2022: The Great Do-Over Year?
by Jamie Brazil
January 4, 2022
Here we are again, the cusp of a new year and with the flip of a calendar page many of us are filled with the possibilities of achievement in the grand space of the 365 days ahead. I am. Again.
Most years the magic of possibility, of writing 1000 words a day, or paying off student loans, or drinking fewer carbonated beverages, or swilling 64 ounces of water per day, fades as the realities of January set in. Like most writers, I have a long list of broken new year resolutions spanning decades, dollars, pounds, and word counts.
Yet is this year the year — with my NEW AND IMPROVED list of resolutions — that will be different? Will 2022 be the GREAT DO-OVER year?
It will, it really truly WILL be different this time!!!
Okay, maybe you are laughing at this point…
Or crying in your kombucha…
But hear me out…
Cautiously and optimistically the world is turning the corner out of the pandemic (into the endemic, though we won’t go there) and it feels like this DECADE still needs to start.
A real and proper start to the 2020s, the beginning denied as we locked down and navigated new realities.
This time, THIS NEW YEAR, will be my TRUE start, not just to the 365 days ahead, but to the larger 2921 days to Dec. 31st 2029.
I’m celebrating the start of an accelerated DECADE.
Ten years vacuum-packed into the eight ahead — if I’m lucky.
Let’s face it, every day above ground is a good one. Something I was reminded of over this last Thanksgiving weekend when I wound up in a medical facility after an extreme reaction to the booster. But I’m still here, so as I like to say, “ONWARD!”
Calling this year the GREAT DO OVER will be filled with challenges. It’s not only March 2020 to now I’m catching up on. Oh no. I’ve spent the last few years out of the publishing loop, so simply returning to writing, and publishing regularly, will be the first order of resolution making.
No doubt it will be a challenge, though with a little help from my friends I know I’ll figure this out. Luckily, one of the best decisions I’ve ever made was joining Windtree Press. Being part of an independent group of authors makes being a writer less daunting, less lonely. Yet more than that, being part of a group brings possibilities into focus.
No more was this more true than a couple months ago, during the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association conference. I was so inspired by the creativity and energy of the conference, and it almost felt like old times again — in a masked and vaccinated sort of way.
I miss networking and socializing and being around other writers in person, and I’m desperately hoping that in-person learning has a robust return by summer 2022. (Conference anyone? Call me!)
Yet before this takes shape, I realize there is a greater challenge I face. In order to embrace this new-condensed-decade, I need to revisit the last decade and, ahem, clean up my ,,,, errr,,,, act (and you know when I say act I mean another word, starts with “S”).
So, yeah, there’s that.
My other resolution: Returning to the scene of the crime! A long-abandoned social-media presence, a mothballed website, and stalled sales. Hello Marketing!
But that’s a post for another day. In the meantime, I hope you’ll join me for this journey over the next 365 days.. and fasten your seatbelt with me for the next 2921.
XO,
Jamie Brazil
Jamie Brazil is a lifelong morning person, happiest when the sun is rising. She writes novels and screenplays with her husband, and had a hand in a certain book of wisdom authored by her beloved Bloodhound. Writing life aside, Jamie has worked as a unit production manager for multiple television documentaries aired on NHK, BBC, and throughout Asia. Learn more about Jamie at her website.
