It's That Time Again

Time to make the donuts?

No, time to make New Year's Resolutions.

Phhft.

What do you mean, "phhft?"

I mean, you've never kept a resolution in your life.

That's not true. For several years, I made only one resolution and that was to not make any resolutions for that year. Those were very successful years, by the way.

So now you've fallen off the "no-resolution" bandwagon and you expect me to be happy for you?

That would require more stretch to the imagination than the elastic in a fat man's pants.

Ha ha



Anyway, as I was saying, it's resolution time. I've been thinking about it, and I've decided that I will make a few resolutions this year. I'm not getting any younger and there are some definite areas of my life that need improvement. So here it is, in no particular order, my list of resolutions.

- Lose 75 pounds

I've heard that one before, folks
Hey! Shut it!

- Find a job

- Read more books

I read an interesting post on one of the blogs I read. (Oooh wait, another resolution, update favorite blog list on this blog...nah, that's a to-do list item...never mind.) This post at Romancing the Blog gave birth to this idea. The writer, Jana Hanson, mentions the number of books she read over the past year and that got me to thinking. I haven't done as much reading in the past few years as I've done in many years further past, but I do want to read more, so why not do the same? Keep a running count of how many books I've read. Okay, yeah, good idea. I can probably find some kind of widget that'll help me keep track of the number of books I've read this year.

Yeah, maybe you could find one on the same site you got that weight loss widget from last year? You know, the one you deactivated after two months?

Hush, you!

But then, I thought, why not take it a step further and post reviews of those books? I've done a couple ARC book reviews this past year for Leucrota Press and reviews on one or two books that I just liked, so why not put the two together and just do it? So that's what I'll do.

This was such a great idea, that in the middle of typing this post, I just went ahead and created the new blog! I called it, A Year In Reviews. Catchy, hunh? Come on, you know you like it!

So starting Jan 1, 2010, whenever I finish a book, I'll post a review, so go check it out, okay? I'll even transfer the reviews I did here to there so they're all in one place.

Okay, back to the list of resolutions. Let's see, we've got lose weight, find job and read more. What else...

- Finish 2009 NaNo Novel

That one is in progress and I hope to have it done by the end of January.

- Get back to writing "The Penn Chronicles"

The Penn Chronicles is what I'm calling the series of books I'm planning based around one central character named Penn. I have one story partly written and ideas for three more, so there's some work to be done there.


Okay, I'm dry. Can't think of anything else. I'm sure there's probably more, and I'm sure I'll not do as well as I'd like on some of these, but at least I'm making a list of goals, and I will work toward them and let you know how it's going.

I have some running around to do, so I have to go. And YOU have to stay here.

No, please, take me with you! I'm sorry I was so snarky. I wanna go out, too!

Okay, okay, just stop whining and get in the car.

Can I drive?

You're a figment of my imagination and you don't have a driver's license. Just be glad I don't make you ride in the trunk.

I'm an excellent driver.

No.

Man, I never get to have any fun.

Merry Christmas!

Huff, Puff...

Whew, it's dusty around here!

Yeah, guess that's what happens when you ignore your blog and don't post for a couple days--ahem--weeks.

I do apologize for my absence, but I was kind of caught up in the whole NaNoWriMo stuff. In the 30 days of November, I produced 55,814 words. (That's according to NaNo's word count validator. Per my word counter, I clocked in at 56,018.). Unfortunately, I didn't achieve my true objective, which was to actually finish the novel. I figured my story would take about 60K words to complete but when I was about 20,000 words in, I decided to start over.

What? You started over? Are you crazy?

Yes.

Let me explain. From the very first paragraph, my point-of-view was all wrong. It was third person omniscient, and that's not where I wanted to be. I wanted to be in my character's heads, telling their story from their POVs, not as some standoffish entity, hovering over their heads, revealing what's going on around them with the bland narrative quality of a newspaper. But, hey, this is just the first draft. It's allowed to be crappy. So I kept writing and it kept getting crappier and crappier. There were a few glimmers of brilliance in there, but they were hard to see, being surrounded by all that crap.

So, after talking over the plot with a friend, I decided to start fresh. And boy, was it ever fresh! I was finally in my character's head and telling her story from her POV. So I guess I really only produced 35,000 words, but I did write those first 20,000 and they count, even though they're currently on the chopping block, ready to be sliced, diced and julienned into oblivion.

November 30 came and went, and I took a couple weeks off to let my brain regenerate. Now I'm back and ready to write. My plan is to finish the first draft and then let the story sit for a while before I begin editing. While my story, "Daughter of the King" sits and gels, I'll start working on one of my other manuscripts. What I'm tentatively calling "The Penn Chronicles" is one story, 1/3 complete, and ideas for 3 more stories, so I have some work to do.

So if you'll excuse me, I'll get back to work!