In a few more days we’ll begin a new year and once again disappoint Arthur C. Clarke by failing to discover a mysterious black monolith in orbit around one of Jupiter’s moons (or Saturn’s depending on how you look at it).
What can I say? Sorry, Mr. Clarke. I’ve been busy.
So while I fear that I won’t be birthed out of the dawn to become the new Star Child and will therefore have to bow out of leading humanity on to its next revolution of progress and identity, I do have a few things that I want to get done and I’m excited about all of them.
What follows is a list. The various items upon this list are things that, if I were the Star Child, I should like to make my top priorities. Sadly, though, Star Children are more prone to wandering in and out of the space-time continuum, being desperately cryptic, and dancing to the tune of Thus Spake Zarathustra than doing anything strictly practical. Hence my decision to decline the sojourn to Jupiter/Saturn and the subsequent star-navel-gazing that would surely follow.
Note: if you aren’t a Science-Fiction nerd like me, the previous paragraphs likely make zero sense to you and you should probably just ignore them and read the following list after which you are welcome to mock my nerdery in the comments.
I’ve decided to limit my list to twelve items. This gives me exactly one month to accomplish each item. Completely doable. Next year maybe I can fit in the trip to Jupiter.
In a mildly particular order:
Finish writing Fiddler’s Green and have it in readers’ hands by next Christmas
Avoid going broke (yet again).
Release three books from the Rabbit Room Press and ensure that they are not only filled with great writing but are beautiful to look at and hold in your hand.
Own a bed (haven’t had one in 3 or 4 years.)
Read more books than Andrew does (fair warning: this is a pipe dream).
Get Sarah Clarkson’s book, Read for the Heart, into the hands of a whole bunch of people so they can learn what a great writer she is.
Hear Fin Button’s name on NPR (Aim high, right?)
Read more from the Bible than I do from the internet.
Find a way to make 20,000 people buy the most under-listened-to album of last year, Eric Peters’s Chrome.
Pay the bills by writing instead of by destroying my back and knees.
Read an S.D. Smith novel.
Open a physical Rabbit Room location to teach storytelling, sell books, and drink coffee.