Look Back In Angola

2011 was a year of such extremes, I may have to hire an intarwebz lawyer so I can sue somebody for the emotional and physical distress. It was the first time I'd gone to a convention in a semi-professional capacity to promote my first book But I Never Said I Didn't Love You!. In the process, my taxes have been seriously screwed up; I can no longer fill out the 1040 EZ form! I'd barely come down off that high when I found out my publisher had closed up and quit operating right under my nose. During that time, I've also experienced some severe extremes at the day job. We'd won the consolidation to make us the only processing site in the country but a week later they announced the sales portion of the program was ending at the end of 2011. Now that the sales portion has ended (officially as of 50 minutes ago, at the time of this writing!), a good third of the department, myself included, has no idea what we'll be doing at the end of the month when the official official end is declared and things are shut down and turned off for the last time. And who knows how much longer the two hours mandatory overtime per day is going to last (at the rate I'm going, however, I'll be able to freaking BUY Chicago when I go to RT Booklovers' Convention in April!). And somewhere in there, But I Never Said I Didn't Love You! has been picked up for reissue by Musa Publishing and my second novel Kitchen Witch is forthcoming.

So, yeah, it's been a swing from one extreme to the other. Mind, I'm an expert at extreme emotional reactions but this last year has been too much. I'm just ready to take a long break or an even longer nap but I'm not sure when that's going to happen. I've got too much work, too much uncertainty ahead of me and like most, the unknown upsets me. I'm surprised I have any teeth left in my head, I've been grinding my jaw so much lately from the stress (not that my teeth are in the best condition, anyway). I don't know how I've made it this far under these conditions, but all I can do is take comfort in the fact that a lot of the stress will be ending soon and I've got the distraction of my writing to cover me. As I posted earlier on Facebook, I can only keep reminding myself of my mantra: "Things can only get better. No matter how bad they get, they can only get better". Peace, love, and strength in the coming '12, fellow babies.