Hello, lovelies! Did everyone who celebrated have a nice holiday? I did. I feel very grateful for my life and the people and cats in it.
Next year is going to be…eventful for sure.
2022
Aside from flash fiction and the nonfiction project, I didn’t do much this year in the way of writing. I’ve been busy with house stuff and life stuff.
I did manage to get a pretty good schedule going while I was working on my certification. It forced me to decide what my evening working hours are, which is a huge step in the right direction.
As for house stuff, I’ve been working on the never-ending woodwork stripping project for quite some time. I move much more slowly than I’d like, of course, because sometimes, I’m just plain tired. I did finally manage to get the yard 99% cleaned up. Now the only bits of trash I see back there are whatever heavy rain uncovers. I’d love to run a metal detector over the yard sometime. If I ever do, and I find something interesting, I’ll definitely post it here.
2023
What is on the agenda for 2023? Let’s just say, the way the pieces are falling into place, this looks like the year will be an interesting one; that’s for sure.
I have more flash fiction for the blog, of course.
Tomorrow, I’m venturing back into ye olde sound booth to record the audio for the nonfic project. I did decide to give the book a mention here on this blog once it’s out. I know I said I wouldn’t, but I changed my mind.
After that’s out in the world, I’ll focus on the Leviathan project. I started writing it with the intent to release it as serialized fiction on Kindle Vellum. I still might do that, but I haven’t decided.
Next, I’d like to work on a rewrite of a novella that I previously published and then pulled because I wanted to expand it to book length. I liked the story that much.
I’m writing these 2 one-offs before I start a new series, because I want to shift the way I write. They’re going to serve as practice.
I struggle with emotionally connecting to my characters, which is probably because I struggle with emotionally connecting to people in real life. I’ve had a lot of bad experiences, which is not really a good excuse, I guess. When you’re an introvert, you tend to attract the wrong kind of attention from the wrong people, because they see you as weak in some way. So I’ve become very good at shutting down my emotions and putting up walls. If I’m already on my guard, you’d be hard-pressed to get any sort of emotional reaction from me.
I worry that it affects my writing. The plan is to push past it and figure out how to connect. I know I can. It’s just going to require some adjustment.
Oh, and the bookstore. I’ll probably launch that when the nonfiction book comes out and then post signed copies of that for sale as well as a few other copies of my other books, including some out-of-print versions. The grand opening date will depend on how quickly I finish the nonfic audiobook and all the stuff that goes along with getting print editions together.
The house projects for next year will depend on whether I ever finish the woodwork. I still need bedroom doors. Those will require some carpentry on 90+ year-old trim. No pressure! I want to install french doors in an arch that previously held sliding doors. That will be interesting.
I’d really like to paint the exterior of the house, but we’ll see.
Then we have the analytics. Let’s talk about ‘em. If you’ve followed the blog for a while, you might have seen me mention the analytics certification I’ve been working on. I’ll likely use it to transition to a more tolerable, hopefully, higher-paying day job this year, BUT I also want to use the skills to further my book-selling endeavors.
I don’t want to work for anyone else anymore. I’ve said this for at least the last decade, maybe two. In order to do that, I need to figure out what people like and what they don’t.
Don’t worry, the blog isn’t going to turn into some boring, spammy thing. Frankly, that doesn’t sound like anything I’d want to run.
Basically, including analytics is giving my work a level of attention that I’ve never given it before. I’m excited. I might post about it if anyone seems interested.
That might be all for 2023, unless I can reach a point, financially, where I can quit my day job.
I have dubbed 2023 “The Year of the Try-Hard.” More blogging. More books. Let’ssss goooooo!
Happy New Year!!
Professional Stringer of Words 