…of 2019, anyway.

As I type this the afternoon of December the 30th, one day before this year’s final day, I can’t help but think of what a wild, crazy year its been.

For worse and far worse, IMHO, it seemed a day/hour/second couldn’t pass without hearing something about “President” Donald Trump. It’s been -pardon my French- fucking relentless. I know there are those who are fans of his but I can’t help but scratch my head. By all reasonable metrics, he’s a total disaster as President and, as we’re getting to know him all too well, a human being as well.

And he’s such a self-promoting machine that it seems he wakes up each day wondering what outrageous/stupid/idiotic thing he can do to once again get his name out in the news and… it’s exhausting.

Elections are coming up and, I fervently hope, we’ll have only one more year of dealing with this man (maybe less if the Impeachment trial is anything less than a whitewash in the Senate) before we can finally -perhaps- get on with our regular lives.

This was also the year I feel we could no longer ignore the dire reality of climate change. I recall living through the entire decade of the 1980’s and, if my memory isn’t off, there was a grand total of ONE Category 5 hurricane in all those seasons, Gilbert (again, if my memory is right), that appeared in the Caribbean. Each year it now seems far too many hurricanes build up to a Category 5, very quickly, and the resulting destruction is both heartbreaking and terrifying.

Then there’s Australia and the extreme heat waves they are going through coupled with all the fires they are experiencing.

I suppose one goes with the other but I hope the next election not only gets rid of Trump, but whomever the Democratic candidate is, I really hope they focus on Climate Change and the way to bring down the CO2 in the atmosphere and create a more sustainable power grid.

It’s also way past time we ended our dependence on oil and coal.

Not all things, though, were negative.

Despite all the bad news, this was easily the best year I’ve ever had with regard to sales of my novels. I continue to be deeply appreciative whenever I check up on my sales and “Kindle Unlimited” readings and find people zip through my novels. Not everyone takes the time to review my books once they read them, but when I see so many pages read through -often full novels in one day- I know that I must have done something right.

After all, who reads through some 500 pages of a book in one day if they don’t like what they’re reading, right?

At least that’s what I tell myself!

Further to that and as I mentioned a few days ago, I’m neck deep in the latest Corrosive Knights book and, while it is no longer the “Epilogue” I was originally planning to release, I think this book will delight those who have been reading the rest of the series, and will also provide a springboard to future novels set in this universe.

So we close out a year filled with way too many wild and crazy (and not in a good way) moments and I, for one, can’t help but look forward to the next year with a mix of both caution and optimism.

Here’s hoping 2020 will prove to be a wonderful year for everyone out there!

Keep safe and have a beautiful New Year’s!