Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 - Thoughts On A Year

(Before I type anything New Year's related, I want to say that posting Rema online has been so therapeutic for me. I'm so grateful to all of you who have visited the site, even if you're just looking at the drawings. I'm probably driving my friends a little crazy spamming them with so many links to the Rema blog, but I can't emphasize enough how helpful it's been in sorting out my life. Thank you all so much, especially to those who have actually taken the time to read it. My heart is yours!)


2012 proved to be a big year for me, both good and bad. In some ways, I feel as if the last few years were all together one really... long... year packed with crazy event after crazy event. One too many days were spent in the hospital for people I loved. One too many funerals were held. Too much illness and too many doctor visits. For a while there, it really DID feel like the apocalypse! The birth of my son and daughter were, of course, the bright spots within the chaos (both unintended natural births!). I never imagined myself to be a mother, just as I never imagined myself to be married, yet here I am, stay-at-home mom dabbling in storytelling.

Being so wrapped in Life, Death, and the spectrum in between has made me sort my priorities, and has made me a better person. Whereas before stories and ambition were the center of my life, my family is now the center. The stories have become a world I go to when Time permits, a fantastic place that keeps me sane. For a while that world was for my eyes only, but it kept my spirit strong through difficulty. It kept me alive. I want to share these stories with as many people as possible in the hopes that they might be a raft to float others across choppy waters, too.

There's a lot to look forward to in the years ahead -- the growth of my children, the love of my husband and best friend, and many, many stories to finish. The key word is finish. I'm sitting on two novels, several short stories, and a few comics that need completion. Some of them are 90% done, some are only 1%, but all them make me so excited to draw and write. For a writer, inspiration is the side effect of so many life-altering events. However, if these stories are to be shared, they have to be finished. And so, it's my goal -- Time permitting -- to complete as many of these projects as possible and share them with as many people as I can, starting in 2013.

I hope 2013 will prove to be positive, fruitful, and forward-moving as possible for you too. Happy New Year, and thank goodness we all survived the apocalypse!

4 comments:

  1. It's an amazing thing about writing, that it can be so therapeutic and yet you're also producing something that others can enjoy.

    I started writing in my early adolescence. Puberty dealt me a bad hand, my parents had broken up and I was left dealing with one parent that wasn't quite ready or able to stand on two feet. The end result was that I was a disabled lonely preteen who was such an out-of-it-daydreamer that I didn't even realize for a year or two that I was being actively bullied.

    That was about when a teacher noticed a story I'd written, had me read it in front of the class. It sort of gave me permission to write. And I -needed- to write to be sane. As Lord Byron put it, to paraphrase, "If I don't write to empty my mind, I'd go mad". I suspect I might not have made it through the next few years without writing.

    Which is my roundabout way of saying I totally understand what you mean when you speak of the escapism the stories offer.

    Here's hoping 2013 is a calmer year for you and yours, A.K.K.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It sucks to have to grow up too fast, doesn't it? My writing/drawing hobby started as a young child too while living with an alcoholic father. I won't really get into how awful it was, but there was a period of peace that lasted for a good 10 years. I took it for granted, thinking the most trying days were behind me, but you never know what life will throw at you as you age.

      I was friends with someone once who thought that the arts were a luxurious exercise, but just as your Byron quote exemplified, when you're an animal as clever and thoughtful as a human emptying those ideas somewhere is a necessity. As difficult as your adolescence must've been, it made you a great storyteller.

      Anyway, here's to happier days ahead of us, eh Wildbow? I hope you, your friends and family have a great 2013 too! :)

      Delete
  2. You had an insane year, Amy. I admire your strength and general tranquility in the middle of chaos when most people would be tearing our their hair and feeling sorry for themselves. That's not to say you haven't had your share of blessings too (is that too religious-like to say??)—Sophie of course being one of the highlights! Anyway, I'm so glad to have you as a friend—especially as a fellow writer. Here's to 2013 xxxx

    ReplyDelete