Hello 2015

Back home again after two weeks of sickness, death and funeral and I'm having trouble, as always after this sort of experience, easing back into regular life.

I'm sure all of you have been through something similar can understand.

I have 2015 resolutions but they sound rather banal I think: organize, create, be brave, be strong.

And eat better, of course.

I am reviewing YA SFF this year for Locus and continuing with aviation articles for Alaska Dispatch News. I broke into LARB last fall and have another review piece to finish and submit this month (on MG/YA nonfiction). I'd like to break in someplace else with some personal essays but nothing concrete to share on that score yet.

And of course, still and always Booklist.

The book is still in research phase. It's a very personal project, (about my ancestors as I have shared in the family history posts here), and I want to get it right. It's a time-consuming subject but I've gotten further along than I ever imagined. Right now I have to work on a marriage I never knew occurred in 1919 and gathering info on an asylum commitment in 1940. I love this project and I want it to succeed. Mostly, this year I just want to keep at it and continue to move forward with it.

I don't want to waste this year in talking about writing, like so many of us do.

There is nothing revolutionary about my 2015 hopes and dreams; just work. I want this year to be about work.

Finally, some sad news here - Ray Bradbury's house has been torn down. He lives forever in his stories and books but man, it's sad to think that the floors he walked for so long have disappeared.