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Jan. 20th, 2019 10:49 pmOne thing I didn't do, because I didn't do my year in review for 2018, was the usual set of vital statistics about writing, culture and travel, so here they are, mostly for my own benefit.
* I read 97 books last year, which includes novellas, graphic novels and friends' manuscripts but not short stories - 6 non-fiction, 91 fiction.
* I revised a novel, wrote another and revised it, and co-wrote and revised a novella - to a total of 230k revised and 120k from scratch. I have given the next project some thought but it hasn't come together yet and may not. I wrote about 300 words of it to amuse a friend but that's it.
* I did not write any short stories, strangely, though I did have a short story and novelette published in January and then in April. The novella came out in December.
(Also 6000 words of fanfic, all in one week at the end of December. I didn't make any vids.)
* I listened to 15 new-to-me albums, of which my favourites were Sandwood, by Duncan Chisholm, and Dessa's Chime. (My favourite song of the year was "Velodrome".) I also got way more into Spotify than I'd been before, listened to a lot of Niraj Chag (Sapno se Pucho and The Only Sadness), got back into the Civil Wars for a while, fell weirdly in love with a single song by the Lowest Pair, "Rosie", and spent whole days of my life listening to the White Sands of Jervis Bay, an amazing Gaelic-indigenous-Australian musical artwork by Breabach.
(I saw Dessa live in London twice; also Breabach and Niteworks (but not Kate Rusby; her Christmas concert that I always go to didn't have a London date this year). I also saw Fun Home at the Young Vic and Translations at the National Theatre.) I really wanted to go to Celtic Connections but didn't make it.
* I watched The Good Place (which I adored) and Star Trek Discovery (which I liked) and One Day At A Time, which is perfect always. I did not - though I really did mean to - finish watching Babylon 5. (Maybe 2019 is the year.) A. and I also rewatched all of Brooklyn Nine-Nine by watching one episode every night over dinner. Possibly related, we also bought a dining table.
* I went to Madrid, Amsterdam and Rome, India (twice: once for a friend's wedding in Jaipur, and again to Shimla in December) and spent a week in the Lakes as usual in July, and a week on Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in April (which was nice and I'm glad I went, but didn't enjoy as much as usual because a) many people were racist at me and b) I was in the middle of a bipolar episode). A. and I also went back to Scotland in October, that time to go to Mull and Iona.
(Speaking of bipolar episodes: I had a prolonged mixed state in the spring, and then a full-on depressive episode in the autumn, and two attempted meds adjustments to deal with some unfortunate interactions, neither of which worked. I spent September and October on limited hours, which did help. I'm back to reasonably well-medicated now, and enduring.)
And the other things: it's three years that we've lived in this house; this year I'll be six years qualified; A. and I have been together for eleven years and married for five. In sum, and barring the other things we don't talk about, it was an ordinary year in an ordinary life, which is what you want. I'm thirty-two today, which feels like an unremarkable age - though, 2018 was also the year I started to find silver strands in my hair. (I really like them! I like how they stand out against the black.) &tc.
* I read 97 books last year, which includes novellas, graphic novels and friends' manuscripts but not short stories - 6 non-fiction, 91 fiction.
* I revised a novel, wrote another and revised it, and co-wrote and revised a novella - to a total of 230k revised and 120k from scratch. I have given the next project some thought but it hasn't come together yet and may not. I wrote about 300 words of it to amuse a friend but that's it.
* I did not write any short stories, strangely, though I did have a short story and novelette published in January and then in April. The novella came out in December.
(Also 6000 words of fanfic, all in one week at the end of December. I didn't make any vids.)
* I listened to 15 new-to-me albums, of which my favourites were Sandwood, by Duncan Chisholm, and Dessa's Chime. (My favourite song of the year was "Velodrome".) I also got way more into Spotify than I'd been before, listened to a lot of Niraj Chag (Sapno se Pucho and The Only Sadness), got back into the Civil Wars for a while, fell weirdly in love with a single song by the Lowest Pair, "Rosie", and spent whole days of my life listening to the White Sands of Jervis Bay, an amazing Gaelic-indigenous-Australian musical artwork by Breabach.
(I saw Dessa live in London twice; also Breabach and Niteworks (but not Kate Rusby; her Christmas concert that I always go to didn't have a London date this year). I also saw Fun Home at the Young Vic and Translations at the National Theatre.) I really wanted to go to Celtic Connections but didn't make it.
* I watched The Good Place (which I adored) and Star Trek Discovery (which I liked) and One Day At A Time, which is perfect always. I did not - though I really did mean to - finish watching Babylon 5. (Maybe 2019 is the year.) A. and I also rewatched all of Brooklyn Nine-Nine by watching one episode every night over dinner. Possibly related, we also bought a dining table.
* I went to Madrid, Amsterdam and Rome, India (twice: once for a friend's wedding in Jaipur, and again to Shimla in December) and spent a week in the Lakes as usual in July, and a week on Skye at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig in April (which was nice and I'm glad I went, but didn't enjoy as much as usual because a) many people were racist at me and b) I was in the middle of a bipolar episode). A. and I also went back to Scotland in October, that time to go to Mull and Iona.
(Speaking of bipolar episodes: I had a prolonged mixed state in the spring, and then a full-on depressive episode in the autumn, and two attempted meds adjustments to deal with some unfortunate interactions, neither of which worked. I spent September and October on limited hours, which did help. I'm back to reasonably well-medicated now, and enduring.)
And the other things: it's three years that we've lived in this house; this year I'll be six years qualified; A. and I have been together for eleven years and married for five. In sum, and barring the other things we don't talk about, it was an ordinary year in an ordinary life, which is what you want. I'm thirty-two today, which feels like an unremarkable age - though, 2018 was also the year I started to find silver strands in my hair. (I really like them! I like how they stand out against the black.) &tc.