It Isn’t Over Until It’s Over #2022

2022 was so much better than I thought it would be, both professionally and personally.

Professionally, I’m of course ecstatic that my science fantasy YA adventure ‘When Dark Roots Hunt’ was signed by MidnightSun Publishing. It’s scheduled for release in May 2023 and I can’t wait! Woo hoo!

I don’t write too much horror or dark fantasy, yet those genres seemed to top my short fiction releases in 2022. ‘Ocean Wolf’ was published in Etherea Magazine, then selected by Tor.com as one of the ‘must-read speculative short fiction’ stories in the world for October 2022, which is very impressive! ‘Made’ was selected for ‘the best’ of the Zodiac Series and published in the Deadset Press anthology ‘Wandering Stars’. Finally, I sold ‘Not Today’ to Dark Recesses Press – coming in January 2023! All deliciously unsettling stories.

This year I’ve also thoroughly enjoyed reconnecting with libraries, bookshops, councils and schools, both as patrons of my art and as vehicles to share my imagination and creative experience with others. I love sharing my knowledge and creativity!

That said, it’s perhaps my inner life that has benefitted most from 2022. Validation is so important for all of us. While internally driven self-worth can keep us motivated, feeling buoyant and hopeful, we do also need external validation to prove we’re on track and living an authentic life. Without it, we risk self-depreciating and losing our all-important sense of direction, even sense of self.

Around mid-year, I was feeling this way a little bit. The pandemic had seen so many deals not go through and connections dissipate, and though I had continued to strive for greatness throughout it all, 2022 looked like it would be another year of struggle. I really needed to feel ‘the love’!

Indeed, external validation is a lot like love, since we can receive it through any of the five love languages. For a self-employed writer, this might include:

• words of affirmation –> reviews, meeting or hearing from readers and fans, book endorsements
• quality time –> readers reading stories, interacting or connecting on social media
• acts of service –> a publishing contract!
• receiving gifts –> publishing royalties, payments for stories
• physical touch –> cherishing a physical copy of a new release

In the end, 2022 gave me all these different types of validation, and the buoyancy, hope and motivation that I experienced with them was so noticeable I came to truly appreciate their necessity.

This year, I also set myself some self-obtainable goals that I managed to reach, namely learning how to make Instagram reels and YouTube shorts, and beating my best time jogging around my local bush track. There were setbacks with both of those achievements too of course: the trial and error of learning can take up unaccountable time, and I fractured a toe on a tree root on that bush track! But bones heal, and new skills are always worth it!

So, moving into 2023, my goal is to stay mindful of the fact that each year isn’t over until it’s over. All we can do each day, each week or month, is to take a small step towards where we want to go, whether that’s jogging through the bush, or walking about the house to film a festive message for everyone who’s read my words this year, gifting me the validation only readers can give…