Happy New Year!
2014 is gone but not forgotten; it was an extremely productive year for me. I released my first novel in serialized blog format, and created an exciting book trailer for it. I was a speaker at TEDxLancaster, and I was interviewed on the radio. I spent a wonderful summer back in Atlanta, GA, and attended an awesome conference on LGBTQAI+ rights. I met great new people, got to do wonderful work, and visited cool places. In hindsight, 2014 was a very good year!
Having said that, 2014 also held disappointment and obstacles. Some of these were accidental, but some were purposeful; some were small, but many were large, and even some of the small ones were made bigger than they needed to be. Some of them were my own fault. Overall, however, these events left me tired and discouraged, and by the end of the year, 2014 was not looking so good. I felt that perhaps I had lost my way, and with it, my purpose and drive in life.
Fortunately, I have good friends and wonderful family; through them, I have spent quite a bit of time reflecting — on where I have been and what I’ve accomplished; on where I am and why I am frustrated; on what I enjoy and what I do well; on where I want to go and how I can get there. I thought about how I might do things differently. In some ways I’m surprised that January of 2015 is already gone, but I feel that I have spent the time wisely. I have been doing what I can to lay the groundwork for my focus and theme for the rest of the year: BreakOut!
BreakOut 2015
My goal for 2015 is to overcome the obstacles that I see holding me back and build momentum towards the goals I’ve set for myself. I still don’t know how to do it, or what it might look like; however, I am committed to doing whatever I can to move forward with what I find mentally and spiritually nourishing — and to helping others reach new heights as well! (There’s never any guarantee that I — or anyone else — will reach those heights, but as the saying goes, “Aim for the Moon, because even if you miss you’ll end up among the stars.”)
In service of this BreakOut theme, I am taking risks. I have quite a few projects in motion, and some of them will hopefully bring big changes this year:
- I am finishing the process of outlining a second novel, and hope to have it written by the end of June. Because of this, I will be looking for patient people to read the first few drafts to provide their thoughts and feedback. (This process is commonly referred to as “beta reading”.)
- I am setting up registrations on my blog for access to exclusive material. For now this will be by invitation and direct request — although if you would be willing to beta-test, please let me know — but eventually I hope to allow open registrations. The first general use of the registration system will be to allow beta readers access to the new book — once it’s finished!
- I am quite proud of the serialization of To the Water, We Are Gods and I hope that those of you who have been reading it online have enjoyed it. However, it now presents the perfect opportunity to test the registrations and limited access system. If you have not finished reading the novel, you have less than a week before all but the first three chapters will be removed from general availability!
- There are more projects, but I am not yet ready to speak more on them. I will simply say that some of what I have planned involves doing more of what I have done before (and love doing), and some of it involves a BreakOut into new, exciting (and scary) offerings. Stay tuned for more information!
Most importantly, however, I would like for 2015 to be a BreakOut year for everyone who needs change. What do you need to do to blow through your obstacles? What will it take for you to move forward with what you find mentally and spiritually nourishing? What risks do you need to take?