I'm going to resist making resolutions in public--or even in private (aloud or on paper anyway). Instead, here's 2004 through Rowe-colored lenses.

Personal Life Event Numero Uno: Married BondGirl. Life's not a contest--some kind kind of cosmic game with just one winner at the end. Which is a good thing for all y'all, because if it were, I just won.

Shelter Me: Hey! We got a house! We got a very cool old house that manages to combine our desires for a downtown location and high ceilings 'n' hardwood floors. Combine both of those things with being something we could afford, I mean. Oh, and a fenced in back yard for George, gotta love that.

Maybe I'll Break Hearts and Be as Fast as You: I got a sexy cool racing bicycle and rode it to glory in my very first cycling race. Keep in mind here that what you and I define as glory probably doesn't match up, exactly.

Tonight We'll Remake Tennessee: I have never, ever, "done as much writing as I should have," and I certainly didn't see as many stories published as I have in some years, but I've got to count 2004 as a good year career wise. The Voluntary State was published on Sci Fiction and a lot of very cool people seem to have liked it.

Words, Words, They're All We Have to Go On: I "didn't do as much reading as I should have," but I read some good books; some new and some just new to me. Sean Stewart's Perfect Circle and China Miéville's Iron Council stand out. I've been on a Ken MacLeod kick lately, and am just finishing up his Fall Revolution sequence, my favorite of which was The Stone Canal.

When people send you ARCs and other kinds of as yet unpublished novels, it's sometimes hard to keep up with whether books you read are actually out yet (that's why I can't say that Karen Joy Fowler's The Jane Austen Book Club was my favorite book of the year--it was my favorite book of 2003). So I don't know whether you can buy all of these yet but I greatly dug the first two books in Scott Westerfeld's Midnighters series and his So Yesterday. Likewise Justine Larbalestier's Magic or Madness and most of all Gwenda Bond's Girl's Gang. (Oh, and this guy here is gonna be huge one day).

My favorite stories of the year were Richard Butner's House of the Future and Kelly Link's The Faery Handbag (which was in the great anthology, The Faery Reel.)

Pictures that Move: I "watched a lot more television than I should have this year." A lot of it on DVD, where I discovered Firefly, Gilmore Girls and Freaks and Geeks. We have one of those digital deals where you can make the tv record the shows you wanna watch and then you can watch them whenever. Shows I regularly watched whenever were House, Justice League Unlimited, Lost, and The Amazing Race (new to me--and I'm looking for a partner! I would dominate! Dominate!).

I was trying to think of movies last year that I really liked. I'm pretty sure I liked some a lot right after I saw them, but the only one that sticks in my memory now is Garden State.

Oh, the Places You'll Go: As usual, we went to Madison over Memorial Day weekend for Wiscon and had a great time. Unusually, we went to San Miguel de Allende in Mexico and had a great time. (This year, Montreal.)

Wrap it Up: Lots of people and organizations are putting up "that was the year that was" type stuff on the web. My holiday season present to all of y'all is to point you to this one right here (that's a gallery, make sure and click through all 15 pictures).

Peace!

Christopher