Goals for the coming year from the Romantic Poet of the Internet

Some goals for the coming year (I count my years as starting, not on January 1st, but August 16th, my birthday) in no particular order:

*Keep writing.

*Get at least one significant chain bookstore to start carrying The Compleat Panther Cycles.

*Speak at at least one college or university.

*A new book in the Spring. On the scale of TCPC.

*At least one invite to be a Commencement Speaker (a school I actually attended, like Morgantown High, would be nice, but this is, after all, what it is and I may have to accept the fact that I am a pariah in the Mountain State)

*Tell no lies.

*New computer. A mac Mini. Give me old 'puter to the boys so Dante and Elric can finally play the games they want and use new software tools.

*Donate substantially to my daughter's wedding fund.

*Flirt when it feels right.

*Complete the redesign of The City of Legends. Goals: More features, greater accessibility and at least 1,000 poems on it.

*Visit the following towns/cities, even if not touring: San Diego, Long Island, Salinas, Mishawaka, Boston, Austin, Joshua Tree (although I may put that off until next September, when I can recharge my soul in the Santa Ana Winds)

*Move.

*Wait for DPSU to finally put out a Splenda version of Diet Dr. Pepper. The best tasting diet drink on the planet and it is the most toxic, as long as it keeps Aspartame.

*Grant three wishes to someone who asks in such a manner that it touches me.

*Skydive.

*Get a dog, a Pug. I'd been planning this for years with Ann, I didn't lose sight of it when she got homesick. Maybe a black Pekinese if I don't find a pug that there is chemistry with.

*Drop 30 pounds. Run a 5k.

*Name my heir.

*Revive "The Somewhat Strange Adventures of Skye Meadows". My concept, my words, just need a new model since the old one quit.

*Reconnect with at least one or two old friends. EJ keeps pushing me to contact some he's done some lookup on, but I'm not a big fan of stepping into someone's life who hasn't contacted you in the better part of a decade and expecting a warm welcome.

*Finish my novel and at least one of my screenplays.

*Edit at least two books for other writers (free of charge), I think I already have the projects lined up, Dan McTaggart's book of poetry and a fantasy novel by a former lover.

*Talk to an octopus.

*Do joint appearances with Mari Laureano, Larry Jaffe and Karla F. Sasser.

*Apologize to Nancy, in person.

*Do a fund raiser where I read the entirety of The Compleat Panther Cycles (all six hundred forty plus poems) in a single reading. Got a cause you want me to back? Call me!

*Place an interview in at least one major media magazine.

*Save one life.

*Visit Mary Lusebrink's grave.

*Help the Appalachian Education Initiative in any manner I can to spread their work.

*Keep open minded about the motices, purposes and emotional stamina of those women who cross my path.

*Tour coast to coast. Physically touch the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico along the way.

*Intensify. Focus. Accelerate. I have proven the impossible possible. I have proven the unlikely likely. I have proven the improbable doable. Time to change the world, one last time.

*Keep blogging, through this all. This may not be the most read blog, just as I don't sell as many books as the latest fad romance novelist, but my readers are amoung the most literate, earnest and worthy people I can imagine. So, I owe it to them.