When people ask me now what I will do after retirement, I still tell them that I will do nothing for at least one year. They all think that I plan to go Garfield and vegetate.

"Nothing" to me, however, includes reading, writing, painting, and knitting.

For starters:

1) I intend to re-read the entire Harry Potter series in succession and see if it still has a magical hold on me. The challenge, though, is to use my own visualization while reading without my mind being tainted with images from the movies.

2) I also intend to re-read my Judge Dee books, my Paul Auster books, my Paul Bowles books, my Brother Cadfael books, my Agatha Christie books, and my Lillian Jackson Braun books. Anything that no longer interests me will be disposed of.

3) I'm spending an initial week on Grande Island to work on a 64-foot oil mural, finish installing gnome houses on a felled tree, and try out being a hermit-consultant in a hermit's hut. This will be the only place where anyone can consult me for anything henceforth. 

4) I intend to complete my series of paintings, whether I exhibit them or not.

5) I intend to complete my Sitio Catacutan, ten-volume, series, in cyberspace.

6) I intend to complete my 40-volume, Complete Works series, in cyberspace.

7) I intend to write more plays.

8) I intend to continue dramaturging plays for Theatreworks Singapore.

9) I intend to write young adult books, illustrate them myself, and place them in cyberspace.

That should be a good beginning with a full "nothing" plate.

If you knew me as a writer and an artist, you ain't seen nothing yet.