2012, 2013, and beyond

Well, hello there.  Welcome back!  Thanks for joining me.

Here we are in a new year, and I am attempting to get back into this blog.  The two aren't necessarily related, I've just decided it's time.  And with the new year, what a better subject than to analyze the last year and set goals for the new one.

Here are some numbers for 2012:

• Days on which I wrote:  366.  That's right, leap year, and I wrote on every one.  Even Christmas.
• Submissions:  40
• Acceptances:  0
• Rejections:  42
• Markets that never responded:  2
• Critiques:  Hah!
• Blog posts:  66

This whole year sort of petered out starting in September.  The only thing I've really managed to accomplish is to keep writing/revising every single day.  I'd been hoping to finish revising my novel this year, but I didn't.  I'm through 25 of 38 chapters.  I'd originally wanted to write and submit new short stories every month, but that goal died pretty early on when I realized how complicated that would be when also working on a novel. I wanted to get my children's Christmas book queried/submitted, and apart from a GUTGAA pitch that went nowhere, I did no other work on it.  I wrote the first draft of a children's picture book earlier this year and had been hoping to query/submit it too, but haven't done so.  My short story submissions abruptly stopped in September, and at the moment only four of my twelve "submission ready" stories are under consideration.

Which isn't to say that life hasn't been busy.  I've been working on designing a mobile app, though that, too, has stalled a bit.  I'm raising two magnificent boys and am always running to keep up with them.  I've found an awesome playgroup to take the boys to, which has made me much happier with my social life as a Mama.  I just haven't been able to balance things very well lately.

Enter my goals for 2013.  I don't have too many specific goals yet, I just know that I want to step up my game, both with writing and in life.  And I really, REALLY want to see something happen with my few completed kids' books this year.  So those are the goals that are really important.

• Finish revising my novel within three months
• Submit my children's Christmas book
• Submit my picture book
• Start...something new.  Whether it's a focus on stories or beginning a new novel, I'm not sure yet.  Perhaps some of both.  I'll hammer that out when I get closer.
• Get certain aspects of my personal life organized again, too

For the last few weeks, my revising has gone at a really good clip.  It could just be that I'm working on chapters that haven't needed as much work, but I'm feeling the momentum again.  That's why I'm thinking I could realistically finish up revisions in the next three months.  That would require basically a pace of one chapter per week, with just one extra squeezed in.  I'd been considering taking a month off from the novel and focusing on a few short stories, but now I'm not so sure.  I started considering that before I got momentum going again, so I'm not sure if I want to stop right now.  In either case, if I keep plowing through I hope to finish my novel by the end of March.  If I take a month off, I hope to finish it by the end of April.  And then, perhaps, I can actually make something happen with it this year.

2013, I think, will be the year of the book.  Because I want to get my books (of all stripes) into the hands of agents.  I'll keep busy with other projects once I have that going, but I really need to take more steps towards publication.

Happy New Year to anyone still checking in.  How was your holiday?  Are you gearing up for a productive year ahead?