I always fail at New Years resolutions. I’m not unique, of course, everyone does…and if you don’t, well, whoopie-frickin-doo. *thumbs nose at you*
This year I’ve decided to set a more reachable goal: do better. Be better. Be healthier, more creative, do something new. I need something new so badly.
Being healthier is the first step, as I spent most of 2014 feeling really, really ill, which affected my work and my home life. I (who never go to doctors unless I literally think I’m dying) have spent so much time at doctors’ offices having tests and appointments with very little to show for it. Palm-sized hemorrhages on my arms, hair falling out in strands. Exhaustion, feeling like I’ve had a lowgrade case of the flu for a year. All the doctors can do is shrug and say that I have some kind of auto-immune condition, it’s a mystery, don’t know what else we can do. One offered me anti-depressants because “they make everyone feel better.” I was raging at the end of that appointment.
So fuck ’em. I’ll get healthy on my own. I’m trying to cut down on the amount of work that I have so I can just get out and walk, building up strength to do other things. I used to be an athlete and feeling like this is the most horrible thing. I’ll be better.
I’m going to art harder this year. I’ve raised prices a bit, and I’m trying to cut down the amount of work that I do on a weekly and monthly basis because I want to be better. Yes, I can do production work and churn it out to meet deadlines, but I want to be better than that. I want to do more painting and illustration and I want to do more creative covers. I don’t want to be pushed into doing bad covers, because you would be astonished at the number of authors who micro-manage covers to the point where they’re much less than they could have been. I don’t want to be the person doing that work.
As for something new? I don’t know what that will be yet, but I’ll make damned sure that it will happen this year. New job, going back to school, trying to find a way of financing my love of travel…who knows? For certain I want to write more this year. (Another reason for wanting to do less cover work.) There are so many ideas bubbling away I feel as though I could explode. I’m going to jump and just do it.
Here’s wishing you all the best in 2015. Art harder, whatever it is that you do.