2011 was a year of a great deal of change - moving into a new house, starting a job, getting promoted, discovering new areas of interest, starting a routine of writing every day, and so on. Generally, I had a great year - as the new year approached, I found myself thinking "Things are so good for me, what right do I have to be unhappy about anything?" Obviously, things may happen that are bad, but right now, I'm pretty content with my life.
So I haven't made resolutions for 2012, not really. I have goals, projects I want to work on, and of course there's the ongoing resolution to eat healthy, exercise, and keep my diabetes well-controlled, but those are all more about building good habits than they are about major resolutions. When I was a kid, I made a lot of resolutions that I had no control over, things like "I'll sell a novel to a publisher this year", and now I'm trying to be a lot better about understanding what I can control and what I obviously can't.
What's coming in 2012? Right now, I'm working on finishing this magical realism novel set in southern Oregon. I doubt anyone will ever love it as much as I do, but I'm at that glorious stage where scenes write themselves in my head whenever I let my mind wander, and I'm going to ride that as far as I can.
Eventually (i.e. sometime in 2012) I'm going to rewrite The Brothers and Sisters of Interesting People, the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2010 set in Amsterdam. I've done the preliminary work, figuring out scenes to add and subtract and necessary restructuring, but I can't marinate my brain in that novel's world until I'm done with southern Oregon magical realism (which needs a code name, because that's just unwieldy).
At some point, I'm taking a trip to Europe - can't decide between Ireland, which I've never been to, or going back to Amsterdam, which I loved. I also have to figure out when in the year to take it, which means laying out all my upcoming work deadlines.
I have also vowed that I AM going to finish reading the Bible by the end of 2012. I've repeatedly gotten bogged down in this project, probably because I get annoyed at all the genocide and zealotry and then there are a bunch of excellent books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, and I read those instead - but I've started and I want to finish.
I watched some really excellent (and widely varied) media in 2011, from Generation Kill to Downton Abbey, and read some amazing books, including (in no particular order):
- The Magicians (though I admit that I didn't love The Magician King, the sequel, with quite the same fervor)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
So I haven't made resolutions for 2012, not really. I have goals, projects I want to work on, and of course there's the ongoing resolution to eat healthy, exercise, and keep my diabetes well-controlled, but those are all more about building good habits than they are about major resolutions. When I was a kid, I made a lot of resolutions that I had no control over, things like "I'll sell a novel to a publisher this year", and now I'm trying to be a lot better about understanding what I can control and what I obviously can't.
What's coming in 2012? Right now, I'm working on finishing this magical realism novel set in southern Oregon. I doubt anyone will ever love it as much as I do, but I'm at that glorious stage where scenes write themselves in my head whenever I let my mind wander, and I'm going to ride that as far as I can.
Eventually (i.e. sometime in 2012) I'm going to rewrite The Brothers and Sisters of Interesting People, the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo 2010 set in Amsterdam. I've done the preliminary work, figuring out scenes to add and subtract and necessary restructuring, but I can't marinate my brain in that novel's world until I'm done with southern Oregon magical realism (which needs a code name, because that's just unwieldy).
At some point, I'm taking a trip to Europe - can't decide between Ireland, which I've never been to, or going back to Amsterdam, which I loved. I also have to figure out when in the year to take it, which means laying out all my upcoming work deadlines.
I have also vowed that I AM going to finish reading the Bible by the end of 2012. I've repeatedly gotten bogged down in this project, probably because I get annoyed at all the genocide and zealotry and then there are a bunch of excellent books sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, and I read those instead - but I've started and I want to finish.
I watched some really excellent (and widely varied) media in 2011, from Generation Kill to Downton Abbey, and read some amazing books, including (in no particular order):
- The Magicians (though I admit that I didn't love The Magician King, the sequel, with quite the same fervor)
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
- Red Glove (I NEED BLACK HEART IMMEDIATELY)
- All Men of Genius (love love love this take on steampunk)
- All Men of Genius (love love love this take on steampunk)
- The Girl of Fire and Thorns (felt like the successor to Tamora Pierce)
- An Abundance of Katherines (my favorite John Green book)
- Speak (I know, I'm way behind in reading this, but it was fantastic)
- Crescent (which made me cry an embarrassing amount)
- Bleeding Violet and Slice of Cherry (both of which have spoiled me forever for all other dark quasi-magical YA, I can't even describe how much I loved there books)
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog (which was gorgeous up until the end)
- On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (totally fascinating)
- Midnight Riot (possibly my favorite mystery novel at the moment)
- The Sky is Everywhere (also made me sob)
- The Replacement
- 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Break (I know it came out a while ago, but I was so tense by the end of this book, it sucked me in completely)
- The Tenth Parallel (fascinating history)
- Salt: A World History (I love food history)
- The House of the Spirits (mind-blowing)
- The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
That list turned out a bit longer than I expected, and there are many, many more that were great but didn't stick out quite as much in my memory. I read about 110 books in 2011, and will attempt to read as many in 2012.
Wishing everyone a happy belated new year - do you have goals/resolutions/plans for 2012?
- Speak (I know, I'm way behind in reading this, but it was fantastic)
- Crescent (which made me cry an embarrassing amount)
- Bleeding Violet and Slice of Cherry (both of which have spoiled me forever for all other dark quasi-magical YA, I can't even describe how much I loved there books)
- The Elegance of the Hedgehog (which was gorgeous up until the end)
- On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society (totally fascinating)
- Midnight Riot (possibly my favorite mystery novel at the moment)
- The Sky is Everywhere (also made me sob)
- The Replacement
- 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Break (I know it came out a while ago, but I was so tense by the end of this book, it sucked me in completely)
- The Tenth Parallel (fascinating history)
- Salt: A World History (I love food history)
- The House of the Spirits (mind-blowing)
- The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary
That list turned out a bit longer than I expected, and there are many, many more that were great but didn't stick out quite as much in my memory. I read about 110 books in 2011, and will attempt to read as many in 2012.
Wishing everyone a happy belated new year - do you have goals/resolutions/plans for 2012?
