Who doesn’t love a good love story? It’s become a running joke between me and my wife that almost invariably, every movie we watch is really a love story. Sometimes it stretches credulity but it’s there if you look for it.

That being said, I don’t write a lot of love stories. I’ve done some sub-plots, some flirtations but no, nothing you could call an out and out love story. The closest I suppose I’ve come to that would be the sub-plot in A Time to Love and A Time to Hate resulting in William Riker (finally) proposing to Deanna Troi.

Love and romance is incredibly intimate and subtle, tricky to pull off. Maybe that’s one reason I’ve never really tackled it as a theme, lacking faith in my skill as a writer to successfully convey those emotions to the reader. Not that I don’t want to try but the opportunity has yet to really present itself.

With that said, I love women. I find myself drawn to writing female characters, hence my as-yet incomplete young adult novel featuring a teen girl lead. Or that my POV character in the ReDeus series is Gabriella Trotter, a woman searching for…something. Gabriella is like me, not quite believing in gods and searching for proof there is something worth believing in. In her story in ReDeus: Native Lands she wound up leaving Seattle, going on the road to see what’s out there.

I hope among the things she will discover will be some form of love. Over the last few months I’ve been mulling over where she should go first and what she should do since her story will form my first ReDeus novel, lightly pencilled in for next year, after solo outings by Paul Kupperberg and Aaron Rosenberg. She is opening herself up to absorb new experiences; her journalist’s mind a sponge, seeking information. How she processes those details and what she does with her newly acquired knowledge will certainly be interesting, especially with Coyote never far from her.

Does he love her? Of course not. She’s a trifle, a brief amusement in his larger game. But Gabriella is certainly worthy of love and being loved. I need to give this one some more thought, perhaps finally challenging myself to try my hand at an honest romance set against a reforming America, under the watchful eyes of the gods.

While I ponder this, stick around and see what my fellow inmates in the C8 asylum have to say on the subject of romance.

But seriously, folks.

My New’s Years resolution is to stop procrastinating and finish what I

Back in 1981, I made a New Year’s resolution to write a book. More specifically, a fantasy novel. It would be my first. If it was also to be my last, I would nonetheless die a happy man. That was what I told anyone who would listen: Gimme one, just one, and I’ll be content. After all, I’ll be a writer.

Four years later, that book was published. It was called The Hammer and The Horn. Four months after that I delivered the sequel to my editor at Warner Books. I was on my way.

But I had a new goal, one that seemed unattainable but was all the more appealing for its unattain-ability. I was going to write 100 books in all. Sounds greedy, considering I’d been willing to settle for one back in ’81. And prideful, definitely prideful. But then, a man’s reach should always exceed his grasp…or, I mean really, what’s a heaven for?

100 books. Certainly, I wouldn’t be the first. But it would take a lifetime. And so it began…

After my first four books came out, my agent hooked me up with editor Dave Stern at Pocket Books, who almost derailed my life’s plan when he turned down my first outline. But he liked the second one, so I was back on track.

In the years that followed, I wrote some 35 Star Trek books. Not just novels, either. The nifty, compact, and eminently useful Star Trek Federation Travel Guide? That was me (though, to be fair, the idea came from editor Margaret Clark). The beautiful and impressive coffee table book New Worlds, New Civilizations? Me again (as before, with a helping hand from Margaret).

I also wrote the adaptation of Batman & Robin, the autobiography of Hulk Hogan, sequels to The Wolf Man movie and the Aliens franchise, a bunch of Lois & Clark novels, and a whole lot more. A few years ago, I co-founded Crazy 8 Press, which published my last two original novels and is currently re-releasing The Hammer and The Horn.

The total to date? 71 books. So just 29 to go–including I Am The Salamander, the book I’m working on now. The unattainable now seems strangely possible. Not a slam dunk, certainly, but it could happen.

And it all goes back to a New Year’s resolution 32 years ago.

To me, the weird thing about New Year’s resolutions isn’t when we make them–though picking an arbitrary date like January 1st rather than March 12th or September 29th is undeniably weird. It’s that we give ourselves a year to carry them out.

Some resolutions can’t be carried out in twelve months. Some of them take a lifetime.

When I think back to a year ago — one year ago exactly — I was in a similar, but distinctly different place in the world.

I was geared up, feeling good, had lots of positive mojo going, and beyond work and the family, I knew that 2013 was going to be a huge year for me on the writing front. I knew it in my bones.

I was about to finalize Crossline, my first original novel with Crazy 8 Press, and I was working on the re-launch of my debut novel, Finders Keepers, also with Crazy 8 Press.

And then ……. I got bronchitis. I typically don’t get more than one or two colds a year, but I managed to pick up some super strain from my kids, and I was really sick.

For four. Straight. Months.

Not fun.

Then, the day I finally stopped coughing, and felt good … I got nailed with some wicked stomach virus that wiped me out for three days. Grrrrr.

I ultimately got my health back, and I did, in fact, release both books through Crazy 8 Press, to critical praise. But I was also in the process of selling my apartment in Queens, and buying a house in New Jersey, which also meant packing, and moving, and lawyers, accountants, realtors, plumbers, electricians, painters, and so much more.

By the time 2013 ended, I was simply exhausted.

So what’s my New Year’s Resolution for 2014?

To remain as healthy as I can, to enjoy my new home, and continue to watch my children grow and thrive.

And while I’m at it, keep building the buzz on Crossline and Finders Keepers, do as many signings, and appear at as many cons as I can, and debut the Finders Keepers sequel, which, if all goes well, will be showing up this fall.

Ambitious? Maybe.

But you know what? If all my authordude endeavors weren’t just a little bit, well … crazy, and at least kinda BIG … then it just wouldn’t be any fun, now would it?

Because as my Finders Keepers giver-of-wisdom Hank would say, “If it comes too easy, Kid, it probably ain’t worth doing in the first place. So stop yer belly achin’ and go get it done.”

Thanks for the advice, Hank. I’m doing just that.

My New Year’s Resolution is now officially under way.

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions is traced, I’m told, back to the Babylonians who seemed to know what they were doing. Far be it from the seven of us at Crazy 8 Press not to follow such a time-honored practice.

Personally, I would love to see myself writing more work for this site. At present, I have one story for an anthology promised for this summer. Beyond that, there’s a ReDeus novel that needs plotting but realistically won’t be out until 2015.

The ReDeus universe shows tremendous promise now that we’ve seen three anthologies exploring the first two decades after all the gods have returned. It has gotten good notices form those who have read the books and that encourages Aaron Rosenberg, Paul Kupperberg, and myself. But there are other stories to tell, including my young adult fantasy and an urban fantasy. Of late, though, my imagination has been captured by a Civil War event, one I want to research and explore before deciding what to do with this incredible love story. I chanced across the tale while touring Manassas during the winter break and to my surprise I can’t find any books on this incident requiring some further digging.

(In the meantime, I continue to do reviews and the occasional other story over at ComicMix and write my twice-monthly column at Westfield Comics, so I’m not entirely idle.)

As a site that allows us total creative freedom and expression, there’s more I want to do but time, thanks to the teaching gig, is preciously limited.

But beyond that, I resolve to work harder to help C8’s third year be its best yet, building off the things discussed in our New Year’s post. I want to help raise our visibility and broaden our outreach through school and public libraries. I want to be one of the people at public events, beyond conventions.

I also promise to continue to eat fruits and vegetables, take my vitamin D and try to lose weight.