Resolution: Let’s be deliberate in the year ahead. Let’s choose our time and our course and our actions with a certainty in what we hope to achieve.

I’ll begin January working on the novel that will serve as a gift for my second son, who turns eight in July. That work will continue steadily during the first couple months, though in February the Winter Olympics will steal my attention. Most of it, anyway, but not the curling.

March means a trip to L.A. and April will see Little League season in full swing. May introduces ramped-up pressure to pack up our house for an international move and in June we’ll be saying farewell and see you soon to good friends and family.

By the end of July we’ll lift off for an assignment in Mumbai, and in August we’ll be getting to know the city and sharing impressions of the place. September marks the First Year Anniversary of my second novel, Patchworks.

October is the start of the marathon season of holidays with Navaratri and Halloween followed in November by Diwali and Thanksgiving. In December I’ll turn myself over to eggnog and Christmas tidings.

Reviews: I’ll be ramping back up on book reviews, and am open to inquiries from authors with recent or forthcoming novels. All the more interested if the work relates to the themes on my calendar.

Only a fool assumes no surprises: hurdles and challenges, blessings and wonder. Let the latter outweigh the former. 2018 is here.