Every New Year’s Eve Kelley and I do the same thing: sit before the fire with Champagne while we eat delicious things and talk. We talk about the year that’s passed and the year to come. We mull the things we’ve learnt—the hard things and fabulous things, the amazing surprises and the tedious repeats—and then move on to talking about how we see the year to come.

2016 will, for me, be the Year of Work. I have Menewood to write, plus a secret mega-project that may or may not be something I’ll talk about anytime soon—or ever, if things don’t pan out—but will be a serious shit-ton of work. Also I will be focusing on my health. By that I mean, mostly, physical therapy; twice a week. PT is hard work. One hour of PT entails 5 hours or so of lost time (travel, the exercise, and recovery time). So twice a week is a big chunk of my physical and mental bandwidth. But it’s worth it. MS likes to steal physical function when I’m not looking; it feels like rusting up. Think of PT as my anti-rust coating. There will still be rust—MS is relentless that way—but it will accumulate less quickly.

2016 will also be the Year of No Travel. I’ve reached the point where every time I see a plane I chortle and think, “I don’t have to get on one of those fuckers anytime soon!” So the plan is not to get near a plane this year. We foresee one possible exception: OtherLife. At some point it will be through post-production and then, with luck, at a festival. We don’t know when or where (or even if) but we most definitely want to be there.

Two big projects instead of a myriad little ones, plus the lack of travel, mean I should get more done and still have time for the joyful things of life. 2016 will be a good year. For all of us, I hope.