Happy New Year!

Happy new year to all my readers and to those just passing by. Here’s hoping that 2008 is a good year for everyone and that it marks the day of big things happening. This year I have a few big things happening right off the bat in January:

On the 15th, Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award competition will announce their semi-finalists. That is when a field of 5000 books is narrowed down to 1000. Reading the boards on the competition’s website, people are extremely nervous and it’s only going to get more intense as the 15th approaches. My goal going into this competition was to make the top 1000, anything after that is gravy. If my novel makes the list of a thousand, Amazon will open a page dedicated to it so that people can read an excerpt of the book and post official reviews that will be looked at when judging the next round. I will be providing the URL for the link here should that occur. I am a bit nervous going in, but fifteen days isn’t too long. We’ve been waiting since November 12th, so this is the home stretch.

Speaking of my writing, I have been pumping out some new material lately. Someone showed me an amazing online site for writers to get together and share work online. I usually don’t do stuff like that, but have enjoyed it cause I joined a group that allowed me to socialize with other people who have entered the novel award competition. I’ve posted a few poems, a short story and the first two chapters of a serial novel that I plan to continue throughout the new year. If you would like to read the new stuff I’ve been posting the last few days, feel free to check my online profile by clicking on the following URL:

http://www.writerscafe.org/writers/Peter_24601/

My next big thing comes on the 21st of January: my long awaited MRI. I got a letter in the mail to remind me of the time (2:30am) and to tell me what to wear and not wear when going in for the test. It’s very detailed, but I understand and will comply fully. I’m eager to get this over with and will be there ontime, ready for the 30 min scan. I hope they put some music on when I’m in there cause just lying there and doing nothing for that long could be a bit unnerving. I’m sure it’s just like a cat scan, but just a tad longer. This will be quite an experience. After the scan, I will see the neurologist again within 2 weeks. Oh joy…

There are many other things to look forward to in 2008, such as the Bejing Olympic games. Despite their humen rights record, I doubt any nation will boycot the games. Lately many nations are all talk and no walk on that subject. Then we have the November election, and unless King George cancels the election and stamps on the rest of the constitution, the people will finally pick his successor. While I’m not too fond of many of the canidates, all of them are still better than Bush who needs to get the boot ASAP. Since Congress doesn’t have the minerals to do it right now via impeachment, the people will have to clean all houses in November.

So we all have something to look forward to this year, and I hope that it’s a good year. I plan to be around as often as possible and at least be more active than I was in December. Take care everyone, enjoy the day off and I’ll be around.

Peter