I used to do this thing where I would type out a review of the previous year and then my goals for the upcoming year. The last two years have been so hard on all of us. We’re exhausted and burnt out. I read a lot of books and fanfiction in the last two years but didn’t record any of it here. I’ve also watched a lot of movies and tv shows and, again, didn’t record any of it here. Things keep moving forward and I’m going to use up my energy forcing myself to do things I know need to be done, like updating here more often and working more solidly to take my writing seriously.

“But, CJ, you say that every year.”

I know. But I am also about to be at a crossroads in my life. A very important one which will remove some of my safety nets. Which means it’s time to start taking all those leaps I’ve been meaning to take for the last decade or two. It’s time to actually finish editing my novels and get them submitted. It’s time to put in the work to be successful instead of just hoping some sort of magic happens and I become an international best seller without actually doing anything to earn it.

So. Let’s do this.

1. I’d like to read a book a week and post a review of it. This should get me 52 newly read books at the end of 2022.
2. I’d like to watch a movie a week and post a review about it. Which should also give me 52 movie reviews at the end of 2022.
3. I want Affinity ready to start being pitched before July. I think I want to have the excessively lofty and ambitious goal of submitting to Orbit Books, as many of the books I enjoy reading seem to be coming from them these days. In order to do that, I need a literary agent, as they don’t accept unsolicited, unagented requests. So. I have research for an agent and a lot of work to do there, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
   
4. Surveyors and Academy should both be ready to be pitched/submitted by October, which is likely to be a lot easier if Affinity is already in the works and I have an agent. HA! Such lofty goals!
5. I intend on attending In Your Write Mind (IYWM) in June and hopefully even teaching a module, assuming in-person gatherings are reasonably safe.
6. I think it would be great if I got a better handle on my life and started working out consistently again. This whole global pandemic thing has made me feel massively unsafe to go to the gym and I am pretty sure my treadmill will start an electrical fire if I turn it on again. Still. I need to figure out something.
7. I need a house. No. Really. I need a place to live in a year but the housing market sucks so that’s pretty much my hugest stressor in my life right now.
   
8. I am definitely going to continue cleaning, organizing, and shredding old paperwork. My goal is to get down to only two boxes for official paperwork, which is saying quite a lot.
9. I have a booklist prepared from a variety of sources that all have Asexual characters, sometimes even the protagonists, and I’d like to read at least one of those per month and write up a review for it. But I think I’ll also add wlw books to it, as that tends to be most of what I’m reading right now anyway. I especially have a list of wlw with DRAGONS!
10. I actually submitted to three different chapbook poetry contests just prior to midnight (in three different time zones) on 31 December 2021. I’d like one of those submissions to actually win and for me to have my very own, very first book published in 2022! How cool would that be?!!? And since I already submitted to the contests, I have no more say in whether this goal is achieved or not but it’s still something with potential that makes me happy.