35

Time for my annual birthday stocktaking, admittedly a week or so late.  It seems I neglected to review my goals and progress last year, so I’m look back two years for my most recent review.  Here’s a look at the goals I posted then, and how I’ve measured up in the intervening time:

• I still need more income.
  Update: Didn’t really happen.  In fact, I’m probably making less income now, as I’ve cut back my teaching to spend more time home with the baby.  Not a bad trade-off there, since I very much like being home with the baby.  It does look like I have some paid writing work on the horizon, though (see below).
• I’m going to have a lot of promotional work to do once Trouble Is hits print.
  Update: Trouble Is is still a long way off from hitting print.  It’s fully scripted, and I’m very proud of the final product.  But it’s still awaiting illustration and Shelli has understandably needed to prioritize more immediately lucrative opportunities.  I’m still confident that the book will happen, but the timing is out of my hands.

• I want to get Gingerbread Houses into print.
  Update: Well, three out of four minis are in print now, and the fourth will follow closely on the completion of the online version—just a couple of weeks off now!  And really, just getting the series completed is the big achievement here—my largest single completed work to date.  I do plan to assemble a collected edition at some point in the future as well, but I need to have a conversation with Grug about how we want to approach that.
• I want a wider variety of things to sell at cons, particularly books with spines.
  Update: I’ve done some of this.  Most cons still aren’t profitable for me, but I’m also still shorter on books with spines than I think I need to be.  However, I’m finding that the smaller the con, the more profitable it tends to be for me.
• I want to script not one, but *two* new graphic novels in the coming year.
  Update: Trouble Is was one of these, and that one is finished.  I never got around to starting the second, though.  Nothing in the works at the moment, sadly.  That needs to change.
• I need to get my website cleaned up, redesigned, and profitable.
  Update: The website is done.  Twice, in fact.  Still not exactly profitable, but I bring a few bucks in from Project Wonderful.  I’d bring in more if I had anything actually updating here.

So, some good things accomplished, some other plans gone awry.  Considering my son was born in the intervening time, I can’t feel too badly about it.

Now, looking forward:

• I’m in talks at the moment for a new textbook.  Nothing is signed yet, so I can’t go into details, but negotiations are proceeding well, and I’m confident that my co-author and I will be hard at work soon.
• I’m working on helping to edit Show and Tell, the comics anthology of the New England Comic Arts in the Classroom conference.  Not a paid gig, but a worthwhile one, and I’m very excited to see how it turns out.
• I just completed the first draft of an adaptation of one of my plays into a graphic novel. No artist committed to illustrating it yet, and honestly I think it will be a long while before I reach that point, so this one’s on hold.
• I need to find a new creative project to work on.  I’m not settled on anything, but I have a few ideas I’m considering.  Of course, the new textbook will require the majority of my attention, but I’m reluctant to let my creative work languish entirely.