Another year,another report card. Were there challenges? Lord. Next question, please.

To be honest, itwas a very hard year to gauge and maneuver, let alone grade. So many ups anddowns. So many curve balls. So many surprises. Yet somehow we made it through.

After somethought, I gave myself an A- though A+ for effort and resilience. So let’sbreak it down to see why I didn’t give myself a solid A or more…or less. Iusually focus on things I got done, but there’s a variety of aspects thatdeserve a closer look and a proper run down.

Health. Health in your 40s is quite theadventure. I'll tell you that much. You can do everything right, but one strong sneeze or cough or evena bad movement, and your back can quit on you…completely or partially. I waslucky that last year it was only a partial ARGHHHHH versus 2023’s end-of-the-yearadventures in feeling my age and having to visit urgent care. For 2024, I was also able to steerclear of burnout for the most part, but just barely. There were three veryclose calls. But this is a win, because I didn’t land in burnout (or crash, as it were). Luckily, Ilearned from past experiences and spoke up. Could it have been better? Yes. Oh,definitely yes. But it could have been so much worse. In short, I allowedmyself to be human and asked for help, resources, or time and got what Ineeded for the most part. And when I felt off, I didn’t push through, I tooktime off. I did notice that my stamina took a hit because I went from moreintense workouts to mainly walking, but these walks and yoga helped me in otherways. Was I a bit sluggish surfing at the end of the year? Yes, and we canblame that on the conditions I actually surfed in, or the fact that I wasHanseled to oblivion with foods, desserts, beer, wine, and all sorts ofculinary delights from people happy to see me and happier to feed me.But that’s something to address in 2025 and give myself some grace. I was tiredand mentally a bit burnt out, sure, but I didn’t go into a full burnout or land in acrisis. And though there’s always tomorrow, for yesterday and the whole of lastyear, I worked hard and made sure I was as OK as I could be. Anyways, nexttopic!

Books. You might have heard, but I did a thing.I finished a series. Part of the burnout I mentioned above was due to theeffort I put into finishing Beyond Human which finishes the HumanCycle.

This not-so-little book was a not-so-little beast and it took much-more-than-not-so-littleto get it edited, proofread, and finalized on time for the Puerto Rico ComicCon. Although I won’t know how well I did until I read the whole series fromstart to finish, what I can say is that in the reading department, Ifinished several series and I feel more comfortable with how I did than say,the City of Ember Series or His Dark Materials. “But JD, those are best-sellingseries!” I’m well aware of that fact. I’m not talking about relevance, reach,or sales. I’m talking about story and craft and although I can’t say I didbetter than either of those series in general or particularly in regard totheir high points (which are VERY high), The Human Cycle was more consistent asa series than both of the ones I mentioned and I would put money on that claim.Book One isn’t the sole driver in a series. Main driver? Yes. Sole driver? No. Books2 and 3 don’t feel like a major drop in quality. Actually, either qualityremains consistent, or it improved. I also worked very hard to make sure mostof a hearty list of characters got a proper send-off while also leaving acouple of doors open in case some of these characters want to come back foranother adventure. But I didn’t leave any cliffhangers. I left open doors. Ialso didn’t half-ass explanations or skip BIG chunks of the narrative (Lookingat you, City of Ember). I also didn’t put every single idea I had in my head(Looking at you, His Dark Materials). I’m sure once I read it, I will think ofthings I could have included, tweaked or, dare I say it, “improved”. But I’m atpeace knowing I gave my absolute best and that this project is truly and deeplya solo project. No beta readers. No editor. Only me. For better or worse. Morethan wanted, I needed a project like that. It had to be as humanas I could make it and it’s done and so far, reviews are positive, with a lot of people praising the series as a whole. Did I get the sales I wanted? Not really, butI did much better than I’d thought seeing combination of numbers in events,from book sales in Puerto Rico thanks to collaborating with Letras Distribution, and thanks to Amazon. As for awards, I got two honorablementions in the International Latino Book Awards and though I would have preferreda win, it’s just an invitation to push myself more. Can I do better? We canALWAYS do better. In sales and in my writing, but I’ll once again choose tofocus on the fact that I gave my best and did my best. 

