Year of the Palindrome

January 3

Happy new year! Sorry I haven't written sooner. I intended to, but New Year's Day was spent on other pursuits, and on the second I spent all day on the computer at work, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend more time at the keyboard. But, anyway, here I am. La.

The Tropism Awards are nearly done, but not quite; I'll post them this weekend, most likely. Or not. Whatever. I have enough deadlines in my life, self-imposed and otherwise; why inflict another on myself?

There are things in the ether you should see! A new issue of Speculon! How cool is that? Poems by Bruce Boston (funny stuff, yo; wish I'd had it for the humor ish), Erin Donahoe (mythic loveliness), Lawrence M. Schoen (fun with English) and Kate Hill (a suite of haiku). Also fine and fabulous fiction for your perusal (including a story by our own John Sullivan), an editorial, some reviews... how you gonna beat that? Get ye hence, and read.

Heather has revamped her journal. Dear Diary is no more... check out Café Rambleflower! I think her new design is pretty groovy.

So. Resolutions. Let's look at my resolutions from last year, shall we, with commentary in brackets:

• Finish writing a novel this year. Any novel. I don't care which. Probably Ferocious Dreamers. [This did not happen, alas, though at least I'm in the midst of a novel that's going well. Not F.D., though, which I gave up as a lost cause. Sigh. This depresses me. Moving on]

• Try to sell The Genius of Deceit. Send the manuscript to agents and publishers. Figure out this whole novel-selling business. [Yup. Made a stab at it, anyway. Need to send it back out again soon. Like, this month. Hmm. It's a discouraging time to be trying to sell a first novel, but what does it hurt to try? So I'll keep trying. Look at Scott Nicholson. Look at Ken Wharton. It can be done]

• Find a writing group. [I found, like, three, and then decided I didn't want a writing group. At least, not more than the informal group of first readers I throw the occasional tricky story at for advice. Still, I met a lot of local writers, which was a good thing, and makes me happy]

• Find a better home for Tropism (and the rest of my vast internet self-promotion machine) than Geocities. This isn't a super-high priority, since Geocities doesn't annoy me overmuch, but I'd like to get space on sff.net, at least, if not my own domain. [Yup.]

• Find a job I don't hate (more than the usual baseline amount of hatred, anyway), and keep it for more than six months. I'm really tired of job-shuffling, and I know there's more of that upcoming in my future. [Well, I haven't been at A Certain Magazine for 6 months yet, but with luck, I will be. I actually found a job I love-- so I'm at least on my way toward this goal. Wish me luck]

• Write more letters. [I did this. It's a relative thing, though -- I wrote, like, six letters, instead of three]

• Be nicer to my body. [Yup. Eating better, working out. I'm making good progress on this one]

• Become more fiscally responsible-- like a goldfish growing to the limits of its environment, I tend to spend to the limits of my means. It would be nice to save some money. [Hmm. This one's arguable. I'm financially better off than I was this time last year, though. So]

• Cook more, eat out less. [Nope. I've sort of decided I don't care about this too much. Heather differs; she'd like us to eat at home more. Intellectually, I know that's a good idea... but it didn't stop me from getting a burger at Barney's tonight]

• Live with Meg. Somewhere... [Well, yeah. This did not happen. It seemed so completely certain, a year ago, that it would]

• Keep in better touch with my family. [Again, yes, but it's a relative thing. My family definitely doesn't feel like I've done so...]

• Write better stories. [Yup. "Pale Dog" and "Little Gods", which I think are my two best stories yet, were written in 2001. Go, me]

• Sell more stories. [Yup]

• Don't get so bogged down in the details of trying to sell more fiction that I forget the real, fundamental joy that the writing process gives me. [Mostly yup]

• Read more non-fiction. Fill the more gaping holes in my knowledge of history and philosophy. [Getting there. Doing both directed research and general stuff. Compiling a semi-decent reference shelf, one book at a time]

• Try my hand at writing some non-fiction, and, if possible, selling it.[La! Have done it! Was easy!]

• Attend a convention or two. [Only managed WisCon, but this year I expect to attend WisCon, WorldCon, and Potlatch]

That was last year. Resolutions for this year are to continue with above resolutions (making progress on those on which I made no progress, otherwise maintaining; no backsliding!). New resolutions:

• Take my poetry more seriously. Try to sell a chapbook, try to market my work more aggressively.

• Make Speculon a tremendously well-respected venue for poetry.

• Be a better boyfriend. Be more patient, less defensive, easier to talk to.

• Become a better book reviewer. I'll never be as smart or articulate at John Clute or Nick Gevers, but I can be better than I am now.

• Try to sell reviews somewhere other than A Certain Magazine.

• Organize my books, which are currently in disordered piles all over the place.

• Visit every used bookstore in a twenty-mile radius.

• Water my cactus more regularly. (I know. It's a cactus. Even so, I don't water it enough)

So. That's that.

Other stuff... tonight I read The Dragon Delasangre. I didn't expect it to be very good, but it's not bad at all; entertaining, and does some unexpected stuff. It's not gonna win a World Fantasy Award, but it's a promising debut. I'll prob'ly review it.

Hmm. I'm sure there's more (there's always more), but I'm getting on toward sleepy, so this is all, for now.

Tim Pratt
P.O. Box 13222
Berkeley, CA 94712-4222