Last year I took some very tentative steps into the fray of being an artist on display. I’ve been on social media of course, but that has always existed within a personal realm, even on TikTok where I’ve seen some decent popularity it still feels like my private account escaping containment rather than establishing a proper presence online as an Artist. Whatever “proper” even means here. Whatever “Artist” even means here.
Getting a website is something that felt deliberate, an intentional attempt to build something with me at its core. And buying my official dot com domain using the profits from my first coloring book felt so legitimate and professional, like a handshake from an invisible benefactor offering me a grant, my work and efforts compounding and layering into my tangible reward. The last quarter of 2024 was a lot of basking in feelings of accomplishment, a feeling not foreign to me but never quite like this.
Simultaneously the ban coming for the only platform I have built any semblance of an audience on has been looming like a tsunami wave for months and I have stood frozen on the beach waiting to act. It seems disingenuous to feel anxious over its impending loss given that I failed to capitalize on any momentum I made, and now that we’re down to the potential final days I’m fighting the feeling of ‘well it’s too late now’.
It’s not. New year, new chapter, new platform if I must. It’s not starting over, because I’ve learned plenty that carries over, the type of content I want to make and how to make it, who my audience might be, practical video production knowledge.
Granted, every new platform comes with its own learning curves, its bumps and hurdles and social etiquettes to navigate. But I am entering 2025 with a special ingredient to add into my usual start-of-the-year cocktail of frothing ambition, enthusiasm, and devastating time anxiety; evidence based confidence.
With this in mind, here are some of the goals I’ll be working towards this year:
Publishing is the big one, releasing my first coloring book last year gave me a potent jolt of life and I am craving that high of accomplishment.
First, I am currently drawing up another illustrated book.
On the very first day of the year I dropped all my ongoing WIPs like hot stones and plunged into my first project of the year. The initial plan was for it to be another coloring book, but with the details I’m building up in the draft, the story that’s been unfolding to me in the outlining, and looking at all of the collected inspiration over the course of my life, this project is beginning to mean a bit more to me than first intended. A tentative release in April 2025 is planned for.
It may end up transforming to some degree, but no matter where that particular wind blows I still plan on releasing another coloring book next year, a follow up to my first; The Creepy Ghouls Club, in case my shallow attempts at marketing haven’t managed to splash you yet. Look for it October 2025.
After that project I’ll be starting in on drafting the first in an Adult Fantasy novella series. This would be my first independently published book, something I feel a modicum of confidence in tackling solely because I’ve released a coloring book, which you may notice is not at all the same thing as a book. It puts this project in this middling margin of being a practiced first step. I’ve had a great deal of the groundwork and outlining done for a while, this project percolating in the back of my mind for years now, and I think with a little bit of time management and focus, Calladia Asterus will be making her on page debut December 2025.
Swinging over to Traditional publishing, I am chipping away at the first draft of a YA contemporary fantasy one 15 minute writing sprint at a time. I am making a concerted effort to find balance in my focus, and with my other more urgent goals I don’t have the calendar space to focus months on this draft. This is a low and slow project that I intend to keep on the back burner stewing away until it’s ready. With a little over 35k words already, I’m aiming to take my first steps into the querying process early spring 2026.
A recurring and constant goal of mine is to continue my self-guided study of writing. To that end I’m already off to a great start this year, having just attended the OCLS virtual writers conference this past weekend. I heavily prioritize free and accessible resources for my self-guided study, so I am very familiar and at peace with how hit or miss free resources can be. But the best counter to that is abundance, the more you have to parse through the better you get at it, and the more use you’re able to absorb from the good and squeeze out of the bad. Not only was this TWO DAY conference completely free to attend, it was informative, interactive, fun, AND it’s not the only free writing seminar OCLS offers. I filled up several pages of notes, added several future virtual discussions to my calendar, and found several new writers to admire and follow. To shout out one of the presenters in particular, I found both of Kristen Stieffels’ sessions to be really well informed and delivered, and I am really looking forward to her next one available through the OCLS writers resources in February.
And my final professional goal of the year is to be a bigger, better professional. More purpose and intention with my social media, having art for sale, having my services available. And above all else, actually posting and sharing myself and my work. Because I am fully capable of doing things, because people actually like my art, because I want to, and I can. Ideally this will look like long-form content on YouTube, making art prints, stickers, digital art P.O.D., physical art listed on eBay. I currently have three commissions in the works, and that’s a trend I’d love to continue.
Casual aside to promote my other platforms, I am on TikTok (r.i.p.) as Voiquinn, Bluesky as Voiquinn, Youtube as Voiquinn, Instagram as Voiquinn. I have half a mind to plug back into Tumblr and update my username to Voiquinn. If you’re moved to give random people money my Venmo is Voiquinn. And now that I got swanky with WordPress Premium, my website is Voiquinn. It’s Voiquinn all the way down.
Now, to finish up the list, some of my more personal goals:
Read 52 fiction books, one a week. So far this is going strong with two weeks and two books down; Diavola by Jennifer Thorne, and Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle.
Read 12 non-fiction books, one a month. I have a solid list to pick from, so its only a matter of starting one.
Physically go to a library twice a month. On this I really have no excuses, I live so close to my local library with three other branches a reasonable bus ride away. I need every reason to leave my apartment since I am so keen on hermiting myself away. I want to connect with people, ideally other artists, other writers, other creatives making their way. I want to check out the makerspace that I’ve read up on so many times, I want to use their serger, and their 3D Printer. But most of all I want to do my part in helping support my libraries, and one of the best ways to do that is to get a library card and actually use them.
Despite *gestures to everything* I have a good feeling for the coming year. I’m going to do my best to take that energy and run with it, because I know the ground will come rushing when I inevitably fall on my face. But I’ve got a bounce to my step, and I feel resilient enough to ride the momentum of a rebound.
Made by Voiquinn 