2017 goals???

Only two months left of 2017...how are you doing on your goals???

I wish I were doing better on mine, but I'm okay with where I am. 2017 was a rebuilding year for me, in a way. I worked on myself and worked on being the person I want to be.

Here are my goals and the progress I've made thus far:

#1: Make Simon and Schuster regret dropping me.

Well...they're a huge company with thousands of authors. They surely don't miss little ol' me. And probably never will. Dumb goal to make for myself. LOL

#2: Publish Lemonade in Hell, either traditionally or indie.

I've made some progress here...sort of. I had lot of requests for it that I'm still waiting to hear back on. I had some great critiques and was able to work on it and make it a better book. So fingers crossed. But once I hear back from the handful of agents and editors who have it, and if it doesn't go well, I plan to start the process for publishing it myself. It's scary as hell, but I can't put this book on the shelf and aways wonder, "What if?"

#3: Write book 2 in the beverage series.

I haven't started book 2 because I didn't know what was going to happen with book 1, so this goal is on the back burner...but it's gonna happen :)

#4: Reach $100,000 in Disney sales for the year.

Sadly, I will not reach this goal :( BUT I did increase sales this year by over 30%, so I'm happy with that. My business is growing and I'm starting to get more and more referrals, so I feel optimistic about reaching this goal in 2018.

#5: Blog 4 times on month on my Disney blog and 2 times a month on my author blog.

I've been really inconsistent this year with blogging and I did make attempts to be better at it. I ultimately did not post as much as I wanted. BUT I'm working on it and plan to get into a better habit these last two months of the year.

#6: Lose 20 pounds. Preferably by July.

I gave it my best effort, but due to underlying health conditions, it just was not possible for me to lose weight. But I think the underlying conditions are managed...somewhat...so going forward, I hope to be in a better place to start losing the weight.

So that's me. What goals did you make for 2017? Where are you in achieving them???

New Year, New You???

Every year, media tells us we need to become a different person in the new year. If that's what you want...then go for it! Give it all you've got and don't stop until you're reached your goal! But I'm pretty happy with who I am. :)

Of course, there are some things I'd like to strengthen though.

Health and fitness always seems to be everyone's top resolution. Which sometimes only lasts for like a month...two tops. I've been making gradual changes for years, and I'm pretty happy with where I am. I came to a realization within the last year that I was unwilling to accept at first. But I am now better off because of it (Getting old SUCKS! But it's inevitable).

One change I have made is to accept life and not punish myself with food. I did a restrictive diet earlier this year because I was in a very desperate place. But it made me miserable. I woke up and now I do my best to plan out a healthy diet. I follow the moderation rule and have no qualms with splurging and eating things that make me happy. On occasion. I refuse to call it "cheating". I think the term "cheat day" is awful and no one should use it. It implies guilt. Cheating is not a positive term.

So this year I plan to nourish this plan for moderation and well-balanced diet and life :)

I plan to do find ways to work within my limitations when it comes to exercise. I can't be the person I need and want to be if I'm laid up on the couch because I'm in pain.

I will cultivate the relationships in my life, spend more time with the people that raise me up, who love and support me, and give less time-including my mental time- to the ones who don't.

Continue to plan fun family events and cherish the time I have with my kids, but no longer let others make me feel guilty for spending adult time with my husband and friends. My kids are important, but I need adult time too. I am a better parent because of it.

And of course, I have big plans for my career! If things go well, this will be another stellar year for me!

Happy 2015!

Reaching your New Year's Goals!

January is the month of setting goals. Everyone makes promises to themselves, or to others, for how they will change their lives in the new year. But so often those goals get pushed aside by the end of February. Why? It could be laziness or lack of time. Lack of motivation, support, money.... There are lots of reasons why people fail to carry out their goals.

Here are my list of Dos and Don'ts for keeping your New Year's goals!

DON'T make unrealistic goals. If you aim to get to the gym 7 days a week and lose 5 pounds a week, well, you're setting yourself up for disappointment. It's good to aim high, but in order to keep yourself from getting disappointed, start small. If you're joining a gym for the first time, aim for 3 days a week. And 1 pound a week is a healthy weight loss goal. You'll find it easier to reach goals if you start small and adjust your goals as you go along. And the small accomplishments will energize and motivate you.

