A Happy New Year

This is a lovely calendar to buy for 2014, if you don't already have one hanging on your kitchen, study or office wall. I'm a little biased, as the beautiful dog in the month of May is my own bearded collie, Bella, photographed on the beach by my talented wife. All 12 photographs have been taken by local people in the local area of Whitstable in Kent, and some are truly stunning. Calendars can be bought online here:  http://365projects.co.uk/shop/  at only £7.


I didn't make any new year's resolutions at the end of 2013 for a change. Resolutions, in any case, are more like "intentions", and sometimes things turn out other than one intended; so 2014 is about being relaxed about personal plans, thereby preempting disappointment.

One should always have good intentions, though. And for the record, I intend to complete at least one novel in 2014. Yes, at least one.  I've been carrying it (them) around in my head and various notebooks for three years...a reasonable gestation period...and now birth is imminent.  I say "at least one", only because it could be twins. I draw the line at triplets...but who knows...?

Writers often draw on this analogy of producing a novel like a baby. The conception is always beautiful, the gestation of countless trimesters bewildering, frustrating, anxiety-inducing and exciting, and the labour painful; what the baby looks like at the end, however, is due to a mysterious union of a hybrid of influences. A mingling of autobiographical experience, research and creative imagination.

So, here's to new creations in 2014, and living the year with good intentions.

AFM