Tag: New Year

New Year — and changes in the blog

Happy New Year!
Welcome to 2020. I had a pretty peaceful year last year, and I’m hoping this one is more fruitful. How about you? 
  
What’s with the Headings?
You might have noticed the format of this blog post has changed. 
I’m trying to learn a new trick for the New Year, and that is more effective blog posts. I just got a copy of Robert Lee Brewer’s  29th Annual Edition Guide to Literary Agents 2020 (2019)* and I’m using his material to up my social media game.

A couple of things Brewer (2019) suggested in blogging were: 1) shorter sentences; 2) headings 3) clip art. 

How will this affect blogging?
So far, this has been a big change in my blogging, because I have to pause a lot more and think. It’s going to make blogging a lot different, because my almost stream of consciousness blogging will end. But I guess this caters to people’s actual attention spans online.

For you, the reader:

  1. Could you let me know how this is working for you? Like, dislike? I’d love to hear from you!
  2. Check out the book below. Here’s the link: Guide to Literary Agents 2020.


Reference:
Brewer, Robert Lee (2019) 29th Annual Edition Guide to Literary Agents 2020. Penguin Random House.  

* About that discrepancy in dates — American Psychological Association style requires the publication date included, and since today is January 1st, 2020, the book had to be published in 2019.

We’ll drink a cup of kindness yet …

I don’t make resolutions, because they’re more wish than goal without the supports that will make it happen. However, it is my custom over New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day to do all the important things I want to incorporate in my life. In other words, I prefer my superstitious tradition to the superstitious tradition of making resolutions. Go figure.

Therefore, in the next two days, I need to:

  1. Write. Yes, I haven’t given that up yet. I am writing this (because I want to maintain the blog) and I will hit my head against the dev edit of Voyageurs which somehow needs 24,000 words without extraneous information. Or maybe I should write the first page of a future novel. 
  2. Eat well. I’ve actually been doing that for the most part for almost three years. I’ve lost 65 lbs from my heaviest. I’d like to lose 20 more pounds, but my body doesn’t seem to want to, I don’t want to fall back into old habits.
  3. Walk. This is something I need to incorporate in my life. I need to find more supports to walking because it’s not something I love to do.
  4. Work. By this I mean start to organize my new semester. I will probably set up my new semester calendar today or tomorrow.
  5. Self-care. Good smelling bath and a facial mask for fun. Rose perfume (which I got cheaply — it’s a sample size).
  6. Reach out to others. This has been very difficult for me lately. My fears of rejection have multiplied with all the writing rejections I’ve gotten.
  7. Laugh. Oh, hell, I don’t need to try to do that. I laugh all the time.
Love and best wishes for your New Year (if you celebrate this version of New Year)!

New Years rituals. What are yours?

Do any of you have New Years’ rituals (regardless of when you celebrate the new year?)

I’ll share a few of mine. First of all, I do not go out and party New Years’ Eve, even when I was younger and could drink more than one alcoholic beverage a year. I don’t stay up till midnight these days because I turn into a pumpkin after 9 PM.  But every year, my husband and I do a silent worship-sharing in the manner of Quakers to tuck the old year in to sleep.

The next day, we eat good luck foods — noodles for long life, pickled herring, black beans and greens (I love Hoppin’ John!), things like that. I think Richard is attempting Japchae, a Korean dish, this year.

I also have a ritual in which I do a little work on everything I want to accomplish this year.  So, a little blogging, a little query-writing, a little work, a little play, a little walk, a little writing, a little prepping my seedling room for the winter seed-starting season, a lot of petting cats …

This is a little short today because I’m prepping for classes, which can be nerve-wracking, especially since I need to tweak some classroom material.  This means you can respond with your own New Years rituals!

I love you all.