Oh, Those Resolutions!
Here we are, a little more than a week into the New Year! How’s it going for you? There’s something so energizing about the New Year. It might be that exhausted fog that fills our head after the craziness of the holidays, or maybe just the knowledge that the candy canes are all gone and the decorations tucked away. Or maybe it’s the idea of a clean slate – a brand new year with a chance to make things a little different. To change it up. To, you know, achieve the big goals.
Lose weight. Take time to relax. Quit this or that bad habit. Finish writing a book. Save money. Manage time better. Quit eating dessert (but why?!?) Otherwise known this time of year as resolutions. You know how those go. “I resolve to finally do that one thing I know I should do, that’s really good for me, but never quite manage. And I resolve that this is the year it’s going to happen.” Then we call up all our willpower and resolve, and make it happen. Or, well, not.
Resolutions are a funny thing. My heroine, Maya, in Sex, Lies and Midnight, resolved when she left the small town of Black Oak that she’d never return. She was so insistent that she was through with her old 
life—and never going back—that she even changed her last name to disassociate herself further from that life, and from her father. She had a really good reason for this resolution, and being a strong woman with a major stubborn streak, she was able to keep it. Now, just between us, it might have been anger rather than willpower that kept her going the first year or so, but by then her new life was established, so it was easier to keep on with it.
And she did manage to keep on with that resolution for quite a few years. She lived her new life, the one she thought she should live. She did the day in, day out thing quite successfully. And never was really happy. Then she had to make a choice. Did she go back home to save her father from what she was sure would be a miserable, humiliating experience? Or did she stick with her resolution and stay away? And what could make the entire situation easier? Hmm, maybe a boy toy distraction? *g* Enter Simon, with his own agenda and a whole lot of sexy hotness to help her make the decision. Now, I might be biased (after all, I had a hand in making Maya’s decision) but I think breaking her resolution to never go back to Black Oak was a fabulous choice. Sometimes, resolutions are made to be broke, right?
So here’s my question to you. Do you think resolutions are the things we want to do? Really really want to, because it’ll make us happy? Are they big things that will make a positive impact in our life, but that we have to work toward in small steps for a long (long long long) time. Or do you see resolutions as those things we think we should do. The ones that we know are good for us, that will have a positive effect on our life, but don’t necessarily excite us.
Did you set any New Year’s resolutions? Have you in the past and have you kept them? Or, like Maya, kept them for awhile, until life changed.
I’ll offer an autographed copy of SEX, LIES AND MIDNIGHT to one random commenter today – so please, hang out, share your resolutions and chat with me!
Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy stories for Harlequin Blaze since her first book hit the shelves in 2007. When not obsessing over deadlines, she’s shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking or hanging out on Facebook and Twitter. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com
In December of 2011 Tawny launched her Undercover Ops series with SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE. The second book in the series, SEX, LIES & MIDNIGHT is on shelves in January 2012, quickly followed in 
February by SEX, LIES & VALENTINES. You can read the first chapter of SEX, LIES & MIDNIGHT on her website, too – all you have to do is join the Reader LoveFest! Be sure to follow Tawny on her Holiday Survival Tour as she celebrates these three books with tons of fun and a chance for readers to win a $100 giftcard!
