A Clean Slate. A Blank Page.

Does such a thing exist?

I think of that a lot this time of year, when we are mere steps into a new year, filled with possibilities and hopes.

The reality, of course, is that we bring the old year with us.

We bring our learnings, our lessons, our unfulfilled dreams, our happiest memories.

We start again, hopeful.

So it is with every writing project.

Last year was a huge year for me. My first book was published.

I edited The Frame Up, which is coming in early June. (and boy am I ever dying to share the cover with you!)

Don’t you love those blank book covers on Goodreads? NOT!

I passed in my next book to my editor.

And I wrote two other books that may never see the light of a printed page. Such is writing.

I am beginning another book and toying with two other ideas.

None of those things exist, I believe, save for the existence of the thing that preceded it.

So I enter 2018 not with a clean slate, but with a lined face and heart, and a spark of hope. Mostly, I wish for peace, for me and everyone on this gorgeous blue planet we call home.

I can’t imagine needing anything else.

I’ll end this post with a quote by one of my favourite authors, Neil Gaiman, a quote that seems to pop up all over Facebook and Twitter this time of year, and which is worth hearing again and again:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.

Neil Gaiman