End-of-Year Progress Report 2016

The year has come to an end, and 2016 is about to transition into 2017.  The year was NOT a good one for me.  Good riddance.  It was just as bad, if not worse, than 2015.

I was hospitalized about three times (once for a panic attack, twice for issues with Kidney stones), continued to suffer financially, and had a few prospects crash and burn.  I've continued to cut off phony people from my life, and made plans to relocate.  I'm hoping to enact those plans after the new year.  Fuck New York, and the rotten, negative energy that's here surrounding me. It's too gentrified, and phony out here; nuccas ain't about shit.  There's no originality, and Brooklyn has lost its soul.  It's not a city of trend setters, but trend followers; buncha blind ass, oreo-assed sheeple.

Of the GOOD that has happened to me (very little)...I dropped my seventh book back in April, a short story anthology, titled Drum Speaking: Tales From an Inner City Griot (CreateSpace, 2016).  I participated on a panel at the Bronx Book Fair, and was able to help support a few friends at some of their panel discussions, or other literary events.  I was also able to volunteer at the Brooklyn Book Festival, and represent for Caribbean Cultural Theatre.  Being at those festivals made me miss being on the festival/convention/book fair circuit, and want to get back to that.  Hopefully, once I relocate and get back on my feet, I'll be able to do that again.

I've recently completed one of my many manuscripts that I've been working on.  I've been going through the editing phase as of late for the past two months. I was originally going to wait until 2018 to publish it, but I might decide to release this project by the middle of 2017.  It's called "Seductra: Web of Desire".  I've already created the cover for it, and am continuing with the editing.  If I decide to release it this coming new year, I'll probably publish it in June to coincide with the publishing anniversary of Demure Nights (CreateSpace, 2015), as the books are similar in subject matter (erotica/street lit). 

I'm hoping for a better 2017.  I'm putting as much mental energy for this positive transition as possible; 2 1/2 years of suffering is enough.  I should have trusted my instincts that told me not to return to New York; there was a reason why I left in the first place. On to greener pastures, and better people who will actually support you, and not just talk a bunch of shit, and only press the "like" button, and call it a day.

Paz, y keep the fist raised!!!!