It's 9AM
I have a plan.
Had a plan.
Will have a plan.
Have had a plan.
And will have had a plan.
For just about anything.
Too much in my head, I think.
Sometimes.
Plotting requires some planning.
Putting folks in danger means learning how to do something.
It’s called research.
Which I do.
When I read.
A lot.
I used to brag on two books each week.
One non-fiction.
One fiction.
Genre hopping and chasing my whim.
Then time conspired to eliminate quiet time which impacted my reading.
And my plotting.
So one of my 2024 goals is to carve out time for reading.
More reading.
I still managed 56 books last year, but not as many as I would have liked.
We travelled to California and Kansas City and Mississippi and Florida, so I hit a goal of one micro vacation per quarter.
Even if it was combined with baseball.
The book biz went wide on all platforms, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, along with using an aggregator to get on a bunch of little platforms.
And I even added a ton of titles to my own personal site.
So we’ll chalk that up in the W column, since each grew just a little last year.
Not enough, but a start.
I also got back on Amazon, albeit under a pen name, with some new books and a solid plan for 2024 to catapult it back to where it once was.
If it can ever be like that.
Amazon has changed it’s algorthym, again, and let in a lot of traditional publishers, who don’t have to follow the same rules as us indies.
Same as it ever was.
So a W and an L at the same time, chalked up in a Draw.
Or a wait and see.
Youtube grew, so we’ll keep it going.
None of the social channels grew, despite posting consistently, so we’ll examine what and how we do that, and make changes.
The Real Estate push got put on pause due to lower than expected income.
Yet more homes were offered than ever before, so the strategy is sound, even if the execution is slow.
The plan in 2024 is to keep at it.
On the health front, I lost 18 pounds, which is good, but I didn’t get to run as much as I wanted nor stayed consistent with heavy lifting.
Another draw.
I lost relationships, made new ones, and wished for some older ones to change into something different, so at that level, another draw.
I don’t like drawing.
I like winning.
But more than I like winning, I hate losing.
And over the past year, I forgot that.
I was lulled into a false sense of something other than security, and started taking the Draws.
Which I chalk up in the L column.
Like the plan to start a baseball channel on Youtube/Tik Tok and Amazon, write original middle grade fiction about a crime solving baseball team, animate for video and use any monies earned to offset Team travel costs.
Outlined. Sitting in a folder. Waiting.
A start equals a draw, which is an L.
But…
It is a fresh new year, with 363 opportunities left to work on a lot of new goals.
Or old goals washed up, spit shined and polished to be trotted out again.
With the one goal to rule them all and subjugate the rest to it’s will.
GET AFTER IT.
Go listen to BRIDGEHEAD - a sci fi Adventure FREE
When I wrote Old Magic, this is the image in my mind for what Ben Logan looks like.
Who do you see when you read it?
i use Kindle Unlimited for some reading, especially long series and just finished up hte MURDERBOT books. I didn’t think I’d enjoy them as much as I do, but they are good. (and soon to be a TV series on apple, or netflix)
All Systems Red (Kindle Single): The Murderbot Diaries
PLUS
Her Deadly End: A gripping crime thriller with a twist FREE
Dragons Don't Eat Meat: A Dark & Humorous Urban Fantasy FREE
The Fallen Girls: An absolutely unputdownable and gripping crime thriller FREE