All Aboard! Train 2025 leaving the Station!

The ball has dropped in Time Square. We’ve all sung Rabbie Burns’ Auld Lang Syne once more. People the world over have cheered, hugged and kissed to welcome the new year and say good riddance to the old.

But I for one was saddened to bid adieu to one of my favorite years in recent memory, both for my unexpected success in 2024 on Vocal and also within my personal life.

And to slather creamy icing onto the delicious cake the past year proved to be, I’ve gained a whole host of new friends in Vocal's communities.

But unfortunately, my initial experience on the platform was less than propitious when I posted my first story 'Where the Purple Mushrooms Grow' on January 21st, 2021.

Having finally found a media site that supported likeminded creatives, I had hoped it would prove an opportunity to promote my literary talents.

But few readers visited my initial story efforts and even fewer dispensed likes. 😢

The months slowly passing, each new story generated fewer and fewer reads till I began to post stories that were not read at all, their quality be damned. The Vocalsphere responded to my authorial brilliance with an epic meh!

Talk about a lesson in humility! After three years of posting my best efforts in fiction and poetry I earned a total of twenty dollars and 32 cents and two subscribers. 🤮

That's right campers.

It took me three years to earn enough scratch to actually begin withdrawing it from my Vocal wallet. Before that, when I opened it, animated moths fluttered out.

If you're wondering what the best strategy is to achieve such pitiful results, make sure that when you read other creators work on Vocal that you NEVER, EVER leave a comment. 😵‍💫

This will greatly increase the odds of hearing crickets when you post your beautiful stories and poems that might have led to world peace and caused the masses to weep for joy if they had only read them!

So, if that is what you’re currently doing, STOP IT! Introduce yourself. Say hi. Pull up a chair and have tea and a biccie.

Having finally learned my lesson, when 2024 began, I determined to roll up my sleeves and out comment everyone on Vocal. Well… everyone ‘cept Dharrsheena.

I mean, get real, I’m not superhuman!

If only I had figured that out in 2021! When I began reading, commenting and subscribing the floodgates opened. It literally blew my mind!

Once I began commenting in earnest, the impossible happened. After almost three years of hearing only crickets when I posted stories, I received my very first Top Story recognition for ‘Artisan’ after I posted it January 18th, in the Feast community.

Fast forward to years’ end, and I had Twenty Top Stories and placed for the first time with ‘These Things I Remember,’ for the Love Unraveled Challenge.

I also finished most of my story backlog (‘cept for my children’s book), posted several serial stories in the Chapter’s community to include an Elizabethan styled play in ten scenes plus epilogue - ‘The Death of the Queen,’ added the Feast, Serve and Future communities to my play list and sharpened my illustration skill set.

But best of all I found a core group of wonderful writers who have consistently read my stories and poems and provided encouragement and useful feedback.

Signing up for Vocal is like joining an international writers' group! That alone is priceless!

Not bad for a fella WHO COULD NOT FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET READS FOR THREE F&$!#%G YEARS!!!

Deep breath, old buddy, deep breath.

So now what? How on earth do I raise my game in the new year? It does not help that reading other creators project 2025 goals has intimidated the Hell out me.

I cannot rest on my laurels, not when everyone else is shooting for the moon and I had only decided to continue writing stories, articles, poetry and compete in challenges.

Come on, Johnny Boy, is that the best you can do?

But hang in there, fellow campers, there’s more! I have also set two major challenges for myself in 2025.

Our bad. Two whole challenges? Guess you covered January, at least. What about the rest of the year?

No, no, no. These are hard ones, I swear! I intend to complete my first children's book, 'No Sharks on the Trampoline!' And it’s a bigger deal than you may think!

Although I have toyed for years with the idea of illustrating and writing a children's book, I never really had a story concept interesting enough to put in the energy and effort for such a project. Creating the artwork alone can consume hundreds and even thousands of hours.

When my wife suggested creating one based my interactions with my grandsons Campbell (age 8) and Hunter (age 7), the idea of creating a story using their imaginings began to take shape in my mind.

But after preparing a few test drawings of our eldest grandson that my wife said looked nothing like him, I knew I needed to create a completely new style for the book.

This ultimately led to investing in a high-quality art program (Rebelle 5) and computer drawing tablet (Gaomon). After several months of learning how to best to use Rebelle 5 to achieve the vision that I had for the book, I started preparing illustrations using a new style that I describe as comic realism. The illustration of the three of us space walking is one of the completed ones from the book:

Second, I plan to really go outside my comfort zone and illustrate and write a graphic novella serial, 'Children of Wrath.'

I have posted two completed illustrations for the novella below, the first one shows Pilgrim and Fan, the story's main protagonists..

The second shows Pilgrim looking out of his cell at the reflection of his lost youth.

I’d like to give a special thank you to Vocal and all of those who regularly read my offerings, especially the readers who read my serial fiction as well. If not for you, I would not even consider creating a graphic serialized novella.

I wish all of you the very best in 2025!