Swinging High and Low in 2024
Some writing highs, some personal lows
The year 2024. Oh boy, oh wow.
Let’s call it a mixed bag. Like a swing gliding from negative to positive and back again, multiple times all year long.
First the positive. I finally finished my mystery novel—seven years in the making—and the unpublished manuscript won the runner-up Leon Burstein Award from the Mystery Writers of America New York chapter. Thrilled beyond words, I’m still basking in the afterglow.
This after spending the first part of the year making major revisions, three title changes, and burning through tons of printer ink. When I started querying in September, I got a bunch of full requests, but as of now, still no agent or publisher. Then came December when the MWA/NY award made my writing year.
On the personal side, I moved my 92-year-old mother to a senior living residence. Five days later, I got a call at three o’clock in the morning. She’d fallen and broken her hip.
My first thought? Get ready for the end. After all, it’s a rare 92-year-old who makes it back from a hip fracture, but I should have known better. A partial hip replacement, two hospital visits and eight weeks in rehab later, and the woman is in better shape than before she fell.
In fact, she coped better than I did. Though she can be sweet and caring, she’s also anxious and increasingly forgetful. Between hospital visits, managing insurances, and juggling households, for me at least, it was a big ol’, bad ass trip into madness.
Swimming laps five days a week helped my mental state, but just barely.
Amid all the Momma drama, I had planned my first trip to Wimbledon for late June. Wimbledon is the Super Bowl of tennis and I really, really wanted to go. But Mom fell in late May and Wimbledon started a month later. With the trip in jeopardy, my cousins came to the rescue, offering to watch out for Mom while I was in London.
I went, and it was glorious.
But by Labor Day, all that swimming had re-injured my torn rotator cuff.
So in 2025, depending on the swing, I’ll be getting my shoulder fixed, working on book number two, getting an agent (wish me luck!) and traveling somewhere new.
Happy New Year.