I'm not really a resolution person, but neither am I the sort of person who says "I don't need the start of a new year to better myself" - I don't know what it is, but people who say that tend to be unnecessarily smug about it. Are you superior for being able, in theory, to change your life whenever you want? I don't get it. You can still utterly fail at any point, just like people who make 1st January resolutions. Also, what's the harm in resolutions? Nothing, that's what! Any kick up the bum is a kick up the bum, whether it's new year or not. It's easy to do nothing, so the fact you want to do something is worthwhile, I think.
Anyway. Pretty much all my plans for 2015 failed spectacularly. I understand people are far worse off than me so I shan't complain or moan right now, but suffice to say, 2015 shouldn't have ended with me on a beach in Queensland without my wife. I've got my fingers, eyes and legs crossed that we'll be together properly by April, but if last year taught me anything it's that you can't count on the future being any one thing. It is chaos and it will do whatever the hell it damn well pleases.
HOWEVER! One thing I'm hoping to get sorted this year, one way or another, is the publication of a novel. It isn't the first one I've ever written, but it is the first one I'm trying to do something with in maybe two years. I've talked about it a bit in earlier posts, so I'll just recap the deets right now now now oh my goodness it's really happening:
It starts with a woman finding her father's exploded grave, the apparent truth about some weird stuff he told her before his death, and her desire to get answers. The narrative then cuts to her husband, who's travelling across a world now ruled by monstrous gods to find her. Their narratives cross-over at some point and more truths reach the surface.
It's heavily influenced by Greek tragedy and quantum mechanics; there are themes of love, suicide, repetition of actions and the inevitability of fate. I've been lucky enough to get ten beta readers to have an eyeball - I'm just waiting to hear if it all makes sense and so forth. Once I get past the next stage of writing/revision and it's sorted, I'll try and find a proper home for it with a traditional publisher. Hell, I might as well try contacting agents too. The last time I had so much time on my hands to concentrate on writing was back in January 2009...I've been a published writer for seven years! Anyway, that was when all this really kicked off for me, so it'd be really cool/nice if history repeats itself. Which we all know it does. We just never know when.
If the traditional route doesn't bear any fruit, I may well give self-publishing a go. I mean, I know how to format books and I know a bunch of really cool artists so I'm confident I could knock out a quality product. The mark of a poor self-published author, to me, is terrible book design. I'm not going to drag up that famous quote about books and covers but, well, yes you can.
I'm also, this month, going to continue my mini monster toy making. I brought mold-making materials back with me from America in November but ran out of clay - kind of important that, haha. But now I have clay, so it's all gravy, baby. I might open up the naming of the monsters to the public, with a free set of the toys to whoever wins. And a credit, of course. The only one I've named myself is called Chompy Dave, and he's a t-rex/shark head on stumpy crustacean legs. Once I've modelled his new, smaller version I'll post pics.
And that's about it. I've also been catching up on a lot of TV shows, like THE WIRE and MAD MEN, which has sparked some ideas and whatnot to life in the ol' noodle. IT HAS, YOU KNOW. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to write some wonky music inspired by ttthhhiiissss:
