New Year Goals

Because resolutions are so last year...

1. Get the novel done and out. The plan is still the end of January for this one, but life can get in the way. The prequel will be appearing in the 'At Hells Gate II' anthology which is out at the end of Jan, so it would be good to have the book out at the same time. That said, I'm not putting it out until it's ready, and the last round of feedback made it clear that it isn't. So the next month should focus heavily on getting this finally in to shape.

2. Get the next novel done. I've already got the premise, and it's rock-solid. I also think it will be a lot easier than the current one for a variety of reasons. I'm also impatient to get stated on it, which is normally a good sign.

3. Land that fist pro-market sale for a short story. I've come close a few times this year, and it's one of those milestones. I feel like I've made good progress towards doing this, and think 2015 could - should - be the year.

4.a) Read a lot - The Kindle's been the breakthrough here, allowing for easy bedtime reading without keeping the missus awake. I need to read more - more novels, more anthologies. I have a huge TBR pile, and I need to work through it. Also...

4b) Review everything I finish. I reserve the right to not finish works I start (life is too short for bad writing) but if I get to The End, I should have something intelligible to say. My public review policy won't change, so I won't write negative (lower than 3 * reviews) for any indie author/press, but if I did get to the end and hated it, I will write something up for myself, because what I 've learned this year is that writing reviews about why something worked have really helped me examine and improve my own writing, as well as help me cultivate that 'distance' needed to treat a D1 as though it were written by someone else for editing purposes - put another way, it's improved my ability to see my own work as it is rather than as I wish it to be. I see no reason to suppose that won't apply equally as well to interrogating why something didn't work as why it did, so I'll get on that.

5. Get out more. Specifically, attend Fcon and meet face to face some of the incredible people I've been lucky enough to meet virtually over the mast 12 months.

Wish me luck, and all the best to you for whatever you want to get done in the next 12 months.