Here's a DALL-E-2 piece from the prompt 'an art gallery of books filled with robots.' It ended up looking a little like the bookstore down the street from my house. This is one of those prompts that I might keep playing with.
Last night I dreamed of being chased by a small crowd of people. All I had to defend myself with were a few throwing knives. So I found an empty room, closed the door, and prepared to make a stand. The knives I was armed with were pitifully small, but they were all I had. I paced out the proper distance from the door to throw the knives and woke up as the crowd reached the room.
A few days ago, my grandma died of old age, surrounded by her husband and two of her sons. One of the first things I'll be doing in 2023 is attending her funeral. Grandma Anne was a loving woman who always had kind words to say about my creative endeavors. Professionally, she was a writer, doing newspaper articles, biographies, and a book called Tales from Spirit Mountain about Minnesota history. Her greeting cards were epic. And now she's gone.
Her passing doesn't feel sad. It feels like the natural order of things. But starting the New Year with death isn't ideal. Though maybe it's fitting, somehow. A reminder that the old always gives way to the new.
As I consider my plans for the year to come, a few things stand out. In 2023, I intend to more consciously prioritize love in my life. However wishy washy this might sound, it's where I'm at. Figuring out exactly what that means should be interesting.
Professionally, I feel good about my continued work for wanttoknow.info, and may even end up doing more for the organization. On the other hand, I'm less optimistic about my freelance work for the crypto industry. Cryptowriter burned me in 2022 by insisting I accept Terra dollars as payment and by being assholes about sharing my NFT projects. And writing for VCs in SEA is a total grind. I'm sure I'll keep writing for the industry in 2023, but not as much as I used to.
Will I write another book in 2023? Probably. And one of my main areas of focus in the year to come will be figuring out how to get publicity for my novels. My plan is to raise money to pay a marketing company to do this, but I'll also be submitting magazine articles, entering into creative collaborations, and doing other stuff to attract attention to my work. The only real formula for success here is knowing the right people, which I do not.
On a more personal level, I feel like maybe some big changes are coming. I'm in a good place for that emotionally and psychologically. My chronic illnesses are in remission. So I'm confident that I have sufficient inner resources to deal with whatever comes up. I just hope whatever comes up doesn't require financial or social resources that I don't have.
No matter what happens with me in 2023, the world will probably keep falling apart. Society is already a dystopia, and I see that deepening for the next several years at least. Writing about this is the best response to it that I've been able to come up with. Maybe someone important will read my writing in 2023 and be inspired to do better.
Read my novels:
See my NFTs:
