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Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Year's Eve. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 31, 2024
Sunday, December 31, 2023
December 31, 2023
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Friday, December 31, 2021
New Year's Eve 2021: Retrospective and the Kendricks 1100
No day of the year is more bittersweet than New Year's Eve. It's a time of closing doors on those things we need to leave behind in anticipation of the promise of new opportunities in a new year.
This year now closing has been a year of hard decisions for me and my partner. We struggled with a lot of issues - his health, how best to navigate the continuing Covid-19 crisis, my retirement, the Covid-19 vaccine, getting back to a more normal routine, his need for different transportation, and not least of all our shared concerns on how we will survive as the supply chain weakens.
There was a time we looked forward to New Year's Eve and a party night with our friends. Well, if you have a disability, "friends" tend to "dis-include" you. We've learned our lessons well.
Not counting the pages, my secret little realms as it were, this is entry number 1100 here at the blog. I began Between the Keys on January 1, 2008, with the announcement I was now writing as KC Kendricks and had submitted KC's first story to Amber Quill Press. It seems like a very long time ago. Before that, I wrote under the name Rayne Forrest, whose beginning goes back beyond January of 2003, when "Rayne" got her first contract. I do wish I'd not closed Rayne's first blog. I'd dearly love to have access to those memories.
My life has taken turns I never expected, never worked for, never wanted. That's life.
Covid-19 continues to impact our lives. In July of 2021, I'd had enough. I turned in my letter of resignation. It did not go well. My employer offered me the moon to stay. I laid out my terms and so I'm still employed with full benefits and a workweek that suits my schedule, not theirs. No matter. When my next birthday arrives, I will be retired.
Now it seems there is another bend in the road. I've never worked as hard on anything in my life as I worked on my writing. It stretched me, shaped me, sustained me, but my vision of myself as a writer has shifted in kaleidoscope fashion, fracturing into shapes and colors that while are mesmerizing, never appear whole and static even with distance.
I need some distance now if I am to reinvent and rejuvenate myself. The publishing world has changed greatly. Many of us never foresaw the decline of the online publisher. I worked with ten different epubs in my career and they are all gone but one. Independent vendors such as All Romance eBooks proved to have allegedly dishonest business practices. Piracy of intellectual property continues unchecked.
Yes, the closing of this year is bittersweet. Continuing to do things that don't encourage you to thrive isn't healthy. I'm stepping back. Will I continue to write? I honestly do not know. It's very difficult to imagine walking away from almost half my life. Perhaps it's how right it feels that scares me. I'll continue to blog at Holly Tree Manor (The Hideaway) regularly. That blog is not about writing and is more of a journal. And Deuce will continue to blog at Deuce's Day for as long as he lives. He's the joy in my life.
I hope that I'll sit down at my computer one day and have the burning desire to write. I know I will and look forward to that day. But right now, I'm too emotionally exhausted by outside influences to write and a good rest - a legitimate rest - is all I need. I suspect when I can finally walk away from the day job FOR THE LAST TIME, a great weight will lift from me and I'll be ready.
I thank all of you for traveling this road with me. It has meant so much! Yes, that's easy to say but the words are heartfelt. Thank you!
We shall see where the new year takes me, what it brings to my life. I'm a bit curious to discover what doors open for me. What's out there is always interesting.
KC/Rayne
The 2018 Retrospective
The 2017 Retrospective
The 2016 Retrospective
The 2015 Retrospective
The 2014 Retrospective
The 2013 Retrospective
The 2012 Retrospective
The 2017 Retrospective
The 2016 Retrospective
The 2015 Retrospective
The 2014 Retrospective
The 2013 Retrospective
The 2012 Retrospective
Thursday, December 31, 2009
New Year's Eve, December 31, 2009
December 31, 2009
December 31st. The end of another year and I find myself a bit short in the profound wisdom department. That sounds as trite as saying 2009 was a good year.
Well, 2009 was a good year, and not just because I’m still breathing, which, I confess, ranks right up there as a good reason to celebrate. That aside, it was a banner year for my writing career. The year saw the publication of Give Me One Night, No One But You, Seducing Light, Netting Neptune, Taming Triton, Poseidon’s Pleasure, and Tango in the Night, plus the release of the paperback collection, At the Southern Cross. I’d be lying if I said I was anything less than ecstatic those stories made it out and were so well received. To all my loyal readers – thank you!
