2017 - New Year Resolutions
Well hello there... akward caugh Right, this blogging thing hasn't really been going well for quite a while. But it seems to be something I keep coming back to. A new year seems to be a good point to start over, so here we go. If all else fails at least I'll have a checklist for my 2017 goals to reference at the end of the year.
Fix my personal blog
Whoo hooo. One thing done almost straight out of the box... erm Okay, it did take me a few days to get this thing sorted. (And I'll still be fixing up the old posts in my spare time)
Part of the reason I haven't been posting is that I've been meaning to move from Wordpress to Ghost, and somehow it felt like such a daunting task whenever I started looking into it. But no more procrastination. 2017 is the year of action! (Also with a newborn baby to take care of I don't really have time to faff about with things - it's do or die in terms of time management)
At the end of the day the transition was quite smooth and with the help of Docker the setup was a breeze. While I still have some tweaking to do (will try and do one small change a week) I'd rather get writing again, and worry about the facelift and some broken links/images in old posts later.
Whole30 challange (January)
Come on, do not laugh. Everyone has to have an obligatory weight loss & fitness goal on their New Year's list... And no, this won't be abandoned by the end of January (partially because even though it's a 30 day challenge we're starting on the 9th of Jan).
I've been dabbling in various low carb options for a while and even though I didn't really have any weird pregnancy cravings, the biscuit train just did not stop, so some sort of healthy eating plan was a given once Zack was born. Then my sister suggested we do the Whole30 thing together (with a small group of friends) and I said why not.
Move all the sites to one hosting (January)
Another thing that's been left on the back burner for way too long - should have closed the old server months ago. But hey, better late then never. And with a firm deadline (sent my cancellation notice - meaning it's move it or lose it end of Jan) it's high on my priority list.
Release the backlog of romance stories
The back catalogue of books that need editing and publishing has grown slightly out of proportion, so I'll be making that a priority before getting any more stories written under the romance pen name.
Publish Feral part 2
Yep, my official pen name (J.C. Harker) is officially worse than traditional publishing. Just can't seem to get out of the one-book-a-year or less slump. But a big chunk of the second part has been already written so there is hope I can get it one done this year.
Publish second edition of A Dragon Scorned
Another thing I've been, likely unnecessarily, delaying. My first ever published fiction is still in the middle of a desperately needed re-write. No pressure... In a way it has become my excuse for J.C. Harker procrastination. Since I didn't want to publish any new stories in that universe before A Dragon Scorned is finished.
Launch PIM beta
I'm not even going to check when I registered the plotinmotion.com domain. No need to be embarrassed about the amount of procrastination and false starts I have done on that project. But no more.
This year I will focus on the few most crucial modules to my own publishing work and have these opened up for a beta. Affiliate link and book info management are first up. Hopefully I'll have something up and running by summer (not trying to be overly ambitious here with a young baby and all...).
Read more
This has been a constant struggle for a while now. I will try and do more audiobooks this year - especially for non-fiction - given it's a nice, hands-free option.
Publish first Dragons vs Zombies books
Ah, my secret pet project. I've already been doing some research and world building with a co-author, but we haven't set any deadlines or even done any outlines for the first set of books, yet. However I'm very excited about this one and hope we can get the series off the ground soon.
And finally...
Avoid the daily grind
Even without a young baby it's easy for the days to start blending together if we don't do something special to distract our brains (Seriously, it's science people!). Sure I'll now need routine in my life more than ever (Nooooooooo! - she screams in horror), but that doesn't mean that routine has to be dull or that I can't fit in some fun, memorable stuff in there.
Like any new mother I've been hoarding baby pictures like crazy. While I've been restrained in posting them online (both for privacy reasons, and not to annoy the hell out of my baby-free friends - hey I've been there and get that maybe the 123rd picture of my son is not of interest to you...) I do have quite a collection that's quickly becoming unwieldy.
So that they don't turn into just a big, unbrowsable pile over time I'm hoping to do a few mini projects/challenges this year with a different theme / focus for each one.
Is that a lot? In some ways yes (I can't wait for my baby to walk & talk, but that will mean less time for all the above), but at the same time, I've actually got a few more things on the back burner not mentioned here if there is time to spare, so we'll just have to wait and see.
What about your New Year's resolutions? Share your goals (or a link to your post!) in the comments below :)