I hope that everyone had a great Christmas and are looking forwards to a slightly less crap 2023!
As promised, I am going to keep up with at least one blog post between writers group meetings and I thought that this one would be a great chance to have a look back at 2022 and set out my hopes for 2023.
First things first, HEALTH
As you know, I had hand surgery in November and I am pleased to say that the healing process is coming along quite nicely. I am back to about 25% strength in terms of lifting and gripping, but the stretching is still leaving a lot to be desired.
I also now have a lovely 6cm scar to show off as a "battle wound" but I think it is definitely looking a lot better than the pictures on my last post!
The good news is that I am now back driving (so I can get back into the office on my day job) and more importantly, I am two handed typing again. Those three weeks of one handed (and literally one finger) typing did my head in.
Other than that, I did manage to pick up the lurgy on Boxing Day, and still haven't fully shaken it off. Runny nose, coughing, bit of a temperature but again, I am heading in the right direction. I think that now I have managed to polish off all of the Christmas alcohol should mean that my body gets a chance to rest!
FOOTBALL
The World Cup has come and gone, and while I didn't have too much expectation for England leading into the competition, once we got going, I thought we looked impressive. Unfortunately we let ourselves down against France (with a little help from a dodgy referee) and it is another 2 years of hurt for the Men's team to endure before Germany 2024 and the Euro's.
As for Leicester City, a poorish season last season became a nightmare start to this one. One point in the first seven games and we looked in serious trouble. However, a run of five wins, one draw and two defeats lifted us up out of the bottom three.
We've lost a couple in the league since the return from the WC but handily placed to mount a top 10 challenge in the second half of the season, quarter final of the league cup and into the fourth round of the FA Cup.
WRITING
2022 was a fairly successful year for me in terms of output of writing. It was definitely helped by the writers retreat which Jackie, Shelley and myself went on in June, when I managed over quarter of my year's word count in three days!
I managed to finish The Woodsman, my first venture into the world of serial killers and police, along with a short story collection called Supernatural Shivers. Both of these books are on my publications page if you want to check them out on Amazon.
We also released our latest group book, Words Don't Frive, which is an anthology of our homework assignments. If you nip along to the JAMS website, you will see it on there.
I have also plotted out my new work in progress and am already up to 15000 words and chapter six out of a planned eighteen so that is really coming along. Entitled "A Soul Reclaimed", it is the sequel to my debut novel, "For The Lost Soul", and is set some thirteen years after the events of the first book.
All in all, I managed to write 79953 words in 2022, an improvement of 26043 words from the year before.
READING
I was once an avid reader, devouring at least a book a week during my lunch breaks and weekends before I started writing, but this has fallen off a cliff recently. 2022 saw me restart reading, but mainly the books written by Shelley and Jackie as a beta reader, or as a reader once it had been launched.
My only New Year resolution for 2023 is to read more. As such, for Christmas, I was gifted Fairy Tale by Stephen King, along with King of Ashes and Queen of Storms by my favourite author, Raymond E. Feist. Hopefully I will get my reading bug back.
Anyway, enough blathering on for now ... I have a book to finish writing!
