Birthday Resolutions and Ramblings of a Nonsensical Nature

"It is not every one," said Elinor, "who has your passion for dead leaves."

~Sense and Sensibility

Today is my nineteenth birthday, an occasion which I thought proper to mark on this blog.  After all, Elinor Dashwood is nineteen in Sense and Sensibility (the book, at any rate) and since I take my pen name from her, it's rather fun to think we're the same age at the moment.

Well, actually, if S&S takes place in 1811 (the year it was published) then technically she's 203 years older than I am but why on earth are you quibbling about details?

Part of this post is a delighted little "hey-look-I'm-the-same-age-as-Elinor-now-isn't-that-cool-actually-it's-kind-of-weird-because-I-think-of-her-as-being-lots-older" and part of it is a list of resolutions I've made for my twentieth year.  (Because it IS my twentieth year... the year you were born is your first year and culminates at your first birthday, blah blah blah, you know the drill.)  I prefer to make resolutions at my birthday rather than at New Year's, because New Year's is too mainstream.  That is to say, the New Year technically isn't a full new year in my life because I wasn't born on January first-- I was born on March sixteenth.  Clear as mud?  Yes.  Good.  We shall proceed.

As I said, I like to make resolutions on my birthday, and generally some of them are of a personal nature that shall not be shared with the Internet at large, but this year some of them are book-and-writing related, so I thought it would be a good idea to post about them here on my blog so that y'all can hold me accountable if you so desire.  There is nothing like accountability to help people keep their promises.  (I flatter myself that that sounds like something from The Importance of Being Earnest, but it isn't.)

Resolution the First

To finish rereading Sense and Sensibility and to reread Emma and Northanger Abbey before I turn 20.  (I read P&P, Mansfield Park and Persuasion last year.)

Resolution the Second

To read at least three new novels from my Classics Club list (which has been sadly neglected of late-- the count currently stands at 18/60.  Yikes).

Resolution the Third

To re-read at least three of the previously-read novels from my Classics Club list.

Resolution the Fourth

To finish the edits for the manuscript I'm currently working on ("How It Began With the Rochesters"-- go here for more details) and to write a query letter for it.  (Gulp.)

Resolution the Fifth

To write ten movie reviews here on YAPDB before my twentieth birthay. That's actually less than one per month.  I CAN DO THIS.  Watch out for Somewhere in Time coming Sometime This Week.

Resolution the Sixth

To delve deeper into the world of adapting classic literature for dramatic purposes-- I've been piddling in scriptwriting for a while now, but my interest was renewed tenfold yesterday when my sister Anne-girl and a dear friend of ours took me to see a local production of Pride and Prejudice (as a many-happy-returns present).  It was indubitably swellissimus and reminded me again how cool it is when a really good book gets a really faithful adaptation that does justice to it-- a thing I want to try for myself.  (Awkward sentence there... maybe I should resolve to work on my phrasing.  :P)

Resolution the Seventh

To be better at communication with friends and to see them in person as much as possible.  This past year was quite wonderful in regard to meeting blogging friends in person.  I count not one, not two, but three instances of its happening-- an excellent record, to be sure, but one I would not be sorry to break if occasion should ever require such a thing.  Heehee.

Annnnnd I think that's enough for one birthday... I am not made of ambition, after all.  And I don't intend to make resolutions I won't be able to keep-- you may notice that I say nothing about cake or treadmills.  My posted goals for this year revolve around books and writing and friends, which seems pretty fitting-- after all, isn't that what this blog is all about?  Thanks for sticking with me for another year, lovely people.  You're the best!

P.S.  Today I begged for money from Molly Hooper because that's what people do.  Go here to find out your Sherlock birthday description and tell me in the comments, won't you?  Yes, yes, I like geeky fan stuff like that. You were saying?

P.P.S. Oh, and my lovely sister Molly gave me series one of Sherlock for my birthday last night... not that I'm freaking-out-excited or anything.  SQUEEEEEEE.