1. Get healthier. This is a legacy goal from 2010, but with a friend’s wedding in the Bahamas looming, I just may have the motivation I lacked in 2010 to get ‘er done.

2. Write. Like, duh. Specifically, I want to get book the second on submission and finish a draft of book the third.

3. Be a lifeline for my critique partners. I have the best critique group in the world – they are my rock. In 2011 I want to do everything I can to promote and support them as they continue their own paths to publication and glory! XO @ingridepaulson, @marthaflynn, @heidirkling

4. Be excellent at my IRL job. I want to be the best at everything I do, and this is no exception.

5. Be excellent at my marriage. This is harder than it sounds. My hubs does so so so much to support me. I want to be that for him, too.

2011 is the year of symmetry for me as I am 33 in two weeks. I believe that means both I, and this year, are going to ROCK, both backward and forward. Look out, world!

1. Get healthier. Assessment: Wah-wah. I did try, but I don’t think I netted much on this front. Kick it to the 2011 list.

2. Travel to Vietnam & Cambodia with the hubby. Assessment: Check!

3. Identify the next step in my (business) career progression and execute on it by year’s end. Assessment: Check!

4. Do everything I can to support the sale of my first book. Assessment: Check and double check. I worked really hard on that book in 2010, revising and reworking way more than I ever expected.

5. Whip the WIPs: Finish a draft of my second book by the end of March. Have it “agent-ready” by the end of the year. Find the idea for my third book and flesh it out. Assessment: So-so, but I’m okay with that. I did finish the first draft in March, but then got sidelined by first book revisions. Still, I finished a second *almost* agent-ready draft TODAY, so progress abounds! Third book eludes me, but not for long.

6. Continue to deepen my connections to the YA writing community. Assessment: Not bad. I developed a ton of relationships and attended SCBWI Summer Conference. I didn’t start a podcast but I did do some video blogging. Pretty solid.

7. Volunteer at the Women’s Initiative at least 10 hours per month. Assessment: In spirit if not letter. I have a new organization I’m devoting time to and it’s working out swimmingly.

8. Set aside at least one night each weekend for date night with the most important person in my life. No writing, no networking, no conference calling, no distractions. Assessment: More or less. Next year more.

9. Dance! once each week. Assessment: Not enough dancing. NEVER enough dancing.

10. Take a sketch comedy writing class at Killing My Lobster, and if they hold cast auditions…AUDITION! Assessment: Total fail. But I made a conscious decision to forego it in favor of writing, so I’m okay with that.

Final Score: I’m gonna call it a 6/10. Plus two points for style. So 80%. Let’s make it 90% in 2011!

One of the best things about writing is having an amazing critique group. And one of the best things about having a critique group (other than how they make your work sparkle like a glammed out glitterkitty) is going on WRITING RETREATS!

This year’s YA, That’s Why! writing retreat was at the Beach Glass House in Santa Cruz. Life, tis tough.

There was brainstorming, there were mix CDs, there was snoozing in the loft, there was Vampire Diaries (my birthday gift to @marthaflynn was the reluctant agreement to watch them all…pssstt…I kinda liked it), there was a sunset to end all sunsets, there was critiquing, and oh, yeah – there was writing!!

Mucho amor to @ingridepaulson, @marthaflynn, and @heidirkling.

You. Complete. My Manuscript.

The Digs

Genius at Work

Orange Popsicle Haze

Pre-order FOREVER here: http://www.fountainbookstore.com/autograph-maggie

Ogle the beautiful cover here:

1 Value pack salmon fillet. Preferably packed in blue styrofoam with tiny bones poking through the plastic wrapper. Frosted, then defrosted to taste. Feel free to use the wild variety, but I warn you: it doesn’t have red die shot through so the outcome may look a little anemic.

3 globs generic barbecue sauce, on sale variety.

Pinch of sea salt. No Morton’s, por favor. This is a classy affair.

Heat oven to 425 degrees, but if it’s taking too long go ahead and throw it in whenevs. Be sure not to grease the pan, or else the skin won’t stick to the bottom properly and cleanup won’t score you bonus points for domesticity with the hubs. Leave in for 14 or 22 minutes, depending on when you remember to get the hell off Twitter cuz you’re cooking salmon. Cut fillets in halvsies with pinking shears.

Et, voila! Whitney Miller’s Barbecued Salmon. You can thank me later, once the stench dissipates. Bon appetit.

Totally teen crush:

This one makes me feel like I’m in the credits of a glorious 80s movie:

High tension!!

Pensive and sad…

So, yeah. The entire album is basically a writing smorgasbord. Enjoy.

But this was the grand finale…not too shabby, right? There’s really nothing like a balloon glow, surrounded by the people you love best in the world.*

*Especially when it follows the CU Buff kicking CSU’s butt all over Invesco Field.

