It’s time for my annual accountability post, along with my reflections on the past year.

MY 2024 RESOLUTIONS

I’ve been experimenting with both generic and specific resolutions for each new year. For 2024, I only committed myself to two goals, but I made them very specific.

*1. RECORD AND PUBLISH AN AUDIOBOOK OF MY WORK by year’s end.

Audiobook cover created by Christopher Russell

SUCCESS!–Even if my audiobook doesn’t drop to Audible by the time this posts, I have completed my audiobook: my audio-version of my 2022 poetry collection, Kaleidoscope, passed quality control for Findaway Voices (audiobook platform)–which then distributed the finished audiobook to select retailers. The audio version of Kaleidoscope should pass each individual retailer’s quality control and be released by them sometime between December 8th and Christmas Day. 

Wouldn’t that be the perfect holiday gift?!

Incidentally, since Audible requires an ebook version of every audiobook on its platform, I also self-published (with Venetian Spider Press’s kind understanding) a KINDLE version of Kaleidoscope–now available for $9.99!

Although I had planned to create an audiobook of my narrative poem, “Gawyne and the Green Knight, Part II” as a test before recording Kaleidoscope, this proved unnecessary. I was lucky enough to find someone with both experience and professional audio equipment willing to help me for a very reasonable rate. So I skipped recording the shorter work, although I might at a later date.

*2. COMPLETE AND PUBLISH A CHAPBOOK by year’s end.

SUCCESS!–I accomplished this goal in February, so it holds the record for my earliest and most successful resolution! My KINDLE e-chapbook, Braving Persephone’s Chill: Broken Haiku, is my first self-published book: a short collection of “broken” haiku written during the Ten Haiku in Ten Days FaceBook challenge earlier this year. Since the haiku are based on quirky photos and stories instead of traditional themes, I call them “broken” haiku.

For a little background, I joined a new (to me) writing group at the Massillon Public Library in January. Although I didn’t realize it right away, the group focused on self-published authors. Since I had recently completed the haiku challenge, along with some additional haiku, it was the perfect time to delve into self-publishing! The librarian running the group, Rachel DiScipio Ketler–who runs her own publishing company (Queen Anne’s Lace) in addition to her library duties, writing her own books in multiple genres, and acting–kindly walked me through the steps so I could learn. I am deeply grateful for her help and inspiration.

REFLECTIONS :

I won’t bore you with this year’s personal drama other than to say many things cropped up during the year to distract me from my goals. I’m thrilled that I was able to keep them both! Not only do I have two new publishing credits, I’ve also gained skills and resources to use for years to come. 

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MY 2025 RESOLUTIONS

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*1. FINISH WRITING MY PANDEMIC MEMOIR-WITH-VERSE.

Before life got in the way, I was about 30-40% through a first draft of my work-in-progress: a pandemic themed memoir tentatively titled “The Year the World Ended and What Came After (A Memoir-with-Verse).” I’ve never been drawn to memoirs, nor had a desire to write one of my own. I’m not a celebrity; I’m not a daredevil nor lived through extraordinary circumstances. I’m just an ordinary person, so why would anyone want to read about my life? But I realized, as I compiled poems from my blog that I had posted during the pandemic, almost everyone living now has lived through “interesting times”–namely the pandemic. As I wrote explanatory material for each poem in what I originally conceived as a chapbook, I realized I was documenting recent history: the pandemic and beyond. So I shifted focus to a larger work: my blog poems would be the skeleton supporting the body of prose. 

Now that the majority of my time-sensitive projects are out of the way, I’m free to return to that work. I anticipate finishing by year’s end (2025).

*2. SELF-PUBLISH MY PANDEMIC MEMOIR-WITH-VERSE

Since I’ve self-published two books in 2024: my newest chapbook, Braving Persephone’s Chill: Broken Haiku and a KINDLE version of my 2022 hardcover, Kaleidoscope, I hope to use this experience to publish The Year the World Ended and What Came After by the end of 2025.

Also, although I’m not going to make them official resolutions, I’d like to self-publish one or two shorter works I’ve been brainstorming: a children’s book, and a nonfiction book on how to veganize tea-time. Whether or not I do this in 2025 largely depends on how early I accomplish my other goals. So I’m not holding my breath, but I’m putting them out there.  I’ll get there eventually.

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Thank you for visiting my blog, and I hope you’ll return in January! I’ll start 2025 with a post about the books I’ve read in 2024, so maybe you’ll find your next great read. I hope your holidays are happy! Have a great new year. Stay safe, stay well, and read often. See you next year!

* image courtesy of publicdomainpictures.net via Circe Denyer under Public Domain ( Creative Commons licensing )

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