This time last year I was in a very different place. I was with my best friend having a great vacation. I was in love with a man who I thought was going to make all the pain of my past worth it. I was writing more than ever and had a book ready to publish.
By summer all of that had fallen apart. End this year with no book, betrayed by the one I loved, and uncertain of so many things. Facing a future that is completely different than the one I thought I’d chosen.
This year was hard. Not just for the reasons everyone else struggled. In fact, I was lucky. My family was healthy. Lucky. My job was secure. I lost very little. Just the love of my life, and all my plans. I’m not making this a contest, just reflecting.
But two months ago, something changed. A lost love came into my life in a way a didn’t expect. Not a person, an idea, a world, an entertainment. But so much more. It was a passion and an obsession, a fire. The thing that started me on my creative journey all those years ago. It’s taken many forms, but the current iteration has a beauty and a depth that reminded me what I love about creating. What I love about science fiction. It gave me a new promise of more to come. Reminding me what my goals have always been.
My future has completely changed in the course of one year. But I have hope. A hope I haven’t felt in a long time.
I don’t intend to let it go again.
Fiction saved me. It’s always saved me.
So here’s to a new year, and new promise, and new hope.
