2012 is the last year of the earth. At least according to some crackpots who are misreading Mayan culture. But that’s good enough for me.

Since 2012 is it, I should do something special, something I’ve always wanted to do (like George Clooney). And take a vacation. I travel so much for my job as a TV producer that I rarely travel for fun. Not this year. And I’ll stop accumulating stuff – since none of it will be of any use after December 21st.

I’ll wake up early to get in a little quiet time before the day gets started. I’ll eat a cupcake if I feel like it, but I’ll try to remember that my body can only do for me if I do for it. I’ll read good books all the way to the last page, but when I’m not feeling it I’ll go ahead and stop without guilt.

I’ll keep writing. I know what you’re thinking, my books scheduled for release in 2013 will never see the light of day, so what’s the point? But I don’t write for you (sorry), I write for me. I write because much of the time I really love it. Not all of the time if I’m being honest, but enough to keep going.

And I’ll mostly try to savor these last few remaining months of the planet, even on days like today when it’s so freaking cold that I have to bury myself under a dozen quilts to keep warm. Luckily I happen to have a dozen quilts, so it all works out. I may even use some of the valuable time left to make a few more, just in case I get a chill as the world comes to a stop.

And, on the slim chance that the nutjobs are wrong, perhaps these “last year on earth” resolutions will just make 2012 a good year.

What about you? What are you doing with the 11 months, 3 days you have left?

Welcome to the new year. So far so good. I managed to do pretty much nothing on the 1st, except meditate, exercise and knit. I’m assuming the rest of the year will be busier, but I’m in no hurry.

I don’t make resolutions mainly because it’s too depressing when I break them, but this year I’ve decided to make a few. Let’s all see how long I manage to keep them.

1. In 2012, I plan to stop thinking that the book I’m not writing is a way better book than the one I am writing. I’m always excited about the idea I have no time to write, which sometimes depresses me about the idea I’m working on. This year I’m going to focus on the book, the chapter, the character, and the sentence that I’m actually writing.

2. In 2012, I will stop downloading episodes of Dexter, True Blood, Justified etc… and telling myself that since I’m at my computer, it counts as “working.”

3. In 2012, I will stop adding books to my “to be read”  pile until I’ve read at least half the books that are already there.

4. In 2012, I will stop checking my amazon ranking because it only serves to either temporary excite me or depress the hell out of me.

5. In 2012, I plan to just have fun with the writing, the readers and authors I meet, and my fantastic team (editor Becky, publicist Mary and agent Sharon) instead of worrying all the time when it’s going to come to a crashing halt.

And, of course, I plan to eat right, exercise, meditate daily, pray for world peace and all that other junk.

What’s on your list for 2012?

I can tell you from experience that every writer has heard some version of, “I have this great idea for a novel. You write it, and we’ll split the profits.” We’ve also all heard the question, “Where do you get your ideas?”

These are people who think ideas are hard to come by. They are not. Writers get inspiration from everything we do, everywhere we go, and everyone we meet. In fact, we’re swimming in ideas. Everything gets filed away in the brain (or on the computer) for possible inclusion in a book someday.

Years ago I was dating a fellow writer and we had an argument… we had many arguments but this one in particular stands out… I said something intended to be both witty and cutting. Apparently it was. But instead of being hurt, my boyfriend/writer got a piece of paper and wrote down my words.  “That was good,” he said. “One of us should use that in something.”   That pretty much ended the argument because it’s hard to yell and write at the same time and neither of us knew shorthand. He kept the paper, so hopefully he used whatever it was I said in something he wrote.

Thanksfully it’s not always an argument that inspires. It’s usually the most mundane of moments. Yesterday I was in the grocery store trying to buy deoderant, specifically unscented deoderant. There were scents like “meadow” and “wildflowers” and “fresh” but no unscented. Why would I want my armpits to smell like wildflowers? And what exactly does “fresh” smell like? I looked around and noticed that a lot of things are scented that don’t need to be – tampons (I really don’t want to smell like wildflowers there), laundry detergent, soap… it made me wonder if people have to layer their scents. You don’t want lavender smelling clothes, clover smelling skin, and hair that smells like freshly falling snow. It would be confusing for the smellee. On the other hand, you don’t want to go around with an overwhelming odor of just picked apples, because everything from your underwear to your lip gloss is “apple scented.”

I walked out of the store without my unscented deoderant but I didn’t leave empty handed. I know that at some point I’ll use that little moment in a book. Just like I’ve used a thousand equally small moments as insiration for characters, scenes and whole books. I try to tell people I don’t get my ideas from anywhere, they’re just there, but I guess in a way, I get them at the grocery store, right between the peppermint scented eyedrops and the cherry flavored condoms.

