The year ahead
I’ve been re-reading blog entries from last year and it is making me feel stressed. I did a really good job of catching the chaos of book shipping and convention attendance in words. When I re-read, I remember how it was to scramble to put a book together, to scramble to organize and ship 3000 books. I remember these things and know that I have them ahead of me this year.
Then I stop and remind myself that this year is not last year. Last year was full of new experiments. We printed boxes for sets. We printed a black and white, text-heavy book (XDM X-Treme Dungeon Mastery.) We also did our first re-print. Last year was all about shifting and experimenting. This year will be about stabilizing. We will be busy, but we will be busy with familiar processes rather than new ones. This is good because I got mightily exhausted from hiking up learning curves.
I have a plan for this year. I have attempted to balance the family schedule and the work schedule to make they co-operate. I have scheduled the necessary child-care for the trips I will need to make. (My guilt at leaning on my relatives twice per year so I can attend conventions is a post unto itself.) Our year has spaces in it, which last year did not. But I still worry, because I know how quickly needs and deadlines can shift in crazy ways. I also anticipate, because so much of what we have ahead of us is going to be fun as well as busy.