2023 Resolutions

Resolution #1: Buy no new books in January.

[In 2022, I acquired hundreds of books, but barely had time to read 75 of them, and most of those were small chapbooks.]


Resolution #2: Read more.

[Nikki Giovanni said: "If there is one thing to do today, it should be to read. Everybody says, 'Oh, you need to write every day.' No. You got nothing to say every day. Nobody does. Anybody that says, 'I have to talk to somebody every day,' good Lord! Who could live with you?"]


Resolution #3: Write more.

[I was gonna say write every day, but then I read that Giovanni bit. However, let me also add: Make more TIME to write.]


Resolution #4: Get back into the diligent exercise routine I got out of when I moved from Parma to South Euclid in the summer of 2021.

[Another thing I need to make more time for. My aches and pains have increased dramatically without it. But I've already started getting myself back into it over the past week or two.]


Resolution #5: Just say no.

[This is the only way I see to make more time for the above. Get more comfortable saying no. Consume less. Stop agreeing to do more than I can get done in a reasonable amount of time or committing to too many things. I end up doing a zillion things, none of them as well as I could if I had more time and focus. Then my stress level increases and I end up doing the things that I would usually love more out of pressure than pleasure, and then my health et cetera begin to suffer. Also, saying no to some new things will help me catch up on many old things that remain almost hopelessly behind.]


Resolution #6: Place Crisis Chronicles Press on hiatus (at least as far as publishing new books) by June of 2023 (our 15th anniversary) or as close to then as I can (once I've completed my current commitments). I will keep our in-print books available indefinitely, but resist taking on any new publishing commitments (no matter how tempting) through this coming year, though I may leave the door open to resuming in a future year once I've finished writing my long-suffering memoir.

seen in a northeast Ohio brewery bathroom
(2 August 2018)