Happy New Year!!

Yes, I know that the new year doesn't technically start until Sunday, but the beginning of a new year is just that--a technicality, and as far as I can tell an arbitrary one at that. So I have decided to start my new year sooner rather than later. The great holiday rush and excitement is all behind me, so I might as well get started.

As I was writing the 2005 edition of the Hermit Chronicles (aka my Christmas letter), I realized how little I had actually gotten done in the past twelve months, so I have decided that in the next twelve months I am actually going to get things done. I am going to put more effort into reading and writing and organization, make progress on the numerous projects I keep thinking about and planning but never seem to get around to executing, get some exercise and decide whether or not eating healthier is really going to be worth my while.

I'm thinking that I will start the year off with a bang and spend January writing a novel. Fifty thousand words in thirty days. Okay, thirty-one days. The official National Novel Writing Month is November, so it's fifty thousand words in thirty days, but according to the book that the organizers have produced, No Plot? No Problem!, you can do it any month of the year. The focus is on quantity rather than quality. Mind you, it doesn't have to be bad, but it's perfectly acceptable if it is.

It might be fun. It might work. It might not. The only way to find out is to try. If nothing else, it should get me going on writing right at the beginning of the year. Then in February I can tackle other projects such as reading and organization.