Happy New Year!

I wish I’m blogging this after a slew of posts for last year but as it turned out, I only managed two posts. I don’t have any excuses – I just didn’t really make that much time for this blog because of the usual things: work, life, and maybe a crippling sense of self-doubt with words? D:

I did a review of 2018 last night and while I think the year wasn’t bad (my family is in good health, had a great year in my day job and had a great time with my different groups of friends), my writing didn’t really do so well mostly because of that, self-doubt. I’m sure everyone goes through this – writers and non-writers alike – so I’m not that special, but I’d like to acknowledge that it was what majority of my writing year was like. I could write articles and articles about payroll and data privacy at work but my fiction felt like I was dragging each and every word and character out in the open.

So what I really wanted to post here was a victory post – that my book is done, it’s out, etc – and while that happened late in the year, I was already too tired from wording that I didn’t have the heart to blog. Plus I’ve moved my deadline and release date so much that it doesn’t really feel like a cause for celebration.

BUT, like my year-end review calls it, that’s a self-limiting story. Finishing a book is always and still a big feat, and that’s probably my biggest writing achievement in 2018. Especially since it’s been a work in progress for 26 months. It’s also notable that I finished it with a help of a good friend who read the raw version, commented, and bugged me when I wasn’t updating. I also think that this is the first book that I prayed for SO much that I made friends with so many saints who I asked for intercession – so really, finishing it was a miracle. And when I read it again a few months later, I didn’t really hate it, so that’s a good thing, too.

Anyway, I’m going to save the rest of the story on that when the book’s ready to go out (sometime soon!), but overall, like what I said on my Instagram post: 2018 was a year that taught me humility, kindness (to myself, mostly), and to keep on fighting this battle to keep telling stories. 

I have plans for 2019 but I’ll keep them to myself for the meantime – I’m planning to take it quarterly to keep it manageable – but new book(s) will definitely be in the pipeline. And reading more good books, supporting good art, less neglect on this blog, and continuing the pursuit of what is true, good, and beautiful. May 2019 stir up wonder in all of us. 

I leave you with a quote from St. John Paul II’s Letter to Artists, one of the treasures I discovered last year and will continue to live by this year:

My hope for all of you who are artists is that you will have an especially intense experience of creative inspiration. May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder! – St. John Paul II