In this month’s issue of Scientific American Mind, there’s an article about how scientists have discovered that reading fiction  – far from being the socially isolating experience some people think it is – can actually build social skills. Author Keith Oatley writes, “The process of entering imagined worlds of fiction builds empathy and improves your ability to take another person’s point of view. It can even change your personality. The seemingly solitary act of holing up with a book, then, is actually an exercise in human interaction.”

As one of those people who grew up with her nose in a book, I know that reading helped me see other worlds, choices, and opportunities that were far beyond anything I experienced on Chicago’s south side. Books allowed me to “try out” other lives – whether it was the morally bankrupt (but beautifully written) world of Gatsby, or the life of a London street urchin in Oliver Twist. I remember an old book I got from the library when I was about twelve – Junior Year Abroad, by Rosamond DuJardin, about an American college student spending her junior year in Paris. It was the match that lit a dream I had to study abroad. My spending my junior year in London may not have come about if I hadn’t first read that book.

But fiction serves as more than inspiration, science has found. Fiction allows us to enter, not just another world, but another life, because we so strongly identify with the main character as we read. We are taking the journey together, in a way, and experiencing the fears, joys, worries and excitement the character feels. Maybe it’s as close as we ever get to walking in another’s shoes.

According to the article, avid fiction readers are better at correctly identifying other people’s moods and are more “open and perceptive to others.” Recently I was complimented about my “uncanny ability to read people” – high praise that made me laugh. Now, I think of the wording of the compliment – maybe I get my practice in “reading people” everytime I open a book.

What do you think? Does reading make you more open, more perceptive?

Or is it a science?

I should know the answer because it seems I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the subject. Lately I start to do something then find myself giving up with an, ”I’ll do the rest tomorrow.” I blame it on the half cold that I have. Yes, I have half a cold. Stuffy, but not stuffed, nose, occasional cough, achy-ish…It’s like my immune system kicked in at the first sign of germs and then, with the job half done, said, “I’ll do the rest tomorrow.”

I have a nearly finished gift for a friend, several packages to mail if I can just get the right boxes which are somewhere, if I felt like looking. I have a pile of papers that need to be sorted and tons of those catalogs that show up on masse at this time of year that have to be recycled… and this book that should be written.

I don’t believe in writer’s block. I’ve stated that on several occasions. But whatever I’m experiencing these days comes pretty close (and pre-dates the half-cold, so can’t blame that.) I have all of these ideas in my head and not the slightest desire to get them on paper. This is that time when I toggle back and forth between “art can’t be rushed” and “writing is my job, so I have to do it.”

Agatha Christie said, “Write even when you don’t want to, don’t much like what you are writing, and aren’t writing particularly well.” And she should know, she wrote more than 80 novels.  And, given that she remains the most successful mystery writer of all time, who am I to argue?

But is it possible that a little procrastination is a good thing? That doing nothing is good for the mind, body and soul? Is it possible that while I’m downloading old episodes of True Blood on HBO-Go (really an evil and addictive invention) that what I’m actually doing is refreshing myself so that I’ll be ready to finish that gift/find those boxes/sort through the mail/ write that novel tomorrow?

What do you think? Should I follow Agatha’s advice or wait for inspiration?

I haven’t read a lot of thrillers – serial killers (aside from Dexter) don’t really interest me, nor do psychopaths, or those seeking world domination. And I get a little bored with the often overly intricate plotting and sometimes crazy leaps of logic required to keep the cat and mouse games going for hundreds of pages. There are great ones out there, but in all honesty, I just don’t run to the bookstore to pick up the latest thrillers with the same enthusiasm I have for other mysteries.

But I realized recently, that in my own quiet, down-scaled way, my stand alone novel REMEMBER LAURA, is moving toward thriller. It’s darker and more menacing than my current work, and my main character is in danger for most of the book. I don’t know where I’m going with it – as I’m less than half way through the first draft (and this is without a contract, so I’m just doing it for fun at the moment.) But, I’ve been trying to educate myself on thrillers and also to get past my own reluctance to go down that path.

So this week, I read two of the big guns in thrillers. John Connolly and James Patterson. Connolly is an Irish writer, though he sets his series in the US. I read THE BLACK ANGEL , a brooding, often violent thriller that dips into the supernatural. It’s the 5th book in his Charlie Parker series, about a man haunted by the deaths of his wife and daughter – searching for a missing prostitute and finding himself drawn into a world of both myth and murder. It’s beautifully written, almost poetic at times, which makes the dark world of the characters all the more compelling.

