I started putting these things online in the hope that it would encourage me to write more. Knowing that this nonsense is not just going to exist on my monitor (now it might exist on yours!) makes it all feel a bit more real and worthwhile. Also, I enjoyed writing a holiday themed story last month and got some lovely feedback (!). Then New Year's Eve hit and here we are in 2010. It's the perfect time to try something new. So here's my ambitious (for me) plan. I'll write one story a month, each based or set on a holiday within that month. For extra ambition, the stories will be connected, featuring the same recurring cast of characters, hopefully building (as other long form narratives do) a little world that can grow and change and ultimately come to a brutally violent end come next January (maybe). If it works, I'll be thinking and writing consistently and I'll end up with something a bit more substantial than usual. I don't have much planned beyond the fir