My Ubiquitous - but Sparkly and Awesome - New Year's Post

I love sitting down on New Year’s Eve or Day and thinking about the year retrospectively, as well as the year ahead. Why do we do this? I don’t know. Maybe because it’s kind of cathartic to look at two big chunks of time simultaneously – the faded past, the hopeful future – and reflect. I’m the queen of reflecting and analyzing and planning, so a NYE post is perfect for that.

And blogging is actually perfect for looking back on your year because you’ve written down all the important stuff.  So that’s what I did before I started writing this. I looked back and read through many of my 47 blog posts from 2012 and had fun letting the year unravel before me. The first few months of 2012 were occupied with editing Martinis with the Devil, and then me and hubs went to Italy in March (click here for lots of pretty pics). After that I started querying, and got zero agent responses – vamps really are a tough sell now. I think it’s a terrific book, but I was able to let it go, because in May (May 7^th to be exact) I started Everdream, which has an incredibly unique premise. With hopes that it could be “the one” I was willing to let Martinis go on the back burner while I worked on Everdream. In July I got a big promotion at my day job, so that was very exciting (Oh, and I turned 30. Not quite as fun). And this fall has been filled with writing contests and editing Everdream. I made it into GUTGAA with Everdream, made it into the semi-finals of Write Club with Martinis, and got chosen by the mentor I wanted for Pitch Wars (with Everdream). That last one is still unfolding – I got awesome feedback from my mentor on the whole manuscript, and just finished those edits. The agent round is at the end of January.  So, all in all a very exciting year. I didn’t get to my last writing goal, which is to completely rewrite Countless, my first book, from third to first person. I started playing around with it, but Pitch Wars took precedent. Oh, and random aside, this is probably my fave post that I wrote in 2012.

So, looking ahead to 2013. I find myself in an odd place for writing goals this upcoming year, because they all depend on factors that are somewhat beyond my control at the moment. So, I’ll just talk about what I would like to happen, and what could subsequently happen after that. I’d like to find the perfect agent for my writing career early in 2013. I need someone who represents and loves both my middle grade work and my adult urban fantasy stuff. They are kind of night and day, so this person will need to be as ying-yang/multi-faceted as me to enjoy both. If I find this agent and this agent finds a publisher for both Everdream and Martinis, my main goal for 2013 is probably going to be writing the second book for both of those series. I have the second books for both loosely plotted in my head. I would also like to work on revamping Countless when I have time. I’ll be optimistic and not write about Plan B (not finding an agent). I already wrote about that in this post, so no need to repeat myself. Other goals: read more and develop better timelines for editing (blog posts to come on that topic). Learn to live in the present moment. Focus on gratitude. Train my horse. Travel somewhere awesome. Keep exercising regularly and even more. Dance. Sing. Enjoy the beauty of life.

Wow, so I’ve written a pretty long blog post. I usually try not to do those, since we all have lots of stuff to read and do. But anyways, let me know in the comments if you’ve written a New Year’s post and I’ll totally come read your long introspective retelling of 2012 J Happy New Year everyone!! I love this writing community, and I’m super thankful for you all as we head into 2013. Let me know what your plans are!