Dear Me 2026 (part 1)

Every year I write myself a letter outlining my goals for the year.  I try to do a check in on how I'm tracking mid-way through and again at the end of the year.  So, before I get started on goals for 2026, let's see how I did with my 2025 goals.  My comments are in purple...

Dear Me,

I did pretty well with 2024's goals, so here's to doing as well in 2025.

Despite having got absolutely no traction so far in querying Guide Us, I will keep persevering with it.  I know this is a good book and I'm really weirded out that it hasn't had any requests.  The last book I queried was the same, but at least with that one, I knew there was something in it that might prove difficult for agents and/or publishers even if I didn't advertise it in the query.  With Guide Us, I don't think there's anything too controversial in there... I guess religion could be controversial though.  Especially questioning it.

I didn't really do this.  I did a little half-hearted querying at the beginning of the year, then set this one aside.  I've re-read it recently, and I still think it's good, so maybe I'll do something with it this year.

I have a book - Standing Too Close -  coming out sometime later in the year; I'm still waiting for a date for that.  Hopefully I'll find out soon because I'd like to be able to start things rolling as far as publicity goes as soon as possible.  I'm also waiting on edits for that one and would like to get through those before I dive into revisions and editing on A Stranger to Kindness.  They're both boy narrator books but the voices are very, very different.

Well, Standing Too Close came out in August and has received some great reviews.  I haven't had a royalty statement yet, so no clue how it's selling, but the fact Amazon has it listed under some really weird meta-data probably isn't helping it get sales.  My publisher managed to get the non-fiction tag taken off it, but it's still listed as sci-fi and fantasy which it very, very much isn't.  I imagine Amazon is outsourcing these kinds of thing to AI and this just proves how unintelligent AI really is.

And talking about A Stranger to Kindness, the plan for that is to get it revised and ready to query before the end of the year.  I feel like that's going to be a tough one because I love this book so much and if it winds up getting the same response as Guide Us, it's going to be somewhat devastating.  I need to mentally prepare for that.

I did this.  I've been querying for about six months and have racked up an impressive number of rejections.  I recently re-read this one too, to see if maybe I was wrong about it being good, but it still wrecked me the same way it did when I wrote it.  So I'll keep persevering until there is no one left to query.  I have had a couple of requests, so fingers crossed one of those agents will love my boys as much as I do.

Luckily, by the second half of the year my work will have ramped right up so I will probably be far too busy to get too upset.  Here's hoping anyway...

I have been busy. I actually ended up changing jobs midway through the year, just at the time my old job would have started getting insane.  So, I wound up stepping into a new role with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra ten days before they went on sale with the 2026 season.  To say I've been too busy to get upset about rejections is kind of an understatement...

And as far as non-writing goals go, I suppose they're much the same as they have been for the last few years.  To keep exercising, to keep reading as much as possible and to see films at the cinema least every two weeks.

I did this.  Mostly.

The exercising should be easy enough since I'm now an instructor at the gym and I'm hoping to pick up a couple more regular classes this year.  I've been teaching only 30 minute spin classes, but I'm starting to learn the hour-long ones now too, so will probably pick up some of those classes in the next little while.

I'm still teaching.  I have two regular classes and most weeks I have picked up at least one more, either an 30 minute or a one-hour.  I've even taught at a different gym a couple of times as a reliever.

I've lowered my reading target for 2025 to 110 books since I've failed to meet my goal the last two years running.  I've been reading more adult books than YA recently and they tend to be both longer and more complex than my usual YA reads, so they take me longer to get through.  Here's hoping the large number of books I got through during my holiday last week - the weather was not great so there was a lot of time to read - kickstarts things well.

I didn't hit my reading goal this year.  I only managed 83 books.  I have done a lot more writing in 2025, which I think cut down on my reading time, but also I read a lot more adult books again.  The YA section of the library doesn't seem to be getting much love in the form of new books, and I've read pretty much everything there.

There are a lot of films opening the next few weeks that I want to see, so I should be able to keep up my film-going at least in the early part of the year.  Things might get a little more challenging once the Award Season movies dry up, but by then the Film Society should have started up again.

I managed this pretty well.  I think I only missed one or two Film Society films in the whole year - because I'd already seen them enough I didn't feel like I needed a re-visit - and I went to something at a cinema almost every week.

