Over and out, 2024. Loved you and hated you (a sentiment I've
seen from many folks of my acquaintance). For Brugger and me, 2024 was the
first full year we have lived together at Ground Zero, as I sometimes refer to
our homeplace. I absolutely love this old house, much about Martinsville (at least, the
better aspects it has retained since my youth here), many of our neighbors,
and the prevailing atmosphere of tranquility—a critical quality that came to
be sadly lacking in Greensboro.
We're farther from so many of the people and activities that made living in
North Carolina better than bearable, but not so far that we can't make regular
trips back and forth. We have some good friends here in town as well, and
we've managed to get some of those unruly North Carolina foreigners together
with our local compadres numerous times—including last night at friends
Bob & Yvonne's superb New Year's Eve party.
Yesterday
morning, I went to Greensboro to witness NC friends Tom &
Linda sign some legal documents, have lunch with them, get in a
quick bit of geocaching, and pick up daughter Allison to bring her back
to Mville for a few days' visit. A little later in the afternoon, friends
Terry & Beth drove up from Kernersville, NC, to
attend the aforementioned party at Bob & Yvonne's place, less than a mile
from Ground Zero. We were soon joined by friend Gretchen, and off we
headed to the party—the others by automobile, I on foot because I wanted to
make sure I got in my requisite 5,000 steps for the day. Accomplish that I
did, plus a couple of thousand in advance for New Year's Day, since I opted to
walk home as well. (For the past 365 days, I've averaged 8,800 steps—about
four miles—a day, with only two days, both back in January, that I didn't get
in at least 5,000 steps.)
Bob & Yvonne throw dynamite parties. We already knew this, but I think
last night might have been their best yet. Bob acquired a hell of a nice bar
setup, and he served us a variety of killer drinks for the entire evening.
What a gentleman! There were 15 to 20 people in attendance, some coming and
going at various times, while about a dozen of us lingered till midnight to
ring in the New Year with a champagne toast.
This past year, I've done a ton of writing I'm rightly proud of, perhaps most
notably my novel,
The House at Black Tooth Pond, due for release in February from
Crossroad Press. It'll be available
as an ebook, trade paperback, and audiobook. You can preorder it from
Amazon.com here. I've also completed a few short stories (which I hope you'll be
reading in various upcoming publications) and am currently co-writing a new
novel with
Elizabeth Massie titled
Freezer Burn. We hope to have it wrapped up in the spring of this year.
In other writing-related business, I attended
Scares That Care: AuthorCon III in Williamsburg back in April, NecronomiCon Providence in August (and I returned to Providence for a wonderful long weekend with Ms.
B. in November), and had numerous successful booksignings over the course of the year.
2024 also hit Ms. B. and I with some significant setbacks, most notably
Kimberly being laid off from her job of twenty-plus years in February—almost
two years to the day after the company laid me off. Since losing her job, Ms.
B. has fashioned herself into a very capable freelancer in the educational
publishing business. Unfortunately, she makes considerably less than she did
at her full-time job, but she enjoys the work, and as things currently stand,
her income is adequate for us to get by. But here's the rub: in order to get
health insurance, she had to purchase it through Virginia's ACA Exchange; and
since her income is relatively low, she receives a decent subsidy to keep her
policy affordable. However, by all indications, the Shitgibbon-elect and the
Party of Freedom From Every Policy That Helps More People Than It Hurts don't
plan to renew the subsidies later this year, so we may well find ourselves in
dire straits—along with many millions who depend on the ACA subsidies to
afford healthcare. I don't need to go into further detail about how calamitous
this will be, but yes, if the GOP goes through with its plans, a lot of us are
likely to end up in mortal danger. Yeah, that's the way to make America great,
right?
What a load of pure horseshit, my friends.
Enough of that particular commentary. However, on a somewhat related note,
while I've generally enjoyed pretty good health, especially since I've taken
up my daily lengthy walks, I have occasional complications and unexpected
setbacks that do—and will—require medical services. I'm on Medicare, so I also
have to hope that the party in power doesn't decide to fuck over everyone who
isn't rolling in superfluous dollars.
Coming up for 2025, we have a relatively short Caribbean cruise to look
forward to, at least one convention to attend (
Scares That Care: AuthorCon V
in Williamsburg at the end of March), and I plan to participate in numerous
other book-related events, as I did this past year. I've also plotted a few
other writing projects, which I plan to undertake once done with the
collaboration with Ms. Massie.
And that's about all I've got in me for right now. One more year relegated to
the personal history books, and another coming up that represents the next
step in the walk of the unknown, as friend Larry Blamire has put it.
I wish we could all be together on this journey into the future, but I swear,
I cannot fathom all too many mindsets around me, especially the insane delight in indulging ignorance, stupidity, and general negativity. It's hard to stay above it when the world
around us seems to thrive on it. Regardless, I wish everyone in my sphere of
influence the very best, and I hope, however bleak things sometimes look, that
there are silver linings galore for everyone. These have been known to happen.
Peace out.
