Alright, I give in. I don’t like to make a big deal about these (maybe because half the time I say I’m going to do something, it’s unrealistic so I end up not doing it and thus start to look/feel like a failure??) but it’s hard not to be infected by the New Year bug that’s going around the blogosphere.

So, 2009 was pretty decent (you know, despite the biggest economic depression in decades, and a bunch of famous people dying) but I’m hoping 2010 can be even better. For my part, I “resolve” to:

1. Get an agent.
2. Rebuild my savings.

That’s it. Simple. (Hah!)

What are your resolutions?

(Psst: If you’re a blogger and already blogged about this, you could just comment with your link.)

Whoops! Guess it’s been a little while since I last posted. Let’s blame the holidays and move on, shall we?

Well, there’s not too much going on anyway, to be honest with you. And I’m rather enjoying this post-Christmas, pre-New Year’s lull. It’s like, there’s a bunch of stuff that’s on the verge of happening, but it’s not quite ready yet, so I’m just sitting back to let it simmer.

Oh, but don’t get too excited by words like “verge” and “simmer.” Because by “bunch of stuff,” I basically mean a couple guest posts for other blogs, and a new Just Between Us column. But writing is writing, right? Write!

Speaking of JBU, Angie did another beautiful thoughts-in-pictorial, this one titled “My sensible heart.” I don’t know why but I love these pictorials that she does. They’re so… unusual and expressive.

Also unusual and expressive? My cousin’s baby girl Kira:

Man I love that kid.

Continuing with the Best of 2009 Challenge…

December 24 Learning experience. What was a lesson you learned this year that changed you?

December 25 Gift. What’s a gift you gave yourself this year that has kept on giving?

December 26 Insight or aha! moment. What was your epiphany of the year?

This one is simple, and the answer is the same for all three prompts:

Writing is, and always should be, fun. (If it’s not, I’m doing it wrong.)

I could elaborate, but… why? Sometimes the best lessons are the simple ones, the best gifts are the small ones, the best insights are the obvious ones.

…

Merry Xmas, y’all! And if you don’t celebrate Xmas, well, don’t tell this little doggie, okay? ;)

Quick explanation/FYI/whatever: I know I said I’d finish Twenty-Somewhere by the end of 2009, and that’s still the plan. However, since 20SW is currently under submission to St. Martin’s Press, I’ve decided to hold off putting the rest of it online until I hear back from them. If things go well, it might be a while before I post anymore episodes. If things go really well, I might never post the rest, lol, but I might be able to send you a copy in book form. ;P And if things go not so great, I’ll post the last 7 episodes asap.

Just wanted to clear that up, since Angie and my mom some fans were bugging asking me about it.

…

Completely unrelated and random, here are some photos from my recent trip back home to Houston. (What? I had to do something to make this post less lame!)

Me trying to bribe my cousin’s daughter Kira into giving me a kiss in exchange for Pocky:

Kira coloring:

My mom being awesome as usual:

Cool leaf:

A neat art installation in downtown Houston’s Discovery Green park:

Continuing with the Best of 2009 Challenge…

December 21 Project. What did you start this year that you’re proud of?

Hmm. I’m waffling on how to define “project” here. Maybe I’ll just list “efforts” that I’m proud of. They are:

• Using “waffling” in a blog post.
• Using a lot of quotation marks in same post.
• Making it to the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest. But I probably could have gotten farther had my manuscript really been ready, so that’s a little bittersweet…
• Earning my first royalties by experimenting with Amazon’s Kindle publishing platform. A total of like $25, lol, but hey, getting paid to write is getting paid to write!
• Realizing I would probably be better suited (and happier) writing for people in their teens and twenties. This doesn’t sound like an “effort,” but believe me, it wasn’t an easy thing to put away the notions I’d carried about my literary career for over 15 years.
• Writing Twenty-Somewhere for fun — and then having it attract the attention of St. Martin’s Press! Completely unexpected and wonderful, even though its chances of getting published are about as good as my chances of… ending this sentence with something clever and amusing.
• Reading all of Kiersten White‘s blog archives. Well technically I’ve only read 60%, but at the rate I’ve been devouring her words, it will almost certainly be done before the end of the year. Or maybe even before I finish writing this post…

All right, maybe it hasn’t been such a good-for-nothing year. In fact, maybe it’s been a pretty decent one. But I’m hoping 2010 will be even better. At least in terms of “projects to be proud of,” and specifically for my writing career. I guess you’ll just have to check back in a year to see how I fare! ;)

But enough about me. Seriously. What projects (or “efforts”) from this past year are you proud of?