Lo there do I see this year..

So what’s with all the reviews?

Last year was a grinder, no two ways about it, for me and many people that I know, it was just relentless misery, like a slavering beast, unbound and hungry to consume others. I finished the year on cheerful results from a colonoscopy (Little C, not Big C) and vowed that the new year would not hit me as hard as the previous one had.

If you want to make god laugh…

But actually, on this, I found myself thinking, not this year, not this time, not again.

Sure, I could lose faith that Excel are still being problematic or that the dates for Call to Adventure are nearly finalised, I could get upset that Tango Down still hasn’t occurred and as a result, the chance of me going to Gencon this year are all but zero, and I could get upset that I haven’t got an agent for my books yet.Or I could do something about it.

So, resolutions this year, and they’re not resolutions, because resolutions, you can break…

1: Submit a book (I’ve written twelve that haven’t yet seen publication) to an agent every day of the year, do the research and match them up properly. I’ve already had my first rejection of the year, but it had good feedback in it and I was really pleased that they’d not taken it up, all writers everywhere will tell you that the feedback that wasn’t just the form rejection is the prize most sought beyond “Please give me your book…”

2: Read more, and review more. Most of my writer friends and acquaintances will agree that taking the time to review is the thing that helps the most but happens the least, so I’ve decided to try and read more, two books a week is the target, if I get more, bonus, but never less. For those saying its impossible to read that many books, Mutant Superpowers my friends, it’s not all boring stuff like mastering magnetism and keeping the skies clear.

3: Make more comment on the things I love, which would be things like fountain pens, pengineering, writing in general, conventions, and games. So while it’s mostly been reviews of books so far, there are some pen reviews coming up, and there’s going to be some ink reviews coming up as well, probably some game reviews as well.And Mog Stories...Lots more Mog Stories...

4: Write more, Edit more, Hate Editing less. The first two I can do, the last one, maybe not…

5: Whatever good I can do, do it now, for I may not pass this way again, it’s not a melancholy thing, it’s a good thing, I’m already helping six new conventions this year, working on the Fifteenth book (Ninety year old Superspies, think Cocoon crossed with X Men, bet Hollywood never thought of doing that…)

And in general, don’t regret the things I can’t do this year…

But I am going to the Toy Fair in London on Tuesday of next week, anyone wanting to see me there should get in touch, I’ll be in London from Monday night.