Happy New Year!

FELICIDADES!!!

You know you're getting old when you fall asleep (or almost fall asleep) before you watch the ball descend in Times Square from the comfort and warmth of your bedroom's TV.

That's what happens when the kids grow up, though. Joey, who came to visit with us over Christmas, greeted the new year with his very cool girlfriend Iris in New Jersey, while Brandon ushered it in with his lovely wife Yesica, his daughter Aubrey (aka "Mamita Frita") and Yesica's family. Both boys called, but otherwise it was a quiet night, falling asleep with Bill while the winter night became chillier outside.

Today, more awake, I'm writing this post in between working on my WIP. I have a confession to make: It's not that I write slower now, although that's true, too, but the older I get, the more critical of my own work I get, too.

But I realize that, if I continue like that, I'll never get anything done. So I'm doing a Book in a Month, hopefully getting this baby done by January 31, 2010. The first draft, anyway. I can always clean it up later, but for now I'm taking the backseat, letting my characters take the wheel, and going for a nice, long spin!

You could say I'm riding the "high" that comes with this time of year. People look to every new year with excitement and anticipation and hope. A new year holds possibilities for dreams to come true, besides the chance to reflect on what transpired in the outgoing year. They make resolutions, or if you're like me, you plan goals instead.

My goals are different this year. I can tell you that one of them is NOT to lose weight. In 2009 I started a journey to take good care of myself and to also accept myself as I am, to be gentle with myself. Let's face it: Weight loss is a full-time job. Um, hello, I already have one of those. Now I'm free instead to work on other goals, like going back to school finally and working on my writing. My only writing goal is this--to write EVERY SINGLE DAY. It doesn't matter if I write 100 words or the whole book in one sitting. (Ha! Good luck with that!)

And my other writing goal is to go to uncharted waters...for me. My first project for the year, my WIP, is a period piece that takes place in 1960s northern New Jersey. I'm planning this to be a 50,000 word novel and I'm already three chapters deep in it, and already I'm falling in love with the hero and heroine.

I hope you will, too!

Again--HAPPY NEW YEAR!