December 2008

Plus, Jeff took us to an overnight at a 5 star spa for massages and fining dining and stuff. All of the gifts I received I really appreciated because everything I got meant something to me on a more intimate level. As Rory said, "I walked over to the booth and there should've been a sign saying, 'This was made for Jenn.'"

There was one last thing I wanted for my birthday – news of something – is something I have not yet received. Thus, no good news or bad. The door is still open and I'm waiting. As soon as I can say more, I will. Until then, I'll accept it as a late birthday or a Christmas gift.

I'm really beginning to wonder if I broke something in me. (Or if I've suddenly become an official Pacific Northwestern Person.) I just got the winter storm watch warning from the weather channel and instead of groaning at the idea of snow, I'm positively gleeful. I don't know why. I don't like snow. It's wet, cold, slippery, dangerous and … and yet, I still want snow. I've wanted it to snow for at least a week now.

Maybe I feel secure in my home that we have enough supplies, water, heat, etc… to hunker down for a bit. Maybe it is because I'm not in my old condo and I have little to no fear of me losing power for more than four hours (instead of four days).

As an aside, Jeff and I have had a long standing argument/agreement about whether or not to get an emergency generator and when. After a long discussion about it and him assuring me that he's never lost power for more than four hours at a time, we came to the accord that if we ever lost power for more than 12 consecutive hours, we would get a generator. For a long time, I wondered how it was that he always had power. Then I discovered that we are on the same grid as the Army Reserve Station three blocks over. Suddenly, everything made sense. While we still have the standing agreement, I'm a lot more confident in things.

But, I digress.

Snow. I want it. Apparently it is coming in a couple of days. According to the extended forecast, we will get snow this weekend and next weekend. It would be really nice to have a white Christmas.

Let me tell you, between these gifts and my birthday gifts, it is clear that both my husband listens to me and /gets/ me. He understands what I like and what I want. As weird and odd and occasionally antisocial as it all may be, he understands it and that is the best gift of all.

Gifts from Family:

My sister picked out the t-shirt especially for me and that makes me laugh. It's true. I am partial to my black clothing. It all matches each other (mostly), I don't have to think too hard about getting dressed in the morning and, as I like to say, "I'm a gamer, a geek, a goth and an author. Black is pretty much a required uniform."

One of the best things was the number of friends who came to the Orphans Christmas and other celebrations. It was really nice to see them. This was my first Christmas as a married woman and I really enjoyed it. Jeff really made my Christmas special.

I did not keep track of my word count this year. That was not as important to me as the specific writing goals that I set for myself this year. I focused a lot more on trying to get published, finishing up one novel, selling another book and searching for an agent. The novel is done. I sold the anthology. The agent search is ongoing but positive.

I guess my biggest publication news for 2008 was selling my post apocalyptic anthology GRANTS PASS. It comes out in July 2009 from Morrigan Books. That and almost 50% of the agents queried as an agent, or for a specific book, requested manuscripts. That's a pretty good statistic.

I have set up my writing and editing goals for next year:

All in all, I think this is a good set of goals for my fiction writing career. It is nice to have quantifiable goals to strive for each year.