I'm usually not real big on New Year's Resolutions. I am, however, a goal-oriented person, and in that spirit I thought that this year I would actually write down via this blog some resolutions. Consider this a mid-year check-in, despite the fact that I missed the mid-point of the year by just a bit.
Let's see how I'm doing.
Writing
1.) Finish my current WIP
More on this in a future post, but suffice to say while I stopped doing weekly writing progress updates, I have been working on my current novel-in-progress. I still have the goal of completing it this year.
2.) Start a new project—short story or novel
This is contingent on #1, of course, but I have no progress to report on this one. Fortunately, there's still time…
3.) Finish/submit a short story
See #2.
Reading
1.) Read 10 novels
I'm going to append this goal to "Read 10 novels or periodicals". To date, I have read:
- Heldenhammer
- Perdido Street Station
- The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl
- SF&F Magazine: January 2009
- SF&F Magazine: December 2008
- SF&F Magazine: November 2008
- SF&F Magazine: October 2008
Almost there on this one.
Book Reviews
1.) Review 3 novels
In 2008, I reviewed 12 books. I purposely lowered the bar on this one to allow for more time to write. Also, I started something new: micro(u)-book reviews, which I define as:
A micro-book review, like micro-blogging, is a review containing as few words as possible. In the spirit of Twitter, mine will be less than 140 characters.
Thus far in 2009 I have done one "normal" review and three micro-reviews:
- Heldenhammer (u)
- Perdido Street Station (u)
- The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl (u)
- Horizon
By my conservative goal, consider this one done, though I'm sure I'll fit in another review or two before the year is out.
Blogging/Social Networking
1.) Investigate way to automate Weekend Links series (potentially through Tweetlater or Delicious)
This is a non-goal as I discontinued my Weekend Links series.
2.) Be more active on other blogs
I defined this one as simply making an effort to comment more on the blogs I spend time reading day-to-day. I think I've made an effort on this one, with comments appearing on the writing blogs of JA Konrath, Tobias Buckell, and Natania Barron. Also, given my love of history (and especially Medieval History), I read and occasionally comment on the most excellent medieval-oriented blogs of Got Medieval and Steven Till.
Join my reader's group and get The Hall of Riddles (An Alchemancer Prequel) and The Assassin's Dilemma (An Assassin Without a Name Prequel) as a welcome gift.