Six pages written.

Thank heavens for, and celebrate all, small victories.

It’s been too long reaching out and saying hello.

HELLO!

With that sordid business out of the way…

The terrible thing about the New Year is you know full well that resolutions and dramatic changes are difficult to stick to. The wonderful thing about the New Year is that there is (at least in my opinion) a nice internal desire to try.

So I’m making an effort to prioritize uninterrupted time in my schedule to create after a year of spinning, reacting, and failing to get much done on the creative front.

Will I stick with it? I hope so.

What I can tell you is that yesterday afternoon I wrote six full pages I’m very proud of for Tales of the Lost Toxics. It was a portion of the story I’ve written through multiple times, but I finally figured out how to get through the middle portion of the situation.

Once that was figured out almost everything came together (The almost is one little thing I have to changed after reaching out to a friend with expertise in the problem area).

Making headway on the story felt so frigging good!

I won’t pretend this has fixed any problems in the Joseph household. And I can promise it hasn’t meant much to the world at large. But I will say that I am so much more content with myself as a person when I’m making headway of Tart’s story than when I’m not. So maybe me being less upset with myself could have ripples for others?

I do want to say that our readership has always been incredibly kind and supportive of us. Whether we’re knocking out multiple chapters, or stuck in limbo, I am constantly appreciative of you being there for us (in this case, really me). I mention this because I don’t want anyone to feel this pressure is external. You all are cool as shit.

But with the honesty that the pressure to produce is coming from me, I can say that yesterday felt incredible.

The Toxic Fruit agent I was writing about was put through the ringer, but she kept fighting and figuring out new ways to move forward in her mission. And I was just overjoyed.

Now, I have to keep that rhythm. It doesn’t have to be six pages a day, but I do have to put in multiple hours every week to get this done. For my peace of mind. But also for you to read and enjoy.

I’ll let you know as the year goes on if I’m succeeding there or falling into old habits.

Wish me luck! Also, if you want to try to do better for yourself right here at the start of the New Year… go for it. If you fall back, you still did something for yourself.

I do believe wholeheartedly that you are more likely to stick with changes if you’ve announced them to the world (which is why I wrote this) than if they stay in your mind. So if you want to make a change for your own good (physical or mental health, finances, or whatever), feel free to comment or message me about what you’re trying to do.

Talk more soon!

Kevin