I’m a day late posting a writing/publishing plan for 2014. Actually, I’m a day late thinking about it. I started off yesterday in Oklahoma City with our daughter’s family. I had a chore to do, which kept my mind well engaged from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Packed the van at that point, said goodbye to everyone, including E1, E2, and E3, our grandkids, put my sick wife in the van, and headed east.

You’d think with my wife sleeping and the van quiet and it being New Year’s Day I would think about what my writing career would look like in 2014. But I didn’t. I vegged, listened to the radio, and thought about other things. Even after arriving at home, and having the house to myself while the wife slept, the Fiesta Bowl seemed a better way to feed my mind than writing plans.

But today I’m finally focused. Beginning with the things left hanging from 2013, and looking ahead to what is occupying my mind now, even when I try to push my mind to think about other things, I came up with these as elements of my writing/publishing plan.

– Decide on what to do with “It Happened At The Burger Joint”, the short story that occupied so much of my mind for so many months I had to write it in December. It’s polished and probably one edit/read-through away from being ready to submit to a magazine or self-publish. I don’t really know what to do with it. I suspect this will take a week or two to finalize and decide.

– Fix the e-book cover for The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 1, so that it can be added to the Smashwords premium catalog. I want to achieve this in January if at all possible.

– Prepare and publish The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 1, as a print book. I have a number of people at work and in the industry who want this as a print book but not as an e-book. I’d like to complete this in January. Of course, this will mean a major step up in my cover creation skills, or perhaps hiring it done. Which brings me to….

– Figure out how to use the “lite” version of Photoshop that resides on my laptop. I believe this will do all that I need for covers. I even have access to a training video on it. I believe I will make this a priority in January. I don’t know that I’ll be able to learn this program, or, if I am able, to must sufficient artistic talent to make my own covers at the quality needed, but I have to try. I can’t keep begging covers, and my earnings haven’t been enough to justify paying for covers.

– Finish and publish the book on Thomas Carlyle. This is tentatively titled Thomas Carlyle’s Articles in the Edinburg Encyclopedia. It’s all public domain material that has never been aggregated in one book. The text is done, except maybe for an introduction. I actually have the e-book cover done on this as well. The print book cover will have to wait on my Photoshop activities. I’d like to complete this in the first quarter.

– Finish Headshots, the sequel to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. This book is moving along, slowly. I’m at 21,000 words, heading towards 80,000. I was hoping to have this ready for baseball season. It’s possible, but not probable at this time unless I delay some other things.

– Write and publish Preserve the Revelation, which will be the second book in my church history series. This will be after all the above activities are completed.

– Work on The Gutter Chronicles, Volume 2. I have started this, still working on the first chapter. I have most of the fifteen chapters identified as to subject, and have brainstormed them a little. Depending on how I spend my early morning time at work and my noon hours, this should be doable to publish it in 2014.

– Write and publish one or two Danny Tompkin short stories. The next one is started in manuscript, and the plot is occupying gray cell capacity, so this may be a first quarter item.

– Write and publish one or two Sharon Williams short stories. Again, the plot for one has formed, and this could be a first half of the year thing.

– Work on Documenting America – Civil War Edition. This has long been planned. With everything else I want to do I think publishing it in 2014 is extremely remote, but getting on with the research would be nice.

– I have one other short story that is, unfortunately, refusing to release it’s hold on some of my brain. I suppose I will have to write it. I’m not sure right now when, or if, and if and when then whether to publish or not.

– And last, I would really like to start a writer’s newsletter this year, a way to build a readership and reach them. I’ve thought about this often in the past, but the time commitment has always dissuaded me. Still thinking about it.

This list has two big absences. It does not include my poetry book, Father Daughter Day, which is ready to be published except for illustrating. I don’t plan on doing anything with it right now. And it does not include any work on Bible studies or my long-planned Wesley books. I’d like to get back to those, but I have only so many hours in the day and days in the week.

Alas, retirement is still 3 years, 11 months, and 29 days away.