DO adjust your priorities. If your goal is to write more in 2014, well, that takes time. And as everyone knows, time is precious. There's only 24 hours in a day, and that time has to be divided between jobs, kids, spouses, chores, eating, and of course, sleeping. How great would it be if we could sleep 1 hour and be completely rested?? But until science invents some kind of magic pill, we all need a good 7-8 hours a night. So the only option for eeking out more time is to give up some of the other ways we spend it. Do you really need to watch that TV show? Is it all that important to sit on Pinterest for an hour? An hour to write, or work out, or do whatever other goal you have, can be a very successful hour.

DON'T let others discourage you. It happens. People try to pull you from your goals for whatever reason. I think family is the biggest culprit for this....and the guilt we feel. The kids want to play, the spouse wants to snuggle. Stay strong! Talk with your family and make them understand your goals and how important they are to you.

DO let yourself off the hook once in a while. Life can throw all kinds of things at us. It's okay to step back and take a break, rejuvenate yourself. Pushing on when you're clearly tired, burned out, under the weather, stressed, etc... is asking for disaster. Step back, fix whatever is going on, then get back to your goals. And it's okay to play with the kids and snuggle with the spouse. Enjoy your life too. It's all about finding the right balance.

DO find a support system. Having friends to reach goals with is a great way to keep yourself on track. Not only is it good to have someone to celebrate the highs with and commiserate the lows with, having someone to keep tabs on you will help keep you motivated. It's easy to fail when there's no one to hold you accountable but yourself. But if you have to check in with a friend, you will be more motivated to do something. Find friends in real life, or friends online. Support is so so important

So there it is! Good luck in 2014! And if you want to chat about goals and making the happen, tune in tonight at 8 EST on Twitter for #ChickLitChat!

Been MIA...but with good reason!! :)

I've been kinda quiet lately. Even my Twitter and FB presences have been limited. It's all because I've been busy at work!!!!

I FINISHED MY BOOK!!!!!!!

No, this isn't the first book I've finished, but this one set all kinds of records and goals for me. It was a completely different experience than I've ever had before!

I finished and perfected my last book the middle to end of March, and spent about two weeks sending it out to every agent I knew of. I knew I wanted to start a new book right away, but I decided to approach it differently.

First of all, I decided to plot. I have never been a plotter, other than a very short rough outline, like maybe 2 pages. But I'd heard from other authors who are published with bigger houses that after they sell the first, the editors will buy the next based on just a proposal of a synopsis and first 3 chapters. That got me thinking....I should probably learn how to plot. So I did. I spent a week plotting my newest book. At the end, I had 26 pages of outline...every single scene. Except the very end. I just couldn't plot that out.

So I started writing the book on April 16th.

The second thing I did differently was up my daily word count goal. I used to have a 1000 word daily goal, until I did NaNo. That proved to me I could do more...much more. So I upped my goal to 1500 each day. But because of my crazy outline, many days I wrote WAY more than that because there never was a moment where I stared at the screen wondering what my characters were going to do next. I'd already thought it all out!!

I wrote "The End" yesterday....day 35. I wrote about 80,000 words in 35 days! And in those 35 days, there was only one day I did not write at all: Mother's Day :)

I am so so proud of myself! I made goals and I smashed them. My original goal was to be done by the end of June. But then I started writing, and changed it to the end of May. I finished more than 2 weeks early!!!

And now starts the editing phase, which I am all ready for. I've already gotten some great feedback on the first two chapters and so far, the readers are loving it! YAY!!

I know fast writing is not for everyone and a book written this fast may need a lot of editing. But I am pretty confident in what I wrote....all thanks to my outline. There may be something to this plotting thing after all ;)

It's that time of year again! Resolutions!!!

I do this every year. I make a list of goals and resolutions. But I am smart about it and logical. I make goals I know I have a chance at achieving. I did really well in 2011 with my professional goals...achieved them all!! My personal goals, well, not so much. I didn't eat more veggies and I didn't take my vitamins.

