New Year’s Resolution

Firstly, apologies for my absence – you would think that moving hemispheres would mean I would have a lot to say. Well, I have no excuses, so let’s brush over that.

I’ve reprinted the following image from a four-year-old blog post. Four years to the day, to be precise.

Four years (to the day – did I mention that?) seems a good time to drag these back out into the light. These resolutions still seem relevant, although priorities have changed a little. I could probably drop the ‘read more’ bit. Since my working day now involves two hours on the train, I have read (or re-read) the following books in the last couple of months:

• The Nightmare Thief – Meg Gardiner
• The Fry Chronicles – Stephen Fry
• Duma Key – Stephen King
• Gerald’s Game – Stephen King
• Blockade Billy – Stephen King
• Tell No One – Harlan Coben
• Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Phillip K Dick
• The King of Lies – John Hart

So I’m getting the reading in (though you can never read too much).  I’m also getting out on the bike – that’s the beauty of (now) living by the coast, with a mountain range behind.

I’m also (still) cutting the junk (food). Well doing my best – and the financial savings will be in New Zealand Dollars, and not pounds sterling.

The real one, the resolution that I have struggled with for a while now is the top one. And it stays as the top one: Write more. Even my tardiness with this blog demonstrates I’ve been neglectful in that department. But here we are. First blog post of the year. And Twitter must be wondering what’s hit it (OK, maybe not. I just don’t see the point of tweeting every mundane detail).

There is also this: The Crime Writers’ Association – Debut Dagger. I’ve had an idea for a crime novel for a little while now, and even have the first page written. So this is going to kick-start my 2012. I need to get up to 3,000 words down (not too difficult), self-edit them to a publishable standard (difficult) and then come up with a 500-1,000 word synopsis, that will ‘sell’ the book (probably the most difficult part). And I have until the 21st January to do it.

That’s my challenge. I’ll keep you updated, and may even reproduce an excerpt here (once it’s good enough). Wish me luck…