New Year’s Writers Resolutions

1. Read poetry. This was one of my resolutions last year — and I did well with it. I haven’t read as much over the holidays — time to get reading again.

Trite but true — one of the best ways to improve one’s own poetry is to read lots of other people’s.

2. Write poetry. Write or revise something every day. This is not a problem. What is a problem is remembering to vacuum the house and empty the dishwasher..

3. Finish the draft of my second MG novel. I stopped working on this one when I broke my wrist — but now that my wrist is out of its cast I have no excuse.

3. Submit the math poetry collection to more places — I have some more publishers to check out.

4. Submit more poetry. I did start organizing my poetry — pretty overwhelming. I’ve got hundreds and hundreds of poems. Even though I keep them online in Google documents, the sheer number of poems I want to work on — and want to reorganize — has my head spinning.

My cast is off, so no more excuses for not working on my new MG novel. I’ve accumulated lots of emails from D who kindly copied me on the email she sends to her band students, and I need to go over them for plot points. Have more ideas on how to continue story. Also, of course, need to read over what I’ve got so far. Lots to do there.

Also have to finish going over the publishers I want to send my collection of math poems to. I’ve sent to two so far. Have about six more I want to check out for suitability. After that need to go over list of publishers again to see if I can find any more. No excuses now that I’ve set up my new printer, with some help from my boys — C. had to help me find the USB port on my computer, and M. had to tell me to reboot to get the print queue activated. It’s the little things that get you every time.

I’ve completed my Institute of Children’s Literature course and I’ll be getting my diploma in the mail shortly.

Now I have to actually submit the short story I wrote for my final assignment.

Plus there’s my chapter book, “The Angry Little Boy,” to submit, and two (so far) rhymed picture books.