Gong Hei Fat Choi!

Gong Hei Fat Choi!!!

Happy Lunar New Year! 

As a pagan who has an appreciation for other cultures and a love of holidays, I tend to end up celebrating a lot of things multiple times. For instance, today is the first day of the 2021 lunar new year. Being that I'm Pagan and put a lot of emphasis on the lunar/solar calendar, I celebrate it, usually by starting my spring cleaning (I swear, one day I will hear about it more than 2 hours before the date and will finish the cleaning beforehand like you're supposed to) and buying something red or something jade. When I have money, I'll treat friends to dinner or pick them up a little gift if I see something for them. I also celebrate the regular western new year, usually celebrated by reading for the evening and maybe going out for dinner with my husband and friends. I also celebrate the pagan new years on October 31st. While most of that day is filled with preparation for the upcoming Nanowrimo and maybe giving away Halloween candy to the local kids, my hubby and I usually end up going out for dinner if we can. If we find a stranger in need of food or a meal, we do our best to give them cash and buy them a meal. 

Basically, what this is saying is that I just love celebrating holidays. That probably comes with me being an Earth Goat in the Chinese zodiac. According to my horoscopes for this year (which as with any astrology thing, I follow till I forget about it in a few week's time) its going to be a year of improvement for me, which if nothing else means that I will be better equipped for the year afterward. While its a dim year for me, in almost every way but in the health department (which is amazing, but migraines will be a continuous issue if I read it right), it will be a better year than last business-wise, so long as I'm not trying to branch out into things I have no skill in. 

Do you celebrate the Lunar New Year? If so, how? And what is your Asian Astrology animal? 

Resolutions... and a surprise!

So... 2021 didn't explode in its first week? I'm willing to call that a win.

So, what am I hoping to talk about today? Well, I think I'll talk about my resolutions for one more week. 

Normally, I would have a general idea of what I want to do for my resolutions by the first of January, even if I haven't set anything in stone. This year... it almost felt like I didn't want to jinx it by planning too far ahead. And while I think I still won't be planning the entire year with any exactness, I do like having an idea of where I'm going. 

First, while I love staying home and writing, I think I need to get back out in the world. Last year I stopped looking for a job around February... a mix of pandemic and no jobs miring me at home. Now, it looks as though some of the job market might be returning, so I'm going to go back to setting one day a week and doing nothing but sending out dozens of resumes and looking over the job market in general.  Personally, I'd love to see some sort of universal basic income but I'm not holding my breath for one. 

Second, I will still be writing, even if I get a job. So, my writing goals for the first quarter are to finish editing Fox's Facade and send the book on to my editor and betas. I want to publish Fox's Facade tentatively during the summer, so I'll play with that and see where it goes with an update at the end of the first quarter. 

Third, I am moving the "get healthier" option from last year to this year. Most of it will be a mix of RingFit and the Switch boxing game. Maybe not every day, but almost every day. I will be looking for healthier food options as well, but changing everything all at once doesn't work, so it will be little bits at a time, hopefully leading to a healthier me at the end of the year. 

Finally, I will be starting a Youtube channel and maybe a Twitch channel... though I'm not sure about Twitch just yet. I am going to be reading my novel, Hunter's Gambit, chapter by chapter for you guys, hopefully, one chapter each week. And because I've always wanted an online avatar, I've created one to use! I will definitely be posting my novel reading to Youtube, but let me know if you would like me to start a Twitch channel, as well. I could easily read the novel out and then have a question and answer period, if that would interest anyone, and then put out better-edited audio on Youtube later. Then again, I think Youtube has a live function as well, so really just let me know. I'm not sure exactly what week it will begin, but it will be soon! I'm just testing out programs right now and seeing whether my current equipment will work for this purpose before I put it out. I should have pictures to show you of my character by next week!

Let me know what you think about the Youtube vs Twitch debate and I'll keep you all informed. 

It's The First Post of 2021

*Pokes 2021 with a stick*

"Is it safe to come out yet?"

Normally, I would say that another year has come and gone, but, well, this year has been horrible. As a Canadian, I was saved from most of the trouble. However, at the end of the year, everything started to snowball, even here. That said, I'm making this week a time of reflection, which includes looking back at what I wanted to accomplish last year.

So, last year the tasks I wanted to finish were publishing Lord’s Curse, writing Noble’s Choice, Improving my health, open an account on Fiverr, open an Etsy shop, read 75 books, study Japanese and Spanish, clean my house, and editing Fox’s Façade.

Of that list, I did okay, I suppose. First, my successes.

I did publish Lord’s Curse during the warm summertime.  Working with my editor was awesome and I can’t wait to do it again. Though my release was overshadowed by riots and rampant disease, it was still published and that was a win. I also finished writing Noble’s Choice. And all in all, I’m really pleased with how it turned out so far. I can't wait to start editing it after Fox's Facade is done. While I decided against opening an Etsy shop, I’m counting it as a win, since I made a firm decision on it. When I open a web store I will probably create an account then and put the necklaces and prints up there at the same time. I also opened a Fiverr account. I got hired a few times, but things slowed down as the year imploded, which I understand. I’ll be promoting it a bit more in the new year, so if you have a bit of writing you need developmental editing on, consider using me!

I had a few things I worked on but didn’t succeed to a level of “success” as well, of course. For instance, I cleaned my house (office) and actually came really close to finishing… Before I ran into a month and a half of rush and had to stop. My office is a complete mess again now, but that’s usually how the year goes. The real difference for me here is that I actually have a place for most things now, which solves a lot of the cleaning problem. For my yearly reading challenge, I decided to try reading 75 books for the year. However, I found out that extreme stress makes it so I can’t concentrate on writing, which meant that I spent a lot more time listening to music than reading. Despite that, I did completely finish 65 books. While that total is low for me, I find reading speed very subjective, so I know that while some of you will give me shade for “only” finishing 65, the other half will be wondering when I find the time. It's not a win, but 65 books is nothing to scoff at either. My language studies are in here because while I think I’ve done rather well at identifying issues with my learning and have figured out better ways to learn in Japanese, I wrote at the beginning of the year that I wanted to work on Spanish as well. Since I dropped Spanish entirely, I have to count it as a partial win. The last thing in this list is my novel Fox's Facade. Even at the beginning of the year, I wasn't sure if I would have it done by December and the near-total rewrites did not help things. Despite that, I am halfway through my last edit before it goes out to beta readers and my editor, so we're on time for hopefully a summer release. 

The one thing that I did not keep up is my goal to improve my health. I am still overweight and want better stamina, flexibility, and balance. This goal is getting moved onto 2021's wholesale. With the Switchfit game as my Yule gift from my husband and the Boxing game (perhaps updating to the new one when I have a bit more cash), I'm hoping to have a better response to this next year. 

So, that's it. This is the beginning of a new year! Let's move forward bravely, but also carry a big stick to beat 2021 down if we need to. 💪

PenPen the Penguin rocking away listening to New Year's Tunes.