#2023 was a nightmare personally but writing wise it was a very good year

[sinofwriting]

After seeing @astonmartinii doing this, I couldn't help but taken inspiration to do my own Tumblr Wrapped.

But first, I just want to say thank you to every single person who read a fic of mine in 2023, who liked, reblogged, and maybe even followed me. I've never had a more fun year writing fanfiction than in 2023 and I can only hope that 2024 will be the same way.

Here's to the beginning of 2024 and hoping the year treats me and my writing well!

Also!

I've never written more than 50k words in a year. And in 2023 I hit 134,855. No words.

[fabien-euskadi]

29, 30, 92, 93 for the asks ✨ (whenever you have time/ feel like answering them).

29.What is the best thing that has happened to you this week?

Well, you asks are certainly among the good things that happened on a very quiet week.

But the best thing that happened is simply the fact that my cat, Lenina, is back home once again. To contextualize: on December 14th, a stormy night (devastating floods happened in the region where I live), Lenina escaped from her cat carrier as I was approaching my car, on a dark road in the middle of the countryside - and, to make things even worse, Lenina is black. I have searched for her for two weeks, but the chances of ever finding her again were… well, let’s say that a miracle would be required for me to have Lenina again. Two weeks later, when all hope was already lost, luck decided to bless me when a friend of mine discovered where Lenina was hiding (in the woodshed of a nearby cottage); immediately, we managed to rescue her - and the gods know how frightened and skinny she was when we found her.

Now, Lenina is back home. And she is devastatingly happy. And I still cannot believe she is with me again. The rescue itself was last week, but the fact that she is here is, certainly, the best thing of the beginning of 2023.

30.What is something that makes you sad when you think about it?

Basically, there are two things that make me sad. One of them is the fact that my PhD essays and readings are not going as fast as I wanted to. Considering the deadlines, they are not going nowhere near as fast as I needed to. And my inspiration to write is… lately, is quite miserable. I know that, somehow, my brain will manage a way of producing a very good text with extremely well-structured ideas and concepts, but… so far, that didn’t happen (yet). However, as we write, an idea popped into my mind, and changing the whole subject of my essay can be both a wise and a brave move.

The other thing that leaves me sad is the fact that some people deeply disappointed me in 2022. I put too many hopes and far too much faith in people who were absolutely not worth it. Perhaps, that may explain why those people are no longer in my life - because they weren’t simply meant to be in it, they are not good enough, they are not worthy of my friendship (and, believe me, I am not being smug - not even a little bit).

92.Describe what you think of the ocean.

During part of the year, I live near the ocean, so, I have a very close relationship with it.

The ocean is like a silent companion. It’s the entity that helps me organize my ideas when I need it the most - a walk on the seaside has already inspired me to write some of my best poems, and some of the most inspired bits of prose. Also, the ocean was there with me when my mind needed to realize some important things - I would say the tangible presence of the Atlantic by my side helps me clear my mind, sometimes even forcing me to understand what my heart refused to see/listen. Does this make any sense to you?

93.Do you believe in aliens or ghosts?

Ghosts live inside our hearts, but, most of all, inside our dreams/nightmares - and some of these ghosts belong to people who are not even physically dead (albeit other ghosts are long-gone, for sure). The ghost of my grandpa (perhaps, the person I loved the most in my whole life) haunted my dreams for ten years after his passing - my subconscious was still struggling desperately to accept that someone so important to me could no longer be physically in my life.

Regarding aliens, I prefer not to have a definitive opinion, since I have no evidence of the existence - or non-existence - of alien complex forms of life. Actually, no one has a single concrete proof of the existence of any form of life (even unicellular organisms) outside Earth, let alone intelligent/complex forms of life. That means I am, probably, much closer to the Rare Earth Hypothesis than I am to, for example, Carl Sagan’s ideas. Yes, there is the Fermi Paradox, but, so far, the data and evidence publicly known indicate that no intelligent life forms were found so far… although that makes all the sense in the universe: considering the destructive potential and capabilities of the Human Race (did anyone mention Putin?), paying a visit to the Earth would be the least intelligent thing eventual alien civilizations could possibly do.

However, the existence of aliens is like the existence of God: it's all a matter of faith. And faith doesn't work very well with facts, even if both words start with the same letter.

Just in time: despite what I have just said, I am writing an epic saga that takes place in a distant Earth-like planet in the Constellation of Virgo; but that is strictly fantasy, even if the whole concept is science and history based.

Thank you very much - and I could not refuse to reply to the asks from a girl who took photos with no other than Sakis Tolis (I am a Rotting Christ fan - "Triarchy of the Lost Lovers" and "Aealo" are absolutey brilliant)