Between extensive Christmas prep and getting out there and having a good time, I skipped last week’s blog post. Apologies.

2018 was a remarkable year in many respects, both good and…less good. Despite the day-to-day frustrations and unmet expectations that occur in every 24-hour period, I work hard to practice gratitude. Sometimes I’m less successful in the moment, sometimes more. My wife and son are both healthy and active, so as far as that story goes, I could just close the book and say it’s all good. Anything that happens outside of that is gravy. Frosting. Sugar on top. Pick your culinary metaphor.

That’s the story. Here’s the plot.

Over this year I released two books. The first was The Holy Warrior and the Last Angel, the third novel in my Armageddon trilogy. Nobody wants to hear how difficult writing a book was, but still, this one was pretty damned hard. It was so hard I had to take breaks to produce other books while I was writing it. Part of the difficulty was psychological: it was comfortable working on the same project for several years, and who wants to leave the Comfort Zone? The other part was just wrapping up everything in a way that made sense, satisfied the reader, and examined the themes of faith and humanity I wanted to explore. It’s up to the reader to determine its quality or lack of. The second of 2018’s books was Appalling Stories 2: More Appalling Tales of Social Injustice. The sequel to 2017’s Appalling Stories, it continues the anti-PC, ripped-from-the-headlines theme, and showcases a number of authors’ short fiction work. Nobody else is doing anything quite like it, and I’m proud of Appalling 2.

In January, my story A Haunting in Pennsylvania was published in Creators Unite Magazine, the Woman Power Issue. It’s neat when someone illustrates your writing and I’m pretty happy about that. In February, I wrote an evergreen piece on firearms in America. In April I watched the “important” horror film Get Out and confirmed, once and for all, that most movie reviewers are completely full of shit. In May, the horror site The Slaughtered Bird shut down; I enjoyed writing for them. June was a rough month for me: I spent the last week of May horribly ill, culminating in an 8-day hospital stay that I described here. While my hospitalization was a learning experience, it was still less than pleasant. I reviewed The Last Jedi in July, which got some notoriety in certain circles of Star Wars fandom. In August I reviewed David Angsten’s terrific novel Night of the Furies, and when you’re done reading this post, you need to run to Amazon and pick up Angsten’s entire Night-Sea Trilogy if you haven’t already. I tried to go home again in September with a review of Lord Foul’s Bane. October turned out to be a busy month: my story Dear Dad was published in Cinder Quarterly, the literary magazine from Taliesin Nexus, and I reviewed the wrenching film Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer. It’s the hardest film I’ve ever watched. In November I invented the term Thanksgivingtime. You’re welcome.

Not much else happened that I’m prepared to talk about. We got a black kitten earlier in the year. He’s been good luck for us and is a fine little fellow. For Christmas I got a sous vide machine.

What’s coming in 2019? I’m working with Ray Zacek on a satirical book that I hope to have out in the first quarter of the year. Still working on a science fiction adventure series that I’m sure you’ll enjoy: something a bit lighter than my previous fare. I doubt I’ll have it ready by 2019, but who knows?

Thank you, as always, for reading. May the coming year bring you blessings and favor from God, who is all good all the time. May you be as fortunate as I in both family and fortune, and may you remember from where it all springs.