Happy New Year

It’s 3:30 p.m. as I write this, and already the pop and boom of fireworks echo across the town. Yep, we’re getting ready to celebrate 2017. That brings me to the annual ritual of setting resolutions for the new year.

What makes it tough for me is that a lot of common resolutions involve things I already do. Write every day. Blog regularly. Work my social media. Make appearances. Support my groups, specifically SCBWI and SpoCon. Keep watching my diet.

So those don’t really seem like resolutions. They’re not goals so much as maintenance. So after casting about, I have three resolutions related to my writing, and one personal resolution.

1) Write at least 15 chapters on a totally new novel. It always takes me at least 1-1/2 years for a new first draft, so a whole novel would not be realistic, but 15 chapters will be a good chunk of one.

2) Write at least 4 short stories during the year, and market them to young readers. Novels tend to take up all my time, but I need to keep up with the other stuff, too.

3) Self-publish my second short story collection, this one by Deby Fredericks.

And the personal one, 4) Be more of a dragon in defending my political views, while remaining courteous. Dragons are powerful, after all. So powerful that rudeness diminishes them. The amount of fake news, gas lighting, and just plain lies have really become intolerable, but while confronting the dishonesty, more rudeness only muddies the waters. So I’m going to be practicing phrases such as “we weren’t talking about (insert inflammatory topic) so I’m not sure why you decided to go there” and “please stop being rude to my friends.”

A tough one, I know. Wish me luck!