Why I won’t be climbing Everest this year

I had a shortlist of New Year’s resolutions. On reflection, I may have been overstretching it by including such items as planting a hydrangea on the summit of Everest, changing a tyre on the Mars Curiosity rover and growing an extra arm. Some things are just a little too ambitious. So this year I’ll keep it simple, and resolve to just keep calm and carry on.

The WordPress annual report of hits on my blog has proved to me what I already knew: that most of you come here to read about writing and visual effects (I’m not counting those folk who arrive here by mistake and immediately decide to beat a hasty retreat). No surprise then that the two posts which got more hits than any other – by a country mile – were these:

So here’s what’s coming up in 2013. First, I’ll be continuing my marathon Cinefex re-read. With good luck and a following wind I should reach my ultimate target of issue #40 (representing the end of the journal’s first decade) by the end of the year. There are still plenty of landmark VFX films to cover, including Innerspace, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Abyss. I can’t wait.

Second, I’ll continue to blather on about my adventures as an author. I’m starting the year in a good place, having nearly finished the second draft of The Frozen King – a manuscript I was working on through 2012. When that’s done, I plan to return to a novel I had to put on hold called Black Dog.

If you’re very lucky (or unlucky, depending on your viewpoint) I’ll give you regular reports on the progress of Black Dog – maybe even the kind of detailed blog-as-you-write commentary I’ve inflicted on you before. The forced hiatus has given me a new perspective on the story, and the impetus to get stuck into it again. Although I should warn you I may end up throwing out the 20,000 words I’ve written so far and starting again. Well, New Year is all about fresh starts, isn’t it?

Finally, I hope to have a few surprises to throw at you from time to time. If you want to find out what they are, you’ll just have to keep visiting the blog. No need to make an appointment – the door’s always open and the kettle’s usually on. On a good day, there are also biscuits.

And, for now, Everest will just have to wait.

Happy New Year!