Yoboseyo, 2014!

"I'm making a blog.
Simplifying my resolution comes down to that. I am here, figuring out this bloggy software, trying to do what I've never done before: finish something... 

...My resolution is not to learn to cook, or to lose weight (all things I spent last year doing, with mild success, and will continue to do this year) but to finish Halfer. I spent 4 years in school learning the skill and discipline I need to make this happen, and I hope by the end of December 2013 I will have something to start shopping to agents. 

This blog is called Writerlust because that is what I have: a desire to write, really, and no direction. Maybe if I put everything I do this year on display for everyone to see, it'll guilt me into trying to actually get something done.

So here goes nothing."

Joke's on me I guess, right guys?

It's almost 2014. It'll actually be 2014 for me before it is for the most of you, isn't that crazy? 

But, geeze. This has been the Kingda Ka of years. If anything that has happened to me has ever reinforced the idea that "everything happens for a reason," this year would have been the top of the list. I don't really know how to go about approaching everything that's happened.

Break-ups, crippling depression, suicide, my year has been a discarded Degrassi plot arc for the better part of 12 months. I tried to push through it as best I could, but it seemed like right out the door, my hopes for achieving my New Years Resolution didn't even get the gate open wide enough to be able to be stopped at it. They were still munching hay in the back of their stall. If you asked me at the beginning of this year if I could see where I would be in December, my answer would've likely been an awkward silence and then deflection of the question. By March, things were looking pretty grim.

But, Dan didn't give up on me for some weird and mystical reason, and instead of leaving me to the buzzards, did the one thing he's always been good at doing. Basically towing me along without listening to a single word I had to say. And I think that I'll never be able to thank him for that as much as deserves to be.

I did finish a first draft of Halfer! That does count for something, doesn't it? I'm working on the second draft, I swear, but i'm running into snags in silly things like trying to make it so my protagonist does something other than get towed around by a bunch of pretty boys. Slowly, very slowly, it's moving forward. I have 100% more of an idea of where I'm going than I did 12 months ago, thanks to finding things like Scrivener to help with my outlining and mindmapping, and the writer's group I left back home that I miss so, so much. I wonder if Barnes and Noble would let me Skype in? I could be like one of those jar-heads from Futurama.

Relationship-wise...I leave 2013 a little bit less single than I was heading into it. Things are good, and not worth ruining by bragging about on a blog and tempting the retribution of Fate in all its fickle glory. The important part is that things are good. Really good. And they're only going to get better. And that's what counts, I think.

I went to my first music festival! It was very exciting, except for the part where my crippling stomach aches kicked in and I had to LEAVE instead of watch Beyonce. But...she sounded flawless. Fortunately, I saw NIN and Phoenix, heard some of my favorite songs and completely cried hearing Hurt performed live - the one song that had started to embody how I had been feeling for two years now. Cathartic? It was an awesome way to end one of the most tumultuous summers of my life. 

There's so much more about 2013, though...

Things I learned to love:

- Beer! Who knew! I can drink beer now! It started out just tasting things at breweries and then turned into actually being able to drink the damn stuff - mostly out of necessity, because the only thing cheaper here is soju and blech blech blech. Things I'm apparently still not ready for: whiskey and beer mixed together. Good lord. Still prefers: white russians and mudslides.

- The Desolation of Smaug blew my gosh darn mind. I don't bother reading reviews for these films because the way I see it, these are film adaptations of the very first grown up books I ever read. It's not like I'm a bandwagonning onto some weird Fili and Kili OTP because everyone else is doing it. I'm going to have a very real opinion on it when I see it, and if it's blinded by sheer nostalgia, who's bothered but me?

I loved the original trilogy and I loved An Unexpected Journey. To me, they embellished on some of my earliest and fondest literary memories. I finally watched this latest one last night, and practically cried at how it managed to take everything my imagination could conjure and turn it up to 11. The only thing I DIDN'T like about it was that it made me feel like I had the imagination of a stale peanut.

- In the same vein, Frozen was a total shocker for me, too! I don't know if I was just oblivious to marketing or what, but I had very little idea that this movie was coming out aside from Tumblr screeching at it and trying to stir up controversy. I finally saw it...and then saw it again...and then I might see it again. I still love Tangled more, but this is a close, close second. (I still can't not cry during "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and "Let it Go" gives me chills - haaaah.)

- Welcome to Nightvale. Oh, man. I found this over the summer, right around when it had its first year anniversary, so I was definitely very late to this party. But boy am I glad I came. It's a podcast series, a hilarious and unsettling mix between Twin Peaks and the News from Lake Wobegon. I wanted to devote an entire blog post to telling you guys all about it but ended up being so whirlwind busy with everything else that I just couldn't get around to it. It's all free on iTunes, so if you have a long car ride coming up, or even just want to curl up in a blanket with tea and listen to something amazing, have at it.

- My 3DS. It's literally changed my life, possibly for the worse. With the release of Pokemon XY and Animal Crossing, I have to force myself to do other activities because these are so all-consuming. Combined with its portability and the fact that I made mine effing cute, buying this has been one of my favorite purchases...ever. Which is saying a lot, since I buy an awful lot of things.

Things I Rediscovered:

- Anime! Wow! I am (re?)turning into such a colossal nerd it's almost upsetting. But 2013 has been the rediscovery of my old hobby, with shows like Steins;Gate, Madoka Magica, and the Monogatari series reminding me that it's not all just middle school girls making after school clubs. And boy, am I happy with that.

- YA Fantasy! I'll admit it, you guys...for a YA writer I sure hadn't been reading a lot of it. But in the wake of Twilight, it was getting hard to want to spend money on any of the paranormal romance shovelnovels that seemed to be getting heaped onto shelves. I wandered away, perusing the dark corners of the regular fantasy section instead.

But in 2013 I was found again, led back by the hand and a gentle, graceful (literally) book, Graceling, which while not new, had finally dropped down in price enough that I was willing to buy it. (If I had known how great it was, I would have bought it much, much earlier.) And the next one. And I just bought the third one two days ago. 

I also got unashamedly involved with the Seven Realms Novels by Cinda Williams Chima - we don't get near enough YA fantasy where the teenagers refreshingly act like teenagers and not small, hyper-pragmatic adults.

Now that I'm in Korea, I have to get into the whole e-book scene (I know, I know, I'm a hypocrite) mostly due to the lack of Barnes and Nobles. The upside is, now I can start finding all those books I'd had on my "yeah, I'll read this eventually" list. But first I have to read Bitterblue and The Crimson Crown. Because I may be a little addicted.

So, there you have it.

I've talked a lot the past couple months about my life here in Korea, so I'll spare you the recapping of the recapping I've been doing. I'm alive, and I'm relatively well, and teaching is good as long as I stop getting so embarrassed every time my students draw me on the board. Which happens a lot more than you ever think it would with middle schoolers.

Which brings me to Wednesday, January 1st. The beginning of 2014, of a new year, and I am in a completely different place than I was a year ago. In about every way imaginable. I've finished a rough draft, I've lost some more weight, I've gotten a new job in a different part of the world.

It may not be a flurry of query letters to agents, but I don't think it's too bad of an outcome.

So my resolution, for 2014, isn't to get published. It isn't to master cooking. It isn't to find a boyfriend or pack on muscle or learn a new skill. I think my resolution this year is going to be just one simple thing:

Keep going.

And I'll see where that takes me.