I'm back from Toronto, but with Wayne, Marguerite and Teri now staying with us in Kitchener, it's doubtful that I'll be able to keep up my old pace with the blog. However, I've resolved not to worry about that. I will post when I post, and isn't it the time of year to do resolutions?
I think this blog has served me well. It celebrates its first birthday in about 44 days, and I've enjoyed having it as a soapbox, a writing journal, and a place to promote my writings to those dedicated few out there who listen. I'd like to thank all of you who have taken the time to read and to comment. It was fun having this dialogue, and I look forward to more of the same in 2003.
In terms of writing, this has been a good year. There were some lows: I'm still not published, but Rosemary and Time came very close to being accepted by Orca Book Publishers, and I finished its sequel and am well into the third story of the trilogy. As for Erin: whoo ha! Winner of the CBC Literary Awards for poetry, poetry grants, her book of World War II poems accepted by Wolsak and Wynn. Being able to quit her day job and spend eight months on her writing. By any measure, 2002 will go down as a special year.
The year 2003 is not nearly as easy to define as 2002 was. Going into it, we knew that 2002 would be "The Year of the Book", but 2003 is all transition and anticipation. Erin's Ghost Maps won't be out until early 2004. I still haven't heard back from Groundwood Books or Farrar, Straus & Giroux. There is no grant money to keep the writing on the front burner. Employment beckons.
Big things could still happen, though, and so we look forward to 2003 with anticipation, keeping our fingers crossed (as always) that good things are still around the corner.