2023: LESS, Not More…

USUALLY… the new year is my 2nd favorite time of year… following Christmas as my #1 favorite time of year. I usually LOVE the start of a new year.

I get really motivated and inspired and feel like it’s a fresh start. A chance to re-evaluate life and make S.M.A.R.T. goals and plans to carry through the next year. A time to course-correct, reflect, appreciate, revise and take action toward my ideal future.

And I felt that same way throughout December 2022, throughout the Christmas holiday, and ALMOST up to the new year.

Except then… December 31st rolled around, and suddenly I just wasn’t excited anymore. And now here it is January 3rd, and… well… I’m STILL not excited for the new year.

My feeling toward 2023 is just… MEH.

I am exceedingly puzzled by this. I don’t know what could have possibly brought on this blah-ness. I don’t really like it, I can tell you that. Lol. But I also can’t seem to figure out how to shake myself out of it. (Yet.)

It MAY be because I took a VERY long break this holiday season. I even took off the dayjob for the entire WEEK between Christmas and New Year. And it was GRAND. Until it wasn’t.

Because it still doesn’t feel like the new year even happened. My brain and body still just aren’t ready to hit the ground running again. We are happy in our chill, restful cocoon, thank you very much.

And I kind of realized something yesterday, when reading through a WHOLE LOT of “2023 Goals” posts on Facebook, all from fellow author peeps because let’s face it, author peeps are 98% of who I interact with on a daily basis these days.

But as I scrolled through post after post after post of authors talking about the 38494949858 books they published in 2022 and the 84939585474747 books they planned to publish in 2023, it just made me feel…

EXHAUSTED. O_o Hahaha.

It made me think, “Good lord, that is NOT what I want at ALL in 2023!!!!”

No. I do NOT want to be more productive in 2023. I do not want to publish more books in 2023. (And I think that’s the only time I’ve ever said that since 2015 too, mind you.) I don’t want to do MORE of most things in 2023, to be honest.

Nope. You know what I DO want to do more of in 2023?

LESS.

Yes. LESS. I want to do LESS in 2023. Not more. I am already operating at my absolute max capacity, it turns out. And while I’ve been super careful over the past few years to keep the joy in writing and not burn myself out (as a disturbing number of indie authors have done to themselves in the last few years)… I have definitely come way closer to the exhaustion-level of productivity in 2022 than I prefer.

I didn’t even publish ONE DAMN BOOK in 2022. Okay… not ONE DAMN *NEW* BOOK.

SO. For 2023… I am going to do LESS.

I am going to do BETTER, DEEPER, MORE MEANINGFUL work, so that I can accomplish MORE by doing LESS.

Here is what I DO want from 2023:

• I want to do more traveling: see more new places and experience new things. I already have a list of SIX trips I’d like to take the family on this year. Starting with Hawaii! 😀

• I want to do more reading for pleasure: I really need to refresh my love of fiction. It’s been incredibly difficult to find books I really enjoy the last several years, but I have a handful of books now by some author friends I’m actually quite excited for, so there is hope once more! Lol.

• I want focused, organized work days: I’ve divided my week days to batch everything from daily dayjob tasks to writing the books to all the nitty gritty infuriatingly constant little maintenance author business shit that really adds up over time if you ignore it long enough…

• I want to get the business side of things in ACTUAL order: I am notoriously horrible at being sloppy when it comes to the business side of the indie author business because, goddamnit, I want to write books, not manage a business. But alas, it’s been 9 years now and well, that business stuff just isn’t going away. And anyway, managing a business CAN be fun, if everything is in order. Not to mention with my better, deeper, more meaningful work, I plan for things to level up in the near future, and I need my ducks in a row before that happens. So 2023 is the year. I’m tired of half-assing the business part of things. It’s time to whole-ass that shit.

• I want to figure out “my lane”. I don’t think I’ll ever stick to just one lane, of course, but it would be nice to figure out wtf my MAIN highway is, at least. I’m getting closer to that for sure… but still not entirely 100%. I thought I had it figured out just last week, but it turns out… not so much. LE SIGH. I DID get an excellent idea for a series that could be never-ending if I wanted it to, but alas, it’s still not one of the better selling genres (or at least it won’t be because of course I had to throw a wrench into the perfectly marketable idea to make it significantly less marketable like seriously why the fuck do I do this to myself???) Work on this continues… but 2023 will be the year I really try to sort this out as well as admit I’ll need pen names for the side lanes and actually use said pen names.

• I want to make movies. I’ve wanted to make movies since I was a child. (But then, who doesn’t?) My sisters and I used to make LOADS of home movies. LOADS of them. And all those movie-type people in all the behind-the-scenes documentaries always made home movies it seems, ya know? So maybe that means something. LOLOL. Anyway… it just so happens that the stars have aligned and life events have fallen precisely into place to provide a means to resources and knowledge to actually make this possible starting this year. GASP! (Thanks to one of those sisters I mentioned, btw…) THUS, this long-time dream might just become a reality at long last. A script is currently in-progress even. I plan to periodically give updates on this project, but I’ve also started a behind-the-scenes membership over on KoFi for all the juicy detailed goodness, so go there if you want more.

• I want to take better care of myself. Being an author is extremely sedentary. And my dayjob is at a desk all day too. That’s really not good for you. I LOVE taking walks in nice weather, so I have a new walking plan for when the weather is nicer. For over winter, the hubby and I have worked very hard to clear out one side of our (heated) garage and we now have a treadmill. Eventually we’ll have other equipment too. It is now our home gym. Starting next week, I’ll be walking 3 miles a day in 3, 20 minute increments. Weights will come later once we have our set. Watching overall calorie intake, more regular vitamin intake, and a better bedtime routine are also on this “treat yourself right” list.

And that’s it. Those are my main focuses for 2023. 🙂

As for writing projects coming up this year, here is what’s on the docket so far:

• MARCH: The Kickstarter campaign for the illustrated special edition hardback of Bastard of Blessing, book 2 in The Legacy of Lucky Logan series, goes live. I’ve learned a LOT from my first campaign (and my collaborative 2nd!), so this next one is going to LEVEL SHIT UP. I’ll also be at Planet Comic Con this month so come say hi!

• APRIL: Demon at Devil’s Deep, book 4 of The Legacy of Lucky Logan series, releases… I hope. This thing is getting epic, y’all. It’s a lot.

• JULY: The Kickstarter campaign for the Lucky Logan movie goes live. It will be however long we can fund it for. If we only fund enough for a two-minute trailer, that’s what we’ll have. A 30 minute short film? Cool. A full-length 2 hour movie by some miracle? Even better. I’m not going to announce it *officially* just yet as I want one more piece in place to be sure it can actually happen, but this is the projected timeline for now.

• OCTOBER: If the July Kickstarter for the movie is successful, we’ll be filming this month. 😀 (I mean, you don’t want to film in the desert in the summer, ya know???)

• NOVEMBER: Trail ride through the Nevada desert with some of my Kickstarter backers from the 2023 campaigns… and maybe I’ll get to see YOU there!!

And that’s about all that’s certain at the moment. More smaller projects will fit in-between the bigger things, of course. But if I just get all of the above finished and out the door, I’ll be exceedingly happy with my 2023, the year I wasn’t all that excited for at first. Hah.

We’ll see how it goes. For now, I’ve gotta run and start making progress on my organized days, but I wish all of you reading this a very happy, very healthy, very MEANINGFUL New Year ahead!