It’s time for everyone’s favorite blog post – the NEW YEARS POST!

As a creative dude-meister this is always a good time to take inventory of all my various projects, look back on what I accomplished, what’s being worked on, what’s on the burner.

Of course the big thing for 2011 was WINTER TOWN. At the start of the year I was still doing some revisions, working on art. By spring the advance copies were storming the nation. And in late fall the reviews started to trickle in and now it’s in stores, closing out my second book! You can read my other blog posts to read some reviews and accolades of that one.

So the assumption would be I spent summer and fall working on a third book, and that’s partially accurate. It always takes me a bit to figure out exactly what I want to do for a next book, and I certainly went through a few ideas before landing on the one I’m working on now. I’m having a hard time currently trying to get a few minutes to actually work on it, though, so I can’t say I’m powering through it with no problem. I’ve been sick for over a week now, I had a speech and signing before that, holiday things to do. I’ve been very busy and running around non-stop it seems. That said, Book 3 is a big goal for 2012. I’d like to have a contract and a solid outline and chunk of the book done by midyear. I’d like to spend the latter half of the year finishing it up.

Another thing I was doing this year was working on an iPhone game as “TACO GRAVEYARD” with my friend Sal doing the programming. We ended up with one massive game that’s about a third done so far, though the hardest part is designing the whole thing. Hopefully the next 2/3rds will move along faster. We also have a demo game called THE FOUR HATS that we are currently expanding into a full game with a deadline of finishing it within the month. So these things are fun and rewarding but add to the slow production time on my next book. Finishing the primary game and FOUR HATS are immediate 2012 goals and we have 5 other ideas on the backburner for games too.

Personal goals include getting in better shape, budgeting my time better so juggling these projects doesn’t kill me, and the big goal is to make enough money to do this stuff full time. It’s a hard jump to make but it’s always been my goal. If I continue to get Happyface royalties, if Winter Town starts making royalties, if I can get a few games on the app store, if I can sell this third book, who knows? Maybe 2012 will be a special year.