And Just Like That. January 2023.

Happy New Year, y’all. New Year. New Me. I am seeing good things on the horizon and opening my heart to new adventures. I’m leaving the past in the past and celebrating what I want to see more of. Here’s to resolutions and words of the year and becoming a totally new person at the stroke of midnight. Lift up your glasses and shout cheers for the New Year. 2023 is gonna rock…

Okay. Yeah. I ain’t done none of that. I’m tired, y’all. Like really tired. I feel like I’m barely surviving, and we’re only five days into 2023. I think Christmas and canceled flights and canceled trains and rebooking flights and hoping to see my family this month just wore me out. All that being said, I did have a wonderful Christmas with my immediate family in North Dakota.

Now I just need to get back into my groove and find my new routine. My routine must include my day job, exercise, eating healthy, writing book #2, time with family and reading. 

*sighs*

As far as resolutions go, I haven’t made any for a long time. I have an ongoing goal of trying to better myself mentally and physically. Though, I do have some bookish goals. See below…

**Bookish Goals**

I wrote a four-page list of a bunch of things I want to accomplish for my previous and upcoming book. It’s long. I haven’t started it. Here are a few of the big things:

1. Update the website. My plan is to update the look, the layout and possibly have a webpage dedicated to “The Author and The Illustrator.” I am still pondering the right look/approach.
   
   “It’s how to do it. These things must be done delicately or you’ll hurt the spell.” -The Wicked Witch of the West, The Wizard of Oz
   
   
2. Purchase an IngramSpark Account. Once I am up and running with Ingram, my book will no longer be exclusively sold on Amazon and will be made available to other booksellers and libraries. 🙂 I am excited for this. However, there is a lot more work to be done than simply paying for the account. I have to have my book and cover properly formatted.
   
   “One does not simply walk into Mordor” (Or put their book on Ingram.) – Boromir, The Lord of the Rings 
   

3. Purchase book formatting software. I found this really cool book formatting software. I hired someone to do it last time and looking back, I am not really all that thrilled with the outcome for the amount of money I spent. For about the same amount I can purchase this software and do it myself! I may even go back and reformat my book so that, moving forward, the rest of the books in the series will be similarly formatted.
   
   “You want something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.” -Sebastian, The Little Mermaid
   
   
4. Enter a contest. I will be entering my book into an independent book writer/publisher contest. I am excited about this particular contest because the judges HAVE to read the entire book. From start to finish, and every contestant gets review/feedback.
   
   “What did you think? I’ll just magically win the race just because I really want to!” Wreck-It Ralph
   
   
5. Brainstorm/Write/Schedule social media posts. I got kind of lazy over the month of December and I need to get back to it.
   
   “- Li: We’re pandas! We don’t do stairs!
   – Po: I have waited all my life to hear those words.” -Kung Fu Panda 3

**Get inspired. Stay inspired. Create more.**

📖Book-spired. Next read. Long Live the Pumpkin Queen
Favorite Nightmare Before Christmas song -> Jack’s Lament. “Oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones, an emptiness began to grow. There’s something out there far from my home. A longing that I’ve never known…”

Follow me on Goodreads to see what I’m reading next!

🍜Food-spired. Eat well, create well. Chinese BBQ Pork.
I made Chinese food for New Year’s Eve. This BBQ Pork recipe was SO GOOD!. I had to make up my own recipe for the hoisin sauce because it’s not gluten-free, but it still turned out perfect. I made gluten-free egg rolls, pot stickers, homemade sweet and sour sauce and rice. It was delightful.

🧘‍♀️Yoga-spired. Here’s a blast from the past… Yoga for Creativity-A Light Stretch
Back when the whole world went virtual, I sucked it up and put out a couple yoga videos for the studio I was working for.

✍️Write Something. Writing prompt! What are your resolutions or goals for the upcoming year? OR If you do a word of the year, write a poem about it. For example, my word could be “Consistency.” 

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