So, here we are in 2012. It's not the end of the world, because things are just getting good...

The first month of the year is usually a time for new beginnings, or false hopes. Either way I've decided to start each month in 2012 with a short summary of the month's events, so be sure to come back every month.. If you want to look back, I've written my highlights of the 2011 here.

Stephen is a Trustee of Open Hands Charity, a UK registered charity which aims to support neglected and vulnerable children in Romania. Please see the Open Hands website for more details.

2011 has been a difficult year for us writers, with many websites and magazines closing down. The once all-mighty Demand Media has screeched to a halt, leaving thousands of writers like me without reliable and well paid weekly work. Browsing through the DM forum has made interesting reading though, and I'm struck by how many writers relied on DM as their only paycheck. Some writers who once made over $1000 a month writing “Ehow” articles like this one now have nothing because they've no experience in writing for anyone else.. Print journalism continues to flutter along, but it's getting harder with so many writers scrambling for a commission.

It's encouraging to see the Occupy movement seemingly full of life in the new year. Their website has an impressive list of daily activities and speeches taking place too Occupy often gets criticised as a middle class comfortable “protest”, but I personally don't see the problem with that. Karl Marx himself clung to an image of respectability (Marx didn't pay his rent, but always ensured there was money for fine clothes for his wife, and piano lessons for his children).

If you can get to London this month, and I wish I could, I’d recommend catching the play Reasons to be Pretty which ends this month. The US elecion is starting to get exciting across the pond. I'm glad Michelle Buchmann has pulled out. She admires the teaching Francis Schaeffers claiming his books had “a profound influence on my life” (Schaeffers claimed the America government was controlling it's citizens with mind altering drugs in the water, and Christians should use Nazi tactics against abortion clinics). Hmm, maybe not suited for American office.

Reports that the so-called “unfilmable” books of William Faulkner (right) are to be adapted for American television is also great news. This year I'm writing a piece tying in with the 50th anniversary since the death of the Nobel laureate writer, so I'm looking forward to watching some tv-movies as “research” with a big bowl of popcorn.

Jack Kerouac's abandoned 1943 first novel the sea is my brother is finally available to buy after all these years. I'm in no particular rush to read it though, Kerouac himself was embarrassed by his first writing attempt and never wanted it published. A book to check out at the library I think. Talking of Kerouac, surely one of the greatest writers of the 20th Century, I'm glad the Jarndyce V Jarndyce like saga regarding his faked Will I wrote about almost two years ago is pretty much settled.