Starting 2023

It’s Sunday morning, the first day of 2023 and I’m drinking cappuccino and thinking about the day and year ahead. For the day, we’re going to a friend’s house and participating in a chili cook-off and tasting that promises to be a lot of fun. We have friends in Texas! Yay! We’ve been in Texas for just over a year now… thirteen months to be exact and every day I’m more and more convinced we made the right move. Not that I was worried it was a bad move, but every day I just feel more comfortable.

Even though we arrived here at the very tail end of 2021, it was 2022 that was really our year of changes. Husband switched into an IT job and is 100% work from home and really liking it. I’m trying (and somewhat succeeding) to become more organized and productive so I can truly be a full-time writer, and most miraculous of all, the cat is coming out of his shell… sorta. We have explored a number of places in the DFW area, including looking at areas where we might like to buy a house. We had three guests and visited old Fort Worth, Southfork Ranch, all kinds of small-town squares, and found several brew pubs and beer gardens, good Texas bar-be-que, and wonderful Mexican food. And we’re starting out 2023 with another house guest just to get the year off to a good start.

The last few months of the year were epic. We made new friends, started weekly happy hours with them, and went to a Texas high school football game (which was an amazing display of pageantry! Seven xylophones in one marching band and eleven in the other! And a jumbo-tron!)

We got to meet many of my writer friends in the North Texas Troublemakers, and I went to my first-ever con, at Fencon in September. And while there, sold my first books to a guy who bought them because “they sound cool.” I was dancing I was so excited. Fencon let me meet a lot more online friends in person, and I’m going to at least two more cons in 2023.

There was also sadness this past year, as happens in life. A few friends passed away, one very unexpectedly. I still find myself wanting to share things with each of them before remembering they’re no longer here. All three friends contributed to the fun in life both long ago and more recently, and all three are, and will be greatly missed.

Over the last year I’ve learned that I have a lot of stories to tell and that I really need to organize myself so that I can tell those stories. I’ve created (or will be creating) an ambitious publishing schedule for myself for 2023 and the goal is to meet it. Stating it here so it’s out in public and I will be held accountable.

Books I plan to publish this year (dates to be figured out):

  1. Book 4 in the Academic Magic series (title TBD, book about half finished)
  2. Book 1 in The Dragon’s Tale series (set in AM universe with different characters, book one about a third finished)
  3. Book 1 in Hidden River series (a paranormal cozy mystery series – bits of which are on the blog as prompt responses; first one is here.)
  4. Book 2 in Hidden River series (no idea about plot yet).

Ambitious, yes. But I want to make this happen, so to that end, I’ve been figuring out a schedule, organizing myself, and getting appropriate social media and advertising set up. Keep an eye here on the blog for announcements!

Right now I’m off to get ready for the chili fest! Here’s to a prosperous, happy, and fun-filled 2023 for all of us!

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