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So we're all pretty clear on the suckiness of 2017. That said...I had a pretty good year, personally. ARR is doing wonderfully--he's sweet and smart and loves to read. I got a story or two published, and a couple more coming out in anthologies this year. My boss thinks I'm awesome and essential. We did some cool traveling--Maine and Europe, and I got to revisit New Orleans on a business trip. I also kicked butt at my resolutions from last year.
1. Start paying for news.
Check! I also got off my butt and actually set up Patreon like I kept meaning to so I could help fund artists whose work I like. (I know, Patreon is being a dick right now. But at the moment, I'm continuing to support the artists anyway.)
2. Finish the novel I'm working on.
Finished! First set of readers have gone over it, I've done all the revisions I wanted, it's with a beta now.
3. Decide what to do with the novel that's been rejected by a number of agents.
Sadly, I think I'm deciding to trunk this one. The experience of having written the more recent one has weakened my faith in the last one, to the point I'm not sure I actually want it out there with my name on it.
4. Do the obstacle course race I've been talking about for a couple of years now.
Done! I failed at the monkey bars, but I succeeded at the rope climb, which I'm ridiculously proud of. As a subset of this, I also started taking the stairs at work - not every day, but at least once a week. Kept it up all year. (I work on the 10th floor of a skyscraper. We're not talking about an inconsiderable number of stairs, here.)
5. Do some volunteer work.
I struggled a lot in the earlier part of year with this one, in trying to find a balance. In the end, what I decided on was the following:
- I needed to spend one evening a week writing elected officials, signing petitions, educating myself on stuff, etc. (If you're looking for once-a-week actions, I highly recommend Wall-of-Us and Indivisible, who will send you an email once a week with suggestions.) I did pretty well on this - took a couple weeks off here and there for vacations or illness, but basically kept it up. I resent the necessity - Monday night has become really depressing. But complacency is how we got here.
- I needed to do one out-of-the-house Thing every month. A political organizing meeting, a protest, some kind of volunteer work. I missed June and December, but there were a couple months with two Things, so it kind of evened out. I've been doing irregular work with the local food bank, which feels like a concrete positive.
- Donating to one new cause a month. It's been a mix of charities and campaigns for politicians I wanted to see get elected. (About a 50% success rate on candidates I supported, which was pretty good given some of the long shots.) I realized after the November of Doom, when everyone seemed to be donating to the same places, that there were a lot of other smaller charities doing good work that I didn't know anything about. The bad side of course is that I'm on like every mailing list ever now. But I know a lot more about a lot of people doing good work.
- Reducing environmental impact. We swapped our electricity to an all-renewable energy company. We joined a composting service so we're been composting most of our food waste now. I bought carbon offsets.
For next year...maintenance mode. I have a LOT of balls in the air. I do not need to add more. I just need to keep them moving. I'm really pleased with how much I've gotten done in the last year, and I want to keep that up. Read at least 100 books. Start getting this novel shopped around to agents. Start another one, in a different subgenre. Keep exercising. Possibly do another obstacle course, because I had a lot of fun doing the first one. Travel. (Nothing is nailed down yet, but I've got the possibility of two different international trips this year floating around.) Keep trying to be a good mom, wife, daughter, employee, citizen. Try to be active in the 2018 election cycle. (Which I'm dreading, but needs to be done.) Keep volunteering. Just keep moving and doing all the things I did this year. I did good. Need to keep doing that.
1. Start paying for news.
Check! I also got off my butt and actually set up Patreon like I kept meaning to so I could help fund artists whose work I like. (I know, Patreon is being a dick right now. But at the moment, I'm continuing to support the artists anyway.)
2. Finish the novel I'm working on.
Finished! First set of readers have gone over it, I've done all the revisions I wanted, it's with a beta now.
3. Decide what to do with the novel that's been rejected by a number of agents.
Sadly, I think I'm deciding to trunk this one. The experience of having written the more recent one has weakened my faith in the last one, to the point I'm not sure I actually want it out there with my name on it.
4. Do the obstacle course race I've been talking about for a couple of years now.
Done! I failed at the monkey bars, but I succeeded at the rope climb, which I'm ridiculously proud of. As a subset of this, I also started taking the stairs at work - not every day, but at least once a week. Kept it up all year. (I work on the 10th floor of a skyscraper. We're not talking about an inconsiderable number of stairs, here.)
5. Do some volunteer work.
I struggled a lot in the earlier part of year with this one, in trying to find a balance. In the end, what I decided on was the following:
- I needed to spend one evening a week writing elected officials, signing petitions, educating myself on stuff, etc. (If you're looking for once-a-week actions, I highly recommend Wall-of-Us and Indivisible, who will send you an email once a week with suggestions.) I did pretty well on this - took a couple weeks off here and there for vacations or illness, but basically kept it up. I resent the necessity - Monday night has become really depressing. But complacency is how we got here.
- I needed to do one out-of-the-house Thing every month. A political organizing meeting, a protest, some kind of volunteer work. I missed June and December, but there were a couple months with two Things, so it kind of evened out. I've been doing irregular work with the local food bank, which feels like a concrete positive.
- Donating to one new cause a month. It's been a mix of charities and campaigns for politicians I wanted to see get elected. (About a 50% success rate on candidates I supported, which was pretty good given some of the long shots.) I realized after the November of Doom, when everyone seemed to be donating to the same places, that there were a lot of other smaller charities doing good work that I didn't know anything about. The bad side of course is that I'm on like every mailing list ever now. But I know a lot more about a lot of people doing good work.
- Reducing environmental impact. We swapped our electricity to an all-renewable energy company. We joined a composting service so we're been composting most of our food waste now. I bought carbon offsets.
For next year...maintenance mode. I have a LOT of balls in the air. I do not need to add more. I just need to keep them moving. I'm really pleased with how much I've gotten done in the last year, and I want to keep that up. Read at least 100 books. Start getting this novel shopped around to agents. Start another one, in a different subgenre. Keep exercising. Possibly do another obstacle course, because I had a lot of fun doing the first one. Travel. (Nothing is nailed down yet, but I've got the possibility of two different international trips this year floating around.) Keep trying to be a good mom, wife, daughter, employee, citizen. Try to be active in the 2018 election cycle. (Which I'm dreading, but needs to be done.) Keep volunteering. Just keep moving and doing all the things I did this year. I did good. Need to keep doing that.
