NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS: Me 'n' Evil

After a lot of internal discussion and argument, I have decided to allow Evil Monkey to post his New Year's Resolutions as well.

MY RESOLUTIONS

(1) Find time to write. I've been doing so much "support" for my books, which have come out with such rapidity from the major presses, that I've fallen behind on my writing. Granted, in 2005 I wrote a lot of secret lives, a 10k story for Argosy (which will hopefully see print soon), about 30k of nonfiction total, and did four months of revisions on Shriek. So it's not like I didn't write in 2005. But I had hoped to start back in on the next Ambergris novel, Zamilon File. And since I'm now itching to dive back into a major project, I'm amending my 2006 schedule. I thought I would be using 2006 just to promote Shriek and City of Saints, but I now see I'll go completely, utterly nuts by about June if I don't do some fiction writing. So I've taken out all of my notes on Zamilon and the 10k of rough draft I've got and I'll be spending at least three lunches a week at the day job just working through that, gradually adding new material, and generally getting up to speed.

(2) Branch out into other media. I'm working on the Shriek film, but I'll also be working on a couple of other projects involving multi-media and film. I'll work on them off and on during the year to give myself time for the PR and writing. I see fiction very visually and have stolen a lot from film for a lot of my fiction, so it feels very natural to branch out in this way.

(3) Work on physical fitness/nutrition. At the start of 2005, I weighed 205 lbs, about 5 to 7 pounds from my final goal. At the end of 2005, I weighed 225 lbs (I'm now down to 217). About 7 lbs of that was added muscle mass and the rest was me not getting the balance of exercise and nutrition right. To build muscle mass, you need a certain amount of protein. I over-estimated. So, in 2006, the goal is to gradually get back down to about 205 while building up another 4 to 5 pounds of muscle mass, possibly more. At that point, I'd be where I want to be because of the extra muscle. To do this, I'm going to hire a nutritionist.

(4) Buy fewer books and CDs. When I look at how much I spent on "entertainment" in 2005, it makes my jaw drop. This has got to stop.

(5) Trade in the Corolla for a Celica. By the end of the year, I want a 2002 or 2003 Celica, in dark blue or in silver.

(6) Become a better listener. One problem with having so many projects going is that the brain is racing a bit too much and things become too internalized. It's easy to tune out the outside world. So I'm going to work harder on becoming a better listener this year.

(7) Remember more birthdays. I forgot the birthdays of just about everyone but my wife in 2005. This will not happen in 2006.


EVIL MONKEY'S RESOLUTIONS

(1) Return Anne Rice's head to her.

(2) Fight impulse to tear heads off of other shitty high-profile writers like Dan Brown.

(3) Move away from wall art derived from own vital essences.

(4) Stop chasing Jehovah's Witnesses past property boundaries and onto street.

(5) Clean baseball bat, iron spike, pick-axe, and chainsaw more frequently.

(6) Read more "chick" lit.

(7) Pay more attention to Ape-Gone-Wild (like, send flowers and stuff).