*

1. Exercise vacations are the bomb. My husband was not convinced that biking through the jungle in 99% humidity was a stroke of genius. I know, right? It’s hard to understand the resistance. What he failed to consider, however, was that this allows you to eat your weight in Cao lầu.

2. Revising a book for the 12th time is so….not any easier than doing it the 2nd – 11th times. Ah, damn.

3. LA SCBWI is like, woah. I am not someone who gets easily overwhelmed, but the sheer volume of talent, beauty, and NETWORKING DEAR GOD, THE NETWORKING at the annual summer conference blew my little baby mind. Also, the gala was fun and so are my critique partners. And I met my agent sister Jo Whittemore, who is awesomesauce. And I met Bree Despain and probably scared her. And look how pretty Bree’s hair is! These sentences are representative of how I felt the whole weekend. Totally manic. The end.

4. Watching your agent and your critique partners move away is like, no! It’s a major bummer, but I’m happy for all of them. Plus now I have two more reasons to visit NYC, and well…I’m always in Austin anyway.

5. Finding Rubotan eyeliner in Japan is harder than it sounds. By all rights this should not make the list, but I mean come ON. Nylon magazine does a feature on it and say it’s so awesome but only sold in Japan and so I go to Japan (okay, maybe not for that reason, exactly) and it’s nowhere to be found. Srsly?! Srsly. Seriously, Nylon? WTF.

6. One good way to boost your web traffic is to have a cute doppelgänger on the show Master Chef. This might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Step 1: Get a cute doppelganger. Step 2: Get her on Master Chef. Step 3: Watch web traffic soar. Step 4: Realize none of it’s really for you. And here  I thought all those hits from NYC were editors salivating in advance.

7. I’m hoping Peeta and his baked goods die a fiery death on August 24th. Maybe I’m just bitter I can’t buy it until I get back to SF on the 27th, but in any case this one’s for Martha.

Sionara for now.

Once at the cliffs, everyone promptly climbed past the “Extreme Danger! Do Not Pass This Point Upon Pain of Vertical Depression, Liquefied Bones, Wet Hair, and General Malaise!” and onto the unstable inch of dirt that snakes its way along the 300m high cliffs (meters…I’m so Continental). When in Rome, as Ron Burgundy would say.

After being huge rebels, we moved on to see Dingle (home of the diddly-dee, don’t ask me), Galway (the most unforgiving limestone coastline in the universe, woe to all ye who enter), a prehistoric pile of balanced rocks that is somehow still standing (2000-4000 BC!! whaaa?), the unfortunately-named Bunratty Castle, and a leprechaun nudist colony. It was a good day.

Today it is pouring down liquid sunshine, so I’m off to the Cork library for some good old fashioned revision. Tellinyagirl.

I may have mentioned the level of professionalism demonstrated by one @marthaflynn in all matters moviegoing at the New Moon premiere, and Eclipse was no exception. In fact, she took it to the next level. Homegirl had a picnic blanket and a full bedazzling operation going at the number one spot in line before most people had even purchased their tickets. She does NOT mess around.

By the time I arrived at the AMC Van Ness Theater after work, the mania was in full swing. And you better believe Martha and crew were rocking the line harder than no other. Shirts were being bedazzled. Thai food was being delivered. The Red Bull girls were passing out sugar-fee taurine. The Twilight board game was being broken out. This was line squatting at its apex.

I’d be lying if I said it didn’t give me a moment of pause, a second where I said, “Is this really the direction I want to take my life?” But then I saw @alieslavin bedazzle the eyes on her Edward t-shirt. She held it up, and they sparklepired at me. “You had me at this is the skin of a killer, Eddie” I said (no I didn’t). But srsly, it is also so deliciously campy and ridiculous, HOW can you not love it? If I can’t have Twin Peaks, at least for the time being I can have pouting vampires fighting shirtless jorts-wearing werewolves.

Allow me to take a moment here to describe the Twilight boardgame. This is clearly a game for 11-year olds (and yes, I realize the commentary this implies). But did you know that it was apparently also CREATED by 11-year olds? As you move around the board, you must answer trivia and complete challenges. While the trivia are things like, “What’s the population of Forks?’ (A: WTF? How the eff would I know?….or, 3,120), the challenges are things like, “Everyone in the circle think of your favorite color, then the player should guess what everyone’s favorite color is. If the player guesses any of the colors that anyone thought of, you win this challenge!” (Again, WTF? So, if there’s 8 of us and I guess 8 colors, then if ANY of those colors is the fave of ANY of the players, I win? If only I KNEW 8 colors, I could totally DOMINATE this challenge). Let’s just say – I WON(‘t ever play it again).

At long last, at the magical stroke of 11.30pm, we were let into the theater. Even though we were first in line, I was instructed to RUN. I wasn’t sure why, but don’t question @marthaflynn – this much I know.

Finally, the movie. It was oozing cheese and a multitude of facial close-ups with intense eyebrow acting. Exactly the way we like it.

Only 445 days until Breaking Dawn. Bring on the vampire baby.