A Look Forward to 2024

 Hello everyone!

It's that time of year again... when none of us really know what time or year it is.

That's right! Tomorrow is New Year's Eve!  Woot! Goodbye 2023, hello 2024!

It seems a lot of my friends have had a bad 2023. It's not secret that I had a pretty good 2023 (despite losing my dad). So I thought it would be good to look forward to 2024! I want to split it into goals (things I have some control over), hopes (things I have little control over), and resolutions (ongoing behavior).

Goals:

Although I wanted to get published in 2023, it looks like I will get my book out in early 2024. So my biggest goals revolve around promoting myself and my book and driving up sales. I want to get my website running, get merch set up for it, get ads set up for it, promotional material, etc. etc. etc.

I have been working on an audiobook. My goal is to have it ready to go before mid-January. I may have to rerecord a couple chapters, though.

I have a second novel I'm working on. I want it published by July.

I have a children's book I'm working on. I would love for it to be finished and released in 2024.

I have a third novel I'm working on that I want published next year. 

I want to have the fourth and fifth novels well on their ways so they can hit the market in 2025.

I would like to start working with a group I know on the audiobooks for numbers 2 and 3.

Hopes:

Of course my biggest hope next year is for A Sinister Love to be successful. But even if it isn't, I'm not going to stop writing novels any time soon.

I want the Board Game Rundown to at least double its subscribers. Getting a salary from it would be incredible.

Resolutions:

I have two main resolutions for 2024. The first is to read at least 12 books. I haven't been reading enough, especially for a serious novelist.

The second is to write 2 articles for the BGR a month.

This all is a LOT of work. 2 years ago, his would have been an absolute pipedream. Hell, if you told me back in January that I would be poised to publish three books in 2024, I'd have thought you were lying. I am determined to make 2024 MY year.

TV and Book List

 I previously stated that I do not watch a lot of TV.

But I thought it would be good to talk about what I do watch and read.

Let’s start with the TV.

I am an anime fan and have been for as long as I can remember (the early 80s). In recent years, though, I’ve become much more discerning in the anime I watch. It sort of exploded, and with that came a host of crap anime simply not worth my time (many of which are quite popular). One anime I am currently watching is Spy X Family. Not sure if that “x” is pronounced, I usually skip it. It’s about a fake family consisting of a spy husband from a neighboring country, an assassin wife of incredible strength, and a telepathic little girl that may be the cutest thing I’ve ever seen (sorry kids). Of course, none of them can let the others know the truth. The spy is wanted and his current assignment requires him to infiltrate the social circle of a certain politician, which is best done by having a child join a specific school and excel in their studies. So he adopts a girl who was experimented on (he doesn’t know that) and can read minds (and she’s deathly afraid that if anyone finds out, they’ll give her up and experiment on her again) to enroll her in the school. But the school requires a complete family, so he had to get a wife. The wife is worried that her solo lifestyle will become suspicious and she’ll get turned into the secret police. She was one of the best candidates on the spy’s list of potential wives, so when she showed interest, he asked if she’d help him make a fake family (she thinks it’s just to get the girl into school). And, of course, her brother clandestinely works for the secret police. The entire thing is wonderfully contrived and hilarious. One thing I noticed while watching it was that I would think “If I wrote this, I’d have such-and-such happen” and then THAT HAPPENED. So of course I want to see more.

I’m also watching One-Punch Man, an anime about a bald superhero who is a hero “for fun” but wants some sort of recognition… and challenge. The problem is, he’s so incredibly powerful that no one can hurt him and he can defeat any opponent with a single punch. I was worried this would suffer from some sort of power creep (as I call it, Dragonball Z syndrome), but, in reality, it makes fun of the power creep, as well as a bunch of famous stories and animes. It’s funny and worth checking out.

Beyond anime, I finally started watching Good Omens on Amazon Prime. The story, based on the novel by the same name, is about an angel and demon who are attempting to stop the end of the world because they both LIKE it here. But Neil Gaiman (who wrote the novel with Terry Pratchett) is taking it further than the book. I must see this. Plus David Tennant is one of my favorite actors.

It would be remiss of me to leave out the show I probably “watch” most often: Bob Ross’ Joy of Painting. Of course it is mesmerizing to watch a splash of color suddenly become a mountain. But I don’t really watch it as much as leave it on in the background while I am working. It’s not intrusive and provides enough background noise to distract the ADHD part of my brain.

