Just some things I would like to accomplish this year. Not resolutions-- goals. Subject to change. I’ll make periodic updates on my progress.
--Write 4 stories per month, regardless of whether I have somewhere to send them
--Write 1 piece of nonfiction per month
--Finish, once and for all, rewriting and editing Southern Fried Psychic, my chicklit/mystery novel
--Write and edit Dream Weaver, my erotic paranormal novel
--Ambitiously, write and edit third, as-yet-untitled novel
--Shop novels/novel propsoals around to agents/editors
--Write book reviews for ERWA
--Develop a regular column for ERWA (this might count toward my nonfiction goal)
--Finish the third-- and final-- rewrite on my screenplay For Ever
--Write a second screenplay (the “roadtrip” movie)
--Shop For Ever and new screenplay around and enter contests
--Attend at least two writers conferences
--Develop a plan for a writing class I might teach, either locally or online
--Make a meaningful effort to submit something to every call for erotica submissions
--Make a meaningful effort to seek out new calls for submissions, even if they’re outside my genre comfort zone
--Write, write, write. Then write some more.
I’ve been wildly productive so far this new year. I’m working on new stories, dusting off some old pieces and reworking them, contemplating different projects and genres, soliciting books for review for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association (if you have a forthcoming title and would like a review, drop me a note) and working on a column idea. I’m determined 2009 is going to be a year of tremendous writing productivity. To that end, I’m also looking at writing conferences to attend. It feels good to be surrounded by writers and I need a little of that writing camaraderie this year to keep me motivated.
Speaking of conferences, I stumbled across a link on Mary Anne Mohanraj’s blog that made me reconsider my opinion of academic conferences. An article at Inside Higher Ed suggests that there’s a lot of sex going on at academic conferences such as MLA (which was just held in San Francisco).
Many presenters at the MLA use categorization to make their points, and this session was no exception. Jennifer Drouin, an assistant professor of English and women’s studies at Allegheny College, argued that there are eight forms of conference sex (although she noted that some may count additional forms for each of the eight when the partners cross disciplinary, institutional or tenure-track/non-tenure track, or superstar/average academic boundaries).
(The rest of the article is here.)
Eight kinds of conference sex? Who knew? Obviously, as an adjunct I’m barely on the fringes of academia, so maybe this is old news to tenured professors. It really shouldn’t surprise me since I already knew sci-fi geeks get laid more than jocks. Why not academic geeks? Perhaps it’s Darwinism at work here-- the smart humans are getting it on at academic conferences while the dumb humans are busy picking out protein powder at GNC and admiring themselves in mirrors.
Just for the record, I was considering attending the Popular Culture Association’s annual conference in New Orleans this year long before I read this article.
So yeah, I opted out of making resolutions for 2009. Other than that one below about writing. I’m going to focus on the writing in 2009 and let the rest of my life happen as it will. Sure, I could say I’ll learn some new hobby, but if something strikes my fancy I’ll do it and I don’t need to make it a resolution. I could resolve to take an art class or music class or martial arts class, but who knows how my mind will be inspired this year? I could say I’m going to get pregnant/have a baby, but that’s really not entirely up to me, is it? I could dedicate 2009 to clearing out the clutter-- but I’ve been working on that for six months so I’m not likely to stop now.
I could say I’ll buy a new house, but I might just end up redecorating the one I have now-- or buying a vacation cottage or simply being content with decorating a baby’s room. I could vow to eat healthier and take better care of myself, but health isn’t a number on a scale, nor should it be a resolution-- it should just be. I am already actively working toward my goal to pay off our credit card debt, so there’s no need to make that a resolution. I want to travel in 2009, but-- again-- there are factors that might get in the way of that and I wouldn’t mind one bit.
I guess the point is, I’m not looking to change my entire life in 2009. I am content with who I am-- more content than most people I know-- so I’m not out to reinvent myself. I just want it to be a happy year, in whatever form that takes. Being happy isn’t changing my life or my hair or my body or my friends, it’s just… being happy. Being happy with who I am and where I am. I’ve always been pretty happy with my life and despite the disappointments and pitfalls of 2008, I’m still pretty happy with my life. New things, new people, new activities aren’t going to make me any happier-- they’re just going to distract me from what real happiness should be. Too many people fill their days (and datebooks) with events and appointments and meetings and equate that with success. That’s not success, it’s just being too busy to realize there’s anything else in life. I sometimes think the busiest people are the ones who are the least happy.
