Wednesday, January 1, 2025, Day 1582:

Welcoming 2025 with a 2024 Year in Review Ta Da! Post

Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.

In addition, now and again I will provide some of my fiction to read, for free, on this newsletter. Everything is available to anyone who subscribes, but I am always pleased when someone shows their appreciation for the newsletter by upgrading to paid.

Daily Diary, Wednesday, January 1, 2025, Day 1582:

When I reread the TaDa! post I did last year, celebrating 2023, I was struck by the upbeat tone of the post. I sounded very pleased for good reason. In May of 2023 I had published Tides of Acerba, the fourth book in my Caelestis series, and then I went on to immediately write and publish Dandy and the Dognappers, a new novella in my historical mystery series. Finally, by the end of the year, I had already written 63,000 words in my fifth and final book in the Caelestis series, anticipating that I would finish this book in the coming spring. I also had done a good job of overcoming some health issues and I was now back to doing 60 minutes of walking (albeit in 2 different sessions), doing pranayama yoga three times a week, and doing thirty minutes of chair Pilates daily. With all this exercise, I was getting stronger, had achieved a good sustainable weight, and had my blood sugar firmly under control.

No wonder I was feeling like celebrating, and the two words I picked out to sum up 2023 were contentment and gratitude.

However, I couldn’t help but notice that as I looked forward to the coming year that I added this caveat, writing: “This is not to say that I don’t recognize that the unexpected vicissitudes of life could upset my particular apple cart at any time, but all the more reason to celebrate the present, including reviewing some of the specific accomplishments of the past year.”

When I wrote this, I didn’t know how prescient I was being. But all of you who have faithfully opened my newsletters this past year don’t need me to review in any tedious detail how a continuing series of health issues (particularly injuries to both of my hands and arthritis flare-ups) derailed both my publishing goals and my ability to maintain my exercise regime.

Consequently, I wouldn’t characterize 2024 with the term contentment.

Nevertheless, I still feel enormous gratitude as I review the events of the past year.

For instance, I continued to have a vibrant and very satisfying social life, with daily phone or zoom calls that connected me with numerous family and friends. And while we may have often been sharing our frustrations and anxieties about our lives and the world around us, what I remember most about all those phone calls is the laughter.

In addition, I was able to write my posts for An Aging Author’s Daily Diversions every single day, without fail. And, instead of driving hordes of you all away with my rather mundane descriptions of my life, the number of you who subscribe to this daily newsletter increased from 529 to 675. Even more remarkably, the open rate continued to be around 33%, a real feat for a newsletter that comes out daily. I am particularly pleased with my growing sense of connection to those of you who comment frequently, including the exchanges with a number of you who are also substack authors.

And speaking about writing, I finally completed Where the Glassflowers Grow, that fifth and final book in my Caelestis series, and published it before the end of the year (better late than never). So far, after it has been out a month, I am pleased with its steady sales and the 8 five stars it has already garnered on Amazon.

Finally, in our recent efforts to create a home where we can “age in place,” we also finally got all three of our bathrooms remodeled. Just in time, since the new grab bars in my shower made all the difference during a recent bout of arthritis in one of my ankles that made standing up difficult.

And now, as I head into 2025 my 75^th birthday, which comes later this month, I have that the word that best describes my impression of the past year is resilience.

No matter what obstacles I encountered during 2024 (and I am not discounting the distressing news about what is going on around me in the nation and the world), I was able to bounce back, and in some cases even improve my life.

For example, despite the fact that the injuries to my hand turned out to be something I probably will never be able to repair, I found a way to handle the problems so I am still able to type at a sufficient rate. This means I can continue to write my stories for the foreseeable future. Yet, in getting to that point, I also learned an important lesson…I need to incorporate more “vacations,” into my current life.

The four month “vacation” I had to take from writing when I first injured my hand turned out to be a blessing in disguise. This vacation coincided with our massive bathroom remodel, and I believe the disruption of that remodel would have been much more difficult to live through if I had been trying to work. Instead, I let go and spent the four months having a delightful time reading straight through my favorite science fiction series. By the time the remodel was completed and I had finished that 23 book series, I was completely re-energized. Consequently, having also found a way to work around my injuries, I was able to start writing again with renewed enthusiasm.

As for my health, with each set back to my exercise regime, I found I was able to make the necessary adaptions to get right back to building my strength back up. For example, if I couldn’t walk, I did more chair pilates, and if I could only tolerate 10 minutes walking, so be it. And while I haven’t yet made it back to the level of a year ago, I haven’t given up trying…and celebrating when I do make progress. In fact, I am delighted to share that yesterday I got up to doing 50 minutes of walking (albeit in three sessions) with no increase in discomfort.

So, as I wish you all a Happy New Year, I can share that I am going into 2025 with cautious optimism. Cautious because what the past year taught me is to expect the unexpected, optimism, because the past year also convinced me that no matter what happens, I will be able to find peace and joy in even the smallest moments of delight.

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