Happy New Year 2016, All!

Had a great time last night with my wife, Christine, at Orlando's Dr. Phillips Center ringing in the New Year via a concert featuring  Kristin Chenoweth of everything and Cheyenne Jackson of 30 Rock.

It was a fun sendoff to a busy holiday season for us that's included a trip to Charleston and a walk through history, taking in a staging of Peter and the Starcatcher, a handful of movies including Force Awakens and the 70 mm Hateful Eight and lots of other activities.

For me 2015 was a mixed year, filled with great things on the creative side. A couple of new short stories were published in cool publications including Black Fox Literary Magazine, DM du Jour, Heater and J.J. Outer Review. The J.J. story was also selected for their "Best of 2015" anthology, and I plugged along on a couple of other projects.

I have a few specific personal goals for 2016. I may not finish all I want to do, but it's good to forge ahead with a plan as January dawns.

I found encouragement from a friend's Facebook post via Janis Ian. It's a quote from Leonard Cohen's "Anthem." "There is a crack in everything/that's how the light gets in."

Good advice to perfectionists.

In other ways, 2015 was a rough year. Daisy, the cat who's been with Christine and me the longest,

passed away in September. Just weeks later our second-oldest cat, Monty, began displaying symptoms of a brain tumor and passed as well. Christine and I agree. We'll miss them forever. 

Their passing reminded us of how swiftly time moves or how swift it feels in looking back, and with that comes the additional encouragement of moving forward with eyes open to the shortness of days and years. That helps in making the most of them.

Ahead there's a road. I'll keep taking steps on it. Happy 2016!