Year 2023 in Review

It's this time of the year... let's do a year 2023 in review. Here are some highlights:

I sold the novel I had been working on for the past ten years (I am so excited to have Holly Ingraham as my editor at Crooked Lane Books/Alcove Press for a publication this fall! her comments and edits have really pushed me to become a better writer and the book has benefited greatly) At some point I am going to share more details about my path to publication, but it deserves a post of its own. For now, I'll just say: what determines success in this business (as in many/most/all? creative endeavors) is not talent, although I like to think I am talented, but staying power. I decided many years ago I'd become a published novelist and I never let go of that goal. Do I wish I'd achieved that milestone sooner? Sure. Am I proud I never gave up? Of course. Do I have enough ideas now to publish a novel a year for the next decade? Absolutely. The years to come are going to be a lot of fun. Random fact: my agent (huge shoutout to the amazing Betsy Amster, who believed in me from the start!) sent my manuscript to Holly on the one-year anniversary of my mom's death. She didn't know the exact date, although she knew my mom had died the previous year, so it was a fluke that she got around to reading my last edits and sending the manuscript out on that very day (I had sent it to her for review several days earlier), but when she told me the book was out on submission, I knew my mom would watch over me to find the perfect home for my novel. My mom had always believed in my writing.
I started and completed my first year in the low-residency MFA program at Bennington Writing Seminars (Bennington College) in Bennington, VT. (The picture above is of the impromptu pizza party we had with my cohort during spring residency when the fire alarm got triggered in the dining hall right before dinner.) I absolutely adore this program. Usually, I tend to think in terms of academic years because of my day job, but Bennington has both fall and spring cohorts, so I started in January. (I applied after my mother died. I wanted to do something I wouldn't have done if she hadn't died, and I've always dreamt to study writing more deeply.) By now, I've gone through two residencies, with three to go. The timeline works beautifully for my schedule because the residencies happen outside the regular semesters when I have to be in Dallas to teach. I also just find a low-residency MFA a much better fit for me than a "full-time on-campus" one. That is because, in MFA programs that are full-residency instead of low-residency, you spend a lot of time workshopping other students' material. In low-residency MFAs, you exchange packets (writing materials) with your teacher outside residencies, where you submit new writing pages and annotations on books you have read for the program, and you only workshop other students' work during residencies. I personally prefer focusing my time not spent writing on analyzing published novels for what makes them work or what doesn't resonate with me. Also, there is a much more diverse crowd in low-residency MFAs than in "full-time on-campus" ones, where most students are a few years out from college. In my program, some people are just out of college, some are retired, some never even graduated from college (it is a hallmark of Bennington that they don't require an undergrad degree for the MFA). My cohort and other Bennington cohorts have included retired lawyers, investigative reporters, university professors, rock band frontmen, HR specialists, marketing wizards, and more. It has been refreshing to be with other dedicated writers who have a day job. We understand each other in ways other people can't.
I rescued a stray cat from the Dallas heat wave back in August. He'd been coming every few days for the past two years because I was leaving food outside for him but he wouldn't let me come close. Then, the heat wave happened and in two separate occasions he seemed in distress so I opened my door and aimed my cold air column at him and fed him rotisserie chicken from Whole Foods and Central Market and he decided to stick around.
I went to Asheville, NC for Spring break. This had been on my bucket list for years, and I finally made it happen. (Years ago when I still lived in Pennsylvania I wanted to road trip down the Blue Ridge Mountains with a good friend of mine, but unfortunately our schedules never aligned and the trip didn't happen. I've been thinking of visiting Asheville ever since.) I struck up so many conversations with strangers during the long weekend I was there, and visited so many cool places, and ate at so many amazing restaurants. I initially had wanted to go for fall break last year but it didn't work out schedule-wise, which may have been for the best, because locals told me the prices for hotels and restaurants become prohibitive since it is peak foliage season. Instead, I got to see the "real-er" side of Asheville. It's a lot more expensive now than when I first thought about traveling there, but it's still a great travel destination.
