Every year Laura Lippman does a one word resolution challenge and I really like the idea. Instead of coming up with a task list of dubious usefulness, it takes all of the swirling ideas and thought and inspirations in my head and solidifies them around one solid theme. So this year my word is QUALITY. Garbage in-garbage out is very real and for too long I’ve been on the wrong end of it. I’ve been making small-scale changes in what I eat and wear and consume, finding that I enjoy wearing and eating things I wouldn’t have expected of myself if they’re of higher quality. And this goes for my entertainment as well.

Quality doesn’t mean a diet of nothing but independent foreign films and BBC television series, it means no more hate reads and no more reading things because I feel I have to. It means using reading to expand my mind and understanding of the world around me as much as entertaining myself (ie, more non-fiction). Sometimes quality entertainment will be a great film like Roma and sometimes it will be something stupid like Hurricane Heist. As for reading, this means finding more authors of color to enjoy. Not because I have to, but because I want to. Luckily there are plenty of offerings on deck for 2019.

As for the family, this means more quality time. No more zombie social media browsing when we’re together. It means really pushing to have all of us at the dinner table at the same time. And it means reading to them at bedtime more, which is something I have horribly slacked off on for too long.

Writing quality stuff is always a challenge and that’s the way it should be. I don’t ever want to take the easy way out on a story and I want to find new ways to do the things I love with my work.