I don't know about resolutions. I joked about needing a mantra (several, really) for the new year.
On the health side;
Less sodium, less sugar, less calories
More water, more fiber, more exercise
More time in the woods
On the writing & reading;
More writing, more reading
Less book buying
Less Facebook, less Twitter
For further details on health; well, simple stuff, I hope. I need to lose pounds and I have high blood pressure. The meds work but I shouldn't make them work harder than they need to. Time in the woods is more a mental health thing. I look back and realize how much I used to head into the woods. I guess age (and the tick population explosion plus Lyme disease worries) put me shy to that in current years. There's a good loop around a reservoir in town. The one time we went we saw turkey vultures fairly close. I need to get over there more often.
Reading. I never really have a set plan. I do want to focus on writers I enjoy who I still need to read much more of - Glen Cook, Fred Saberhagen, A. Lee Martinez. Classics of pulp like Robert E. Howard (a lot of re-reads there, of course,) Leigh Brackett, Henry Kuttner. I would like to get back to science fiction - used to read it a lot as a kid. More in the space opera / military science fiction vein.
More original Tarzan and Sherlock Holmes.
Slow down the book buying because I am running out of space. Start reading what I've been acquiring. Move some along when I'm done. I've been buying crazy these last few years trying to catch up on what I missed and keeping up with new things. I need to back off a bit and focus.
The NECON crew. In addition to the headliners (Cherie Priest, Laird Barron, Weston Ochse,) there are friends and other conference attendees whose works I want to read before July.
Writing plans. That would be telling ;) Let's say I need to finish at least one novel - the one I started at the River City Writers workshop. That's a horror novel. And, it will be horror if Jim & Chris come after me for not finishing it ;)
After that? I want to write another novel. Probably not horror for that one. This year I'd like to write two minimum - maybe three if I can swing it. I'm not imagining doorstop novels here - just the classic 60-70K words.
I have lots of ideas for short stories but those can wait while I get my novel-writing sea-legs. I hate missing exciting open calls or invites but as a friend pointed out - there will always be open calls and invites. I need to focus on longer work. I do have a short list of open anthologies. But I won't go much beyond that list. Even there - if the 'short' I need to write is taking too long to write, then I'm going to drop it in favor of novels.
So, that's what's in my head right now. Thanks for visiting. :)
I hear ya on that need to do novels even though shorts call all the time - but novels are more satisfying and what I'll be working toward for the foreseeable future.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck with everything else, I need to get out in the woods more myself.
Health is important. You can't write if you're sick. I'm envious of the woods. I have to drive a ways if I want to see trees that aren't part of someone's yard.
ReplyDeleteYour reading plans sound a lot like my reading plans. Great minds think alike. Your currently reading sidebar looks a lot like my start next week pile. In fact it looks exactly like my start next week pile.
Chris and Jim won't be the only ones upset if you don't finish that novel. As much as I like short fiction, novels are where the money is in our field.
I need to get off Twitter completely. I would get so much more done.
Good luck with all of this.
Heh. Our blog entries have much in common. Best of luck to us both! :)
ReplyDeleteThe woods, right! I gotta get out there more myself this year. and much more walking than last year.
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