Belated Merry Christmas, early Happy New Year!

Hope the holidays were fun and safe for everyone! How many of you did Nano? I attempted, but failed. The story I was writing just wasn't speaking to me. I could get stuff out, but it was sooo boring! I did not want to associate writing with something boring and mandatory. On the upside, I had a whole month to sit back from my main novel. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. While I was away from my beloved characters, I was able to do some more plotting and outlining and get over my writer's block. Woo-hoo! I threw myself back in on December 1st and have made some headway. I also let two of my sisters read it. Talk about stress! The only people I have ever let read my writing have been complete strangers. While I am now critique partners with a few of those people and very much trust and appreciate their feedback, having two people I love read my story and offer their input was terrifying. If they said they hated it, I would feel like a total failure, hide out for a week, and stuff myself full of candy and pizza. Luckily, they loved it! They are both asking when they get to read more, which is motivation for me to get writing more.

The New Year is peeking around the corner. Time for resolutions. Weight loss. Check. Exercise more. Check. Be totally awesome. Check. HaHa. Okay, in all seriousness, I hate New Year's resolutions. Tons of people make these empty promises to themselves or others, but as soon as the excitement is gone, aka Jan. 7, the resolutions are gone, too. As much as I hate them, I have already made two resolutions. One is to read 52 books this year and do book reviews on at least half of them. (Little secret on me: I haven't done any book reviews since high school because I have no idea what I'm supposed to say.) My second one is to finish my novel by the end of January. Not to the point where I'm ready to query it, but to the point that I can focus on editing it. Do you have any resolutions this year? What are they?