2015? The Year in Review?

Honestly, one of the worst years in our lives. I was fired on Jan. 2 after working as managing editor of the local paper for seven and a half years - the last half year with new owners. But I assumed at some point the new owners would want their own person in the job, so I had some contingency plans, and I was working at another newspaper by Jan. 6 - but with a big drop in pay. I made up a lot of that decrease with a part-time editing job, but that ended in the fall.

My wife was forced to resign as a teacher - the local school district is pretty much a hiring agency for locals, and she was treated so shitty she couldn't take it any more. She found another job, too, but again, with a big drop in pay.

As the year ends, we are making 58 percent of what we were at the start of the year - so we're struggling financially.

And then, what I would have thought would be be a great thing, being nominated for the Hugo award twice, turned out to be the worst thing that ever happened in my life. But it helped me realize that, in the end, I really only write for myself and friends, and in literature - as in other things in life - trying to please other people is the fast track to misery.

On the positive side, the odds are probably pretty good that 2016 will be a better year - that won't be hard to do.

I will post a list of my publications in 2015 in another post later today, since that is also something traditionally done at year's end. I had six short stories published, some of them - I'd like to think - that were pretty good.