Good morning!
Now for a change in direction. Slightly. Much the same only with differences.
What I have planned for this year…
I long ago gave up on New Years’ Resolutions. I recall keeping some of them, actually following through, but the fact is none of them transpired the way I’d intended and other things came along that proved both better and worse. Like predictions of the future, they have a spotty record.
Which would seem strange, since resolutions are supposedly entirely yours to make and execute. You have the power. You control the horizontal, the vertical, the sharpness…
However, life is a sometimes perverse and uncooperative partner in the dance, so the best you can do is Intend.
So, my New Years’ Intentions.
I will have a short story collection coming out in May. I already mentioned that a couple of posts back, so this isn’t news, I’m just putting it here to begin on a somewhat more reliable note.
I’ll be attending ConQuest 45 in Kansas City in May. We used to attend every year, we have friends there. But after 2005, when civilization collapsed, and money got tight, we stopped. As I’ll have a book out by then (fingers and toes crossed) I’m going back.
Which hopefully will be the harbinger of more such trips and visits. We’ve lost touch with some folks, we haven’t been where we’ve wanted to be, and I’m disinclined to waste much more time waiting for the situation to be Just Right. So, a few more trips this year.
I intend to write two novels this year. I’m working on the first (not right this precise moment, obviously, since I’m writing this to tell you about my writing something else) and starting to plot out the second. They’re both going to be kick-ass novels, you just wait and see.
I intend to start writing and publishing short stories again.
This spring I will be participating in a reading group/art expo at the Pulitzer Foundation Gallery. There’s a science fiction theme this year and it will be fun. More on that later.
I’m also conducting my own reading group through Left Bank Books, which I’ve also posted about not too far back. First meeting this Saturday, 7:30 PM at the central west end store. The first half dozen titles are selected, which is giving me an opportunity to revisit some old friends (bookwise) and maybe put my two cents into the whole literary discussion about the field in general.
I intend to continue working out, staying healthy, defying old age.
(As a minor goal, I intend to have more than 300 followers on Twitter, if for no other reason than I seem stuck at 280. So if anyone would care to help out with that…)
I intend being more who I want to be. It’s there, just a bit rusty from disuse. The last several years haven’t been all that conducive to being spectacular. Quite the opposite. So I’m planning to change that.
I intend learning to play decent if not terrific electric guitar. If possible, I’ll shoot for terrific.
I intend being in touch with my friends more. It’s too easy to put things aside for later and then later turns out to be years and then you don’t know what the hell has happened and we’re all different.
I intend, finally, being around. If that’s convenient and desirable to everyone, then we should all have a good time.
I intend to learn to cook some new things. Microwaves are wonderful and take-out is delightful, but again, time passes, the fine cookware languishing in a cabinet continues to languish, and the taste buds atrophy.
Okay, have I covered everything? Probably not, but I think that’s a good general statement of intentions. No resolutions. I haven’t resolved anything. If I fulfill any or all these intentions, then I can say I’ve resolved them, but enough of that overcommitment-followed-by-disappointment-leading-to-self-loathing. (I’m actually quite good at the self-loathing, regret, sense of failure schtick. Enough.)
So. To the horizon. Welcome to 2014. Onward.
