Persephone Magazine’s New Year’s Resolutions

Happy 2014, y’all! For many, a new year means an opportunity to challenge themselves to try new things, break old habits, and find ways to be happier and healthier. Being the delightful unicorns we are, our writers have made some pretty creative resolutions that don’t revolve around the same boring diet/exercise vows everyone else sets themselves up to fail with, and we’ve set some awesome goals for the site, too. It’s not too late to add to your list if anything below strikes your fancy! (And no need for guilt or self-recrimination if you don’t follow through perfectly, either.)

Persephone Magazine

• Continue to put out kickass content no matter what obstacles the world throws at us.
• Reach out to find even more lovely readers for our community.
• Use all the swears possible in post titles, because fuck you, Google Adsense.
• Find and adopt a unicorn.
• Bring you the very best sexy David Tennant gifs. Because we love you and want you to be happy.

Hillary

• Be a better internet citizen by commenting more on PMag and other small blogs I love, while resisting the urge to comment on sites that are black holes of suckitude.
• Do a better job of promoting my own writing.
• Review more of the books that I read. I signed up for Cannonball Read, so now I have to follow through!
• Working on my crochet skills and maybe starting an Etsy store if I can figure out a good niche.
• Unfuck my email! (Or at least remember to crop the number out of screencaps so Liza will stop making fun of me for having, at present count, 7,696 unread emails that I never intend to read. And that doesn’t count the shit I’ve sorted into folders.)
• Paint my nails more often; I have so much pretty polish I never use!

Norma Neufner, Lady Officer

• No longer keeping paper receipts in my purse (because I inevitably end up with a pile of crumpled, no longer printed receipts that clog up my purse and make me look like a mess).
• Making a chore-chart for myself because since starting this new job, I have had zero handle on my house and laundry and it makes my anxiety skyrocket. (These can help!)

Selena MacIntosh

• Find/read more indie bloggers relevant to my interests.
• Drink more water.
• Write something fictional.
• Wear more patterns/colors.
• Go to the actual movies instead of waiting for the DVD all the time.
• Read more books.

Juniper

• Sort the paperwork (all of it).
• Make time for writing at least once a week (even if just for 20 minutes).
• Take more pictures.
• Be more organised.
• Let go of stress and embrace family time.
• Go to bed before midnight.

Kym G

• Learn to speak Spanish. (Duolingo can help with that!)

Sara Habein

• Finally query my novel in a serious manner.
• Learn to play my new baritone ukulele.
• Start writing a new novel.
• Continue to be more brave. (Be more brave is usually my resolution. And I do accomplish something each year that is indeed more brave than the last.)

Liza

• Finish the novel I started for NaNo 2012 and abandoned.
• Eat vegan (and blog about it).
• Stay on top/ahead of my readings and assignments for my classes.
• Get back into photography and shoot regularly.
• Make and post more things to my Etsy store.
• Try to get on a normal human sleep schedule, meaning something other than 3 AM to noon.

Jessica Werner

• Birth a child who doesn’t grow up to kill and eat people.
• Make really good croissants.

Bipolar Gurl

• My partner and I are going to work on doing the JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes in honor of my younger sister this year. She might end up coming too.

Laura-C

• I’m going to resolve to carry a treat pouch and clicker with me in the house at all times, so I can capture all these behaviors the dogs do. Like first thing in the morning they all stretch, and I want to train them to take a bow, so all I have to do is capture it.

Sally Lawton

• I’d like to hike on Isle Royale in Lake Superior.
• Learn to sew well. I’ve already started and sewed my first project, but I’d like to be pretty good by the end of the year.
• Increase the strength in areas of my body that are most used for hiking. I’m tired of my hip flexors being sore from long hikes. I know this means squats. Endless squats.

Stephens

• Definitely drink more water.
• Write more both for PMag and my own personal work.
• Decide if I’m really going to grad school or not.
• Learn French or Spanish.
• Become more social because being a hermit, while nice sometimes, isn’t really good for me.
• Get more sleep.
• Commit to doing yoga several times a week to help with aches and pains I’ve developed.

Luann

• Make more time for self-care and integrating that into my schedule (yoga, reading a book, sleep, watching an episode of a TV show). I tend to do self-care when I’m already at the point of being stressed out, so this way I’m taking more preventative measures.
• Comment on my favorite blogs and writing more for PMag.
• It’s kind of a weird goal, but I think I’m planning to visit a new coffee shop at least one or twice a month. There’s so many here in PDX that I think I can fill out an entire year.
• Stick with a more structured schedule for my personal blog. I’m finally getting to a place where I’m taking it more seriously and because of that, my reader responses are growing.
• In every aspect of my life, I’d like to be more fearless.

Marena

• Finish my Thesis.
• Present at two academic conferences.
• Read more for pleasure.
• Watch more films.
• Complete a full draft of one of my many ideas for novels.
• Get “Phoenix area fans of color” going to connect with local geeks of color.
• Get back into beading.

Freckle

• Selfpublish my NaNo novel.
• Take up German.
• Continue MOOCing.
• Pick up rollerderby again.

Brenda

• Write more .
• Make more things.
• Keep the floor swept.
• Go to the park more.

Moretta

• Reduce the amount of food we waste.
• Do an outline of a book on dogs.

Pileofmonkeys

• I’m pretty anti-resolution, but I’d like to try to socialize more.

Savannah Logsdon-Breakstone

• Actually reach out to people instead of wibbling in the corner wishing I had something to talk about first.

Alyson

• I want to write more and spend more time documenting my life.