At the start of each calendar year I spend some time thinking about what I want to achieve over the next twelve months and setting goals connected to that. Then, at the end of the year I look back and see how I’ve done at achieving the goals I set.

Often when I look back at the end of the year I can see how my priorities shifted and changed over the course of the year — as well as seeing the places where January Rhonda was perhaps a wee bit too ambitious for Rest Of The Year Rhonda. Another trend has recently become pretty clear — I seem to begin a lot of these goal-setting blog posts talking about being in a weird space. That space takes on different flavours but it happens enough that maybe, just maybe, I ought to accept that life is just kind of weird LOL

Related: I just keep getting older?

I know! It’s really just kind of annoying isn’t it? LOL

Looking around at my life — which is a good one — I am in so many ways in a much, much better space than I ever dreamed possible but in lots of ways I’m not yet where I want to be. And because life is weird for some aspects of my life I somehow manage to inhabit both the ‘exceeding expectations’ and ‘falling short of aspirations’ spaces simultaneously. 

It’s weird.

But I feel like I’m getting used to weird. Maybe that’s one of those things that comes with age LOL

#1 Work Goal:

This year I am working less. This is by design but it’s still jarring to me every time I look at the white board which organizes my life and see so much more empty space than before. My number one work-related goal is to resist the urge to fill up those spaces and remember I created them on purpose.

Writing:

With a Broken Wing: I want to finish writing and, ideally, edit and publish this book in 2023.

Garryn: I want to write the first draft of my book about Garryn.

Patreon: I will continue to write at least two pieces of Patreon-exclusive content each month. And not just content, but content I am proud of. Bonus points if I make progress on the tarot-inspired project.

Books:

Blindspots: This was released exclusively to my Patreon in 2022. Once it’s been exclusive there for a year I will release it widely.

Prairie Spirit(s): This was also released exclusively on Patreon in 2022. Once it’s been exclusive there for a year I will release it widely.

Editing:

Women and the Sea: This anthology (which has a new title we haven’t announced yet) will be coming out this year. I want to give this beautiful book the launch it deserves. I have concrete sales goals written down offline, but primarily what I want is to feel like I have done everything I could to give it a good start in the world, and not flailed around dropping balls.

Freelance: Limiting myself to one one freelance editing job every other month for this year. I really need to resist the urge to fill my calendar up with work and remember that just because I can do something does not mean I should.

Marketing:

Systems: Once upon a time I felt like I had a process, a system, I would follow when putting out books. And it used to be reasonably effective (in a small fish kind of way) and sell a few books. Over the past three years or so I’ve drifted away from that system and it’s fallen apart. Great big bits of it are probably completely obsolete now…

All this to say, I feel like I’ve totally forgotten how to sell books. Though I don’t want to make it a primary focus this year — I still want to spend more time creating than selling — I would like to begin to feel like I at least have a system in place again. So I’m going to test the process I used to use, find the holes and figure out how to patch them.

Patreon: I want to organise myself to begin submitting the content which was originally Patreon-exclusive to 3rd party publications (magazines and anthologies) once it is out of its exclusivity period. By the end of the year I would like to have every no-longer-exclusive Patreon story and poem I’ve written either reprinted elsewhere or on submission.

Edmonton Expo: Improve the ‘curb appeal’ of my table and surpass last year’s sales numbers.

Game Design:

AVG: I am excited to continue doing my work with Archvillain Games. I don’t have a concrete goal associated with this beyond do the job, do it well and make sure it’s done on time.

Other: I have other Dungeons and Dragons related plans — one-shot collaborations, solo projects and the like — but they are all kind of on hold until we find out what is going on with the OGL. Short version of a long story — Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast who own D&D, may be canceling the open gaming license that third party creators use to legally make content. If they do that I won’t be creating anything under their new license and will need to learn a new, different system to create content under. So. This ball is not in my court at the moment lol

Non-Work Stuff:

• Swim in the ocean (it’s been too damn long)
• Improve my mobility and background pain levels
• Make our back deck the useable outdoor space I’ve imagined it could be
• “Prevail” against the garden in front of our living room
• Plant trees in the back yard
• Finish Jayde and Sheldon’s quilts

Okay, 2023. Let’s do this.