So, 2017 is upon us.

It’s been a rough fucking year. When I think back on it, there are moments that stand out: seeing the bodies of refugee children, washed up like trash on a beach, the Pulse massacre, which still months later brings tears to my eyes, and of course, the unimaginable election of an absolutely horror of human being to the highest office in our country.

Alan Rickman dying. David Bowie dying. George Michael dying. Carrie Fisher dying. That one really stings.

It’s been a bit of a battle in my personal life, too. Unpleasantness at my job, some family issues, the ongoing saga with my neck fracture. I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression this year, not to mention dysphoria.

But I’ve always got books.

I’ve read some really amazing books this year. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking Roan Parrish’s “Middle of Somewhere” series. I’m thinking of Hexworld. I’m thinking of Lisa Henry and N.R Walker and Michael Jensen and absolutely anything by TJ Klune.

Books have saved my life so many times.

And I’m so so grateful. This year I’ve had the privilege of working with people like Annetta Ribken, my incredible editor, and I’ve had the unbelievable luck to have made friends via Twitter and GR and Facebook, people like my book-twin Riina, who I know I can count on for writing support. I’ve talked with authors that I respect and whose books I adore. I’ve been welcomed into a community that I never could have imagined even 10 years ago. And I feel nothing but gratitude.

I turned 35 this year. I’m old enough to remember a time before social media and fiction forums and ebooks. I remember being a teenager and being utterly devastated by loneliness, out here in the middle of nowhere Montana, convinced that I was broken and wrong and that no one in the world could possibly understand how I felt. I’m grateful that so much has changed, that I can see 17 year old artists on Tumblr with their NSFW fan art and see 2k reblogs on it. I’m grateful that the internet has forged a path for connectivity, that lonely scared queer kids can find support, help, humanity, through their devices. So much has changed for the better. Sometimes I do wish that this time had come sooner, that selfishly I might have enjoyed such freedom when I was young. Or that I had been brave enough to bring that time to me.

I’m an optimist at heart, despite everything. I really do think that things are getting better. Yes, I know that we have a fight ahead of us. Here in Montana, we have a group of fucking Nazis terrorizing a community. And we have groups preparing to face them. It’s the same everywhere, I think. Hate rises and we beat it back into the dirt. We fight back. Excelsior. Ever upwards.

My goals this year are simple. In my personal life, I’d like to find a new job, one without such ghastly management. I’d like to buy a new, younger, trail horse, one that can take me all over the mountains. I’d like to do some serious fishing. I’d like get a double body weight deadlift and a body weight snatch.

And as for my books… well there have been ups and downs this year. On the plus side, I currently have four first drafts awaiting my attention. Three of those are novella length, all sitting around 20k words. The 4rth though is full length novel that I’m exciting to work on, about adventure and romance and of course, dragons. I’ve been on a bit of a dragon kick.

What I plan to work on in 2017:

I will finally publish the STILL FUCKING UNNAMED book I’ve been working on all year. Sometime in February or March, I imagine.

Hidebound, Book 3 of the Thaumaturge series, is coming along nicely. I’m a quarter of the way through the first draft.

I’m going to work in the three novellas, and get those edited and released. One is about ghosts, one is about time travel and one is about monsters from another dimension.

I’m working on a book about a young trans man who gets involved with some magical stuff. I’ve never written YA before and I’m not really sure that is IS YA, but the character is certainly younger than I usually write. There are dragons involved in this too.

I’m also outlining another book about monsters, set in the 1960’s. Think suburban American gothic.

If I manage somehow to get through all that, then I want to do edit and rework the first draft of my dragon adventure book, but that is currently on the back burner.

All of this is a tall order, since as we all know I write slower than preschooler and edit even slower. And unfortunately my day job takes up a lot of time, fucking bullshit. And I have to feed my Crossfit addiction, now that my neck is feeling better.

And somewhere in there, I have to make time for my family. My wonderful, crazy, amazing family.

I wish each of you a happy New Year.

Stay strong. Fight back. Take no shit. Excelsior. Ever upwards.

-Cal