So you want me to give a 2018 wrap-up.

Which I guess I should do. Granted, 2018 was an amazing year for me, professionally. Hugo #3! NYT bestseller! I finished the first Cities book, for now titled THE CITY WE BECAME! I was guest editor for BEST AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY! I met Neil Gaiman and LeVar Burton! I got Magpie! All awesome stuff.

But 2018 took an immense toll, personally speaking. Belatedly I've realized that I never really took a break after my mom died in 2017; I went from her funeral literally into another book contract the following month.  I also had several projects running at around that time to which I'd committed, and I hate breaking commitments, so... I just didn't stop. I think I was thinking I'd be fine given that my career, at the time, was at a low boil, so I'd just take things slow and grind through -- but then a bunch of things happened that turned up the heat and speed. All good! But they meant that when I probably needed to be recharging myself, creatively, I was plugging more things into the battery. I finally realized what I'd done when it turned out to be so hard to write the Cities book -- like pulling teeth!  I've never had to struggle this hard to make my creative self do its thing. But that was a warning sign that the battery is depleted.

So -- for 2019, I've asked Orbit for a year in which I can just... not write a book, and they've agreed. I've published 9 in the past 8 years, after all; I think I've earned a break. So I'm planning to spend 2019 finding ways to re-fuel the creative tank. Today is my first day in years without an obligatory book looming over my head, so I haven't exactly taken the time to decide how to recharge yet. But I'm thinking it might be nice to do some non-business travel. Read some books that I don't have to blurb or review for once. Write just for fun again -- for myself and friends, no one else. Go to a con and not give a talk or run a workshop or do a signing. Just see old friends and family. Just chill a bit.

Even artists need a work-life balance, after all, and mine's gotten way out of whack. In a year when so much of the world is out of whack, I can't have that; can't process the way I need to, can't use my art as the weapon it could be, can't fight back. So let's all take some time to regroup, now that a new year has come, if you haven't already done so.  We're all gonna need that.

As for this Patreon -- since it's still holding strong, I'm going to continue the practice of having all the original texted content available to all tiers from $1 up. Only the book freebies are reserved for the higher contributors, and that's only because of limited supply. Once again, I'm not soliciting additional patrons; I'm good for now, guys! So I strongly encourage you to seek out other artists who could use support. If you want to stay here, I will continue to post vignettes and snippets of forthcoming work, as well as occasional ruminations on Things. And cat pics, of course! Wouldn't be the same without the cat pics. 

Anyway, Happy New Year. May your work be excellent, may your lives be rich, may you be able to help the people you care about at least and everyone who needs it at best, and may you be safe as well.