Happy New Year!
2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. For me, it was a time of identification. I believe this past year made us more of who we are. Those who were passionate became more passionate. Those who were apathetic grew more apathetic. Those who were faithful became more faithful.
For me, my faith, family and writing became more important and all the other noise in the world for which I can’t control, took a back seat. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about those other external areas of life, but I realized if I couldn’t impact the outcome, then there was no reason to make it a priority in my life.
Beyond the pandemic, I also had other challenges. I got laid off from my day job, found another job, which is also going to end soon. We also had a hurricane skirt by that knocked out power for a few days.
And during those challenging times, it made it difficult to get my mind in the right creative space to put pen to paper.
One of my original goals in 2020 was to write different types of thrillers to see which type of story my fans enjoy the most. It was going to be a year of experimentation and interaction with my fans.
As my remaining books in my Damien Hill trilogy was released late in 2019, I hadn’t planned on writing a new novel until mid-2020. Then the layoff came and that delayed everything. But, I kept plugging away, determined not to let this dumpster fire of a year pass without having accomplished anything. To do so would feel like 2020 beat me instead of me surviving 2020.
So, I finished the first draft of a stand alone thriller called Cold Storage the week before Thanksgiving.
Writing Cold Storage at a nearby park
Then, in a first for me, I wrote the first draft of another thriller, currently titled The 12th Apostle, in a single month, December. So, 2020 ended with two first drafts of thrillers I plan to release in 2021.
I hope to have Cold Storage ready for the first quarter of the year and The 12th Apostle, the first in a trilogy, ready for the third quarter of the year. Plus, once I get the day job situation resolved, I hope to advertise the Damien Hill trilogy throughout the year as well.
Finally, I gave away all my novels for free to give my readers a mental break from this tough year and a lot of people took advantage of it.
Those who downloaded the Damien Hill origin trilogy, I’m hoping to get feedback from them, not only in the form of Amazon reviews, but also to find out if there is enough interest to continue with the six other books I had planned in the series.
2020 made me more resilient and decreased the unproductive pressure I was putting on myself. For 2021 and beyond, I’m going to write any many books as I can, telling stories that I enjoy, and hope you’ll take the ride with me.
May 2021 be a year of reached goals and fulfilled dreams for all of us.