Classic 746 Phone albeit not a proper dialling one. Owning one of these has long been one of my goals.

I cannot make this into a metaphor for goals, writing or other productivity. I just like this phone.

Today is busy with New Year’s articles and blog posts, so I’ll be brief. This is not a list of my goals for 2017, or what I think your goals might be. This is a list of things I’m looking forward to next year. Goals are good, but for a lot of people they are a negative force, creating pressure of the unhealthy kind rather than the motivational kind. Looking forward to outcomes is a gentler way to approach writing 17 instead of 16 on every cheque.*

  1. My friendversary with my bestie. We live far apart and see each other rarely, but because it celebrates a big number of years of friendship, we wanted to make this year’s meetup special  We’re talking tea at the Savoy special.
  2. Seeing my current project in the Amazon Kinde shop.
  3. Getting a dog. I’ve wanted a dog for years and maybe, maybe, this is the year.
  4. Using my new classic telephone. It’s my day job phone, in my home office, and replaces the 15-year-old ugly and crackly one I was using. I treated myself to it last week, and now love it very much. If ever I don’t need the day job, that phone is coming with me.
  5. Making more resources for my blog. I discovered Canva a couple of months ago and am now addicted.
  6. Travelling. I have some work travel lined up for January, but am also thinking about some Easter sunshine and where to go in some summer, too. I think everyone in the UK today is dreaming about sunshine and how soon they can get on a plane to go and find some.
  7. Reading new authors and new stuff from my existing favourites. I do the 50 Book Pledge every year, but the last couple of years it’s been filled with a lot of writing craft books and research reading. I want to read more fiction, specifically, fiction in my genres – light fantasy, historic and anything with a strong thread of romance. I don’t read romance but love romance and I have such trouble finding romantic books which are about more than person meets person, or more usually these days, paranormal being meets chosen one. Actually that’s it – I’m going to compile a list of books which are tremendously romantic and seek out others like them.
  8. Whoops that was a goal and I promised no goals or deadlines.
  9. Never mind, fresh start tomorrow.
  10. Thanks for reading and Happy New Year.

*Cheques. I thought I was done with writing cheques, what with this being the 21st century and all, but then I sent a small child to school. Now I write cheques like it’s 1989.