here's to you, 2012

I did the same post last year, and from my almost-2012-perspective, 2011 was a good year. It wasn’t a great year. It certainly wasn’t an amazing year. But it wasn’t a bad year either. I’m perfectly content with this past year.

I finished and released a book. I started two D&D campaigns, one of which, still in progress. I didn’t get all the games that I wanted, but the only one that really mattered was Skyrim, and I’ve but 60+ hours into it. I’m probably getting The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for Christmas from my husband, so I’m looking forward to playing that.

We didn’t get to do much camping this year, like we wanted to. And all that money I spent on craft and décor supplies didn’t necessarily go wasted, but our house is still not very decorated. We did manage to paint the two bedrooms and the dining room, and we put down new floors and had new windows installed.

At this time next year, I still wanted to find an agent and finish a novel. I didn’t get the agent, but I did finish the novel, as evidenced by this page on my website, with all its clickable links: http://brooke-johnson.blogspot.com/p/my-books.html. I read over 50 books this year, and most of them were pretty good.

So 2011 was productive if nothing else.

But I’m determined to make 2012 an amazing year.

First up, I’m looking forward to getting my first royalty check in February. I’ll get to see the product of my book sales for this month, which will be fantastic (for those of you wondering, I’ve sold 19 copies of my book, Kindle: 9, Nook: 3, Lulu: 7. And my royalties for Kindle: $31.41, Nook: $9.72, and Lulu: $29.96. How’s that for transparency?). I’ll officially be a paid, published author. Rather than an unpaid, published author like I am now. So there’s that.

There’s also the Renaissance Faire to look forward to in May. We’re going to make new costumes this year. The husband is going to get a chainmail shirt and a sword, and I’m going to fix him up a tabard. Maybe his beard will be long enough to braid by then. For myself, I’m thinking high-class lady, bard, or archer. I haven’t decided yet. I do know that I’ll be purchasing a bow from the faire this year so that I can be an archer the next year for sure. High-class lady will be the easiest costume to do. The bard will be a bit more difficult, and a bit more expensive, since I’ll have to find some sort of musical instrument that I can play decently, and it requires the most pieces. The archer would be the most difficult I think because the costume would be mostly leathers and furs, and because of that, it would be the most expensive.

Those two things are really the only big things I’m looking forward to, but I do have a lot of plans for next year as well.

I want to write two more books, finishing the Chroniker City series (as long as it stays under three books). I’ve already added 30+ books to my to-read list, and some of them are self-published in support of my fellow indie authors. I plan on releasing the second Chroniker City book, still untitled, next December.

I would like to get more crafting done so that our house isn’t so bland, but I don’t want to commit to a certain number of projects because I know I’ll get burned out on it rather quickly. I do that. Maybe I’ll focus on a room at a time. I think I have all the decorations I need for the sitting room, just nowhere to really put them. We will, however, build my craft desk and two bookshelves early next year. The two small bookshelves I have are overflowing, and that’s after giving a friend of mine two small boxes worth of books. I plan on buying more books, though I’m trying to limit myself now by buying ebooks instead.

Other crafts include painting the buffet, china hutch, and dining chairs. We need to re-sand the dining table and re-seal it with a different kind of poly-urethane. Right now, it has a yellow tint to it, and it’s ugly. Though it matches our urine-colored kitchen counters. I’d like to fix those too, but I’m not going to get my hopes up. That’s one of the things I can tolerate a while longer.

So those are my not so exciting plans for next year. However, I do want to have a bit more fun, get out of the house more, spend more time with the husband. We did too much TV watching and video game playing this year, and I’m pretty sure there is something unhealthy about that. I’m also going to make an effort to be more social. As it stands, I’m pretty anti-social. I don’t like touching people. I have no concept of social cues. I’m awkward. Etc. So, I just avoid people as best I can. How I’m going to remedy this, I have no idea. But I am going to make an effort. That’s one of my resolutions.

My other resolutions: continue to lose weight (only 10 pounds to go!), start yoga again, and continue to grow my hair out. I know, exciting, right? Doesn’t seem like it will be an amazing year, does it?

I’m optimistic about it. I think it will be one of those years that’s full of surprises, a spontaneous, unexpected roller-coaster ride. I have good feeling about 2012.

What about you? Plans? Expectations? Resolutions?