So here are my goals for 2012:

Personal:

* Eat more veggies!
* Take my vitamins- B12, D, and calcium
* Read 30 books, 12 of which will be chick lit for the Chick Lit Challenge
* Continue to go to the gym and tone
* More family time
* Go out to eat far less
* Update my journals more often

Professional:

* Find a home for The Detour to Happily Ever After
* Find a home for Pretty in Plastic
* Write a full length novel
* Write a novella
* More promo
* Find more time to write
* Blog more and read blogs more often

What about you?? Do you make goals/resolutions???

Busy busy busy! What's your excuse???

I know my blogging frequency has gone downhill...waaaayyyyy downhill...like down-Everest. I used to blog 4-5 times a week, and lately it's been 1-2 max. I hate that I have not been here like I used to be.

But I've noticed I'm not the only one. Makes me wonder if the blogging thing is done and outdated. I love Twitter...been doing that a lot the last few months. But honestly...even that seems a bit slow now. What will the new thing be???

But anyway, things here have been hectic for me. I've been putting most of my time to writing and editing and trying to push my career forward. Once I finished copy edits for my next release, (Karma Kameleon in January 2012!)  I sat wondering what to do next. It was October and there were still two goals for 2011 that I hadn't met yet. I'd planned on revising an old manuscript and getting it ready to submit again. And I'd wanted to finish another complete manuscript. I had one that I started in May. I was 40K in....about halfway.

So I made a plan. And the plan was gonna need A LOT of my time. I spent the last two weeks of October revising my old MS. I managed to get it to a good place and fixed all the things that were wrong...added the subplot I desperately needed.  Then on November first, I dove into my first ever NaNoWriMo. Now I was not playing by the rules...I was being a total Nano rebel, but I was using it to finish my project instead of starting a new one. 50K would definitely get my MS where it needed to be.

Plus throw in the complete planning and prep for my parent's 30th anniversary party last weekend.

But I am happy to say everything is going well. I got behind on NaNo over the weekend with the party....4 days went by without one single word typed. BUT I am happy to say I am almost back on track. I was hoping to be on course by tomorrow, but it looks like it may happen today if I can stop fooling around on Twitter and Fb and Blogger and actually go write. But in my defense, I'm kinda stuck right now, so I needed the break. :)

So, continued wishes for luck on your NaNo projects or whatever you are all doing! have a great day!

To NaNo or not to NaNo?????? And Contest winner!

I've decided to NaNo this year. But I'm being a rebel. Technically you are supposed to start a new project for National Novel Writing Month...but I'm not. I have a book I started earlier this year and need to finish by the end of the year (It was one of my New Year's Resolutions). So, I decided to participate in NaNo this year and finish it. Not sure if I'll need the full 50K to do it, but we'll see. It's at 41K now....so I need at least another 40K.

But I'm delayed by a day or two. Two weeks ago I made a personal goal to revise and do one edit of an old project that's been on my hard drive for years. This story is really great (I think, anyway) and after these tweaks, I think it might finally find a home out in the publishing world. But I just didn't have enough time to finish. I'm only a day or two away, so NaNo will wait. I'm sure I can catch up.

So, without further ado.....the winner of my Spooktacular Blog Hop Giveaway is:


Holly Wright!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who entered!!

It's that time of year again!

New Year's Resolutions!!!!

I make resolutions every year, but only things that I know I can take seriously and actually give my all to. I never make goals I know I have no way of reaching. I take these goals seriously and it really bothers me if I can't fulfill one of them.

For 2010 I had a few resolutions, as I talked about the other day: More family time. Get in better shape. Read 30 books. I did pretty good with all of them and I am happy.

For 2011 I have decided to give another go at the 30 book challenge. I did only complete 28 books this past year, with #29 on my night stand, but I still consider it a success.

I plan on continuing my gym routine, and hopefully toning up even more, and have decided to make it a goal of mine to keep hubby motivated.

Writing goals for 2011: Edit, submit and hopefully sign a contract for Karma Kameleon. Do a major rewrite of Spellbound. Write another book. I also want to bump up my marketing and promotion.

