It happens every year…the rehashing of the months gone by, the anticipation of the ones to come. Many of us make resolutions. Many more just keep rolling down life’s path, content to face the challenges as they come. Me…I’m a bit of a charge-ahead optimist, plotting stories and events as though each one will move me farther along on the journey I’m making. So, I don’t make resolutions so much as set expectations. The end may justify the means, but it is the means that fascinate.

The first obvious change will be my web site. I have enlisted the help of a talented crew who understand way better than I what it takes to make this space work as it should. I’m excited to see what happens when a professional sets up the various pages and posts. I’m a thousand per cent certain that everything will look and respond better after the designer works on the site.

With the publication of my third novel, I ponder the direction of my writing. The manuscript closest to my heart — A PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT — does not yet have a home. My romantic suspense draft — GATEWAY TO THE WILDERNESS — is in the process of revisions and may come out under a different title and a pen name. I have sent poems into the cyberverse. Perhaps a few of them will land in a good home. I will send out new queries and submissions as the month unrolls. Inaddition to my writing, I have several presentations scheduled for January and February, and in March I will be teaching a class at the University of Dayton called “So, You Want To Write A Novel.”

I’m excited to be back in the classroom and looking forward to interacting with motivated writers. Of course, between now and that first engagement January 15, I have a full plate of research, Powerpoint, and handouts to prepare. I expect much of myself, as one should when sharing this writing path with others. I am well aware of how much I do not know, of the vast store of knowledge that I still must acquire. To that end, I have also signed up for a Beekeeping class. If I don’t do my part to preserve our beautiful planet, I can’t expect to reap the benefits.

And that leaves me to ponder the political and historical consequences of remaining silent, of failing to stand up and be counted. So I will serve as a poll worker, despite the exhausting day and the demands of the job. Each of us is responsible to the future. The decisions we make and the actions have consequences beyond the moment. I set my course with this in mind: I am only one, but I am one. Together, we become two, then ten, then a thousand. As you consider your direction in this new year, I wish you all the best. I hope our paths will cross wherever the journey takes us!