The obligatory end of year post: 2023

Wow. I am really, REALLY bad at:

1. Remembering to document and celebrate my wins/accomplishments on a regular basis
2. Remembering what in the hell my New Year’s goals even were for the previous year to see if I managed to actually hit any of them

Remember the post I made here ages back talking about how I was going to try to get better about celebrating (and just generally remembering) my wins? Yeah, well. That didn’t happen, clearly. Whoops.

Thankfully, however, I also managed to write a post at the beginning of 2023 outlining what I wanted from the New Year.

Which is super lucky, because I happened to stumble upon it when coming back here (blows dust off the site) to make this post. And I was thinking, “Oh crap, I don’t even remember what my 2023 goals were in the first place!” But then I saw that post and read it over and it actually made me feel pretty damn good about 2023, because I — somehow — managed to actually do pretty well in hitting my yearly goals … despite generally not remembering them.

Yay, go me! Lolol.

But we’ll get to that in a minute.

While preparing for this particular post, I also took a few minutes to think back over 2023 and try to remember just what exactly HAD I been doing all year????

It was a really good question. I knew I’d been busy as hell ALL YEAR LONG it felt like … but what did I actually have to show for all that effort and time???

Turns out … more than I thought! Which also made me happy, because I would have been genuinely pissed off to look back on 2023 and find out I’d been spinning my wheels all that time with no real progress to show for it.

But I actually did pretty damn good.

No, it’s not the 5894040459686984504304857868 new ebooks that some authors are posting about having published in 2023, but it’s exactly what ***I*** wanted from 2023: better, deeper, more meaningful work. And movies.

Don’t forget the movies. 😀

There you have it … a visual representation of my creative endeavors throughout 2023. And there is a whole, whole lot more there than I was anticipating when I started my long-overdue yearly reflection!

Let’s break it down:

• The Bastard of Blessing Special Illustrated Edition hardback: Hilariously (or not), this was the only “new” complete book I published in 2023. And it wasn’t even new. It was just an old book put in a new format. And funded through Kickstarter, thank you to all of my BEAUTIFUL backers! <3 My 2nd campaign did do better than my first, though not by a whole lot. And I did “level shit up” as I’d wanted to do, but that actually blew up in my face, whoops. So I’ll be approaching my 3rd campaign with a bit more caution, eep. In any event, that campaign is still not quite fulfilled 10 months later (oof)… but we’re nearly there now! Definitely a learning experience, but I’ll absolutely keep doing more campaigns for the foreseeable future.
  
• The Outlaw Systems: See that alien dude with the pistols and the roses? He’s the official representative of The Outlaw Systems. And what the hell is that? That is the community and publishing platform I’m building over on Ream Stories, my new author home outside of retailers. For years now I’ve been wishing for a place Ream… and now that it exists, I can’t wait to give Amazon the middle finger. ^_^ Establishing The Outlaw Systems on Ream was a huge part of my “do better, deeper, more meaningful work” part of 2023. Starting in 2024, I’m going to build the OS into an immersive community for readers where they can get all my books way, way before retailers and get access to a whole lot more exclusive perks, too. But more on that later!
  
• Be Still My Hart: A brand new horror short story set in the Bulleit and Gallows universe… the same universe that Paid in Full was set in, if you’ve picked up the Darkest of Dreams anthology yet. (And if not, what are you waiting for? 😉 ) This short will be featured in the Darkest of Dreams volume 2 anthology, which is in the works behind-the-scenes, but the publish date is still TBD. If you’d like to read Paid in Full just by itself in the meantime though, that story will soon be a part of The Outlaw Systems on Ream as well.
  
• Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep: An erotic short story also set in the Bulleit and Gallows universe. I started this one during spooky season 2023, as it is supposed to be both creepy and spicy lol. Alas, our middle cat passed away unexpectedly during mid-October 🙁 and completely derailed my motivation to finish this one. For now, members of my Discord server are the only ones with access to the in-progress story. Once it is finally complete, however, it will also be posted on my Ream page (and nowhere else). 🙂
  
• The Kitten Diaries: Another short story, this one a collection of diary entries by Noah Gray, one of the main characters in my up-and-coming Outlaw Systems series. (Yes, it’s the series the Ream page is named after, because all of my future novels will be branches of that universe.) This one will be ongoing and of an indeterminate length, as the entries will be inspired by the antics of my own two new kittens. This one is a Ream exclusive offering as well, meaning it will not appear anywhere else. So if you want to learn more about that world and Noah Gray and are a fan of cats, this one’s for you.

• Demon at Devil’s Deep: The problem child. -_- You may have seen where at the beginning of 2023, I anticipated this book would be published around that April. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA. Not even close. I didn’t finish the draft until June, and I didn’t finish major edits until literally a few days ago. This book is currently with betas, but my drop dead goal for it now is to have it published by late February/early March 2024 so I can have it for sale at this year’s Planet Comic Con. Which should be doable as long as the betas don’t utterly hate it, so wish me luck! In case you were wondering… this thing clocked in at nearly 152,000 words, making it the longest book in the series yet. Yes, even longer than the CHONKER that is book 3, which was 147,000 words, mind you. OOF.
  
