500 Miles and a Stack of Books: Making Plans for 2023

It’s Sunday morning, the first day of 2023, and I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

For many of us, the changing of the year is a time to look back at the past months while also making plans for 2023. I didn’t write a separate “looking back on 2022” post, but I certainly got down a few ideas about things I would like to do in the coming year.

There are many moving parts to each of our lives, and keeping them all interacting smoothly can take a little bit of doing. During the months of the lockdown, much of our focus was on our physical and mental health, to the detriment of friendships and outside pursuits. In the 18 months since we’ve had the vaccines and started to open up our lives again, my focus has shifted and taking care of my health has moved to the back burner, until I had to admit in the last couple of months that I’d moved from one extreme set of imbalance to another.

Which is why my plans for 2023 include things I can do to level the scales, to achieve more balance in my life.

I’ve never been all that good at physical challenges, and I’ve certainly never attempted a virtual physical challenge, but since Covid forced us to abandon our North Coast 500 road trip halfway around, I thought that virtually walking the route would be a suitable challenge for the first part of the year.

I’m eight miles into my 500-mile journey around the north coast of Scotland and – if nothing else – getting in the miles will get my backside off my office chair and my gaze away from the computer screen for a little while each day.

I also hope that it will bring me many, many new words. During the lockdowns, I did much of my writing while out for walks, and I’m hoping to revive that habit. Which leads me neatly onto the second set of plans, which are all about books.

Last year, I launched my very own bookshop, worked regularly on my newsletters and Patreon page, released three books, and wrote a bunch of short stories.

In 2023, I’m hoping to add paperbacks and some unusual items to my store. There will be an Italian version of Job Hunt and a French version of House Hunt. I’m going to up my blogging schedule and… there will be new books.

My plans for 2023 don’t have a complete a publication schedule yet, because that has moving parts which are still out of my reach, but here’s an idea of what you can look forward to:

First, there’s Hiding Place, the story of Zac and Robert falling in love while renovating an old house with a secret.

Not too far before or after comes Grand Union Hunt, the next Dwight & Conrad Casefiles story, this time centred very much around Gareth and how far he’s prepared to go to make sure things are done just right.

A little further down the line is Zero Tolerance, the final book in Jack’s backstory, Zero Rising.

After that, things become a little nebulous, but on my list are A Simple Mistake, the next full-length Jack and Gareth book, Fan Bait, a Power of Zero side story, Claimed, the 3rd book in the Balance of Magic series, and Time in a Bottle, which is the companion story to last year’s Christmas novel A Box of Wishes.

I don’t think for a moment that they’ll all be published this year, but if I can make a reasonable dent in my list while still keeping up with the day job and getting a little bit more active for my own benefit, then I’ll be very happy.

As we all know, the best laid plans don’t always come to pass, but as I’m enjoying the first morning of sunshine of the New Year, I’m determined to make progress on some of these. Because the one thing I love more than anything else, and that never fails to give me pleasure, is writing books and chatting with readers.

It’s something I don’t want to put aside for anything else. Not even my own laziness when it comes to sports!

So that’s me sorted for the next twelve months. If you’re making your own plans, I wish you all the success in the world! And why not tell me in the comments what those plans are, because I would love to cheer you on.