I finally managed to (sort of) break my nail biting habit in 2024, so I will endeavor to keep my nails nice in 2025 too.  Preferably without having to pay for expensive manicures every few weeks.  I do like having my nails done properly, but it does become expensive.

I have managed to keep this up.  I have also paid to have my nails done more often than I really wanted to, but in the name of keeping them nice, I feel like it's not too high a price to pay.  Just something I can't really afford.

What are your goals for the New Year?

Happy Holidays!

 

 Hope you have a fabulous holiday.  I'm at the beach (see above)  until 5 January, so will catch you after that. 

Books I've read: How you Ruined my Life

this was another Libby find that sounded fun and quirky and voicey as hell.  And, for the most part, it was.

Rod has a pretty good life.  He's in a band that has a regular gig, he has a pretty awesome girlfriend, and he even gets on well with his mother.  But when he finds out his wealthy cousin Blake is coming to stay for three months, he's miffed.  It's not that he doesn't like Blake - he barely knows him - but there just isn't much space in the house and Rod is going to have to share his room.  But hey, it's only three months right?

Blake's annoying traits show up even before he arrives.  Hundreds of boxes of his "things" are delivered to the house.  Heavy boxes.  Then, when he actually arrives, he has so much luggage with him, it takes two trips to get it all from the airport.  And he expects Rod to do all the work.

As these annoying little things start piling up, Rod becomes increasingly certain his cousin is evil.  Yet, to his mother, to his friends, to the teachers at school, Rod is a perfect gentleman.  So, Rod's complaints about him fall on deaf ears.

It doesn't;t take long for Blake to worm his way into every part of Rod's life - his band, his girlfriend - and to "help" with everything.  But Blake's help is ruining Rod's life.  And as everything starts crashing down around him, Rod's protests that everything is Blake's fault begin to make him sound more and more paranoid.

This was a fun book, but it was too short and had a total cop out of an ending.  Blake's antics were funny, but it wasn't enough.  The whole thing took about two weeks to play out, far too short a period of time for much lasting damage to have been made in Rod's life.  And everything was resolved far too quickly and easily.  I felt like the author had a word count limit and a deadline and realized he was reaching both, so wrapped up the story then and there without any real thought to how it fit with the rest of the book.

Which was a shame, because I enjoyed spending time with Rod and watching the way he slowly started to doubt his own sanity.  It could have gone on longer and had far more resonance.

So,  while I'd like to recommend this one, it ended up being kind of disappointing.

But, don't just listen t me.  Here's the blurb:

Rod and his cousin take family rivalry to a new level in this rollicking comedy from Jeff Strand.

Rod's life is pretty awesome. He plays in a punk rock band that's starting to score gigs and has a great girlfriend. Then he learns that his rich cousin, Blake, will be staying with him for three months—moving into his room, moving in on his girlfriend and band, and basically ruining his life! Prankster Blake has his own ideas on how Rod should live, but his efforts to get Rod girls and bring people to the band's shows are the opposite of helpful. Between Blake's ridiculous pranks and Rod's increasing paranoia, this semester might be the cousins' most memorable yet. That is, if their hijinks don't kill them first.

Weekly goals 22-12-25

 I'm off work for a couple of weeks now, so my goals are really to rest and recharge before a new year starts and the madness begins again.

I haven't finished my Christmas gifts, so that's one thing I need to do this week.  I think I should leave them to dry one more day before I varnish them, and they're going to need a couple of coats, so I'll start that tomorrow night so they're dry and ready to go by Christmas Day.

I need to make a pavlova for Christmas dinner, so again, the timing on that is critical.  I think if I make it Wednesday night, it will be be ready to be assembled on Christmas Day.

I also have my friend's birthday on Boxing Day and we're having a lunch for her at my house, so I'll need to prep some stuff for that.  And make sure I've packed everything I need for my holiday, since I'll be leaving early the next morning.

So those are really my goals for the week.  I hope to see a movie one day too, probably tomorrow since I'll need to go into town to go to the library.  I always read a lot in Kaiteriteri, so I'll need to stock up.

What are your goals this week?

Celebrate the Small Things 20-12-25

 

It's the end of the week, so what am I celebrating?

The end of the working year!

