I Did It! 2023 Edition

It's time again for the annual pat-myself-on-the-back post. Past years can be viewed here: 2022, 2021 (Apocalypse Year 2) 2020 (Apocalypse Year 1), 2019 (including decade-in-review), 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. Let's jump right into 2022's I Did Its! Shall we?

Andy Goldsworthy landscape installation at Alnoba in New Hampshire, here for no reason
other than it's a place I visited this year and never got around to writing about it. Also it's cool!

Writing I Did Its!

• Drafted a novel in my own version of National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO), which I called JANOWRIMO. (And I love it!)
• Finished revising and illustrating and writing a book proposal for my second nonfiction book, and submitted it to my publisher for consideration.
• Did some work on my idea for a third nonfiction book.
• Attended five book promotion events for Uphill Both Ways.
• Recorded two podcasts promoting Uphill Both Ways (one of which can be heard here, and one of which will come out soon!)
• Did a big freelance project.
• Freelance articles: 2
• Stories in the Snow
• Maine's Native Butterflies
• Essay Submissions: 5
• Essay Acceptances: 3
• Essay Publications: 
• "Faith in a Seed" Rooted 2: The Best New Arboreal Nonfiction, Summer 2023 (reprint)
• "Inflection Point: The Birth of a Mother Writer" Literary Mama, March/April 2023
• Other publications: 
• "Growing an Essay" Rooted 2 Substack, December 2023
• "The Ever-Evolving Journey: An Interview with Majka Burhardt" Literary Mama, September/October 2023
• "Where Are They Now? An Interview with Anne Liu Kellor" Literary Mama blog, March 2023
• Residencies applied for: 3
• Residencies accepted into and attended: 1 (a little about it here).
• Newsletters: 10
• Blog posts: 27
• Workshops taught: 2
• Workshops taken: 2
• Got through >75% of my book coach training program.

Travel & Adventure I Did Its!

• We went to Europe!!! Can't really top that.

• Went on some local adventures to museums and other sites of interest around Maine, and one in New Hampshire, with family, friends, and on my own.
• Did *some* kayaking, but much less than in recent years.

Arts & Crafts I Did Its!

• Knit *one* pair of mittens!
• Took up mosaic-making (mosaicing?), and made three projects, including these two:

Other I Did Its!

• Got my older kid graduated from college and the younger two from high school. (Is this really my accomplishment? I don't care--I'm taking credit for it!)
• Got the younger two kids off to college.
• Hosted my parents for a couple of weeks in the spring (around those grads) and my sister for a few days in the fall.
• Created a true space of my own in the vacated bedroom.
• Maintained pretty regular yoga and walking routines (not-quite-daily).
• Kept a daily journal and a fairly regular morning pages routine.

I have some ideas about what I want to accomplish in 2024, writing-wise, and otherwise. But for now I'll just bask in the glow of self-congratulation for having written a novel and traveled to Europe and learned a new craft.