Why Bother? (Brian Katcher)

 In his novel Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut stated that the best time to invest in a gym is at the new year, when everyone resolves to lose weight. Then you dump it the spring, after everyone has quit going. And I think that's the way it goes with most of us and the promises we make to ourselves. I'm going to work out every day. I'm going to find out the name of my daughter's teacher (turns out she's in high school now). I'm not going to wake up in a hardware store parking lot, my face covered in gold spray paint.

Obviously, these resolutions are doomed to failure. They're just too broad and easy to slack off on. Not that I've had better luck with my specific resolutions, like to hold that huge Florida Democratic voter drive in 2000 or to sell off all those Enron stocks in 2001.

But then there are the more serious, book related resolutions. They're not usually about writing, but about NOT writing. If I don't sell a book this year, I quit. This is it. I'm done with the heartbreak and the wasted effort. I'm just going to turn into a frustrated failed author who keeps harping about his past.

 But like every other resolution I've made, I failed on that one as well. And it's a good thing. For the first time in five years, I'm on submission. Watch this space.