December was a busy month, between moving, book work, and the holidays. I had to start adjusting to my new schedule, which is having a big impact on my reading and project work (see below). And while I was moving, I added lists of items I own but have never read or watched, giving me more lists to deal with. Yay, lists.

Projects

With my new schedule, I have more time at the coffee shop in the morning to write and work on projects. At my new house my office is dedicated to projects. So, I anticipate getting a lot done at the new place.

I am at the point where I can order physical proofs of Champion Bold, and start prepping the eBooks. This is not difficult, but it does require me to sit down and do it. *

I’m finishing up the supplement books, and I should be ordering copies of those soon as well. I have to finish a few bits of artwork and make sure there isn’t a lot of blank space, then I can pull the trigger on those.

As for Sasha book 3, I spent some time going through what I wrote during my NANOWRIMO re-write challenge and wrote some act synopsis for the rest of the book. It turned out to be a good exercise; I’m more confident I can finish the book off shortly and get that prepped for editing.

I have other projects in the work, and now that I’m done moving, I’m eager to get to work on them.

January Goals

• Approve physical copies of Champion Bold.
• Get physical proofs of supplement books.
• 2025 plan for Sasha Book 3
• Project plans and lists

Books

• Fire and Blood (Fiction; Finished)
• Fool Moon (Audiobook; Fiction; Finished)
• Sapiens (Non-Fiction; Restarted)

One downside to moving is that I’m no longer taking the bus to work; so I’m losing out on a lot of reading time. I have to find time to reach a chapter or two each day; as such I’ve started considering my books as a ‘bedside book’ or my ‘backpack book’. Not only that, but I have a list of over 100-titles that I own but have never read; I want to work on getting that down to less than 100 books, and eventually zero.

On the plus side, my long walk from parking to work means I can start getting through my audiobooks.

I finished two books in December. Fire and Blood is a fictional history of the Game of Thrones universe, and it was a fascinating read. It really explained a good portion of the Targaryen family history in Westeros. It only got so far, and I wonder if there’s a second one coming. It did inspire me to consider similar projects of my own.

I also finished Fool Moon, the second Dresden Files book. It was quite the story, and I enjoy the universe and the rules of magic that the characters use. What did surprise me is that I guessed the end of the book about halfway through, but only because it was the only explanation that was left given what we knew. But I thought ‘that can’t be it’ and pushed it out of my mind. I guess the lesson as a writer it: if you need the reader to be unsure of who did it, make sure they have several suspects.

January Goals

• Finish one fiction book
• Finish one non-fiction book
• Start one research book

Movies and Shows

• Star Trek Lower Decks Season 5
• Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire

I watched the last episode of Lower Decks. I enjoyed it. It was not everything I expected, but it hit all the high points it had to. I’m sad to see it go, but I appreciate that it needed to end before it got too old.

The one movie I watched last month was Rebel Moon Part One, which was a Zach Snyder movie released on Netflix. I’d heard it was a pretty rough movie, but I watched the director’s cut which seemed to address a lot of the issues with the story telling. Even so, it wasn’t great. Don’t get me wrong, it was fun, and it had a lot going for it. But there were plenty of scenes that seemed to exist just for their own sake, and background info that we were missing. I would watch it again, but I understand why a lot of people wouldn’t watch it.

January Goals

• Complete one season of TV
• Watch one movie

Games

• Baldur’s Gate 3
• Madden 2025
• Warhammer 40K: Armageddon

Not much to add for the gaming section. I worked through some more Baldur’s Gate 3, played some Madden 2025, and beat another mission of 40K Armageddon. I do want to play more, but I want to play better. And I need to keep my projects going.

January Goals

• Continue RDR2 or AC: Odessey
• Continue Baldur’s Gate 3
• Finish W40K Armageddon

What’s Next?

Focus on getting books ready for publishing, and advancing projects. I’m signing up for 2025 conventions. I should be at Minicon this year, and I should have a launch party for Champion Bold sometime this spring. I’ll let you know the dates soon.