What a year it has been. Personally, 2017 has been exceptional. It wasn’t all rainbows and dollar signs, but things are trending in the right direction.

Okay, let’s get started.

The year started off strong. I was still at my old day job – teaching English to first graders in Yangzhou, China, my wife and I, with help from her parents, bought an apartment near Shanghai, and dictation became a part of my writing process, which kickstarted the 100k Writing Challenge.

This was...