Here I am again, just like every year, taking advantage of our arbitrary New Year for some introspection and course-corrections in the form of New Year's Resolutions (including the usual recurring resolutions). A look at last year's resolutions:

• Be nicer to my body. [Ha! I gained sympathy weight when Heather was pregnant! But I am, ahem, now down to my pre-pregnancy weight. Beyond that I took a lot of walks, and I think I'm in better shape than I have been in a while, though my standards are so low...]

• Keep in better touch with my family. [Somewhat successful. Having a kid helps with that, actually, because everyone wants to know how he's doing.]

• Write better stories. [People think highly of "Artifice and Intelligence," which is short, and science fiction, two things I'm notoriously bad at. I'm definitely still stretching myself. I hope "Her Voice in a Bottle" finds a home sometime -- I think it's one of the best things I've written in years.]

• Write joyfully. [I had so much fun writing Dead Reign, I can't even tell you. Marla vs. Death! And they pay me for this!]

• Sell another novel. [I sold two! Just like I did the year before! Hope I can keep it up.]

• Write a ludicrous amount of short fiction. [Well, you know. Eight stories, including some very short ones, and one that may be unfixably broken. But I didn't plan on selling two novels, so I'm cutting myself a bit of slack.]

• Publish two issues of Flytrap. On time. [Done! This may not happen next year...]

• Eat better. [Hmm. Just as many cheeseburgers, but lots more salads. Net win!]

• Watch more movies in the theater. [We had a good run there, knowing we'd be housebound with a child in the back sixth of the year. For a while we were going to movies every week. It was awesome.]

• Be a good husband. [That's really Heather's call, but I did my best, quite consciously, especially during the really difficult bits involving, you know, childbirth and the aftermath.]

• Write a novella or two. [Oh, god, no. Barely even a novelette. But, again, I plead surprise novel sales in my defense.]

• Get the house a bit more organized. [Yes! The living room is much better than it was. We had no choice, since we had to make room for the baby nook and the crib and such, but still, whatever the impetus, we clobbered some clutter.]

Many of those will carry over to next year as well.

New resolutions:

• Be a good father.

• Pay off the remainder of my credit card debt.

• Learn the rudimentary time management skills everyone else learned in, like, high school, since I can no longer get by with binge-writing as deadlines loom (because of having a kid to pay attention to.)

• Travel someplace I've never been before.

• Find and move into a bigger better apartment.

I think that's it! 2007 was the best year of my life. Let's see if 2008 can do better.