For the last twenty years or so I’ve written down what I did on New Year’s Eve and a reflection on the ending year, maybe to keep a record or spur myself ahead. I always thought of publishing them and may some day. But here’s my rumination on December 31, 2016 and before.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” Words of gloom, pessimism and deception with an end result that confirmed a lot about what H.L. Menken said about the American people. Personally, it was a better year for me; my productivity rate on the writing increased, I actually published two regular-length short-stories, wrote a lot more and began writing one flash fiction story a week for the “Monday Flash Fics” Facebook page. Ray Bradbury encouraged writers to write one short-story a week and that’s what I’ve been doing. I also started a monthly column on Queer Sci Fi (Thanks, J. Scott!) and am planning to start the year by writing a novel. We went to the World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City in August where I got to meet and thank some of the authors who influenced my decision to become a writer in the first place.

Best of all, Darryl and I were married on November 14, 2016, in what I call a “shotgun wedding” down at the courthouse to stave off any changes in the laws about who can marry whom.

And on New Year’s Eve, both of us planned on staying up, but I knew better. I hit the sack sometime after 10:30 p.m. and the end of the Carson rerun on MeTV. Darryl sacked-out with me about fifteen minutes later, but I was out like a light. We’d heard an occasional firework popping but they woke me up around 11:40. I thought about getting up, but instead, I rolled over and went back to sleep.

Happy New Year! The future lies ahead.

——-Jeff Baker, January 1, 2017, 10:37p.m.