The year is starting slowly for my writing but I'm keeping my Hello 2010 philosophy front and center. It's not quite the end of the month but I've decided the rest of my spare time will be filled with seeing a Cirque Du Soleil show and visiting the Grand Canyon.

2010 - Calm. Not so much this month. I guess travelling to another continent by yourself for two weeks will do that. It was good to remember that the craziness was a temporary thing.

I only managed 8 writing days this month but I did realise I'd made it half way through the alpha revision. If 2010 snuck up on me then NaNoEdMo is continuing the trend. The site will open all refreshed and shiny on February 1st so you can get ready to edit for 50 hours in March. I thought I would have the alpha revision of Family Trust finished by March but if not I've resolved (just now) to have it finished by the end of March.

It's busy at Kiwi Writers HQ and something you'll see straight away is weekly klog posts focused around a theme each month. In February we'll all be writing about our favourite thing to do or have when writing. There'll also be a 4,000 word version of the Waitangi Weekend Word Wace since Waitangi Day falls on a Saturday.

With a shiny new theme for the blog I want to keep making improvements both with the layout, features and content. One of the things that has kept me going with the Family Trust revision is teasing my muse with new ideas and new challenges. In fact, those two things crashed into each other and I thought of 10 Ideas in 10 Days. There are so many ways to generate ideas and if you can come up with 10 there's bound to be a great big shiny one in there.

One of the best ways to learn about writing is to read books. This month I've only finished one book: Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere. It's a plot driven novel that kept me interested when I was reading but didn't pull me back after I'd put it down. I like stories that aren't just a treasure hunt for the sake of myth, prophecy or fantasy but that really use the character's decisions to drive the action and the consequences. Just like most of Neil Gaiman's stories they are a great lesson in world building.

Here's to 2010. *clink* I'm feeling cautiously optimistic.