LilyFields Entertainment

Well, gang, it's the end of another year! The beginning of another decade, even. Are you excited? You should be! ^_^

2009 was an adventurous year for me. In February, LilyFields Entertainment launched and a dream of mine took flight. I look at all that has happened, all the stories that have been told, all the feedback from readers and the weblit community, and I am amazed. Truly amazed.

I've made so many new friends over the course of the year, as well. I hope that you check out the links page and visit these other awesome authors; they've got some incredible stories to share with you. I've even managed to collect some fans! Wow! And fan art! Double-wow! It's one thing to have these grand ideas in your head and quite another to see them become reality. And to have others join you in your flight of fancy ... that is incredible.

In nine months, I wrote over 100,000 words in a single story. I wrote over 25,000 words in another story in less than six months. In one month, I wrote 50,000 words on yet a third story. As we end this year, I've written about 200,000 words. I can't believe it, never would have believed it had I been told this a year ago.

In the RL, there was a lot going on, as well. In January, my grandfather passed away. He had Alzheimer's, and his impaired time was mercifully brief. I sang at his funeral, and it was, without a doubt, the best I've ever sung. What a time to come together with the family, reconnect, and remember. In March, I moved to a new apartment and injured my hip. The muscle group I sent into acute spasm took almost eight months to heal and made me very aware of my own limitations. No more lifting sleeper couches by myself, no, indeed.

I took a trip at the end of April to Europe with one of my best friends. We made a mad dash across the continent, hitting five countries in ten days. So much fun, and so exhausting. I loved all the museum displays we visited, including the Tower of London and Le Louvre. We saw "Phantom of the Opera" in London and "Madame Butterfly" in Rome. I love Puccini!

In the summer, I performed in a local production of "H.M.S. Pinafore" as Little Buttercup, which was a blast. I got a rave review by one of the local rags, which totally made my day. The only sad thing was that no video was made of the production. What really made me giggle about that production was that I was actually wearing a pinafore. Made me look like a couch, but hey, it was fun.

IN October, I went to VCon in Vancouver, Canada, with April Raines. My first con, actually, and it was grand fun. As soon as I got back to my rock, I changed shifts at the Day Job, going from the weekend graveyard to the weekday evenings. Much better to have my weekends back, though I do miss both the extra days off each week and the pay differential. Not enough to go back, mind you. Oh, no. Much better here.

This Thanksgiving was the first in remembered history in which I did not open a single book. In fact, I did not read at all the entire month of November because I was entrenched in NaNoWriMo. I was doing great until week 3, when RL decided to run me over. I had a significant financial crisis due to certain creditors being poopy-heads and double- and triple-charging me for my bills. US$600 in the hole is not a fun place to be, lemme tell ya. Nonetheless, this, too, did pass, and I am financially afloat once more. And I finished NaNo in good time, so it all worked out just fine.

December was a bit of a rush; I was in the church Christmas choir, trying to recover from NaNo, and busy at the Day Job. It passed in a blur, and I had to fall back on the gracious donation-inspired posting of DofA pages to give me enough time to recover and jump back into S&T and SaS. Still, it worked out, I think. At least, no one said anything to me about it ...

Christmas was wonderful and very interesting. My parents drove down to spend it with me, and my brother drove in, as well. The difficulty was the massive winter storm we had on Christmas Eve. The drive for my parents normally takes six hours; they were on the highway, in the vehicle, for twenty-five hours. Twenty-five hours. The snow and ice was so bad that they couldn't get to a town to find a hotel. So they slept on the highway, in the suburban. Poor Parents! But they made it safe and sound and no worse for the wear, and we had a fine weekend together.

Now, it's the night before New Year's. What will it hold? I don't know, and I don't think that making a bunch of predictions will get me anywhere, so I will leave you with this:

May 2010 be a Year of Hope for you and yours. Be blessed, be safe, and have fun! See you online!