• Forsaken Mercenary: MOVIES WE FINALLY GET TO THE MOVIES!!!! In this area, 2023 was not at all what I had planned, but I got to make movies anyway, hooray! Lol. I made the decision shortly after my 2nd Kickstarter campaign wrapped up that I was in NO WAY going to be emotionally or mentally ready to run a 3rd campaign that summer. Additionally, trying to plan the Bargain at Bravebank movie + campaign while simultaneously trying to run fulfillment of a more complex book campaign was giving me massive anxiety, and I knew if I continued down that route, I would do NEITHER project justice in the end. So I made the decision to postpone the movie until 2024. A decision I have not once yet regretted. 🙂 At that point I gave up on getting to work on any movies in 2023 … but Fate had other plans, apparently. It turned out that Jonathan and Jynafer Yanez, whom I’d met at 20BooksVegas 2022 where we talked about making our own films, were going to film their 2nd short film in October. And Jonathan invited me out to the set so I could get a better sense of how it all worked before I did my own. With only a two week lead-time (VERY last minute for me!), I managed to make the trip out to California from Missouri happen, and I spent 3 whirlwind days helping out in whatever way I could. Mostly I helped my sister Molly Flanagan with wardrobe, as she last-minute ended up taking on that role. But I also ended up being an extra in one scene, lol. And I learned SO much. It was a fantastic crash-course and just the thing I needed at the time! So thank you so much to Jonathan and Jynafer for thinking of me! <3

• Tangled Up in Christmas: Something else I didn’t expect … my aforementioned sister Molly Flanagan and her partner Michael Nelson had been working for awhile on the script for a Christmas rom-com feature-length film. And it just so happened that December 2023 was when they decided to go ahead and film it … at my mom’s house! Well, they went other places too, to include an ice rink in Kansas City, several places in Durango, Colorado, and a few places in L.A. for a few of the beginning scenes. But a large part of it took place in my mom’s house. And since I’d just come fresh off the Forsaken Mercenary experience, Molly asked for my help again with her film. Of course I would help! How could I not? I was right down the street! And I effing loved working on movies. (I mean, I kinda always figured I would–long story–but Forsaken Mercenary just proved that out.) While the feature length was way different and soooooo much more exhausting, lol, I still had a blast. And again, I ended up being an extra. 😛 Oh boy. Lol. BUT, both experiences were wonderful and very much needed and I’m so glad I was able to basically have a few hands-on “rehearsals” before getting to my own film. These experiences have really helped me gain clarity as to how to go about the planning and execution of my own short film coming in 2024!

And that’s that! My 2023 in a nutshell. Of course this does not include all the other craziness that happened during the year. To get to some of that, we’ll have to consider the other, non-creative goals I set for myself last year…

A brief review of how I did on everything else:

• I wanted to do more traveling – check. Okay, maybe it wasn’t MORE… but it was at least just enough. We took a trip to Hawaii in late February… absolutely ADORED it. We stayed at the North Shore in Oahu and it definitely made us feel like everyone else who has been to Hawaii already has undersold it, lol. We went to so many beaches, fell in love with the jungle at the Waimea Botanical Gardens, saw a few whales, went snorkeling, and attended the most incredible luau. We took a float trip with friends in the camper over 4th of July weekend, and then took the camper up to Granby, Colorado in late May… also a stellar (if quite chilly) time! We rounded out the season with a trip down south to Arkansas for a weekend in October to see a long-time friend of mine. All fabulous trips.
  
• I wanted to do more reading for pleasure – check. I almost gave myself a fail on this one. But then I realized I’ve read a few comics in 2023 PLUS am in the middle of more than one book at the moment… and I’m STILL reading all of those books too, which is quite an accomplishment for me. (I DNF soooo many books these days. You really have to hook me to keep me in it anymore.) So yay!
  
• I wanted focused, organized work days – eh, 50/50. Batching work type per day seems to work best for me, so I’ll keep that up in 2024. But there were plenty of weeks during 2023 I fell off that wagon and thought I could be more efficient by doing things differently. Big nope. Here’s a reminder to myself to stick with the batching days and don’t try to get cute!
  
• I wanted to get the business side of things in actual ORDER – check. This is not complete nor perfect by any means, but I/we did make BIG strides in the right direction this year! Instead of a huge hot mess, things are now a decently sized warm mess, and I’m gonna go ahead and give us points for that. 🙂 However, this will definitely be a continuing project, also!
  
• I wanted to figure out “my lane” – check. Hey, I actually documented this one here, yay! While I am not sure my lane will be any more “profitable” than what I am writing currently, I frankly don’t care. A whole year later and I am still so, so happy with that Lane, and I can’t wait to officially get started on it! ^_^ Those books will also first go to The Outlaw Systems on Ream, so if you don’t already follow me there, that’s definitely the place to be for the future! That universe has already grown pretty massive just in the past year that I’ve been simmering it on the back burner. It’s gonna be pretty damn fun to finally play in that sandbox when I get to it!
  
• I wanted to make movies – check. Haha, yep, definitely got this one down. Not in the way I expected, but it turned out even better this way, if you ask me! 🙂 And now I’m better prepared for my own film project, which is slated for 2024, whoohoo! If you want real-time updates on all those details, be sure to join my Backstage Pass membership over on Ko-Fi! I’ve been giving monthly updates there for the last year! 😉
  
• I wanted to take better care of myself – eh, maybe not so much, but a little? Not surprisingly, this is the goal that fell by the wayside. I’ll give myself a little credit though… for awhile I did do my daily walks, and I was consistent with vitamins for most of the year, only recently letting those fall by the wayside. I was also better in 2023 about taking time to rest and play, which I will definitely count as a win for the self-care column. AND I finally went to the doctor for a check-up again for the first time in 14 years. 😀 Heh. So, there was a little progress here at least. We’ll keep trying for 2024…

So all in all, really not too bad. I did pretty darn good in 2023! All that spinning of my wheels wasn’t for naught! Whew!

As for what’s in store for this year, 2024… well, that is a post for another day.

A post that, let’s be honest, may never actually happen. But here’s to hoping it will happen, because come January 2025, I surely won’t remember what in the f*ck I had planned to do all year again…

Here’s to making it another trip around the sun, y’all!