with not that much editing, and my plans are to eventually lengthen it (and hopefully improve it) into a full length book. The most personal piece was probably My Personal Heaven about what I hope for after death.

On the book front, Primary Collision my next science fiction book in The Outfitters Universe. I scrapped whole sections of it and started over again in some aspects which is working better, I had hoped to have the book completed by now but that just has not happened. The book about my grandfather and his time in uniform continued on the research phase.

That is on the writing front, on the amorous faction of my life I am still single and unencumbered (Also un-Cucumbered , never liked them). I have had some dates (with women!), had some laughs and good conversations, but nothing has stuck. Early in 2017 I had seven (7) women approach me on Plenty of Fish, a dating app, I thought an old friend who is a hacker was pranking me but that turned out not to be true and it was just 7 lonely women who were interested in me at the same time. (Very Weird). The prognosis, the forecast, the prediction for my romantic life is still hopeful.

I still have the day job but hopefully in a couple of months I will be retiring from the field of law enforcement, optimistically I will be moving to a southern state with a theme park and working in security and if that does not work out then maybe a bus driver or some other non-stress job.

What have I learned this year? I have leaned that stripping away stuff that does not matter is a great way to live. That my brain wants to create stories and if I cannot see a fulfilling ending to that story then I don’t really see the point of continuing with the story. Fulfilling does not necessarily mean happy, but at least interesting and meaningful.

I learned that I really enjoy whiskey and scotch and am developing a taste for the hard liquors, straight no ice.

A good year I am not walking away with tears in my eyes or a heaviness in my heart, just more knowledge, hopefully slightly more wisdom and patience and most of all a greater respect for kindness and that fear (fear of failure, fear of being insignificant…) is a killer of joy.

Just something that makes me smile.