LISTS AND MORE LISTS

Current Work: Non-fiction article about journaling (and planning)

Listening to: A crackling fire and a squeaky table

Reading: Smileys People, Rosalind Franklin

Well, I’m trying to start of as I mean to go on. I didn’t post yesterday but then I try never to turn on the PC on Sundays and bank holidays. I have to have some time without this damn machine. Anyway I have done some reviewing of last year and some planning for this and… I’ve changed the blog a little to hopefully improve the experience.

Five Highlights of 2008

1. Surviving a full year here in Italia and still loving it!
2. Getting into some kind of habit for submitting queries and becoming a ‘serious’ writer
3. Small successes in published pieces including Writing Magazine, Writers News, Sweet Magazine and The Sunday Times (Home Section) – yes I said the Sunday Times!
4. Completing the first draft of my novel and having a second brewing in my head
5. The addition of the wonderful Bertie to our life which has provided me with lots of walking (and therefore mulling) time. And I can’t miss out my Man Friday, without whom nothing would be possible.

Five Priorities for 2009

1. Improve my Italian lingo so I can expand my writing skills into translation (a biggie)
2. Get better at firing off queries (generating the ideas first, of course!)
3. Edit first 3 chapters and last chapter of novel
4. Find an agent for no. 3 (can’t tempt fate any further than that)
5. Work harder at marketing my craft (never been my strong point)

And of course we plan to get some chickens, become better at growing our own vegetables, improve the vine harvest (or their maybe serious shortages) and stay healthy.

I’m sure there’s more, there always is but I feel most positively positive about the coming year, despite the economic crisis and the falling euro which is financially ball-aching. Hey Ho, onwards and upwards – I feel like a song coming on (or was it an election promise?) Things can only get better…

And Finally, Word of the Day:

shilly-shally

PRONUNCIATION:

(SHIL-ee-shal-ee)

MEANING:

adverb: Hesitantly; irresolutely.

adjective: Hesitant; vacillating.

noun: Hesitation; vacillation.

verb intr.: To vacillate; to dawdle.

ETYMOLOGY:

From reduplication of the question Shall I?

USAGE:

"We go after bigger things, and don't stand shilly-shally on the brink as you do."

Anthony Trollope; The Way We Live Now; 1875.