As 2005 says sayonara, I'm looking at the next few months and trying to put together a game plan. '06 is shaping up to be a busy year. The freelancer's life is never boring, and always stress-filled.

With a new editor at Insider, I'll be trying to push through some new proposals. I've already submitted several ideas, including something on Vader, some Imperials, and a few other things. Prognosis so far: "Looks promising." *Abel crosses fingers* The relationship with the folks here at StarWars.com has been working out nicely this past year, so it's a good bet you'll be see name pop up in the Hyperspace content here next year as well.

In the meantime, you know there's gonna be a rush of stuff from me on "The Story of General Grievous" hitting newsstands and the web in Jan and Feb (you can now chat about it at the forums here). My nonfiction essay "How I Took On An Empire" in an anthology geared toward professional writers is also set for an early 2006 release. The ebook's free to everyone, so I'll be sure to let folks know when it drops.

January should also see the launch of my brand new column, The Philodoxer, over at World Famous Comics (which hosts such Star Wars personalities as artists Joe Corroney and Jan Duursema, and the lovely blue-bodied Amy Allen) and at MySpace.com (which hosts the rest of the universe). The entertainment edition should start off with a bang with a review of the Revenge of the Sith by Matt Stover and thoughts on novelizations in general.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've always been a late bloomer when it comes to technology. I didn't own a computer until the late 90s and my first cell phone didn't come into my possession until two years ago (as such, I'm actually one of the few people on Earth fluent in 926312 code). But I've finally bought the domain name abelgpena.com, which should also go live early next year. More on that soon.

And of course, I'll be carrying on my regular Star Wars duties here and on the rest of the web. Naturally, I'll still be kicking around on the message boards; this blog will also see the continuation of the Star Wars Blogs of Sin Series, and I'll finally get around to chatting about Lumiya, Ewoks, and the clone Mandalore Alpha-Ø2. The Star Wars Fanboy Association will also continue hosting my 7 Star Warsesque Essays series, which with any luck may be extended to 9, Force willing. I was also recently invited by JediNet to participate in a "celeb chat," which sounds like fun.

And this is just in the first quarter of '06!

The freelancer's life is unforgiving, but never boring.

Happy New Year, folks! ~ Abel G. Peña

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