It’s been a crazy busy year.
In the last twelve months, I proposed to my girlfriend, moved into a new house, published my first graphic novel, went on a 25+ city book tour and - through it all - managed to maintain my sanity and not go completely broke. The Texas Observer did a profile on WHERE WOLF. I appeared on the front page of the Bryan / College Station Eagle, a newspaper I briefly worked at after college. Most recently, the San Antonio Current named WHERE WOLF one of ten notable books released by Texas authors in 2023.
My personal, professional, and creative life are all chugging along at a speed and a direction I’m 100 percent happy with.
So what do I do for an encore?
How about trying to keep the momentum going?
I love New Year’s resolutions. I don’t always stick to them, but I love starting the year with some goals and a direction in which to orient myself. And so, without further adieu:
ROB SAUCEDO’S PLANS FOR 2024
Settle into my new place with my new fiance
After living in Houston’s Sawyer Heights neighborhood for the last several years, I’ve moved into Midtown. I hope to spend a good chunk of 2024 getting to know the new neighborhood and creating a cozy little home for the family. I also want to spend some time getting to know the parts of Houston I’m not as familiar with. I love exploring new neighborhoods and trying new restaurants and Houston is a big enough city where there will always be new neighborhoods and restaurants.
I guess there’s also a wedding to plan…
Return to my healthy habits
A side-effect of being on the road and traveling so much in 2023 was that I gained a lot of the weight I had lost in 2020 back. I’m going to be focused in this new year on losing some of that weight again, but also developing healthier long-term habits. I’ve rediscovered my love of cooking and the new neighborhood is highly walkable so I think I have the resources and drive to shed a few pounds and just feel healthier on a day-to-day basis.
Continue to grow and learn in my professional career
This March will mark my thirteenth year working in the film exhibition industry and, despite that time, I feel like I still have so much more to learn. I look forward to new challenges, finding new opportunities, and trying my best to continue to gain as much experience as I can so that I can become that much closer to being a true expert in my field.
Continue my creative pursuits
I’ve been writing for various newspapers and websites since I was 18 years old but these past few years were the first time where I felt like a “real” writer. I loved working on WHERE WOLF and I’ve been slowly chugging away at THE CURSE OF THE WHERE WOLF with my artistic team of Debora Lancianese and Jack Morelli. I don’t want to go backward. I’ll continue to spend time this new year working on the next WHERE WOLF comic book, but I’ve also started writing a new story that I’m very excited about. I intend to seek out new opportunities in new mediums and with new stories. I don’t want to just be the “werewolf in a furry convention” guy and I don’t think I will be. I’ve got a lot of stories I want to tell and the (perhaps ill-earned) confidence to tell them.
Consume as much art as I possibly can
I love thinking of my brain as a cup when it comes to creativity. I drink from that cup every time I write a new story and - unless I spend time refilling that cup - I’ll eventually get dehydrated. To combat this, I need to refill that cup with movies, books, music, television, video games, paintings, jaunts through nature, and - most importantly - lived experiences. I plan on filling my cup up to the brim this year with everything and anything I can consume.
So that’s it - those are my goals. Pretty simple stuff, I know, but just by writing these down I feel like I’m putting myself on the path towards making the most out of 2024.
I hope you guys have a great rest of your year and an even better start to the next.
And, if you do have some gift cards burning a hole through your pocket, WHERE WOLF is available to buy from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Brazos Bookstore and a ton of other great online and brick-and-mortar shops. If you have read WHERE WOLF, please consider leaving a review on Amazon and GoodReads. Reviews help a lot. Seriously, A LOT.
Finally, before I go, here’s a look at a new page from THE CURSE OF THE WHERE WOLF by Debora Lancianese.
I can’t wait for y’all to see where this story goes but, until next time, beware the moon!
I call my creativity a well, lingo I borrowed from The Artist’s Way. Refilling the well is as important as draining it!
Happy New Year’s my friend. So glad you got the 2023 you deserve ❤️