So, what are your goals for 2011??

How are you doing on your goals for 2010??

Well, it's November and there's what, 7 weeks or so left in the year??? This year seems to have flown by...anyone else feel that way???

I try to make resolutions each year and I take them very seriously. It seems people always make them and break them. But I try really hard. I don't make a goal unless I have every intention of keeping it.

For this year I had a few goals and I'm proud of what I've achieved.

#1- Join the gym and lose some weight/tone up. We joined the gym that first Monday after New Year's. I lost the weight I wanted and also built a lot of muscle. I'm not exactly where I want to be yet, but in the past 10 months, I've definitely made a lot of progress.

#2- Read more. I got my Sony Reader for Christmas last year and made a goal to read 30 books this year. I know tons of bloggers who do the 100 book challenge and I know I can't do that in this stage of my life. 30 seemed like a much more attainable goal for me. I am at 28 right now. And I just downloaded three new books!

#3- Find a home for my novelettes. Done! Signed contracts for them with Lyrical Press a few months back!

#4- Find a home for Spellbound. This is one goal I have not achieved this year. While I did A LOT to strengthen the story by switching the POV from 1st to 3rd in the beginning of this year, it still has a lot of problems. I hope to address them in the near future.

#5- Secure an agent. Well, this goes hand in hand with #4, since Spellbound is my only completed MS right now that isn't already contracted. I pitched face to face to an agent back in March and it went well, but as mentioned above, Spellbound just has some problems that need fixing.

So...where are you in your goals for 2010?? Have you reached them, or still trying?? There's still time!!

If I reach my goal....I'll take a break!

I'm busy working on a sequel to A Bitch Named Karma. I'd always had the idea floating around....but there was no way I was writing even one word until I sold the first book. Didn't wanna jinx it or anything.

So once the publishing dream became reality, of course I wondered if I should write the sequel. Do people like sequels? Do publishers like sequels?? I asked my editor the question and it was a resounding "YES!" So I started it.

The original goal was to finish it by the end of 2010. (But I didn't seriously even start it `til a couple weeks ago.) I think that's a reachable goal. My daily word count goal is 1000. I usually can write a couple hundred more than that, but that's all I can realistically manage with two kids. That will have me finishing the book around the end of September or so. I think that's decent. We're leaving November 30th for a 9 day trip. I should have all of October and November to edit. Not sure if that will be enough, but it should be pretty good. After going through the editing process with my editor for one book already, I can tell that my writing is much stronger. So, hopefully that means my first draft will be better than my first drafts have been in the past!

So anyway, I think I may take a break the first week of August. I am desperately wanting to get some scrapbooking done. If my total word count is 40,000 by the end of July, I will take a vacation! (I'm at 12,000 right now). Today is the 6th...I have 26 days....so I'll need to do more than 1000 a day...but I think I can do it.

Do you set word count goals and reward yourself when you make them???

Quite pathetic....

All year I've been reading other bloggers who made a goal to read 100 books in one year. Seemed absolutely awesome yet crazy at the same time. That's 2 books a week! Where in the world do you guys find the time to read that much?????

I thought of trying something like that myself.....but I have kids. One is in school...so the first hour and a half of our day is quite hectic with breakfast, getting dressed, making lunch, etc... Once she leaves I am doing laundry, playing with my little one, etc... 11:30 is lunch time...then nap time for him. Then it's my time...3-1/2 glorious hours of whatever I want to do. Usually the first hour is email, blogging, Facebook, etc... Then I spend the rest writing or editing. 4 comes and it's time to start making dinner...then eat dinner, then clean up from dinner. Then we have some family time. Kids get in bed, I get in the shower and then sometimes get back on the computer. Add in nights where I go to writers group meetings and also my weekly dance class and my daughter's dance class. Weekends...forget about it...always something going on. So not a ton of free time for reading. I get, at the most, an hour before bed.

I just went on to Goodreads to see how many books I actually did read this year..assuming I logged in every one. There were many I started and never finished too (I'm so much more critical now that I am a writer...and if something does not grab my full attention it gets put down), so those weren't added in. The count...a depressing 16.

