For those that are paying attention;

 To be fair, though, there’s only about five of you and I’ve only missed three or four Monday posts, but I have reasons. Really, I do.

First of all, HAPPY NEW YEAR! A little belated, I know, but see, one of the many things I’ve done this year is work with a builder to construct a new home. Now- fun fact -when you build a new home in my area that’s located on a street that didn’t exist prior to the house being built, law requires utilities be run to the house prior to occupancy- no brainer, right?Cable and Internet, though, are not considered utilities so you have to call your preferred provider and ask them pretty please with sugar on top to run said service to your house. To do this, though, they have to run service to that shiny new street you live on and that means that they have to do surveys and check on line placements and all this other digital thaumaturgy that eludes me. End result is; you get to live without cable and internet for at least a few weeks. Now, for a guy like me who’s trying to publish books and build enough of a secret society of readers so I can earn a little extra coffee money that’s kind of like …

Well, maybe not quite that bad. I may not share Dexter’s rage issues, but I understand.

Anyway, no internet, no posting because I have pudgy fingers that do not appreciate little phone keyboards.

SO, 2015, right?

It was kind of a weird year for this humble Wordstitcher. I wrote about a quarter of a million words worth of novels and other assorted keyboard wanderings, I moved twice while awaiting for the aforementioned house to be completed, I got involved in my local literary arts community, I started exploring social media and the online world (up to and including this website and blog) I watched my kid’s interests blossom into something a little more mature than stuffed animals and cartoons (Robotics and Equestrianism, respectively), and I submitted and was rejected- politely and professionally -by yet another big publisher leading me to go all in with my Indie Publishing efforts. What did I learn from all this?

I learned that two adults, two young kids, two dogs, and one cat who are all accustomed to having room to spread out for privacy should not live in a two bedroom apartment together. It tests their relationships. I learned that getting the work done means sitting down and doing the damn work every single day and- for me at least -word count goals and writing in sprints is the key to success. I learned that Social Media should be about 95% chit-chat and socializing and about 5% casually mentioning that you have something that people might be interested in reading/buying. I learned that the world of publishing and authorship is changing drastically from what the average Joe and Jane Doe think it is and that traditional author contracts are not the instant riches that those same Joes and Janes seem to think. They are, in fact, very heavily slanted in the publisher’s favor the vast majority of the time. I learned that readers of genre fiction really want variations on the same thing over and over again rather than something totally new (more on that next week). I learned that most people still think that most Indie published work is crap (they are sometimes correct, but for fuck’s sake look at some of the best sellers from last decade. There is NO accounting for taste.) Finally, I learned that I need to overcome my introverted nature and quit acting like I’m 78 instead of 48. No, I’m not handling aging well, but that’s another post.

So here I stand staring down the shiny barrel of a freshly polished and ready to rock 2016 and all I can hear is Clint Eastwood whispering, “Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?”

I do.

I don’t do New Year’s resolutions because they’ve always seemed just kind of lip service to what we wish we actually had the conviction to accomplish. I’m more of a goal setter.  Last year, I set the goal of having three novels (completed trilogy) and two short stories for sale in the kindle store by February 2016 (I posted the first book in February 2015). Because of all the moving and the difficulties I’ve had settling into a workspace, I’m way behind on Book Three and will probably miss that goal by about a month or so. Still, you only fail if you quit and quitting isn’t really in my wheelhouse. I’ll take the second place trophy and the lesson that routine is my professional friend.

I’m going to stick to that model but expand it to this: I’ll have another trilogy on Amazon and a free book to give away as an incentive to join my e-mail list by 1 Jan 2017. I’ll have The Paragons Trilogy available on iBooks, Kobo, and anyplace else that looks like they might like me. I am also going to start exploring the audiobook space but that can get pricey fast and I’ll need quite a few more sales before I can seriously do that (doesn’t hurt to have a knowledge base in place, though).

More personally, I’m going to take better care of myself. I need to lose a large dog’s worth of weight and I’m WAY too fond of Vodka and Whiskey. I will make long walks or short, intense workouts a part of my week days and I will cut my drinking back to a more moderate level (maybe just on the weekends, not sure yet). My diet is actually pretty good (I call it paleo-ish) but I am going to start watching the portion sizes. I love to cook so it’s easy to get carried away.

Those are the goals. I’ll Let you know in a year how I did. Whatever your goals are, I hope 2016 is full of contentment and prosperity. See you next week.

Thanks for reading.

The Paragons Trilogy