{"id":3118,"date":"2014-01-06T17:55:42","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T09:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/?p=3118"},"modified":"2014-01-06T18:01:44","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T10:01:44","slug":"obligatory-year-navel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/2014\/01\/obligatory-year-navel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obligatory Year-End Navel Gazing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: My rewatch<\/a> of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is on hiatus. As soon as the party entered Rivendell and got surrounded by a party of elves on horseback, I started feeling nauseous. I\u2019m going to take some time away before I come back and finish. Like maybe in twenty years, when someone has remade the movie and I no longer have to rely on Peter Jackson for my Middle Earth fix.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"vintage-typewriter\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the time of year when blogs typically reflect on the year that was and make promises and predictions for the future. As I\u2019ve never been too proud to chase a trend, here\u2019s my own Year In Review. Sorry if it’s a few days late, but contemplative narcissism can turn into a black hole very easily.<\/p>\n

2013 was the beginning of my five-year plan to become self-sufficient as an author. Was Year One as successful for me as it was for Frank Miller<\/a>? Let\u2019s review:<\/p>\n

1. I published my first e-book, Picasso Painted Dinosaurs<\/a>. This collection of microfiction is my initial foray into self-publishing. <\/p>\n

2. Thanks to the generous patronage of 79 supporters, I successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign<\/a> for my novel, Quitting The Grave. <\/p>\n

3. I wrote and published a mashup novel, Ahab\u2019s Adventures In Wonderland<\/a>. <\/p>\n

4. I drove the Oregon Trail, filming a series of interviews along the way that will be edited into mini-documentaries for the enhanced version of my novel, Quitting The Grave<\/a>.<\/p>\n

5. I watched every episode of Game Of Thrones.<\/p>\n

\"Joffrey-throne\"<\/p>\n

6. I redesigned this blog, as well as created an author\u2019s page<\/a> on Facebook (which in hindsight was long overdue.)<\/p>\n

I\u2019d say that 2013 was a rousing success. <\/p>\n

On a personal note, my dog Bacon, who I adopted last December, was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease and suffered through about a month of awful pain. Luckily, after a treatment of steroids and 5 weeks of cage rest, he\u2019s been doing infinitely better. I was really worried about him for a while and it\u2019s been a blessing to see him happy and active again. He\u2019s not cured, but hopefully we won\u2019t see a reoccurrence of his symptoms for a long time. If you like photos of cute dogs, follow me on Instagram<\/a>. It\u2019s nothing but cute dogs!<\/p>\n

\"beagle-cone-of-shame\"<\/p>\n

So what do I have planned for twenty fourteen?<\/p>\n

1. I\u2019ve already started working on my Twelve Month Writing Challenge<\/a>. Each month, I\u2019ll be writing a complete short story and at the end of the year I\u2019ll be bundling them into a free e-book. The first short story is entitled January Eternal.<\/p>\n

2. I\u2019ll be editing the 140 gbs of footage I got from my trip into mini-documentaries to accompany Quitting The Grave. The first test video<\/a> has already been posted. Though this one has nothing to do with my book, it will give you an idea of what the videos will be like.<\/p>\n

3. The Big One: After ten years of research, writing, revising, and agonizing, I will finally be publishing Quitting The Grave<\/a>. I couldn\u2019t be prouder of it. If you read one thing that I’ve written, this is the one. You can check out an excerpt here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. After writing my novel (which is half set in Eugene and half takes place on the Oregon Trail) entirely in Beijing, I will be moving back to Oregon. I guess this just goes to show I can\u2019t help but do everything backwards. The move is largely prompted by Bacon\u2019s health problems, which I hope I\u2019ll be able to better manage in Eugene.<\/p>\n

5. I\u2019m already planning my next novel, Tokyo Dream, which takes place in, you guessed it, Japan. I\u2019ll be taking a couple of research trips to the Land of the Rising Sun while I\u2019m still in Beijing and I\u2019m currently in the process of learning Japanese. Yikes!<\/p>\n

6. Finally, I\u2019d like to get at least the first draft of one other book written. I have a few ideas percolating at the moment, but this won\u2019t be a full novel. Either a novella or perhaps a book of criticism? Who knows? It\u2019s best not to plan out everything because you always want to remain open to sudden inspirations.<\/p>\n

Thanks to everyone who\u2019s supported me in 2013, whether by buying one of my books, supporting my Kickstarter, or reading my blog. I appreciate all of you. And don\u2019t be shy about leaving comments. I love reading them, even when 90% of them have something to do with Peter Jackson.<\/p>\n

\"happy-new-year-beagle\"<\/p>\n

Bacon and I wish you all the best in 2014! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: My rewatch of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is on hiatus. As soon as the party entered Rivendell and got surrounded by a party of elves on horseback, I started feeling nauseous. I\u2019m going to take some time away before I come back and finish. Like maybe in twenty years, when someone has remade […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2519,2025,1576,2401,2847,2846,2683,608,2684,2398,2686,1453,188,1947,2362,441,2682,2848,2381,2382,2020,2027,2681,2680,2633,2843,2685],"class_list":["post-3118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entropy2","tag-ahabs-adventures-in-wonderland","tag-amazon","tag-bacon","tag-beagle","tag-beijing","tag-china","tag-degenerative-disc-disease","tag-documentary","tag-e-book","tag-eugene","tag-five-year-plan","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-japan","tag-kickstarter","tag-king-joffrey","tag-mashup","tag-new-years-resolutions","tag-novel","tag-oregon","tag-oregon-trail","tag-picasso-painted-dinosaurs","tag-quitting-the-grave","tag-tokyo-dream","tag-twelve-month-writing-challenge","tag-twelve-months","tag-writing","tag-year-in-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3118"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3118\/revisions\/3128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/entropy2.com\/chaosfactory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}