I guess it's not awful...more than 1 a month. I think with my schedule...it would be unrealistic to try to read more than say 30 in an entire year...that's a little more than 1 book every 2 weeks.

So I will try to read 30 books in 2010. That is my goal! Now that I have my Sony Reader, I am determined to fit in more reading time (and get full use out of such an expensive gadget!). I have 9 books loaded on it ready to go. But I started reading the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. I'm on book 1 and if I love it...I will need to read the next 3 immediately. The library has them- they're kinda old, so no waiting. I can't see buying them.

Questions about the writer's life.....

My fellow blogger friend Rebecca Knight posted these questions and her own answers on her blog today: http://rebeccaknightbooks.blogspot.com/2009/08/goals-how-do-you-know-when-youre.html
Her answers were very intriguing and inspired me to blog about them too!

Here are the questions and my answers!

1) Why am I writing?

I write because story ideas float into my brain and I need to get the ideas on paper (or computer screen). I truly enjoy creating my own little world and sharing my stories with people. I feel so satisfied when someone tells me they loved a story I wrote or could identify with one of my characters. I write becuase I love to give the reader someone to identify with and a story they can lose themselves in...a story that makes them laugh and cry and feel a whole range of emotions.

2) How long do I want to do this, even if I never get any credit or money from my work?

As long as I have the motivation...and right now I have boatloads of it!

3) How much rejection can I take?

So far, I've taken a lot. There were many times I asked myself what the point of putting myself through it all was. Would I be doing this year after year...and never get anywhere? My self pity is usually short lived and I snap out of and find the determination to get back to work, hone my craft, make the next project even better...the ONE that will catch someone's attention!

4) How much time do I want to spend on my goals, versus with my family, friends, and pillow?

I try to balance it all. I will not give up quality time with my family, but they also understand that writing is an important part of my life, just as anyone's career is. My family is proud of me and they do what they can to give me the time I need to work on my writing. As far as the pillow goes....when i only had one kid....I had no problems staying up late and writing till 2 am....but nwo that I;m a few years older and have a second child....can;t work that late anymroe! Once I am tired...I find it really hard to be creative. Some days are doiferent than others. If I am in writing/creative mode...I get in a groove and I find it hard to stop. But if I am in editing mode (like now) if I'm tired, I find it hard to concentrate.

5) What do I want to achieve Big Picture?

I want to walk into Borders or Barnes and Noble and see my book sitting on one of the tables when you walk in or see it on the Best Seller shelf. I want to overhear soemone talking about "how good this book is" and see them pick it up and recommend it to their friend...and it's my book they are talking about. I want to be someone's favorite author. I want to make money doing something I love...something that brings me this much joy! And not millions...just enough to make us comfortable and not always worrying about money!

6) Will I be satisfied when I get there?

Yes! I hope so! But who knows...when that happens (and I say "when" because I sincerely hope I will never ever give up on this dream)...maybe I will want more and I will make a new goal!

7) Am I satisfied if I never get there?

I don't know. Probably not.

8) What steps do I have to take to achieve that Big Picture thing?

I need to find an agent, who will sell my book to a print publisher. I've already gotten my foot in with an ePublisher..so I'm super excited about that!! I'm hoping that after I pubblish a few books with them, that will help me land an agent. As ecstatic as I am to be epublished (and I truly do believe it's the future of publishing) I don't think I will ever lose my desire to hold my printed book in my hands.

9) Which one needs to be achieved first?

Well, I signed a contract with an ePublisher, so I guess that means step 1 has been achieved!!

10) What is my support system?

My husband, my family, my girlfriends (who love to read everything I write and give me very useful feedback), my writers group (my writing soulmates), and all my blogging friends in cyberspace!!

11) How will I feel if I never achieve this? Is it worth trying anyway?

I will be sad but I've already achieved way more than I thought I would. I am happy with where I am so far and if this is as far as I go, I will be happy. But if I never see my name in print on the cover of my novel...I know I'll never feel quite as accomplished as I want. Is it worth trying anyway?? Yes. I'll always have these stories...published or not. I have somehting to leave behind when I'm gone.

What are your answers???