Today’s topic is about goals or resolutions for the new year. Normally, I make extensive goals for myself going into each new year. Because I know I have some major life changes coming up in 2015, however, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. The goals I’m making this year are a lot looser and more general.

The bookish:

1. Read fewer than 75 books. Yes, fewer. I’m one of the weird book bloggers who is trying to decrease my reading pace, to slow down and enjoy books rather than rushing through to get to the next. This year is the first year I’ve read less than 75 books since I began blogging, and it’s been wonderful. I want to continue that.

2. Read more transgender-related fiction/nonfiction. While I’ve read a lot of LGBTQ lit in general, the T part of that acronym is much less represented than the other letters. I would like to read more, but also, I’m not sure where to start. Any suggestions?

3. Diversify my reading in general. I don’t mean just reading more books by/about people of color, from around the world, translations, etc. Yes, I’d like to do these things – my reading in the last few years hasn’t been terribly diverse – but I’d also like to vary genre, time period, type of work, author, etc.

4. Attend BEA if possible. I don’t know if it will be possible, given aforementioned life changes, but I would love to do this. I went in 2010 and haven’t been back since then. I would really like to do this while I’m still living a lot closer to NYC than when I have been/will be in Texas. Do any of my blogger friends still go to BEA?

5. Keeping blogging even through all these life changes. That seems a simple one, but for me, it’s not that simple. I’ve tried and failed at many blogs since deleting the original Zen Leaf, and I don’t want to do that again. I like it here!

The non-bookish:

6. Work on second drafts of specific manuscripts. I have three that are first-draft stage, and I would like to get to some rewrites. Not necessarily of all three, of course.

7. Work on submissions. I’m really terrible about submitting my finished manuscripts to agents, and I need to be better about that. I currently have two that are submission-condition, and I need to do the post-writing post-editing work.

8. Get two specific tattoos. When I got my first tattoo in 2013, it represented both something important to me, and my one fully finished-and-polished manuscript. Jason suggested I get a small tattoo like this for each fully finished-and-polished manuscript, and I loved the idea. In 2014, I finished up two manuscripts that I’d been working on for eight years. They both need their pictorial representations etched onto me. 🙂

9. Finish specific coursework related to future job stuff. I know this is vague. I don’t want to get any more detailed at this time.

10. Improve my strength and my relationship with food. Those of you who have known me for a long time know I have lost a lot of weight over the last five years. I’m trying to shift away from that weight-loss mentality to focus more on strength and healthy mental habits (ie not hyper-focusing on food/calories/numbers/etc).

So that’s it for me this year. What goals or resolutions are you making?

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.