2007: A Reflection

2007 has been an amazing year. Really.

I know we as a culture seem to say that every year, to try and make the endless drudgery of another year seem important, as if Britney’s 16 year old sister getting pregnant is some event worthy of historical note. Sure, there are world events that ARE of historical note, like the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto, but even that won’t really affect the day-to-day lives of most Americans.

Usually, if we’re lucky, we have one or two Significant Events in our life each year. Got a new job. Got married. Moved. Took an amazing trip. Had a loved one die. Had a child. You know what I mean. Not that project that got screwed up at work, not that movie you saw (usually), not that meal you had, not the final episode of Seinfeld. I’m talking about things that changed your life and/or outlook in a way that was undeniable and permanent.

Some years you have a few, and some years none, but every once in a while, there’s a whopper of a year where everything changes in a HUGE way, and you look around at then end of the year and realize your life is TOTALLY different at the end than it was in the beginning.

2007 has been one of those years for me. It feels like 10 years of stuff happened just this year.

Back in the beginning of the year, I was working as Production Supervisor for a medical communications company, and feeling kind of neutral about it. I liked most of the people I worked with well enough, and liked the company overall, but my job itself was pretty boring. I was also working on rewriting The Painted Man. Joshua Bilmes, my would-be agent at the time, had read the last draft and said that if I fixed a minor handful of holes, he would be proud to represent it. I took a few weeks to do that, and BAM! Suddenly I wasn’t just writing alone at night and on the subway anymore. I had a partner who knew what to do with my writing when I was done with it. I sure didn’t.

I had NO idea what was in store for that. I just started plugging away at the sequel.

Not long after that, I went to the doctor because I was having problems sleeping, and was diagnosed with sleep apnea, mainly due to the fact that the wire-thin, mazelike tendrils of my nasal passages admitted maybe 20% of the air a normal person gets. Before I knew it, I was on an operating table being put under for the first real surgery of my life.

On the heels of this, my aunt, who had been very close to me as a child, passed away. It was very emotional in a lot of ways, and kind of threw me for a loop. Right after that, my sister got engaged, and her fiance and I threw her a giant 30th birthday party. This was followed by the 10th anniversary of my brother passing away. Every anniversary of that day fills me with sad reflection, but hitting 10 years was a slap in the face. Where did the time go? What would my life be like if he was still around?

It was while I was in this reflective period that I started getting a handful of rejections for The Painted Man, which seemed only natural. But then, suddenly, several major US publishers started making offers. It was a storm that came out of nowhere, and I was totally unprepared for it. We signed with one, and suddenly my life-long dream of being a published author came true.

Then my other sister announced she was pregnant. Neither I nor my two sisters have any children; my wife’s brother does, but that doesn’t really affect my side of the family, so this was a major development.

Then, suddenly, we got another whirlwind of offers for the book in the UK. What? Where the hell did that come from? This was followed almost immediately by another bidding war over the book in Germany (yes, I started a war in Germany! How awesome is that?). Then it sold in Japan. How the…? What the…?

Missed San Diego ComicCon this year because my friend was getting married in Greece, and we were saving our pennies for that. We threw a big pool party instead to celebrate my wife’s birthday and our other good fortune. I got very drunk.

After that was the big trip to Greece. I admit to being somewhat anxious leading up to that. I had never been to a country where English wasn’t the dominant language, and was kind of worried about it. Of course, I needn’t have been. The island of Santorini where the wedding was held is possibly the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life, and I will carry that memory with me forever.

Oh, and while I was in Greece, Unicorn publishing on the island of Kos invited me to take a catamaran out to their island and discuss my book. We had a wonderful day there, and they ended up buying Greek rights to the book, too.

Then it sold in France, while I was lounging on the beach in Rhodes. My high school French teacher who threatened to flunk me would have shit herself if she heard. Vive l’Homme de Tatouage!

By the time I got back to the states, Russia had gotten in on the action. Russia! Someone in Siberia is going to be able to go to their local bookstore and read my writing! Ridiculous.

Then my friend Matt, whose best man I was not 2 years earlier, had his first baby. Well, his wife Ursula helped. But still. I used to see a LOT of Matt. Now… not so much.

Dani, who was somewhat unhappy at her job, got a great offer from another company. A big raise and an increase in responsibilities. Suddenly, my goal of writing full-time came within reach. All the international sales had started to add up, and what once seemed impossible was now attainable. I quit my job, and started writing full-time.

None of that other stuff had such an impact on my life as this. Throughout all the other events, I had the constant (if unpleasant) rhythm of my daily commute to Times Square, and hours each day spent worrying about someone ELSE’S projects, instead of my own. Now, suddenly, I was free to walk in daylight, make my own hours, and manage my own projects.

I’m still transitioning.

Not long after that, Division 18 came out. My friends Matt and Jeremy took a bunch of scribbles the three of us had started doing in our downtime at work and turned it into a professional, published comic. I can’t describe what it was like to hold it in my hands for the first time. I had seen the work progress from plot to script to pencils to ink, but I was still unprepared for the wave of euphoria that came from seeing it on the shelf at the comic shop and picking it up. I’ve been reading comics regularly for 25 years, and I never thought I’d see my name on one.

Learn more about D18 here.

Then came more pregnancies. Another of my closest friends. Then #2 for Dani’s sister-in-law. Dani herself.

Oh, I didn’t mention I’m going to be a daddy? Remind me to get into that later. It’s probably going to be part of a running series of blog posts. For now, suffice it to say HOLY SHIT!

But while I was still reeling from that news, Dani’s dad was rushed to the hospital and underwent open-heart surgery. It was like a see-saw of elation and terror, amidst which Dani got laid off from her fancy new job. Now we’re both day people. Her dad came through okay, though, and is on the (long) road to recovery, and Dani is on severance while we plan our next move.

But despite a rocky close, we are heading into the new year WAAAAAYYY in the plus column. 2008 will be filled with babies and weddings and book publications.

And I thought this year was crazy…

Posted on January 2, 2008 at 8:04 pm by PeatB
Filed under Life, Musings, Sales
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