I want 2009 to be a happy year. That’s all.
I will write more in 2009. I will write a lot more. Because I can, because I should, because it is one of the fundamental things that makes me happy. I will write as much as I can, as well as I can. That may not mean writing every day (which was one of my resolutions for 2008) or cracking the literary market. It may not mean impressing anyone but myself with what I write. But I will write and I will make myself happy with what I write.
And maybe that’s the most important thing I need to remember in 2009. To make myself happy. Period.
P.S. If I was going to make a resolution, I might steal this one from Nikki: “I shall fail more often. More spectacularly. And I’ll fully appreciate the nuances of the hundred different ways to fail.” This is a wonderful way to look at life-- to stretch and challenge myself, to discover the obstacles and try to hurdle them, to recognize the true colors of people so I can avoid them, to push beyond my own capabilities and come up short, but maybe not as short as I might have imagined. Failure can be a good thing. Nothing worth having comes easy. That which doesn’t kill me makes me stronger-- or maybe stranger.
As promised, here are the four winners of Bedding Down: A Collection of Winter Erotica. Winners were selected at random using-- what else?-- random.org. Thanks for sharing all of your lovely, sweet, sexy winter memories!
Helen
GMH
Michelle
If you are a winner, please e-mail me your mailing address (kristinaATkristinawright.com) and I will get your book to you next week. If you didn’t win, please send me your address, as well. 
Happy New Year and Happy Reading!
I still haven’t started my resolutions for 2009 and there is only one more day left of the year. I’m resisting, for some reason. Maybe because I failed so miserably on my resolutions for 2008? If anything, this year has shown me just how little control we sometimes have over the circumstances of our lives. Fate, nature, other people-- they all impact our hopes, our dreams, our goals.
This is not to say I blame anyone or anything else for my failures. I don’t.
Looking at the bigger picture and stepping outside my own existence, I realize how lucky I am. While I may feel as if it’s been a year of personal losses, I know I’m not the only one who has had a rough year. Why do I feel entitled to a better year in 2009 when this year could have been so much worse? I feel guilty for wanting more-- as if I’m tempting fate. Be careful what you wish for…
But I’m wishing anyway.
Writing is at the forefront of my mind right now. It is my salvation through loss and hurt. I want to write in 2009 like I’ve never written. I want to write until my eyes blur and my fingers go numb-- and then I want to write some more. I want to write it all out. Not in that icky, self-indulgent, woe-is-me, exhibitionistic way that annoys the crap out of me-- God, please don’t let me be one of those writers-- but in the way that captures my emotions truthfully while spinning something beautiful and meaningful out of the loss and hurt.
I want to write the way I know I can. Without the self-doubt and the laziness and the distractions that plague me so much of the time. Without the voices in my head telling me I can’t; without the voices of my critics insulting what they don’t like or can’t understand.
I want to write it all-- novels, short stories, poetry, screenplays, essays. I want to explore the breadth of this gift I have been given and know that I’m challenging myself with each new project I start. Too often I write without thinking-- phrases I’ve used a hundred times before fall onto the page, paragraphs are sloppily written and never edited, I stick with what I know rather than reaching for the top shelf just beyond my grasp. I want to scare myself with how damned good I am. I hope that I can.
I want to say “No” to all the crap and dreck that gets in the way of me being a better writer. The time consuming, soul-sucking distractions that keep me from my writing. The external influences that create negativity in my life and drag me down.
Is this a resolution? I don’t know-- it doesn’t feel concrete enough to be a true resolution. I want to resolve to write every day, but I failed at that goal this year (though I have some good excuses). I want to resolve to write a certain number of projects, but I know serendipitous events might prevent me from reaching that goal and it wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. I want to resolve to sell this or that (or this and that), but selling is out of my control and 2009 is not shaping up to be a good year in publishing. I want to assign numbers to my goals-- words, pages, projects-- and I probably will. But right now I just want to promise myself to write. Write as if my life depends on it-- because sometimes I believe it does.
Life. Love. Writing. Friendship.
Sex. Books. Movies. Travel. Politics. Feminism. Academia. Insomnia. Rants. Raves. Chocolate. Lots of chocolate. Some names have been changed, some stories have been embellished. Thanks for stopping by and beware of the dog. Read more...