If that looks like a lot of work in one year, let me confess it wasn’t all physically written in 2009. I don’t think I’m unique in that I have a tickler file full of story ideas and partially written manuscripts. When I get a hot idea, I pause and type out notes, or even the opening scene if that’s what popped into my head.
As I’m working on a story, and additional bits and pieces come to mind, I add them to the tickler file. Sometimes, I’ll be into a scene and realize it works better for another story. That’s copy, paste, and start the scene over time. “Process” is such a buzz word these days, but getting a manuscript completed is a process. In 2009, the process completed on those six stories.
Will 2K10 bring equal productivity? One can hope, but not guarantee. There is a business side to being a published author, but there is also the fickle Muse to contend with. Get the Muse on track, and there is still family, friends, and the day job that pays the bills that demand equal time. Not to mention the need to occasionally sleep, something I’m not doing well as this snowy New Year’s Eve 2009 day dawns.
There’s much to do this day that doesn’t involve writing. My partner has decided we need to get rid of some junk in the den. I need not tell you how unpleasant that task may become because his real agenda is de-booking my bookcases so his Clive Cussler tomes can have their very own shelf. We’ll see about that. I have to watch him like a hawk because last time he wanted space, he tried to give away my C.J. Cherryh collection. Bad boy. A better option is giving away all those VHS tapes we (meaning he) will never watch again.
It’s finally daylight, and time to put the coffee on to brew and take a few minutes to watch the snow. Just like the writing, watching the snowfall never gets old. And after I indulge myself for a bit, it will be time to remember that the books don’t get written by magic, and devote an hour to pulling pure thought from the air and getting it on the page.
Here’s to the year 2010. May we all be healthy and happy.
December 31st. The end of another year and I find myself a bit short in the profound wisdom department. That sounds as trite as saying 2009 was a good year.
Well, 2009 was a good year, and not just because I’m still breathing, which, I confess, ranks right up there as a good reason to celebrate. That aside, it was a banner year for my writing career. The year saw the publication of Give Me One Night, No One But You, Seducing Light, Netting Neptune, Taming Triton, Poseidon’s Pleasure, and Tango in the Night, plus the release of the paperback collection, At the Southern Cross. I’d be lying if I said I was anything less than ecstatic those stories made it out and were so well received. To all my loyal readers – thank you!
If that looks like a lot of work in one year, let me confess it wasn’t all physically written in 2009. I don’t think I’m unique in that I have a tickler file full of story ideas and partially written manuscripts. When I get a hot idea, I pause and type out notes, or even the opening scene if that’s what popped into my head.
As I’m working on a story, and additional bits and pieces come to mind, I add them to the tickler file. Sometimes, I’ll be into a scene and realize it works better for another story. That’s copy, paste, and start the scene over time. “Process” is such a buzz word these days, but getting a manuscript completed is a process. In 2009, the process completed on those six stories.
Will 2K10 bring equal productivity? One can hope, but not guarantee. There is a business side to being a published author, but there is also the fickle Muse to contend with. Get the Muse on track, and there is still family, friends, and the day job that pays the bills that demand equal time. Not to mention the need to occasionally sleep, something I’m not doing well as this snowy New Year’s Eve 2009 day dawns.
There’s much to do this day that doesn’t involve writing. My partner has decided we need to get rid of some junk in the den. I need not tell you how unpleasant that task may become because his real agenda is de-booking my bookcases so his Clive Cussler tomes can have their very own shelf. We’ll see about that. I have to watch him like a hawk because last time he wanted space, he tried to give away my C.J. Cherryh collection. Bad boy. A better option is giving away all those VHS tapes we (meaning he) will never watch again.
It’s finally daylight, and time to put the coffee on to brew and take a few minutes to watch the snow. Just like the writing, watching the snowfall never gets old. And after I indulge myself for a bit, it will be time to remember that the books don’t get written by magic, and devote an hour to pulling pure thought from the air and getting it on the page.
Here’s to the year 2010. May we all be healthy and happy.
KC Kendricks
My home on the web- Between the Keys:
Visit my bookshelf at:
Social media links:
My country life at Holly Tree Manor: hollytreemanor.blogspot.com
Life through the eyes of Greenbrier Smokey Deuce: deucesday.blogspot.com
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