Yes, we wrapped up at work around midday yesterday and it could not have been soon enough.  I'm exhausted.  I'm not the kind of person who usually sleeps during the day, but when I got home, I had a nap.

It's been a long year without any real breaks since I switched jobs mid-yearish.  So, it's been a year since I had more than three or four days off in a row.  I intend to make the most of this year's break.

The next few days are going to be all about getting ready for Christmas.  I need to make my gifts, do some cooking and all that kind of thing.  I'm also going to try and go to a movie or two - I haven't been in a few weeks which is really not like me.

Then, right after Christmas, I'm going to the beach house down south for ten days which will be nice.  Lots of time to read and swim and do some walking in the bush.  It'll be quiet since it's just going to be me and my parents, but it'll be good.

I'm going to read through the new book while I'm away and try to figure out what it's missing, what it needs to be finished.  But other than that, I'm not planning to do any writing work while I'm away.  It's all going to be relaxation so I can go into the new year feeling replenished and ready for the challenges ahead.

What are you celebrating this week?

Books I've Read: One Pill Makes You Smaller

I finished the book I was reading while I was away last week and stumbled upon a cute little second-hand bookstore in Hamilton where I browsed happily for about half an hour.  I picked this one out because I liked the cover and the title as much as anything else.

It's about an eleven-year-old girl whose body betrays her when she suddenly grows taller than everyone else in her class and matures rapidly.  Her mother ran off and her father is in a mental hospital, leaving Alice to be "taken care of" by her 16-year-old half sister, Esme.  Esme is far more interested in getting high and screwing rock stars than looking after Alice, leaving her alone for long periods, or with her friend Rabbit who can't look away from Alice's newly formed breasts.

When Alice gets sent to an artist's camp for the summer, she decides this is the time to reinvent herself.  And when she meets JD, a sweetly stoned older man who flirts with her and makes her feel special, she flies down a rabbit hole of new experiences and sensations that destroy her innocence forever.

I can't say I enjoyed this book, exactly.  It was a little like watching a car crash - I couldn't look away, even though I felt like I should.  I felt so sorry for poor Alice, struggling to understand that her newly adult body changes the way people perceive her, that "the breasts" make her an object to be scrutinized and desired.  She's so young and so innocent at the beginning of the book, despite the hedonistic world she lives in, but by the end, she's become a woman who knows how to use her "charms" to get what she wants.

It's a story about the end of innocence, set against the backdrop of '70s excess and the pretentious art world and felt all too real and plausible.  I'm not sure I'd recommend it; it made me feel very uncomfortable.  But I think sometimes it's important to feel that way so you can figure out what it is that creates that feeling.

But don't just listen to me.  Here's the blurb:

Eleven-year-old Alice Duncan has a her body is, literally, growing up too fast. Gawky, innocent, and tongue-tied, Alice is taller than her teachers, with long, long legs and a voluptuous chest she refers to it as "The Breasts."

One Pill Makes You Smaller brings to life the surreal experience of being a girl--stuck in a woman's body. Dierbeck shoots down the rabbit hole of 1970s misbehavior, combining her modern tale with the fantastic universe of Alice in Wonderland, set in the black-lit, drug-infested art world of Andy Warhol's Manhattan. When Alice is shipped off to a freethinking art camp in North Carolina, she encounters J.D., a sweet-talking adult man who engages her in a dangerous flirtation. This deliciously pop, self-assured debut is an inspired paean to lost innocence.

Weekly Goals 15-12-25

 I'm back from tour and there's one more week of work to go before we break for Christmas and our summer break.  Very much looking forward to a couple of weeks off.  It's been a long time since I had a proper holiday. Which seems to often happen when you switch jobs mid-year.  Unless you're lucky enough  to have time to take time off between jobs.  Which I didn't.

So this week is all about trying to get the last few things I need to do wrapped up.  I have a couple of big jobs I'd like to finish up before Friday, but if I don't get through them, it's not going to be the end of the world.

I should also think a little bit about Christmas and what I'm going to make for everyone this year.  I think it's going to have to be food because I don't really have anything crafty up my sleeve.  I could make more candles, but after doing that last year, it feels like cheating to do it again.

I'm teaching four classes at the gym this week too, so it's gong to be a busy one.

What are your goals this week?