2016 in Review

This wasn't the best year for me in terms of writing. I had good intentions but found myself sidetracked on reaching certain goals.

I hate to make excuses, but it's a human thing. Writers aren't excluded. We may be more guilty than most folks in staying focused on projects.

Certain things happened over the course of 2016 that made it difficult for me to concentrate on my works in progress. I've written it before, and I'll write it again: Sometimes life gets in the way.

Because of those major distractions, I wasn't able to publish a second volume to my "Laments" short stories. That will be a continued goal for the new year. We'll see.

I wasn't able to complete a sequel to "Old Ways and New Days." I did finish the first draft, but I'm still stuck in the second. I wanted to get started on the third draft on Jan. 1, but that won't happen, at least for another week. My desired goal is to have the manuscript ready for the publisher by the end of January. We'll see.

And because I dragged my literary feet on the sequel, I failed to reach another goal of starting another book in the OWND series. My intention is to do that in the spring. Again, we'll see.

I simply hope things will be more settled in 2017 so I can concentrate on my writing goals. We'll see.

For all the writers who follow this blog, I wish you a success in reaching your goals in 2017.

Until the next time....

 

Justin Hayward Concert Tickets

I must have been a good boy in 2016 because I scored some nice tickets for Justin Hayward's "The Wind of Heaven" concert tour.

Hayward, the singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the legendary Moody Blues, will be performing at the Lexington Opera House on Feb. 14.

Justin Hayward

 I had received several email notifications about the concert, and my son Justin heard announcements on the radio about the event and texted me about the date. He thought it would be a lovely way to spend Valentine's evening with his mom so I  put it on my calendar.

This morning at 10, I was on the Ticketmaster website to see if I could get decent tickets. It was a slow process and I was about to give up after an excruciating 25 minutes. 

I chose the option of letting Ticketmaster find two tickets, but the best it could do were rows J and K, and the seats weren't next to each other. 

So I gave it one final shot of finding seats, thinking they would be on the second level (which I wouldn't want). But to my amazement, perhaps a bit of shock, there were two tickets on the second row from the stage. 

Are you kidding me? 

I told my wife Mary what was available and she said go for it.  And I got them. Whoopee!

There will be four seats between us, but that's not a big deal. I mean, we bought the tickets to see and hear Justin Hayward perform, not to sit next to each other. For a couple of hours we'll get lost in the music, something that would have happened regardless of our seats. And then we'll sit next to each other on the way home in the car and (hopefully) talk about a wonderful concert by one of our favorite performers.

I'm not much of a concert-goer these days. I don't like large crowds, dealing with the traffic and parking, and poor acoustics.  Those things shouldn't be much of a problem at the Lexington Opera House.

Hayward, who recently turned 70,  presents a more intimate performance on the tour, playing an acoustic guitar, accompanied by guitarist extraordinaire Mike Dawes and keyboardist/backup vocalist Julie Ragins.

I recently purchased Hayward's "All The Way" CD, a compilation of some of his solo recordings since the mid-1970s. My only regret is that it has only  15 songs; it could have been a two-disc set, featuring other tunes from his songbook.

Now the countdown begins to the show. I'm looking forward to the new year.

Until the next time....