Apocalypse? Resolutions?

Up for an apocalypse? Check 'er out:
Cool, noh? Speaking of animation, Jim and I finally saw both Wall-E and Kung-fu Panda, and loved them both, but especially Kung-fu Panda, which is gorgeous. And funny. With awesome kung-fu!

So, Cybils shortlists will be finalized this afternoon, at long last. Yay! I'm finishing reading my last book today (Graveyard Book, which is great so far) and then it will all be OVER. Yay! It's been fun, but I need to get back to work! And it's a good thing, because my book-in-sort-of-progress is beginning to spill out of my brain. I'll be upside-down blow-drying my hair and suddenly have to dart to my writing room and scribble in my notebook. Or, trying to fall asleep, and some sentences converge and fall into perfect alignment and I have to run downstairs to the writing room, blinking and squinting when the light comes on. Sometimes just ideas, but other times whole swatches of dialogue or narrative. I think this means the story is ripe and ready to be plucked. Baked, and ready to come out of the oven? Either way: ready.

"As for my next book, I am going to hold myself from writing it till I have it impending in me: grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall." -- Katherine Mansfield

Kind of like that. I would never advise this course of action, because I know from experience that it can take years for a book to reach that state, but sometimes, breaks are a good thing. For me, there were periods of non-writing on Blackbringer that really shaped it. When I'd come back to it after a break (of, say, designing Laini's Ladies), I'd be able to see it clearly and know what to do with it. And, I'd love it again and be eager to work. BUT. Breaks are much more likely to lead to not ever finishing, so go with caution. Now, though, I am so bursting with this book I feel like I might explode. I'm happy that the explosion will coincide with the beginning of the New Year, because I am one of those people who likes beginning new things, laying out new goals, on "special days." Like, Mondays are best. January firsts are great. When January first falls on Monday, that is the perfect alignment for goal-setting. But a Thursday will work too. I would love to have the house cleaned by then, and all other obligations temporarily suspended. The Cybils will be over, I'm done with copyedits on both Lips Touch and Silksinger. Ooh, I've finally broken down and ordered the new Mac operating system for my laptop, so I can download Scrivener for the new book. I hear from reliable sources that it *practically writes your book for you.* Ha ha. Maybe not. But I hear it is extraordinary, and I will soon discover HOW extraordinary. I'll keep you posted! (Also, the Blurb software required the newer OS, so that was part of the impetus.)

Does anyone make New Year's resolutions anymore? I don't, not really. But I have some New Year's *notions*, some things I'd like to do. I want to write this book, of course, and also some stories. And I want to learn how -- finally -- to use my camera that Jim got me three Christmases ago. It's a great camera, but I always use it on the fully automatic settings, which is very limitting. I want to take a class, or at least get a good instructional DVD and start to experiment.

See, nothing grandiose, a couple of manageable goals.

How about you?