It's the Little Joys

Today I made one of my favorite purchases for my writing business. I purchased my 2010 day planner. I have so much fun looking through the different styles, comparing covers, and checking out all the extras. So many choices.

First of all, one must consider the size. The last few years I've gone with the smaller nine by six with a week on facing pages. I have to write small in those spaces though so this year I decided to go either with the bigger, full-sized model or the planner with one entire page for each date. It took me ten minutes to decide on the bigger one with a week on facing pages.

Then I have to look at the covers. I need something that will survive getting stuffed into bags and carried here and there. Last year I splurged on real leather. The same planner in the large style I wanted cost $25. I went with faux blue leather instead for $17.

I had to check out the extras. I don't really need those pretty maps of the world in the back but they were in all my finalists. My final choice had the usual conversion charts and information about other countries, population and units of currency. I need that as much as I need the world maps. Now it did have a wine vintage guide. They didn't mention the local wines I like to sample. Can't figure out why.

Of course I would never buy a planner that didn't have one of those little ribbons to mark my page and this one also has the rip-off corners. Last year's didn't have that so I'm doing that tonight.

Oh the joy of sniffing the brand new faux leather and marking the important dates in my new planner. Everything will be so neat for a while.

On the more serious side, filling in those dates in my planner reminds me of the goals I've set and the future I intend to pursue in my budding career as a writer. I have release dates to fill in for January, The Keepers of Futhark, and for April 30th, To Tame a Tiger. My planner reminds me I'm going somewhere, slowly but surely. And when next November rolls around and I buy a new planner, I'll have a release date to mark for January, 2011 for Beyond the Gate.

Do you love your planner as much as I love mine.