I don’t think many of us will look back on 2021 with
unalloyed joy! We almost have a duty to look forward to 2022, in the
not-very-convincing expectation that it won’t at least be worse!
Personally, my year has been bound by the forced realisation
that I’m no spring chicken – no matter how much I try to convince myself
otherwise. Sadly, my titanium knee has started to degrade, much as I expected.
I also have been made acutely aware of how much my energy levels have fallen.
To put it in a nutshell, my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went! All this has
been coupled with an equally savage falling off with my OHs health. As someone
said, “Growing old is no game for cissies!”
One thing that makes it worse is that neither myself nor my
OH are in the first flush of youth. Realistically, we don’t have that many
years left (not complaining – just do the maths) and that’s two years now of
lost and missed opportunities, mostly involving our granddaughter, then family
and friends. Still, its no use trying to blame a virus. They are notoriously
unsympathetic!
However, and this is the important bit, – NONE of this is
going to stop me trying to wring every ounce of joy from every single incident,
on every day of the year! I urge you all to do the same.
May All YOUR Tests Be Negative!
Meanwhile, back at the ranch……
Andrew Holgate, Literary Editor of the Times and Sunday
Times, produced a list of the Best Books of the Year for “Every Genre”. In so
doing he left off the LARGEST genre of all – Romance, in any of its tropes!
Like many friends who write, I was appalled by the pure
snobbishness on display. Thankfully, the wonderful RNA strode in to bat for ALL
of us authors of romance. Their letter is in the link.(I signed it too)
https://www.thebookseller.com/news/rna-writes-open-letter-sunday-times-after-romantic-fiction-excluded-best-books-roundup-1294270
Andrew Holgate himself seems to have gone to ground since he
penned his original article. However, the RNA is made of sterner stuff. Four of
their more successful members produced this excellent article:
https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/2021/12/love-in-the-time-of-snobbery/
Thankyou to Milly Johnson, Phillipa Ashley, Heidi Swain and Rowal Coleman. Kudos to all!
The article has garnered support from all quarters, This very
readable riposte came through Harper Collins Australia, penned by https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaBrookmn
https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2021/12/15/victoria-brookman-in-defence-of-womens-fiction/
I also urge you all to keep up the struggle to stop the
literary world ignoring what they like to label “Women’s Fiction!” I will
continue the campaign mounted by the Romantic Novelists Association to bring
the genre – OUR genre - to its rightful place. I also urge any writer whose
work can be described as Romance – of any sort, or in any of its multitudinous
tropes, to join the Romantic Novelists Association. Together we are stronger!
https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/membership/
You and I can help by using the hashtag #RespectRomFic on ALL your
book-related posts, whether in Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Remember, Caring
is SHARING!
💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
To close, for the New Year – 2022 - and still “Next Year” at
the time of writing, there is always hope. We have been lucky here in that we haven’t,
as far as we know, lost any friends or family to the virus. For that we are
truly thankful.
Have a fantastic 2022 !
