I don’t know about you, gentle reader, but I was about done with 2013 back in July.
Between any number of necessary, seminecessary, and unnecessary battles, the loss of loved ones, and my state of ongoing penury through most of the year, I felt like 2013 would never end. At a certain point I took something of a bunker mentality, hunkering down and waiting for the next explosion. If there’s an opposite for the phrase “Every cloud has a silver lining,” it applied to my general attitude for the second half of the year.
You want some of THIS? YOU WANT SOME!?!??!
This isn’t a bitch post, however. I made the choices I made and whether they were good, bad, or just calculated to get me through another day, I own them. Tonight, I’m thinking about all the things I’m looking forward to for 2014 and all the changes I have planned for the next year.
First, I’m pleased to announce that I’ve started doing freelance articles for Lifehack.org, in addition to my other freelance work. My first one drops at around 6am Eastern time, and this is the link: http://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/10-things-when-you-feel-lonely.html. I hope you’ll check it out and that you enjoy it!
Second, I’m really excited about my next book, Dusk. This is the one I ran the contest for, in which Cassi R. had the winning concept. One day after the contest ended, I’m almost 8k words deep and raring to go on this one! Hopefully the next 80k or so will go as quickly on average as the beginning did!
Third, I learned earlier this evening that I made the Dean’s List at SUU for the second time in three completed semesters and finished off the semester with a 3.65 overall. This is particularly sweet because someone told me around the first of November that with my (admittedly more than slightly crazed) schedule, I was “setting myself up to fail.” Guess it just goes to show that proper motivation, determination, and planning always trumps precedent. (Should you find yourself in a similar position, this is a life lesson worth taking away…on both sides of the fence.)
| Academic Standing: | Good Standing | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Additional Standing: | Dean’s List | |||||||||||
| Subject | Course | Level | Title | Grade | Credit Hours | Quality Points | Start and End Dates | R | ||||
| CSIS | 1000 | US | Intro Computer Apps & Internet | B+ | 3.000 | 9.90 | ||||||
| ENGL | 1010 | US | Intro to Academic Wrtg (HON) | A | 3.000 | 12.00 | ||||||
| GEO | 1090 | US | How the Earth Works | B+ | 3.000 | 9.90 | ||||||
| GEO | 1095 | US | How the Earth Works Lab | B+ | 1.000 | 3.30 | ||||||
| HIST | 1700 | US | American Civilization | A | 3.000 | 12.00 | ||||||
| MATH | 0990 | US | Beginning Algebra | B+* | 4.000 | 0.00 | ||||||
| NR | 1010 | US | Intro to Natural Resources | A | 3.000 | 12.00 | ||||||
| SPAN | 2010 | US | Intermediate Spanish | B+ | 4.000 | 13.20 | ||||||
| UNIV | 3925 | US | EDGE Project Proposal:Creative | P | 1.000 | 0.00 | ||||||
| Term Totals (Undergraduate – Semester) | ||||||||||||
| Attempt Hours | Passed Hours | Earned Hours | GPA Hours | Quality Points | GPA | |||||||
| Current Term: | 25.000 | 21.000 | 21.000 | 20.000 | 72.30 | 3.61 | ||||||
| Cumulative: | 61.000 | 57.000 | 57.000 | 50.000 | 182.50 | 3.65 | ||||||
Fourth, I have a lot of new plans for this year concerning promo, social media, and generally trying to make myself more available to readers than ever before. This is largely due to the efforts of my new business manager, who beat me about the head and shoulders with a frozen turkey drumstick until I finally broke down and got a Facebook account for the first time in a year and a half. I’m also going to be making some changes to the way I manage my social media and promotional efforts, to see what really works.
Fifth, I’m taking a more structured approach to my scheduling. I need to work in some R&R on a regular basis, because I shaved the other day and JESUS! I’m getting in wrinkles in places I didn’t even know COULD get wrinkles! (Ladies of a certain age or above, feel free to snicker at me and mutter, “WE coulda tolja that, asshole.”) So I’m allotting myself so many hours a day for school; so many for work; and so many for writing. The end goal is to try to be off the computer and into my night by 6pm, 7 at the latest, and to block out one full day a week where it’s all about taking a little time away. Maybe I can even find out what’s going on with TV these days!
I’m SO there.
Things in the Land of the Spork aren’t getting any less insane, but I have high hopes that if I do this right, I’ll end 2014 a lot healthier, happier, and (please GOD) wealthier than I’m starting.
I hope you all have a safe, happy, and prosperous 2014. May it be gentler on ALL of us than 2013 was.
And as we look over our shoulders this one last time at 2013, I hope you’ll all join me in giving this abomination of a year the appropriate farewell, with the most fervent sincerity:
No, seriously, 2013. It wasn’t us…it was YOU.
Until next time,
Best,
J.S. Wayne
