So, I really should be working on my edits for Novella #2 right now (*wince*), but...given that I didn’t have the time to do a Thanksgiving-ish post (blame copyedits, not me!!), I figured I should AT LEAST take a few moments to do a New Year’s Resolution post.

To jump back a whole year…in 2011, I resolved to:

1. To be brave. To be fearless. To embrace change, rather than to run from it. To fight for what I want, and how I wish my life to be.
2. To revise QUEEN OF GLASS into the best possible book it can be.
3. To continue meeting awesome and wonderful people. 2010 brought a bunch of incredible friends into my life, and I hope 2011 brings many more.
4. Get the hell back into shape! By January 2012, my goal is to be able to run a mile without dying (yes, I can’t even do that right now…it’s so sad).
5. Perhaps this goes hand-in-hand with Goal #1, but 2010 was the year I beat the odds. In 2010, I proved to myself that there are NO limits, and that NOTHING is impossible. So, in 2011, I’m ditching the word “impossible.” It’s banished from my vocabulary. As of this moment, “impossible” is nothing more than a 10-letter word.

So, what did I actually wind up accomplishing?

Well, let’s start with the resolution that I totally FAILED: Get back into shape.

I still can’t run a mile. Or a block. BUT I went to the gym a bunch this year (though I fell off the exercise train from September-December thanks to being so busy). AND I plan on going to the gym at LEAST 3 days a week in 2012. Besides being good for my health, I get a lot of my BEST ideas while I’m working out. Getting to spend an hour or so just listening to music/brainstorming is actually really, really wonderful.

But those other resolutions? Well, I think I accomplished them.

I made QUEEN OF GLASS into the best book it can be. I made it into a book I’m proud of—a book I can’t wait to share with the world in Fall 2012. And I have my incredible editor to thank for that.

As for meeting people…Oh man, I’ve met so many amazing people in 2011—people who are now dear, dear friends. Friends I can’t imagine my life without. No matter what happens with QOG, I’ll be forever grateful that getting it published allowed me to come into contact with such lovely, wonderful people.

As for being brave—and fearless….I like to think that I accomplished that, too. I took some risks and made some changes, both in my personal life and with my writing, and they’ve changed me for the better. I reached out to people—and made new friends because of it. I tried new approaches to my writing and the way I viewed myself as a writer—and it paid off.

And as for ditching the word “impossible”…well, I like to think I did that, too. If you’d asked me a year ago if I thought I’d get the chance to publish these 4 QOG novellas, I probably would have laughed. And laughed even harder at the thought of those novellas being about Celaena’s backstory before she gets sent to the Salt Mines. I guess the story (which spans the 4 novellas) was just SO close to my heart that it seemed like a wish too big to come true.

When we were tossing around ideas for what the novellas would be about, Celaena’s backstory actually was not the frontrunner. While I really liked the other ideas we came up with, I just couldn’t shake the feeling that I NEEDED to write about her. So, not to toot my own horn too much, but…that resolution to be fearless and to fight for what I want…? And that resolution to ditch the word “impossible”? Well, those resolutions REALLY paid off.

And, I can’t say more right now, but I’ll hopefully be able to announce some news sometime in the next few weeks that further exemplifies all of this. :)

So, 2012 Resolutions.

Oh, 2012. Just writing “2012” makes me teary-eyed. Because 2012 is the year that my book—after TEN years of writing and dreaming and working—will finally, finally be on shelves.

But I only have one resolution for 2012: