Four and a half reasons I'm excited about 2023

Pictured: me (right) and this shiny, brand-new year, 2023 (left).

On January 1st, 2023, my daughter announced to me, “Daddy, I want to take the training wheels off of my bike.” This was not some metaphorical statement. She’d just grown tired of the way the training wheels on her bike rattled and sometimes got her stuck when trying to ride on loose gravel. She was confident that they’d served their purpose – they’d trained her to enjoy riding a bicycle – but that she no longer needed their assistance.

I warned her that removing them would mean falling down a lot. Possibly getting scraped and even cut. She was unfazed. And so, on January 2nd, with band-aids in the backpack, we went to the park, and got busy practicing. And fall down she did. Repeatedly. But she never cried. In fact, most times, she laughed at the silly circumstances resulting in a fall (a wobbly wheel, or an inexplicable decision not to apply the brakes before her bike hit the lamppost). A bit of unexpected rain brought an early end to the proceedings, and though she didn’t want to stop, we headed home, determined to try again the next day.

By late afternoon on January 3rd, you’d never believe this kid had ever even heard of a training wheel. She was zipping around the park like a business district Uber Eats deliveryperson at lunchtime, narrowly avoiding injuring everyone in her vicinity and ignoring all safety regulations. In the evening, she noticed all the bumps, bruises and scrapes on her shins, grinned widely and pointed to them proudly as her “proof.”

This, folks, is how to begin a new year.

So let me draw some inspiration from my heroic daughter, and throw my own training wheels (these ones very much metaphorical) into the ocean (they’re also biodegradable and nutritious and delicious to sea creatures).

Here are some things I’m excited about in 2023, because you’ve got to have something to look forward to.

1. Projects I’m working on

I’ve got so much stuff going on that I’m genuinely excited about:

This newsletter. I started it completely on a whim, and it’s only a little over a month old, but it’s already become such a source of positivity in my life. That will continue. Thank you so much to everyone who’s been participating, in whatever this is, so far.

At least one podcast set to debut in the coming months. Maybe more than one, but one for sure. I’ll share more when it’s time to.

I’m going to finish writing a novel in 2023, and then hopefully publish it, one way or another. There, I’ve said it. Now it has to happen. Stay tuned.

I require ambitious reading projects in order to keep my imagination whirring, and this year, I’ve settled on two such projects:

• Cormac McCarthy, who some say is the greatest living American writer, has published 12 novels. As far as I’m aware, 2023 will have 12 months. You can see where I’m going with this. Cormac McMonthly! A couple of these will be re-reads for me, but most of them won’t. I’m prepared for the darkness of the human soul, bleak humour, and gorgeous prose.

• Acclaimed sci-fi and fantasy series deep-dive! I’m aiming to complete the Expanse series (three of nine books left to go) by James S.A. Corey, as well as Octavia E. Butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty series, and Fonda Lee’s Green Bone Saga. If time allows, I may revisit Tolkien as well. That represents a lot of time spent reading, but what better way to spend time is there, really?  

2. Victor Wembanyama reshaping the NBA according to his whims

There are two kinds of people in the world: people who cannot wait to see Victor Wembanyama join an NBA team and immediately render the other 29 NBA teams obsolete, and people who have never seen Victor Wembanyama play. If you’re in the latter category, here:

This guy is only 19 years old, but already stands 7’4” and is good at essentially every possible skill on the offensive side of basketball – including three-point shooting – as well as several defensive ones. He is currently dominating the LNB, France’s pro league. The last time a guy scheduled to enter the NBA was surrounded by this much hype, the guy’s name was LeBron James. We all know how that turned out.

Currently, several NBA teams are doing all they can to race to the bottom of the standings, to ensure they get a shot at the top draft pick. See, the NBA’s made the selection process interesting: the worst three teams in the league at the end of the season each have only a 14% chance at the number one pick. Nothing is guaranteed! The stakes could not be higher!

Late spring/early summertime is always my own personal most wonderful time of the year, because that’s when the NBA playoffs happen. But this year will be extra special, because in addition to the annual champion being decided, we can also look forward to whichever team winds up with the Wembanyama pick winning a kind of nebulous, imaginary, champions-of-the-future designation.

3. Kind of a big year for Nintendo!

In 2022, I spent less time playing video games than any year I can remember. This was a conscious decision. As someone with limited free time, I have to be judicious about how I spend the time I do have (for example by reading manga, lol).

And yet, I’ll never stop being fascinated by Nintendo. Especially because, in recent years, they’ve made the full heel turn of going from lovable, underdog producer of industry-defining, connoisseur-quality video games, to… well, still that, but somehow also an evil and bloodthirsty Disney-mimicking, globe-conquering Entertainment and Merchandising Behemoth.

But, look, I grew up with their stuff. To me, the word “Nintendo” will never not sound like a magical promise of fun and inspiration.

• In 2023, the Nintendo Switch will turn six years old, which is ancient by video game standards. And yet it continues to smash sales records.

• A new Fire Emblem is coming, and that series, which used to be about dry and strategic military battles, has transformed into a lovely little dollhouse where sparkly and colourful animes can be paired off, dressed up and groomed (with the odd military battle thrown in for flavour). You’re goddamn right I’m going to play it. Day one.

• There’s also a new Zelda coming in May.

• The Super Nintendo World theme park will open in Hollywood in February.

• That Mario movie will be released worldwide, and I’m betting that more than a few people will see it. (Shame about Pratt, though.)

4. Can Stephen King bounce back, or is he washed?

Like millions of others, I can honestly claim that King is the guy that got me hooked on reading fiction, at a young and impressionable age. He’s my problematic and inconsistent fave. An unrelenting fire hose of entertainment to which I have returned, allowing myself to be forcefully drenched again and again throughout my life.

But the dude is 75 years old, and it’s starting to show. He’s committed, in his fiction, to coming off as hip and “with the times,” and given that he’s an eccentric housebound half-billionaire, it shouldn’t be surprising that he struggles with writing realistic contemporary characters, especially young ones. Yet he continues trying to write exactly those characters! His most recent novel, Fairy Tale, which came out last year, was an absolute slog. Maybe his worst novel ever. Part of the problem was its protagonist: a high school kid who felt about as true to life as the book’s title would suggest.

Bet you’re wondering what he’s thinking. And that’s exactly what he wants you to be wondering. Sly old fox.

King is a man who has been through some shit. He’s also published more than 80 books of fiction (and I’ve read nearly all of them, god help me), so it’s possible he simply hasn’t got anything left to say.

So far, there are no officially announced release dates for 2023. But, since 1974, there have only been three calendar years in which King didn’t put anything out. I hold out hope that he can fully embrace his old man on the hill Twitter persona and use it to crank out at least one more certified classic.

5. Constantly being surprised and bewildered

This last one is not about a phenomenon unique to 2023, of course, but it’s something I notice happening to me on an increasingly frequent basis.

Nothing about this new year suggests a slowed-down pace, and I’m only getting older and more feeble-minded, so it’s a safe bet that there’ll be lots to raise my eyebrows about. I’m excited to find out what those trends and events will be, and just how high up my forehead these eyebrows can get.

What’s got you excited for 2023?