Happy New Year!

Hey y’all,

Let me get right to it, since I’ve still got this enormous sprawling novel thing I’m doing and it’s very time consuming.

The horrors both public and private of 2016-2020 taught me not to make too many goals or resolutions. Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, and all that.

I do have some projects I’m interested in, though:

Dungeon23

has a great post on his Questing Beast YouTube channel about Dungeon23. I’ll just play it for you:

And here is the link to the issue of  that he references in the video. The Dungeon23 resources are a few paragraphs in.

So imma do this.

Briefly I considered making a whole newsletter about it that would kind of seed or lead into the D&D newsletter I’ve been kicking around since the summer. But frankly I don’t have the administrative bandwidth for another newsletter, so I will just send out weekly summaries, similar to how I handled NaNoWriMo. Yes, that means 52 summaries rather than 4, but I’ll make it its own section so you can unfollow it if you want.

Some of the content I have in the cauldron is being dished out into Teresa’s Backbone, as well. There may or may not end up being a formal, in-world connection between the two projects, but they are both using similar creative juices at the same time in my life as a person and an artist.

You should do one, too, by the way. Even if you have no idea what you’re doing. Even if you don’t play D&D or care to. Make a fantastical place or structure one room at a time in 2023. Do it!

Hairstyle

I think I’m going to cut my hair this year. Maybe I’ll do some crazy color thing, too, I dunno. But it’s just been forever and a day since I’ve had even a medium-length hairstyle, so. It’s time, 2023.

Teresa’s Backbone

In case you’ve not read anything here before or just dip in and out a lot with months in-between (totally fine), I’m writing this novel this is huge and sprawling and (overly?) ambitious. But I’m trying to make it very easy and approachable to read. And tell it in a way where you don’t have to read it all at once. You can read just a bit or two a day and over time, your mind will sort it all out and you will have read quite a bit more than you realize.

If you’re taking part in that, first: thank you! Engagement with readers and other writers is really why I write more than money, so it makes a huge difference when y’all give me even a comment now and then. Thank you! Second: let me know how it’s working.

I’ll go over the three behind-the-scenes (sort of) goals for the novel: 1) create a choose-your-own lite experience, 2) a solo roleplaying experience, 3) a write along novelling experience.

I have some other ideas about novels and plots over here.

Going Down With the Ship

The social network Ello may very well go down this year. I’m one of a handful of people (and if you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you are, too) who has stuck with it over the sale to Talenthouse and the subsequent lack of support and development. They seem to be trying to save it, right now, so. I hope they do. But I’m not holding my breath.

Provisional Goals and Resolutions

This isn’t a list of goals or resolutions, but a goal and resolution in itself. Imma keep everything in perspective as best I can, and set aside goals, resolutions, and other habits that aren’t working for me as needed. I’ll pick them back up if they do, too. Like that.

That’s all. Hope you are well today. Happy New Year!

Xoxo,

T

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