Must Read on Subway and Other Resolutions

When I was doing my round-up of books I enjoyed in 2008, I noticed I read much fewer books than usual this year – only around 20 books, which is probably half what I usually read in a year.  Part of this is because lately, I’ve been not-reading on my daily commute on the New York subway.  Instead I often just sit there thinking about the things I have to get done at work that day.  This cuts down on the reading I get done, and also probably just gets me stressed out rather than making me more productive.  So New Year’s resolution #1 is to read on the subway every day.  Other resolutions include…

2. Actually keep completed stories in circulation instead of just letting them sit on my desk with the vague feeling that I need to do more tinkering with them even though I’ve already done 11 or more revisions. I started putting this one into action today – received a rejection note yesterday, and immediately sent the story out to another market.  Yay, productivity!

3. Finish at least five stories and send them out.  (This year I only managed 3.)

4. Finish at least the first half of my YA novel in progress.

5. Blog more often.  I’m going to shoot for 100 posts in 2009.  Hold me to it!  It’s okay to write some short entries, too.  Everybody loves short things on the Internet.

6. Swim. I feel better that way.

I’ll probably come up with a couple of others in the personal growth area, but those are not for public blogging consumption.