Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here. 2023 was an interesting year. Nothing monumental happened chez Emerson, but one way or another, I did a lot of organizing. The blog I posted last May about the hassles an author’s estate can cause his or her heirs prompted me to do a lot of that. It’s an endless task, but I think I made a good start. I’ve always been pretty good at making lists and inventories.

My first resolution for 2024 is to keep everything I organized in 2023 up to date in 2024. I’ve learned the hard way that it’s soooo much easier to do that if, for example, I add new items to lists as soon as they’re created. Putting off that task just means ending up with an accumulation of “to be added” items and that leads to procrastination. Sometimes, the job never gets done.

Resolution number two is also a “maintenance” item. For the first time in more years than I want to admit to, I saw a number under 200 on my bathroom scale. I didn’t diet in 2023, but I did have a couple of stretches where certain items were forbidden for nibbling. I have no willpower, so that meant “not anywhere in the house” or they’d be eaten. A bag of Dove dark chocolate promises? Gone in a week. A family-size bag of potato chips? Gone in two days, max. To keep my weight down all I have to do is not buy chocolate, ice cream, pretzels, potato chips, whoopie pies, brownies, cake, pie . . . you get the idea. That still leaves popcorn, nuts, apples, saltines, graham crackers, and cereal for snacks—better than nothing but never as good as chocolate. Sigh.

Beyond those resolutions for 2024, I pretty much plan to keep on doing what I have been doing—revising older books to reissue in e-book and print on demand formats. My only deadlines will be the ones I set for myself, which means I have no excuse not to work in some daily exercise sessions and regular opportunities to get out of the house. How will I spend the rest of my time? I’ll be reading other people’s books, of course.

I’d love to have readers chime in with their plans for the new year, whether they are resolutions or just aspirations. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. In 2023 she won the Lea Wait Award for “excellence and achievement” from the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. She is currently working on creating new omnibus e-book editions of her backlist titles. Her website is www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.