“Summer’s going fast, nights growing colder
Children growing up, old friends growing older”
— Rush, “Time Stand Still”

My gods, I’ve done it again. I’ve survived another year.

I think my new goal will be to open my Birthday essay with a Rush quote, every year. It only seems fair, since so many of the highlights in my life have had Rush playing in the background (That this happens because I’m usually playing a Rush album is open to debate).

This has been something of a red-letter year for me. I worked extensively on a property that I can’t talk about yet (Silly NDAs), and dipped my toes back into the water for a bit of RPG writing with some work for Green Ronin’s Song of Ice and Fire RPG. I’ve had fiction in a broad assortment of venues, and sold my first novella to rave reviews. I’ve knitted a little less than I had planned, and traveled a lot more than I expected. In all, I can’t complain about where this last circle around the sun has taken me.

Spreading my wings has been the theme for this past year – the realization that what I’ve been writing has always circled around relationships, and my embracing of that realization. Writing a romance novella (to rave reviews, if I can toot my own horn a moment). Finding out that Romance has made me more comfortable than any other place I’ve tried to wedge in a piton and start my climb. My first real stint at writing for video games. It’s been a year of new experiences and fledgling flight.

Which brings me to what I expect to get out of the next year – I don’t normally put goals in here, because if someone reads them, they’ll hold me to them. I’m changing that this year. I’ve got a romance novel I’ve almost finished. I’ve got an outline for a full-length sequel to Hearts and Minds. And I’ve 525,600 minutes. My wings are young and fragile, which is odd given how old I feel some mornings, but they won’t grow in strength without a challenge.

I’ve always subscribed to the idea that everything we experience shapes us for future. If that’s the case, then everything I’ve done up to this point has been preparing me for this year. No more looking out at the sky and thinking it’s a bit too big. It’s time to jump, and we’ll see what happens next.

Best to you and yours,

— J.C.Hay