NEW YEAR! 2018
Welcome to 2018 everyone. I don’t know quite when it happened, but sometime within the past decade I transitioned from pronouncing the first two digits “Two-Thousand” and started saying “Twenty.” So, I will say again, welcome to Twenty-Eighteen.
I have, of course, as always, a lot of ambitious plans and unrealistic dreams for this year. Honestly though, I gave up making New Year’s resolutions long ago. I have more of a bucket-list now. Fairly low-pressure. Just a list of things I would like to get done this time around the sun.
I’m not going to tell you everything, because that would get boring. But here’s a little of what I’m looking forward to doing with 2018.
1. Publish Dronefall
Yeah. About time to launch the Dronefall Series, I would think. I literally passed all 2017 saying to myself “It’s gonna be out next month,” and believing it. I’m still honestly pretty uncertain about what exactly my plan is for getting it out there. I want to do it in the best possible way. But you will see it soon, if I have anything to do with it.
2. Explore a new genre
I’ve been thinking about trying mystery for a long time. I love working out details and setting up plot-twists. (I’ve gotten in a lot of practice with Dronefall, so far.) I doubt I’ll be the next Agatha Christie, but time you spend experimenting is never wasted, in writing.
3. Read what I want to read
Okay, so bear with me. 2018 will be my first year without any form of formal education controlling half my conscious mind. I might be struggling to adjust, but I found that I feel obligated to read a lot of stuff I don’t actually enjoy, just because—well, won’t my brain rot out, or something, if I don’t? No. It’s not going to hurt me to take a year and read only what I’m actually motivated to read. Hello, 2018!
4. Get some short material out there
I’m not strictly a novelist. I’ve been writing poetry for longer than novels have even been a thought for me. My mom seems to think people might actually read my poetry, too. It’s kind of crazy how many people won’t even touch a novel because of attention-span issues. But a fifteen-line poem? Why not? I’ve also got some weird short-stories….
5. Go to a writer’s conference or retreat
My face-to-face, in-person networking is…completely non-existent. I’m kinda-sorta acquainted with a few authors online, but if I could actually see some of my own kind IRL that would be more than awesome. I’m going to have to be on the lookout for events near me. I’ve got my eye on one already. I’m not sure where to start, but I think I had better start.
6. Give back to the indie author community
I don’t have a ton to give at this point, because I’m still a dark-horse and haven’t got a massive throng of followers on…anything. But want an interview? Can I review a book for you? Do you know of a Christian indie author I might be interested in? Hey, contact me. I’m especially interested in interviews on specific points of author’s work—not just the generic “what inspired you?” “When did you become a writer?” type of questions. I’d like to dive deeper with other indies, and show their hungry readerships a more colorful picture of their worlds. That’s something I think I can give.
7. Nanowrimo!
Yeah, the Holy Grail of author goals. Believe it or not, I did this once before—during my junior year in college. I passed the finish by a couple thousand words, even. No, that wasn’t a smart time to attempt 50,000 words in 30 days, but I made it work somehow. This year, I’d like to do it again. It was a lot of fun.
So, there are a few of my hopes for this New Year. What does your list look like?