Tag Archives: Naming the New Year

Blog Update January 2021

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So

Uh

2020, huh?

Wow.

And call me cynical, but I’m not holding out hope for 2021 to get much less chaotic.

But I am at least holding out hope that I can be … as productive this year as I was last year, if not a little more so.

I never named the year this year, so I’m going to start with that, and then a quick update on the blog, the stories, and some of the extracurriculars.

This year is officially the Year of Backlog. This one’s a bit more of a reference to personal stuff, but it’s relevant to my writing as well. I, like everyone else, put a lot of stuff on hold last year, and I’m going to be working through it this year. I’ve also, due to changing work commitments, had to change my priorities a bit, and put some things on the back burner. So in addition to everything else, I’m going to be trying to work through some of my backlog this year, to catch up on the things that I wanted to do last year or should have organised already but didn’t have time, or that other things got in the way of.

Now — the blog. Astute readers (aka any readers at all, if I still have any) will notice that this blog kind of went on hiatus at the end of last year, about the time that I hit university commitments. I mentioned a new secondary blog then, and then proceeded to do nothing with it. The next few posts are going to be cross-posts from there, because I think they’re relevant and that gives me a little extra time to recharge the blog batteries, and then I’m going to be back on new content for this blog as much as I can with the time and energy I’m going to have available. I’ll make a decision in the next few weeks, but it’s possible I’ll decide to drop my posting goal from one blog per week to one a fortnight — or perhaps one short story and one post per month — to keep my commitments down this year.

For the writing, I have been on hiatus with that for the last couple of months. People following my Twitter will know that I’ve been working with Arcanacon recently, and I’ve been running their Game Dunk Online event and helping to run their virtual convention this January, so that ate up a lot of my time and creative energy. I’m still working on the next serial for the blog, and it might be a while before I get it done. It’ll also be a while before I can start working on the sequel to Fire Witch, because I can’t start that til I’m finished with the serial. I haven’t entirely figured out what I’m going to do for creative content in the meantime — I have some short stories lined up that I can post, and I am nearly ready to release the third Ferryman’s Apprentice hard copy/e-book, so there will be a few things coming through. However, if it’s creative content you want, it won’t entirely be mine, but it’s probably Cyborg Stories that you want to be looking at (hint hint).

On a personal note, there are a couple of Big Life Things coming up for me this year. I don’t know how much I’ll talk about them here — I do want to start having more of a personality on this blog, and do more than just talk about my Writing Opinions, but I’m still working out the balance. I’ll talk a little bit more about those as and when it becomes relevant, I suppose. For now, what you mostly need to know is that they’re probably going to throw my productivity for a loop, but I’ll keep everyone posted. I’m also looking forward to working more with Arcanacon this year, and although I can’t talk about any of their projects yet, I’ll be sure to mention on the blog when they happen.

And that’s it from me — keep an eye out here and on Cyborg Stories — there’s going to be cool things happening this year in both places, provided I can manage my time right.

Naming the New Year – 2017

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Last year, I started a New Year’s tradition for myself.

Resolutions never really seemed to ring true for me. I tend to set goals rather than resolutions, and, well, I do that all the time. I still wanted to do something to mark the new year, to make it all feel a little more final, so I had to do something other than setting goals. Therefore, I decided that I would henceforth name my years, based on what I intended to accomplish over the course of 12 months.

Last year was the Year of the Harebrained Scheme, where I started up projects and threw myself into plans that I’d been previously too hesitant to start up. It was the year where I wanted to get things moving, mark a few items off the bucket list, and maybe push myself just a little bit.

It seemed to be a bit more true for the world at large than I would have liked in many ways – there are many ways I would like to be very slightly prophetic, but Brexit and killer clowns were not among them.

But we’re now on the brink of 2017, and I need to come up with its name.

I declare 2017 to be the Year of Brace Yourself.

In 2016 I put a lot of things in motion. 2017 is the year I need to buckle down and see them through. I’ll be trying to gain new followers for the blog as well as keep up the buffer. I’ll be finishing off a few writing projects, so I have plenty of writing content to be going forward with. I’ll also be consolidating work plans, finding a place where I’m financially stable and hopefully in a place where I don’t need to be making plans to find money for a little while and can concentrate on other things. And, of course, I’ll be trying to make sure I get above my required marks at uni, so I don’t need to stress out in future semesters.

So that’s my 2017 plans. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season, no matter what you do or don’t celebrate. See you next year.