 Writing eventsand activities. In person,I participated in the Puerto Rico Comic Con to celebrate my tenth anniversaryas an author (another reason why I NEEDED to finish the Human Cycle). I kept myend of the bargain and brought a new book for readers. I was very happy to seethat readers also kept their part of the bargain and came to say hello, catchup, and I was very happy to see that my book was still a must buy for manypeople. Actually, this went for several of my books. In addition, it wasbeautiful to see the author community in PR continue to flourish and I’m soproud of all my writer friends. 

 

Other than that, the other events I attended wereas a civilian to scope the land, evaluate the prospect of participating, sayinghello to a ton of writer friends, and picking up quite a few new books. Online,I continued to participate in a wide variety of interviews on several channelsand that’s always fun. I spoke with friends I hadn’t been in touch with for awhile and it was great to chat and catch up. I also gave chats to classrooms inPuerto Rico and Pennsylvania, two writing classes, and I participated in theAuthorTube Writing Conference giving not one but two presentations: a panel on Healthy Writing Habits with Heidi Angell and Joe Compton and a webinar on Collaboratingfor the Perfect Cover. All in all,not bad at all…and I’m ready to do more, so if you are a teacher or would liketo round up a group of friends for a class on creativity, then let’s make ithappen.  

 

My First Writing Course

Students from Mr. Weimann's class

Me talking about writing to 4th/5th graders

Reading. 44 books was the goal and we got the 44though I did rush in the last week as if I were in a competition. I was happywith the variety of books, from kids books, to poetry, to whole series, in bothEnglish and Spanish, and for the most part reading what I wanted to andenjoying. The main thing is to keep it steady and find a book or two where youreally hook into it. I do plan on reading more this year, but I kept my basegoal the same because life happens and 44 isn't bad at all.

 

Work. The usual roller coaster asked2023 to hold its beer and 2024 at times felt like a bull hellbent onbucking me off or goring me. High points include presentations I gave to clients, projectswe finished that had everyone involved happy, and participating on a panel fora company-wide event. I was also involved in a film production at the end ofthe year in Puerto Rico, got to know a program I wasn’t aware of called TechosPa’ Mi Gente (Roofs for my People) and it was a very special experience and Iwill be sharing more information about this cause soon. That’s the good, thebad was crazy work volume at times and life offering me plenty of lessons andmore than one slice of humble pie in regard to situations and dynamics. I didmy best to learn from the experiences and speak my truth. Did some thingsaffect me more than I would have liked? Sure, but hey, I’m Only Human. ;)Still, we forged ahead and all I can say is that I gave my best and that’senough for me because no matter what adversity I faced or unpleasantness I was offered, I kept giving my best regardless. 

 

Friends and Family. I did my best to be in touch, to bepresent, to make time, and to work around things as best as I could, but I learnedthat sometimes winging something works endlessly better than planning. Thisgoes for friends, family, and even projects. Making time for something isn’talways easy and sometimes every will work against what you want to do. But onother occasions, a small silly little thing can lead to making true memories.So, here’s to more of that. To those I wasn't able to get to, I'll keep doing my best though feel free to give me a hand so we can make more awesome moments together ;)

Is there more tounpack?

 

Of course, butthis gives you a pretty decent idea of the year I had. The grade is because thingsdid affect me that I wish wouldn’t have. But the grade is also because I avoideda full crash and honestly, I got dealt a lot of rough hands and made due andforged ahead. Did I absolutely crush everything? No. I sold less than I wanted.I’m still eons away from author sustainability. Reviews are still not as often as I'd like them. I need to continue to focus onwork-life balance. But I did pretty good and the note to see after class is toremind myself that for being indie, for having a high demand job, for beingtossed a bunch of challenges and some dirty deeds, I did good and was stubbornfor the good things. I didn’t push things. I stayed true to who and how I am. Iwas human. And that deserves praise, even if the extra credit doesn’t get methe full A.

 

Still, there’salways next year. Thanks for joining me for the recap and til next we meet inwords.

 

Peace, love, andmaki rolls.

 

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