Looking Forward to 2023- Making it Happen

Good morning, Readers!

Image by Terri Cnudde from Pixabay

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MY LOVES!

I hope your holidays are filled with love and light... and ongoing!

This is written in advance, but you'll forgive me. I have family visiting from Australia, and I'm spending my time with them.

In any case, the no good very bad year is now behind us, and I want to start looking forward to 2023 to see what I can do to continue to make my life the best life for me. As usual, I've broken up the things I want to achieve into different categories. In each category there is a wish (or two), as these are things that are out of my control entirely; I can do only what I can do and fate takes the rest. Let's crack on shall we?

Career

• 3rd edit The Lioness of Shara Mountain.
• Send The Lioness of Shara Mountain to Beta Reader 3.
• 4th edit of The Lioness of Shara Mountain
• Create the book cover for The Lioness of Shara Mountain
• Publish The Lioness of Shara Mountain
• Finish writing the mystery play.
• Finish writing GTFO
• First edit of GTFO
• Send GTFO to Beta Reader One
• Return to writing articles for Black Gate Magazine
• Return to writing video game reviews
• Return to the Nights at the Round Table panel on YouTube
• Return to weekly gaming livestreams
• Get a table at CanCon 2023
• Grab a hold of that secret opportunity and make it the best thing ever.
• The wishes: get a publishing contract for Soldier (and thus the rest of The Great Man series) and earn enough from my various endeavours that I can reduce time at, or entirely eliminate the need to go to, the 9-5.

Art

• Complete Tiger watercolours tiny book
• Complete one large format traditional painting
• Complete one painting to gift to CanCon 2023 for auction/fundraising
• Restart the monthly Sunday art streams
• Complete one smaller art piece a week to fill a sketchbook.
• Complete four leather dice bags (the soldier, the officer, the ranger, the exile)
• Complete the rebinding of two author copies of Human with leather covers.
• Complete the edge paintings on three author copies of Human.
• Complete 20 sculpted baubles to sell at CanCon.
• The wish: Start earning $200.00 a month from art sales.

Health and Fitness

• Get enough sleep.
• Keep up martial arts training and teaching.
• Get a kettle bell.
• 10 pull-ups and 10 chin ups by the end of 2023
• Work on hamstring flexibility and strength - easily touch toes and be able to do the splits by the end of the year
• The wish: Buy/build a school for myself and also Wutan Canada, so we don't have to keep bouncing around places.

Music

• Restart guitar lessons.
• Buy a lever harp (perhaps this 'un) and start learning to play. I've always wanted to learn. Now's my chance.
• Get good enough at both instruments to give a small Xmas concert.
• The wish: A full size (36-38 string) lever harp.

Language

• Join Alliance Française and restart French lessons. Get proficient enough to speak to family in French by Xmas.
• Start learning the three Celtic languages you want to learn: Irish, Welsh and Breton.
• Restart Mandarin.
• The wish: become an astounding polyglot.

So... a lot to be getting on with.

In all honesty, I don't think I'll manage to get them all done in 2023, but these are goals, not resolutions. I won't beat myself up if I don't hit them all. I'm being very ambitious with this list. The trick is to do small things. It is the small things that combine to make a big thing. That's how things are achieved.

​What about you. What do you hope to achieve in 2023?