Sorry for the tardy post here. I had about 800 words written as a sort of retrospective “year in review” article, but it felt phoned in, so I abandoned it. No gift guides here either, sorry. I’m not being a Grinch. I actually had an amazing 2022—the best year in recent memory which I guess isn’t saying much given what we’ve all been through since the Year of the Plague. Still, it felt like I finally got my mojo back after being a shut-in one year, then going through a couple of health scares the next. It took a dive under the ice last winter, a month in Sri Lanka, a June weekend in an old Carolina moonshiner’s cabin, a couple of Defender road trips, some Great Lakes wreck dives, a couple weeks underwater in the Caribbean, and here we are—the penultimate week of the year.
2022 was officially, “The Year Adventure Returned” for me, but none of my dives, jungle hikes, or camping trips held a candle to what’s been the most rewarding experience of the past twelve months: finishing my second novel. Yes, Sweetwater is complete, or at least until a publisher comes back and asks me to change a few things. That’s the best case scenario, actually, because it assumes a publisher will be interested in it. But I’m hopeful. This book is better than Depth Charge, in my humble opinion. And it came together a lot faster. Sweetwater took only six months to write and edit, as opposed to 18 months for Depth Charge. I chalk that up to better outlining and writing discipline. I sent the final manuscript off to my agent (I still feel pretentious writing that) last Friday, along with a fresh synopsis, for him to submit to prospective publishers after the holidays. 2023 is shaping up to be as interesting and rewarding as this year was.
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