Fresh starts are always so enticing, like the smooth surface of a brand new jar of peanut butter (or better yet, Nutella). There’s something so peaceful and calming about them, and yet you know that you can’t get to the good stuff until you dig in and get messy.

So it’s in that vein that I submit this list of things I’d like to accomplish in 2013.

1. Establish an accountability system for writing.
2. Revise and submit the Hell’s Belles series to Dream Agent.
3. Draft the proposal for the first Arden Grove High book.
4. Redesign the website (already in progress, thank you very much!)
5. Create a blog schedule and stick to it.
6. Move more.
7. Eat less.
8. Write morning pages.
9. Start using cash instead of burning up my debit card.
10. Continue Operation Kerosene, aka “get all that junk out of my house before I have to pile it in the driveway and set it on fire.”
11. Go to bed with a shiny sink à la the Flylady
12. Keep in touch with my girls.
13. Love up on my family.

Last year was tough for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which was a huge move to another school, and it spilled over into everything else: family, friendships, personal care, writing. But tough times don’t last. Classic movie actress Mary Pickford said, “Supposing you have tried and failed again and again. You may have a fresh start any moment you choose, for this thing we call ‘failure’ is not the falling down, but the staying down.”

No more staying down. Time to get up and get going!