New Year's Resolutions already

I just wrenched the damned smoke detector off the ceiling and yanked its battery out. It goes off all the damn time. It goes off when I take a shower, I guess because of the steam, which is why the floor is so wet now. My new house is very small. I guess I'll remount the smoke detector somewhere else, away from the bathroom.

Other than that, I've had a very pleasant Christmas, and I hope everyone else did too. I ate too much, of course. But I got to see my relatives, who gave me nice things, and I gave them nice things too. I'm about to settle down with a knitting pattern and some Jacob wool I spun last year, to make myself a hat, and watch the DVD Mom gave me of the Pixar short films collection. If I don't think about how I have no job and no money, life is good.

Writing-wise, everything has slowed waaaaay down for the holidays. I don't expect to hear back from anyone until after the new year. I haven't had much time to even think about my new project, except to add one character and tentatively title it Charmed Circle, but I did remember last night that I can't start it just yet. I'm still not done with my CatsCurious story, dammit! I completely forgot about it. I intend to finish it this week, and everything else will have to wait on it.

I'm thinking about new year's resolutions. I did pretty good with them last year. My main goal was to send out 40 submissions over the year and get at least four acceptances. I don't remember how many subs I actually sent--over 50, I'm sure--but I sold nine stories.

My new year's resolutions will have to be even more ambitious this year. My goals:

Sell a novel or novella
Make my first pro sale
Make at least four other sales
Write two novellas and a novel
Write at least four short stories
Finish revisions for Stag in Balance and Jack of All Trades
Finish writing Stag in Velvet

Last year when I started really sending subs out I'd never sold a single piece of fiction. I thought that meant I wasn't much good, but it turned out it simply meant I wasn't sending my stories out often enough. I would get three or four rejections and give up. This year I discovered the rewards of persistence.