It’s New Year’s Eve, everybody! I’ve got my fancy pants outfit and plans all ready to go (already a huge improvement over most NYEs) and it’s time to reflect on the year that’s passed and the year to come. In short, 2012 has been made of awesome so, yanno, 2013 has a whole freaking lot to live up to. But if there’s something I love, it’s a good underdog, so here’s hoping that ’13 is all that and more! Have a happy and safe New Year’s, y’all!

Favorite Moments of 2012:

-Getting engaged
-Getting married
-Honeymoon to South Africa
-Going to Paris
-Driving Big Sur in California
-Engagement Party in my hometown of Sarasota, FL
-Seeing three books that I wrote come out and then looking through the cute GIFs created by little girls that are fans
-Meeting new editors and writing for new book packagers
-Taking Mediabistro class with editor Brendan Deenen
-Going to Tour de Nerdfighting to see John and Hank Green for the first time

We’re a Mr. and Mrs.!

For anyone that knows me, this was clearly the worst part of the night–I hate cake!

Love

First book out

Writing Goals:

Things I Can Control:

1. Write regularly, even when not on deadline. This one is probably the most important since it will encourage me not only to practice, practice, practice, but also to dedicate time to my own, original work, rather than just projects I’m being paid for.

2. Make new writing friends. There was a time when I was really involved in the writing community through message boards, twitter, blogosphere, etc. Through that time, I made very close writing friends who have shared this journey with me and for whom I am very grateful. But the publishing business is crazy and many have started to move on from writing for one reason or another. Writing friends have always been a huge source of inspiration, support  and sanity and I’m looking forward to making new friends to learn from, angst with, and share ups and downs.

3. Craft. One thing that I’m really proud of this year is that I slowed down and worked on craft. So, I’d like to take that even further and this year I have three broad craft-related goals that I’d like to keep at the forefront: (a) write more interesting characters–characters with lots of depth and competing motivations  who readers are excited to see come on the page (this goes for both main and supporting cast), (b) focus on foreward momentum for the reader, creating a page-turner (lately, I’ve been studying quiet first chapters and books that still manage to make the reader have to know what happened; it’s fascinating), and (c) write interesting and suprising prose.

[For the record, this year I worked on slowing down during scenes to flesh them out, not using snark as a crutch to create voice, and developing a book more fully through inner monologue and description.]

4. Finish a complete, revised draft of a novel that is not commissioned by anyone but yours truly.

5. Write what I love and what excites me.

Things I Can’t Control:

1.  Sell a book in my own name (which will *hopefully* be this book that is about to go on submission!)

2. Secure at least one new work for hire gig that is bigger and better and challenges me more than what I have done so far

3. Nail down and sign the contract for the project I can’t yet talk about, but which is ah-mazing