TO RESOLUTE OR NOT TO RESOLUTE

I've always been of a mixed mind about New Year's resolutions.  Ages ago, in another life, I quit smoking and drinking--and I undertook that in August.  Of course, that was the same month I nearly burned down my apartment and almost got a DUI, so that might have influenced the timetable a bit.  And one time, thinking I needed more exercise and gut reduction, I commenced a regimen of jogging.  I did that in April, as I recall, to avoid slipping on snow and ice and busting my butt.  I started my first novel in July while house-sitting for friends on vacation because it afforded me peace and quiet and that was their vacation schedule.  I started taking glucosamine in November because my darned shoulder hurt with the first cold snap.  Well, you get the picture.  It would seem that there're things we should do or want to do that best get underway when life gives us a kick in the pants or makes us an offer we can't refuse. 

So, it was for me a momentous decision on the cusp of 2007 to actually frame a New Year's resolution to become effective January 1st!   You see, I'm the kind of person who finds it hard to say "no" and ends up joining this group or serving on that committee or assuming some other task.  When all I've ever really wanted to do was write books.  But last summer I joined up with three other professional novelists to form a critique group with the aim of getting us all major national exposure for our work.  When I got distracted by other demands and hadn't turned in manuscript to critique for two months, they admonished me, and I responded with a foolish, spur-of-the-moment pledge.  "If I don't have another chapter completed by the December meeting," I asserted, slamming down my fist, "by damn, I'll wear a dress to the next session!" 

Now the Thanksgiving/Christmas season is not the most opportune for concentrated creative effort, and two days before the meeting I was e-mailing the lady of our group asking what accessorized well with a purple gown.  She advised me she had pearls she'd lend me.  But one hour before I had to depart for our coffee shop rendezvous, I typed the last word and hit print.  When I arrived they were all waiting with devilish grins and cameras!

All right, I'm not putting myself through that again!   And knowing my fellow writers, they'll try to goad me into it.  So, I've come to a resolute decision to "resolute" in 2007.

Be it RESOLVED, that:

my primary goal in 2007 will be to complete the first draft of my nonfiction book Blossoms on the Vine in a timely and orderly manner, eschewing all other tantalizing diversions and without risk to whatever reputation and public image I may still possess--so help me God!