A YEAR IN REVIEW

By Paula Matter



The good thing about this time of year is I’m still not a year older. I used to hate having a birthday in late December. Not so much anymore. Don’t get me wrong--I’m grateful for every birthday since the alternative sucks. It’s just kind of cool to be the last of my friends to get older each year.

My blog mates* and our regular readers (thank you!) know I’m the youngest of three girls. Being the baby gives me the leeway to be a brat. That’s a secret among us which I’m now sharing. You’re welcome.

Several years ago, my sisters and I stopped exchanging birthday gifts. We faithfully sent each other cards instead. (Here’s where being the bratty baby comes in.) Growing up, because my birthday falls two days after Christmas, I always received an “extra” gift on Christmas morning. (If either of my sisters were writing this, they’d say that my birthday was always celebrated on the actual day, but because I’m such a brat I don’t remember it that way. Funny how our memories differ sometimes.)

I digress.

Up until six or seven years ago, my sisters sent me an extra Christmas gift for me to open on my birthday. Seems they had forgotten we stopped buying birthday presents for each other. Did I remind them? Hell, no. I got away with that for years.

So, along with a New Year coming up, so is my birthday. A day to reflect over the last year. What goals/resolutions have I met? Which have fallen by the wayside, and will I attempt to reach them next year? Only one of you knows that I have indeed met a huge goal I’d set last year. I dunno what the outcome will be (I’m not expecting much), but I finally achieved this one particular goal.

Coinciding with my yearly reflecting, good ole Facebook has a new gadget and I played with it last week. A year of status updates. What fun it was to look at them. I was able to see that I had met some of my less lofty (but still important to me) goals. I saw that some things about myself never change.

How about you? Do you look back at the end of the year? Do you set goals for yourself? Have you met your goals/resolutions? Care to share what they are for next year? What will you do to meet these goals?
 
*Why isn't this one word? We have classmates, roommates, so why not blogmates? Ha! Take that, spellchecker. Yeah, I'm still a brat.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

New Year Resolutions

By Wilfred Bereswill

Yes we're still on a holiday break here at the Working Stiffs, but i began thinking of some New Year Resolutions and wanted to capture some for posterity sake.  You see, it was a New Year resolution that started my writing career.  I made a resolution to start my first novel on New Year's eve 2003.  During Christmas break 2004 I wrote the first chapter of A Reason For Dying.  Yeah, I know, nothing like procrastination.  On that New Year's eve, I made a resolution to finish the novel.  On May 6, 2005, I did. In 2008 it was published.

So, in the spirit of keeping those resolutions, I'd like to ask what writerly resolutions you are going to make tonight.  Even if you come here late, go ahead and record them so I can throw them in your face next December.

For me:

I will start and finish a third novel.  At this time, I plan on it being a stand-alone Suspence with a female Asian Police Detective named Mei Ma Gi (or English name, Maggie Mae).

I will also start and finish a short story in the same theme as one I should soon be receiving a contract for.

Since my oldest daughter has set her wedding date for July 10, 2010, I will be at least 15 pounds lighter than I am right now for the wedding.

That's it.  Your turn.  Don't be afraid.

I Resolve...

by Annette Dashofy

Ah, January second. The partying of New Year’s Eve is over. Hopefully, we’ve all recovered from our hangovers. Maybe the Christmas decorations have been put away. Maybe not. It’s time to put the holidays to bed and get on with life.

How many of your resolutions have you broken yet?

I love New Year’s Day. It’s a day of infinite promise. It’s a clean slate, a day full of hope. And, yes, a few resolutions, although I prefer to think of them as goals. It’s that one day when the future spans in front of us with the possibility of all of our dreams coming true.

And then along comes the other 364 days. Oops, make that 365 days. This is a leap year. Reality sets in. We rediscover that meeting those goals takes work. LOTS of work.

But what the heck. Let’s go for it.

I will confess right here to all of you that I did not meet my goals for last year. Well, I guess, maybe I did in a sense. My big writing goal last year was to make money on my writing. And I did. Sort of. I made $60. Part of it was payment for a short story I sold the year before, but only received compensation for it in January of 2007. The rest is prepayment for an article I have yet to write. Good thing I still have the yoga teaching gig.

The big problem was I didn’t succeed in following the path I had mapped out a year ago which was intended to lead me toward that goal of making money on my writing. My intension was to write one new piece each month and submit one piece (either a new one or resubmitting one which had been previously rejected) each month. I researched markets and had a whole plan laid out.

Then life got in the way. I didn’t get anything sent out in January. So I figured I’d double up and submit TWO pieces in February. I think I managed that. Then, it all went to Hell in March. I won’t tell you how many new pieces I wrote or how many I submitted throughout the rest of the year. Too depressing. But, hey, I finished my novel manuscript and got it sent off to my agent. I don’t want to sound as though I didn’t accomplish ANYTHING last year.

Still, I think the general idea for last year’s writing goals were good. So I’m going to stick with them. Here goes:

My goal/resolution for 2008 is to make MORE than $60 on my writing. I will do this by writing one new piece, be it short fiction or article or essay, each month. I will submit AT LEAST one piece each month. I realize I have no control over whether those stories get accepted or rejected, but I certainly won’t make any money if I don’t write/submit/write/submit. I also intend on starting a new novel in the next week or two.

I am, however, hedging my bets. I plan to teach one or two more yoga classes a week beginning in March and I intend on holding a yoga workshop in February. For the time being, I still need my yoga income to support my writing. But I’m working on it.

I also resolve to eat better and work out more to reach my goal of getting back into my skinny jeans.

That’s also a repeat from last year. And the year before…