Looking Ahead

This time if year brings about a lot of the year in review and best of the year awards. I prefer to look ahead to what is coming and get excited. A lot of people like to wait until the new year for this sort of thing. I prefer not to wait. If there is something exciting to look forward to then I like to get into it as soon as possible. So this week I am going to talk about a little of both. What did I accomplish this year? What can we look forward to next year? When will I land a job hosting a game show?

Virtual Wars

The first novel in the Virtual Wars Series is for the most part done. Edits are finished, cover is done, the front and back matter are finished, and my acknowledgement of Papa Smurf as my mentor is finished. I am just working on fixing up some of the formatting and doing a final read through to fix any small errors, mostly with formatting. Cthulu demands it. I can't wait to begin rolling out some of the stuff I have lined up to introduce this novel. So what does this mean for the future?

• Virtual Wars: Booting Up - The prequel collection of flash fiction stories will be released for free on Kindle.
• Pre-order - Once the release date is announced, Virtual Wars: Initialization will go on pre-order on Amazon. This will happen sometime in January.
• Release - 30 days after the book is available for pre-order the novel will be available for purchase on Kindle as an e-book or print on demand paperback, and also available for e-book download on Kindle Unlimited.
• Promotion - I plan to work on promoting the novel every day for the first 30 days of the novel's release. I have some cool stuff planned like a fireworks display in the shape of a Darth Vader PEZ dispenser. I hope you all will join me for it. Actually I've been told that isn't in the budget, but I will make it happen if I can!
• Virtual Wars: Running - This is the title of the second book in the series. I have a basic outline that I am currently working on. I can't wait to work on this one. As much as I love the first novel as it is right now, I think this one will be better. I can't wait to write it! I hope to release this one around August, but I am hoping to have it done and released by the end of the year.

Social Media

This past year I have made strides to increase and improve upon my social media presence. I love all of you who have interacted with me on Twitter. It is by far my favorite of all the social media outlets and it is because of all of the amazing people I have met there. I would name you all, but there are just too many of you and I wouldn't want to leave out anyone that I think is awesome. I went past 2000 followers yesterday without trying much to recruit followers. That will change a bit in the coming months. Unfortunately I have been neglecting some of the other social media outlets that have their own brand of awesome. So what can we look for in 2016?

• Live Tweeting: Much of the live tweeting I do comes as a spur of the moment 'it would be cool if' kind of thing. I hope to schedule these things in advance rather than giving people exactly 5 seconds of advance notice. These are things that I can definitely do. An event calendar is something that I need to add to this blog.
• G+: I like Google+. It has been great for interacting with authors and helping to organize things. Much better than my method of tossing monkey feces everywhere and hoping it doesn't stink the place up too much. Many of the general writing groups seem unfocused. I recently joined an author group that is everything I have been looking when I was trying to organize the Author Superfriends Teamup. I'm hoping that it will continue to grow and expand. 
• Periscope: I have a Periscope account that I have signed up for and I have something very cool planned for this in the near future, and no I will not be dancing on top of a table for pocket change. If you are looking for me, I use the same handle there as I do on Twitter @ninjadueces22
• Wattpad: I still love this community, but I haven't participated much lately. I have posted a few things this year that I intend to remain free like "These Are Not The Droids" and "Black Friday". I will continue to do this and I hope to revisit "The Ghost" for season 2 in 2016, but my priority is to work on the Virtual Wars novels.

Blogging N' Stuff

I have been very happy with the transformation this blog has been through in the past year. I love the redesign, I love the improved content, I love puppies and kittens and all manner of fuzzy cute things. Apparently everyone else seems to like my blog more as well. In 2014 I doubled my monthly traffic from 2013. In 2015 that number has tripled. I hope for that trend to continue. So what's the plan for next year?

• Deadpool: The Deadpool movie is coming in February and I will be posting a review. It will be glorious like the sun rising over the ocean. The best review of all time will be posted after I see the Deadpool movie.
• Events: I only had two events last year, and both of them were fantastic. I want to schedule more of them. I want to interview whoever will let me. I want to host guest blog posts. I want to write guest blog posts for others. I want to eat cookies and spread the crumbs over my blog. This requires others to participate, so if you want to help let me know. I will guest blog for you, I will interview your pet, I will clip your toenails... OK maybe not that last one.
• Godzilla: I will continue to run from Godzilla in 2016. Wouldn't you??