2020 was a heck of a year. Lots of stuff went wrong, but plenty of things went right, at least for me. However, now it’s time for me to look to the future. Here I’m going to go over some of my goals for 2021, as well as changes in plans.

First of all, let me stress that none of this is set in stone. I’ve realized that if I try to plan things out too far in the future, I often end up disappointed or stressed that I’m not following my previously stated plans. It’s not something that makes me happy, but I think I need more flexibility to be as productive as I’d like to be. Now, let’s get started, shall we? Oh, not all of these are writing-based, either.

• The first of my goals is pretty simple, and common to a lot of people, I think. I’ve let myself get somewhat out of shape, so I’m trying to exercise daily. I’ve been doing this for the past couple of weeks, so I think it’s easily doable.
• Write Queen’s Gambit. It’s the last book of my planned Lilith’s Shadow arc, and I need to get it out there.
• After Chosen of Chaos ambushed me, I realize that I need to give myself permission not to write a single series consecutively to completion, instead of feeling like I’m wasting time on something else. This leads to the next thing I’m thinking about.
• I’ve said that I intend to write the rest of Soul Bound, then Through the Fire, but I think it’s going to be a little more complex than that. I want to publish Chosen of Chaos and Broken Chains, and work on not just Soul Bound and Through the Fire, but I also want to return to Beesong Chronicles. If at all possible, I want a book in each series out before the end of the year, and I’m not going to commit to an order. Which leads to the next comment.
• I need to force myself to take time off. Seriously, this is one of those things I’m terrible at, as even when I take a vacation, I normally spend 2-3 hours a day (or more) writing on some other project.
• I want to finish writing the Pathfinder 2e adventure I started last summer. It isn’t high on the priority list, but I want to do it. I also want to put together things so I could run some friends through a few levels of the Dungeon of Everium with pre-gens (likely Darak, Joseph, Nirath, and Penelope). It’d be nice to be able to run this on a virtual tabletop, Fantasy Grounds in particular, but the biggest sticking point are the maps. Making maps is time consuming, and I’m not great at it.
• Transition all the audiobooks I can to be available at other storefronts. This will be everything but Ancient Ruins, Spells of Old, and Halls of Power. I also want to get things set up so that I have a basic storefront for audiobooks on my website, likely using a system called Author’s Direct (Though it’ll be missing The Avatar’s Flames, Queen of Ice, and The Obsidian Palace, those are through Tantor, so I can’t do this). This lets me sell audiobooks and get 70% of the money spent directly. It has it’s own app, though, so… one of those things I’m debating on.
• Maybe hire someone to build a new website. I’ve got a contact who does that sort of thing, but I haven’t looked into pricing.
• Read more books. I’m super-picky, but I need to search more to find books I would like and read them. It’s a major source of relaxation for me, so I need to just do it.

And… that’s it. A pretty big list, admittedly, but these are my goals for 2021, even if some of them are just exploring options. I hope it’s a great year for everyone!

Related to the comments about Beesong Chronicles, here’s a piece of concept art I commissioned of each role in an apis hive from the artist VivianMeow (I’d link her, but some NSFW stuff on her DeviantArt page). The worker is supposed to be from the Shadebough Hive, and the attendant from the Shimmerwood Hive. I hope you like it! Edit: Here’s a Link to the Image