Back on the 1 January I wrote my to do list for the year.

I don’t intend to give regular updates, but I thought, in lieu of anything else to blog about for the moment (other than ranting about politics), I would give some quick updates on where things are at after the first couple of weeks. (Some of the first few weeks has been spent getting older, part of which included going to see the play of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – it was very good, and I’d highly recommend it if you haven’t seen it already and you can get to it before it closes in the West End.)

• Edit and publish a novella and short story

The novella is currently being read by someone. I’m awaiting their feedback, but assuming it isn’t in too bad a shape, I’m still on track for getting this out maybe around the middle of this year (final point on the to do list not standing).

The book that will contain these two stories is hopefully the first of several books that will pop up between releases of the main The Vasini Chronicles novels. This one will deal with some happenings that occurred either side of The Silver Mask.

• Edit and try to work out how to publish a long novel

While I’m waiting for feedback on the novella, my editing time is being spent on this long novel, which may get published at some point in the future (there’s various complications with publishing it independently, but hopefully they can be overcome).

I’m kinda pleased with it, but there’s still a way to go before it’s in a shape to publish.

• Finish writing and then edit The Vasini Chronicles II

As I write this, the first draft currently sits at a few words shy of 128,000. The first draft (as always) will be somewhat longer than I expected. The end of the first draft is still a little distant, but is now at least within sight.

• Write some more things (not all of them Vasini related)

This will have to wait until I’ve finished the first draft of The Vasini Chronicles II, but there are a couple of ideas percolating for what I’ll write next.

• Read at least 26 books and cut down my backlog of unread books (now over 300 thanks to Christmas presents)

With impending parenthood, I decided to set myself a target of 26 books this year (despite having read 61 last year). I’ve read nine so far, so well on track to get to 26. However, most have been presents or more recent purchases, so I’m not quite getting through actual backlog.

If you’re interested in what I’m reading, you can check out my Goodreads page.

• Hope that the bad decision making the world seemed prone to last year doesn’t have as much of an impact as it could and try to play my part in counteracting said bad decision making

I’ve always been a bit sceptical of writing to my MP. However, I finally managed to overcome the sense of futility and wrote to my MP this week. I shall await their response with the hope that my scepticism was misplaced. I suspect it will be the first of several emails over the coming weeks and months.

• Become a father (at which point my to do list will likely be much longer and quite different from the above)

Everything’s still on track with this (*touch wood*).