My 2023 Magic Goals

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Well, here we are again. Another January has rolled around. Did you make any resolutions? Mine is not to strangle any more hobos down by the railroad tracks. Well, that’s not quite accurate. It’s actually to strangle fewer hobos down by the railroad tracks than in previous years. Progress, not perfection, people.

(And yes, you figured it out, I am the notorious RTHS - Railroad Track Hobo Strangler. The one you listened to that podcast about. Surprise.)

Here are my Jerx-related goals for 2023 (beyond the usual goals of getting the posts and the newsletters out on time).

Book #6

Book #6 comes out in October of this year. I’ve pretty much finished creating, performing, and testing the content for it, but nothing is written yet. I will be writing it over the next four to five months. And then another four to five months where the content goes from word documents on my computer to a fully composed and illustrated hardcover book ready to be shipped.

I’m going to do my best to meet that October deadline. I know that I’ll be able to hold up my end of things as far as getting all the components together. The unpredictable thing is the actual book printing, the supply chain, the shipping, and all of that. I’m pretty confident I’ve built in enough time even if those things are running slow, but I’ll keep you updated should there be any holdups.

Trick #1

2023 will see my first separately released physical trick. This has been harder than anticipated to get in the pipeline. And it’s not because the physical prop itself is difficult to produce. It’s more a matter of figuring out the logistics of how to go about pricing, producing, and packaging the product.

For the most part, any physical product I release that falls into the purview of the work I do on this site is going to be a limited edition that’s only available to supporters for a short period of time. So I can’t have the props made in advance because I have no clue how many I’ll need.

So what will probably end up happening is there will be an ad for the product in the monthly newsletter. People who are supporting at that time will have until the end of the month to buy it if they’re interested. At the end of the month, orders will be cut off. There will then be some waiting period while the props are manufactured and shipped on my end. So it may end up being like the products on TV when I was a kid: Please Allow 4-12 Weeks for Delivery.

Expect more details about the first trick release in an upcoming newsletter.

The Amateur At the Kitchen Table Reprint

The only book of mine I ever said would be reprinted was the softcover version of the Amateur At the Kitchen Table.

The expanded hardcover version is going to go from 40 pages to about 200. It’s going to collect the original manuscript and some related posts from the past seven years of the site. I plan to work on that later this year and release it in early 2024 for any supporters who are interested.

As far as my own personal magic goals, I have a backlog of about 160 tricks that I’ve purchased and never tried out. I know I’m always going to be somewhat behind on processing these tricks, but by the end of the year, I’d like to have no more than a dozen that I haven’t either dismissed (the majority) or added to my repertoire (and written up for the newsletter).

There are some other goals I’m hoping to accomplish as well, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise just yet.

What are your magic goals for 2023… put them in the comments below!

(I’m kidding. I don’t have comments. )