{"id":679,"date":"2014-01-01T04:18:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T04:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/?p=679"},"modified":"2014-01-01T04:18:58","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T04:18:58","slug":"year-2013-in-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/year-2013-in-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Year 2013 in Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last day of the year is a good time to stop for a few moments and take stock of where I am and where I want to go. <\/span><\/p>\n

It’s been a pretty good year all things considered. I haven’t done as much new writing as I would like, but it’s been a great year for getting a bunch of backlist titles formatted for ebook publication and put out.\u00a0 Over the last year I’ve put up a short story (Unmasking<\/a>), a novella (Guardian of the Grimoire<\/a>)\u00a0and two novels, one originally published by Five Star\/Gale Group (A Gift for Murder<\/a>), and one an original work published for the very first time (The Wizard’s Shield<\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m learning how to use Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Pinterest<\/a>\u00a0in new ways as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the personal front, the year started off with some struggle for me as my mother passed away late in 2012. It’s taken a while to come to terms with that. Didn’t have a lot of time to brood on it though, since the entire family\u00a0gathered at our place\u00a0for Christmas, 2012. We had a wonderful time, and\u00a0that helped me snap out of the funk of grief. In May, my daughter gave birth to her second son, Cassian James Gerdon. Fortunately he came with a bit less drama than his older brother and was born at 37 weeks, a healthy 7+ pounder. In July my older daughter was married (for the second time) in a lovely low-key ceremony. <\/span><\/p>\n

I’m always trying to lose weight and this year I actually had some success. I took off five pounds over the year, though I fear the holidays\u00a0 have put one (or maybe even two)\u00a0back on me. I’ve been watching what I eat, but mostly the weight loss has come from increasing my walking\/exercise time.\u00a0 I need to do even more of that this year to get rid of those other ten pounds I need to lose.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do a limited number of events in a year. This year it included Book ’em North Carolina<\/a> in Lumberton in February, then Stellarcon here in Greensboro in March, and the big one for me, Killer Nashville<\/a> in August. That was a fantastic conference and I came away from it inspired and energized. <\/span><\/p>\n

I haven’t had as much reading time this year as I’d like, but have found a few good books, thanks in part to my sister, Barbara. The best book of the year for me was her recommendation, Paulo Coehlo’s The Alchemist<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 It’s both enchanting and profound.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m dialing back on the web design\/book design business this year to allow more time to devote to writing. I’m not going to quit entirely, but I won’t be taking on as many new clients as I have in the past. I have several things I want to get done. The first priority is finishing Wired for Murder<\/strong><\/em>, the sequel to A Gift for Murder<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 I have another mostly finished paranormal mystery featuring a witch and a gargoyle. The first draft is pretty much done, but it needs some rewriting and a lot of polishing.\u00a0 And I have so many other ideas rolling around in my head that I really want to work on.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last day of the year is a good time to stop for a few moments and take stock of where I am and where I want to go. It’s been a pretty good year all things considered. I haven’t …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":681,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kmccullough.com\/kblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}