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Drew: I ran out of glue. Just now.
Me: You’re not done gluing.
Drew: No.
Me: And you just realized you’re running out?
Drew: I thought I was going to be able to finish.
Me: Right. [shoves papers at Drew] Just read this and tell me it doesn’t suck.
Drew: [drops other things and reads] This is awesome!
Me: Are you sure?
Drew: Yes. You can’t tell, can you?
Me: No. I’m too close to it. Let me go get you some more glue.

Currently Playing:
Breath of Death VII: The Beginning

Video Games Played 2012:
Catherine *****
Skyrim *****

RPGs for 2012:
Dawn of Worlds D&D Physics game

Current Mini Game Obsessions:
Blood Bowl (Necros and High Elves)

Saving Fish From Drowning by Amy Tan
The Opposite of Fate by Amy Tan (reread)
Self Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King
The Hollow City by Dan Wells
The Killing Joke by Allan Moore

2011 list is here.

2010 list is here.

2009 list is here.

2008 list is here.

For New Years, instead of making a million promises to myself, instead I’m thinking about everything I’ve done in the last year.

I finished one novel draft, and then completed six rewrites/revisions of various books. My dossier of projects is looking a lot cleaner than it did a year ago, and my skills have improved. This makes me so happy.

Drew and I fielded another year with his business–and a very successful one. We redesigned his scheduling system to fit increasing demand, and it works beautifully. He continued to paint; I continued to manage. There’s less and less for me to do. Things have been going more and more smoothly. It’s good.

I spent (now over) nine months pregnant, and discovered I must have won the genetic lottery, because that really just hasn’t made me sick or been hard. Not even now. I also did a lot of prep that will make our lives easier in the next three months, which will either turn out to be much-needed or just convenient. Either way, I enjoyed it.

I pared down my life to just a few commitments, and only those that I can keep without feeling lots of pressure. I still have a writing group and a roleplaying game, both of which I love. I still have two jobs, both of which I love. And I still have church. But I don’t do much else, and I like it that way. Right now I’m bored, but being bored means I’ve made space, which was the goal.

For fun we mostly did low key things. Played some Warmachine. Learned to play Malifaux and Blood Bowl. (I so love Blood Bowl.) Played a whole bunch of excellent video games. (I doubt that’s going to change much in the coming year. Our stack of games-to-play is deep.) Finished one of my favorite roleplaying games ever. I ran a short bard’s game, which was too much fun. I finished my TBR pile, and all of my sewing projects for which I had all the pieces.

This next year will involve lots of adjusting, I’m sure. In the winter, there will be infant stuff. In the summer there will be book promotion stuff. In between all that I hope to photograph more and paint more and draft more and put some finishing revisions on the books I worked on this year. I hope to keep it low key. It’s amazing what I can accomplish if I get a little done every day. I like the rhythm we’ve got now, and while I know it’s going to need to adjust around new demands, I hope I can keep the beat the same.

Pattern here.

We stayed home for Christmas this year. And no one came to visit us, either. So we’re spending the weekend hanging out painting minis. It’s awesome. To me, the very best holiday is spent just doing our normal thing. Because my every day life is what I want to be doing. It’s wonderful.

Merry Christmas.

May you have exactly the kind of holiday you need.

So I disappeared there at the end of the Thanksgiving countdown. We decided at the last minute to go to an extended family thing out of town…and I ignored the internet and my phone all weekend. Felt good.

Today I’m finishing up some revisions, which are intimidating but going well, I think. Most importantly, they’re almost done. I’ll just stay focused on the work in front of me, and almost done will soon transform into completely done. That’ll be nice.

I’ve noticed this trend lately–people ask me questions for which I have no answers. Questions about my future book release, about my future writing, about my future child, about my future in general.

Guys, I have no idea. You can keep asking, but it’s not going to make me form any ideas. Why? Because I’m focused on the work in front of me. And it’s so absorbing that I can’t bring myself to think about anything else. I’m dealing with my life the best way I know how: do what’s next, and try to stay prepared for the future generally. I’m happy that way, because I’m not making plans that will inevitably not work, because the future looks different than I intend it to. I’m just going to stay flexible about it, which means not forming answers to those questions. I can’t predict the future, and I can’t control most of the elements of it. I’ll deal with it when it becomes the thing directly in front of me. Today? That thing is the end of my revision. I’m going to go work on that now.