But the biggest reason I am aware of the date is that today is a milestone for my writing career. Today marks a year and a day from when I became a full time writer.
In many cultures, especially the Celtic ones, a year and a day was an important length of time. Sometimes, handfastings would be sealed for a year and a day. In other places, initiation was considered complete into a school or way of worship. In many fairy stories, people find themselves held prisoner in the land of the Fey for, you guessed it, a year and a day (at minimum: the fairies don't let people go too readily once they have stumbled through.)
A year and a day ago, I dedicated myself fully to my word craft. I left a full-time teaching job with no plan other than to write...a lot. In that time, I have acquired a few part-time teaching gigs at the college level, but my full-time focus continues to be my writing.
This is a good time for me to look back and see if the risk I took a year and a day ago has paid off.
- In this time, I have completed four novels. I've polished three, and started another.
- I have attended two major writing conferences and one intensive workshop, and been accepted into another writing workshop in the coming months.
- I have participated in NaNoWriMo and "won" for the second time.
- I started querying in earnest and found a delightful agent to help me along on my journey.
- I have had four more poems published, and five more accepted for publication.
- I had my first nonfiction piece published in Sagewoman, my favorite spiritual magazine, and had a second piece accepted for an upcoming issue.
- I completed the drafts of all three books in my YA fantasy trilogy. (I never imagined I could write a series!)
This is one fairy hole I don't want to climb out of.
How about you? What have you done in the last year that amazes you?