I got assigned my first CASA case with Dallas CASA. CASA stands for Court-Appointed Special Advocate. It is a nonprofit organization that trains volunteers to assist and advocate for foster kids through their journey in the foster-care system. I can't discuss details of the case, but I will say I have a phenomenal supervisor who inspires me in every interaction we have.
I completed the 200-hour yoga teacher training offered by Aligned Yoga (Briohny Smyth's online yoga school) and started the 300-hour follow-up training. I had already completed a 200-hour YTT with Dallas Yoga Center, which was good, but wanted something with more precise instruction for advanced yoga poses, and the training (which includes teachings on yoga philosophy, breathing techniques and so on) has done wonders for me. I may enroll in the 300-hour DYC YTT too in 2024.
I attended my very first writers' retreat. It was outside Los Angeles and organized by the UCLA Extension School. I learned about it last year because my friend Darren N., who I met through taking online classes at UCLAx, went last year and praised the retreat. Fun fact: I didn't know she was returning to the retreat this year, but Darren and I ended up rooming together in one of the chalets. It was a fantastic experience.
I completed the Nanowrimo challenge. (If you don't know what it is: the goal is to write 50,000 words of a novel in a month. Ideally, you start from scratch, and by the end of the month, you have the rough draft of a book.) I now have a first draft of my third novel. I had never attempted the challenge before but wanted to push myself. At the UCLAx writers' retreat, someone gave me a demo of the Scrivener software, and that was instrumental in my completing the Nanowrimo challenge because I just started a file for each day I was writing and uploaded my word count after each session. I discovered that writing 1,667 words at a time wasn't hard (I didn't say they were *good* words). There was something about the challenge that helped bypass my critical brain and so almost every day I would sit down and write the required amount of words. I stumbled around Thanksgiving but there was no way I was going to fail so close to the finish line so I forged through and I succeeded. I created a new writing habit and was thrilled to have completed a major writing project in just one month.
I roadtripped to Albuquerque, NM. The last road trip I took was to Marfa, TX, two years and a half ago. That was also one month before I had a bad car accident. It took me a while to find both the time and the inclination to get on the road. Driving ten hours solo each way was a bit out of my comfort zone, but I am glad I did — first, because challenging oneself is always good, and second, because Albuquerque is such an amazing city. It has a lot of street art and has a funky vibe that Asheville, NC probably had before it became super-popular. The main reason for my trip is that I've never managed to see the musical Hadestown (I had other shows lined up when I went to New York City, I had conflicts when the national tour made stops in Texas), and I decided I really wanted to see that show, so I booked a ticket on a Thursday for a Saturday matinee, and the next day I got in my car and drove west toward New Mexico. I stayed at the Hotel Andaluz, which I highly recommend. I also had time to see the river lights, do some sightseeing around the Old Town Plaza, eat what is supposed to be the best guacamole in Albuquerque at El Pinto and drop by the museum of art, which had an exhibition about Georgia O'Keeffe and Henry Moore.
I kept learning Ukrainian and I brushed up on my Spanish too on Duolingo. I'm not sure how any beginner can learn a new language on that platform, but when you already know a bit of the language like me, a couple of minutes a day on Duolingo is a fun way to feel accomplished. And I've been earning multiple monthly badges although the number of quests to complete each month keeps increasing.
I went to Los Angeles twice. The first time I was based in Pasadena and the other time in Los Feliz. I did a lot of sightseeing, from LACMA to the Pacific Asia Museum and the Huntington Gardens (which is where I was when I learned Holly would be making an offer on my novel. You don't forget moments like these.) I love LA and it was a great opportunity to meet up with other members of my Bennington cohort.

Just in case you think my year was all peaches and roses, there were also some major downs. I may write about those one day but not now... Over the past four years, I've definitely had more downs than I wanted, but maybe they make the ups seem much sweeter.

Happy New Year! Best wishes for a fantastic 2024. I have a lot of plans for this new year and I can't wait to share what I do on this blog!