Revolutions

I just realised that I didn't post my New Year's resolutions.

1. Finish my doctorate. No, really. It's getting beyond a joke.
2. Publish something. Something academic, that is, not a poem in the school magazine.
3. Get a job. Preferably in America.
4. Find true love. This will probably have to be accomplished by getting a cat.
5. Make more monsters. It's been too long.

Do I need more than 5? I suppose the more there are, the better the chance that I will actually stick to one of them. Okay, let's add another:

6. Be obsessive about something, someone, or somewhere.

Which means that I'm already a whole sixth of the way towards keeping all of my New Year's resolutions for 2008. Hooray!

Palpitations

It's odd when the thing you were dreaming about but never thought would happen happens. And it's an anticlimax. At least it is when all it does is provide evidence of something you realise you didn't want to know about anyway.

OK, I had vodka and cocktails and I'm not too coherent.

But what I do want to tell you about is the book I'm reading. It's called A Game of Thrones and is utterly wonderful. I don't usually read fantasy fiction any more (apart from my annual rereading of LotR, of course) but my friend JZ recommended this one and I can never refuse him anything. And I'm so glad that I can't, because I'm completely hooked. The Americanisms grate just a little for me, but that's like complaining that Dickens is Victorian or that Shakespeare can't spell. Really, I would urge anyone who has even the remotest liking for dragons, wolves, swords and really brilliant plots to buy this right now. Here's an Amazon link to make it even easier. And here's one in case you're American. The rest of you benighted heathen can fend for yourselves.