There are several shows that I cannot recommend enough, but as I am not currently watching, I will talk about them later.

As for what I am reading…

I am pleased to say I finally finished The Hunchback of Notre Dame (unabridged) by Victor Hugo. It only took me 30 years. Granted, I stopped halfway and only came back to it recently.

I’ve been reading some light novels, Spice & Wolf by Isuna Hasekura. There are 24 or so as of this writing. They are short, easy reads, but I enjoy them. The premise is that a wolf “goddess” of harvest, Holo the Wisewolf, left her village and began traveling with a 25-year old merchant, Kraft Lawrence, to her homeland far in the north. Of course there’s a romance angle, but mostly Holo just loves teasing him. The reason I particularly like this series, though, is that it tackles something I’ve never seen in a novel before: economics. It’s almost entirely about business and economics and how they would work in a fantasy world and the ways people might try to work the system. Sounds boring, but it’s quite fascinating. There is an anime, but that only covers the first 4 or so books. 

The next thing on my reading list is Her Unwelcome Inheritance by J. Aleksandr Wooton. This is the first book that my publisher released, and I know the author so I owe it a good reading. I will let you all know my impressions. (Of course, if I get the 10 or so Spice & Wolf books that I asked for for Christmas, it will be hard resisting their temptation.

My New Years Resolution this year will be to read at least one novel a month. I might adjust this goal depending on how it goes.

Getting Things Done

 Well it has been a busy time, as per the norm around here. And this is of course made all the busier with the advent of Advent/Christmas.

And yet, I managed to finish the penultimate round of edits (I think) of Novel #2. How do I do it?

Neglect!

No, really, it requires putting things into a priority list and being willing to either cut corners or leave something undone for a while. I’ve posted before about how much work I have ahead of me (through every fault of my own), so I won’t go into the details. But in order to do these things, I’ve hired a maid to clean the house (and the basement remains a mess more or less… for now), I find quick and easy recipes for dinner (fall-back recipes and crockpot recipes are great, as well as frozen food), and I set aside a time for specific things (having a time limit helps me with doing the essentials first). This last one I am still working on.

But it’s hard. I have a supportive wife (who works long hours but also helps with chores), and honestly, if I was single, I would likely be living in squalor. I am lucky that I don’t have to worry too much about money, while so many writers out there struggle to make a living.

I also have given some things up. TV has become rare. I don’t watch TV to unwind… I write or work on other projects. The closest thing I get to TV is watching youtube channels (science, late night comedians, or history typically) while I cook or do dishes. I used to roleplay online, but I’ve stopped that (and, if you are someone I RPed with, I apologize for disappearing). Once upon a time, I had a ton of hobbies and groups I partook in, but most of those have been put on an indeterminate hiatus.

And why have I given all these things up? I normally would never condone surrendering hobbies.

But being able to craft a novel, getting it ready for publication, improving a story through feedback and editing, working with artists…

It not only makes me happy, but it is deeply fulfilling.

I’ve always wanted to be a novelist. When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a substitute (everything, substitute everything) and a writer. When I got a bit older, I wanted to be a paleontologist and a writer (and when I say “older” I mean that one of the biggest reasons I’m not currently a paleontologist is because the university that had the program I was interested in never responded to my application). In college, I wanted to be an engineer and writer, then a technical writer and fiction writer.

So it shouldn’t be surprising how excited I am to be on the cusp of achieving my lifelong dream.

At the moment, I am working with the same artist on some supplementary art and eagerly awaiting my publisher to finalize the contract (hopefully in the next few days). I’m also recruiting my brother (a rather accomplished computer graphic artist) to help me with ads and promotional material.

Seriously, I’m so excited about this I’m showing random strangers I run into my cover art! If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to hold a physical copy of my book by Christmas. I might cry a little. Or a lot.

I think the next thing I am going to tackle is finishing the audiobook. I have the initial recordings done, but I need to make sure it is all satisfactory (no random cat meowing in the background, for instance), free of artifacts (pops and the like), and then meets the requirements of Audible (my low and high ranges are good, not the mid, and they require a certain amount of “silent room noise” before and after every track).

One thing I *could* use is a beta reader or two to go over the second novel for me. If you happen to be interested, leave a comment (no one is going to leave a comment).

Now I must go. My time limit for blog-writing is nearly up.