Making a Literary Life Friday: Fresh Pages

There are many rituals associated with the New Year: resolutions, grape eating, floe swimming, and this one straight out of Cold Mountain.

Each of us here at the Writers' Group had our own way to welcome 2008. Some of our rituals are quirky (writers are not known for their normalcy), others positively brilliant for their simplicity.

Lisa
Sweet Jesus! Who did Hannah kill? (see her entry below - I suppose I have to wait for her pages to find out.)

I'm afraid I'm hibernating. I'm into hot baths - often. No nook's too cozy for me. With 6 to 8 inches of torrential California rain forecast this weekend, I am likely to be laptopping in bed (under 6 to 8 blankets) as children play with Christmas toys and amazing grandparents entertain them.

I'm working. So hard. I am determined to deliver my YA WIP to Amy, Lynne, and Hannah by February first.

Amy
I started my new novel. Okay, if I'm being completely honest, I started it a couple of months ago, but it had to be set aside in favor of completing edits on TETHERED (have I mentioned how difficult I find the revision process?). Now I'm focused entirely on the new novel and I can't sleep. It consumes me. The strange thing is that the previous two books I've written were each started in the month of January.

In other news, someone alerted me that TETHERED is up at Amazon. Oh-my-goodness. Another milestone reached.

Hannah
On New Year's Day my family takes down the Christmas tree, eats the candy canes strewn about it, and blasts carols one last time. Then it is all, sadly, blessedly, over. On to birthday season!

On the revision front, I have killed yet another character and added one as well, which makes for fresh, or at least, fresher pages on my computer as well. I have shut the door firmly against Ms. Marilyn of the Novel-To-Be, who is rapping at the window now. She will have her turn, set out in those weeks while Current Novel heads off to agents and then, fingers and toes crossed, beyond. Here's to 2008!

Lynne
I'm not a fan of New Year's, but I adore resolutions. Some who know me would say I make new resolutions all year long. With my edits for SUMMER off to my editor at St Martin's, my January goals center around healthy eating and regular exercise and (written in pen in my new calendar) I have set aside specific days each week to work on my new novel. I'm deep into the research of one character's job and another's pasttime. I love inhabiting this new world I've created.

On the reading front, I'm eager to read more from my Christmas cache. Next up, Lost and Found by Carolyn Parkhurst, In the Time of the Butterflies by Julie Alvarez, and Intuition by Allegra Goodman.