The New Year's Resolution Resolution

I give my New Year's Resolutions a sunset clause that means that at the end of each month, each resolution is carefully evaluated and then either discarded or it lives to last another month. As of this minute, I'm still on track, yet subject to fall woefully behind any second. I have to say, those people who say when you eat, write, and exercise, then you feel better, are really on to something! I'm feeling pretty durn perky. Mainly because the book is gellin, yo, the pages are swellin, the words are spillin and swillin and millin. Can't you see what I'm saying, my head is fillin with thoughts of deadline killing. As you can see, I'm not a songwriter for a reason. No, I'm a writer, and if you listen to the people who make a career (i.e. can buy food with their earnings) as writers, you hear one word over and over and over. Discipline. Write every day. Butt in chair. There are a million ways to say the same thing: in order to sell books on a continuing basis, you must write. This is a simple concept that escapes many who decide they want to write a book. There comes a time when writing is just like brushing your teeth, or exercising, or sleeping. You sit down, and you do it. It takes me a few days before I get back into the zone, that magical place when I start to live my story. When my characters come alive and when I start imagining the twists and turns that surprise even me, who is supposed to be the creator of my story. That magic is why I love to write. For the surprise. Today I surprised myself. Woo-hoo!!! Ding-dong, the slump is dead, which old slump? The wicked slump….oh, yeah, I told I wasn't a songwriter….. Okay, okay….

In world-wide publishing news, nothing really news-worthy happened today. If I had researched extensively (i.e. p-r-o-c-r-a-s-t-i-n-a-t-e-d) I probably could have come up with something, but… oh, well. However, in homeland security news, Congress has decided that lighters and matches are threats to your safety when you're flying on an airplane. And of course, there is no x-ray device in the world that can identify a book of matches, so, yes, and you know the punchline to this already, don't you? Starting February 15, there are going to be searches of all bags, carry-ons, etc, for…. The deadly book of matches. Now, I'm a believer in airline safety, I take off my shoes just like every other poor schmojourner. I know my Lands End shoes contain metal, and I don't wear underwires when traveling. I'm savvy. But I think the quest to find a book of matches in my purse is something akin to searching for the Holy Grail. Do members of our Esteemed Congress KNOW what evil lurks inside the heart of a woman's purse? Cracker crumbs, used Altoids, three-year old receipts from the post office, which should have been written off in 2002, but got overlooked. Oh, well. The lines, the baggage-rage. I'm predicting a quick and untimely death to this particular travel safety procedure.

I'll be back.
Kathleen