2024 Year in Review

2024 was a hard year. The presidential election sat hunched over the months like a looming storm cloud. None of us knew what kind of storm was coming, but we all had fears. The atmosphere made it difficult for me to concentrate. Sometimes I was able to put my fears aside and do some writing and submitting. Other times the atmosphere overtook me, and I an existential dread filled my head like static. 

And once the election was over, the dread became a kind of mourning for the hopes I had cherished, for the idea of my fellow Americans that I had to let go. One way I got through the first Trump term was telling myself that most Americans had not wanted this outcome. But in 2024--even after the courts have declared him a felon and a rapist, even after he encouraged his followers to invade the capital to overturn an election--so many people stood up and declared that was exactly what they wanted. It was a dark time. 

I start out every writing year with the hope that I will be more disciplined and focused, but I'm giving myself a bit of a pass for 2024. 

Even so, I DID manage some writing and submitting. Not as much as I hoped, but enough to get four stories published. My great thanks to the journals Microfiction Monday and the Eunoia Review for publishing my work. 

For those of you who didn't catch them when I originally posted them, here are the stories that I had published:

• "Across the Street from the Good Life," Eunoia Review, September, 2024
• "Let's Say," Eunoia Review, September, 2024
• "Can't Be too Careful," Eunoia Review, September, 2024
• "Inheritance," Microfiction Monday, February, 2024

And as for the coming year, I hope as always to write and submit more than I did the previous year. In 2024 I accomplished that, given that 2023 was a very low time for my submissions. 

Art is one of the ways we deal with dark times. I sing with two choruses, and this fall both directors tried to provide comfort and build resilient hope with their music selections. In the same way, reading and writing can be great sources of comfort and hope. My goal for 2025 is to do more of both, to nurture the sources of creativity that provide inspiration and energy to fight for a more just world, and to provide needed refuge from the fight.  

Here's to all of us continuing to do our needed work in the world in the coming year. 

Photo by Eyestetix Studio on Unsplash