I also read the first Alex Cross novel, ALONG CAME A SPIDER. I’d never read James Patterson, though you would have to be living under a rock, buried in a cave at the bottom of the ocean not to have heard of him. But as you all know by now, I tend to avoid the popular for as long as possible (just look at my book sales). So what did I think? You got to hand it to him, that guy knows how to create a page turner. I kept doing the “one more chapter” thing – and a hundred pages later was still reading. Alex Cross, a D.C. homicide detective/ psychologist is on the hunt for a kidnapper/killer who may not be what he seems. Alex is trying to be all things – a good father, good detective, good friend, good psychologist… and often struggling. He’s not perfect, not always right, but he’s smart and intent on doing the right thing, which makes him exactly the kind of guy you want to keep reading about.

I’m going to keep reading thrillers – maybe admit that I’ve been a bit harsh on them – and keep plugging away on REMEMBER LAURA – and the next Kate Conway book. Anyone want to recommend a thriller they love, let me know.

A few days ago I mentioned that I was the last person on earth not to have read Steig Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Then I read it and declared that we, as a planet, can move on.

Apparently, I was wrong. Alan Orloff, author, friend, and well-read guy, has admitted that he has not read it. If there are others hiding in the shadows, afraid to come forward and admit the truth, I suggest you contact Alan (alanorloff.com) and form a support group.

And just because I can’t be a member of that group, doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of opportunities for me to be part of the “out crowd”. I’ve only seen the first Star Wars movie, the first Godfather movie, and none of the Twilight films. Nor am I itching to. I don’t own an i-pad or a kindle. (Though if someone is looking to get me a Christmas gift…..) I didn’t watch the wedding of William and Kate this summer, and mocked anyone who did. When I scan a People Magazine at the dentist’s office, I have no idea who about half the “famous” people are. I would add that I’m completely unclear as to why the Kardashian women are famous, but I suspect none of us know. I would like the name of their publicist though.

I’m willing to jump on the popular bandwagon when it warrants – I mean things are often popular for a reason, right? Harry Potter is a ripping good set of books, and Mad Men is wonderful. It isn’t that I disdain the popular, it’s that I can’t keep up. Anyone else have this problem? What “everybody’s doing it” thing have you ignored?

Yeah! Back from a wonderful DEVIL’S PUZZLE tour and ready to start writing again. But first, Friday reads. The one good thing about airplane travel, and it is sometimes the only good thing, is that is gives me time to read.

I finally read THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson. Yes, that’s it then, we’ve all read it. I’m the last one on the planet to have held out. And…. I really liked it. It was long, possibly a bit too long, but why quibble. The characters were interesting, the drama was intelligent and well played out, and I kept turning page after page, so 650 pages were read in just a few days, and I quickly bought the next one.

Then I moved on to something a bit lighter. MURPHY’S LAW by Rhys Bowen. It’s the 1st in a series about an Irish woman who emigrates to America in 1901. Molly Murphy is on the run from the law, but hasn’t left trouble behind her in Ireland. In fact, trouble chases her from England to New York, where she finds herself the suspect in a murder, and possibly the next victim. Fun, and full of wonderful historical bits that made a light read that much deeper.

Now I’m reading John Connolly’s THE DARK ANGEL. I’m only aboout a third through so I’ll save my thoughts for next week. Sorry to have taken so much time away from the blog but my main concern on a book tour is the room service menu, writing a blog just seemed like too much work!

Today is a salute to all things that go bump in the night – to ghosts, and witches and everything that scares us. So as a mystery writer, it’s pretty much the best day of the year.

And there’s candy.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

As you read this, I’m heading down to Kansas City to talk with a quilt group about The Devil’s Puzzle, #4 in the Someday series. I’ll be back Wednesday night, then Friday I go to Arizona, then California, Texas and New York before coming back home. It’s a lot of airports, hotel rooms, rental cars and taxis… with a little time at bookstores and quilt conventions thrown in.

Here are my pledges…

I will eat healthy. I seem to think that being on the road is a calorie free proposition, but everytime I return home, my clothes make a compelling argument that I’m wrong. So, this time…. no cake, no fried things. Only salad and water.

I’ll use my down time constructively. I tend to flip through the channels at the hotel as if TV were a new invention, unable or unwilling to answer emails, copy edit the latest book, return calls… all the grown up “this is business” stuff I’m supposed to do, even when I’m out of town. So this time, no TV until all the work is done.

And finally, I promise not to buy out the quilt convention in Houston, which is a really cool, kind of overwhelming, gathering of about 50,000 quilters from all over the world. And people selling stuff (including me, selling books at Craftsman’s Touch Booth- stop by). When I’m on my breaks from signing, I tend to shop. Not this year. Nope. I have more fabric and related stuff than I could ever use. So no shopping.

I’ll let you know how this all goes…. assuming that between bites of cake and sorting through my purchases, I bother to write a blog.