Holiday update and 2021 goals

Oh my love
We’ve had our share of tears
Oh my friends
We’ve had our hopes and fears
Oh my friends
It’s been a long hard year
But now it’s Christmas
Yes, it’s Christmas
Thank God it’s Christmas

-Queen

There are only a handful of days left in the Hardest Year Ever. Let’s be grateful for that, even if we can’t find much else to be grateful for right now.

But there is a lot to be grateful for.

On the professional side: I finished the second draft of my novel, Holding Pattern. I hired a writing coach who has helped me through a lot of my anxieties surrounding publishing and self-promotion. I connected with dozens of other writers, some of whom have become treasured friends. I joined a twice-weekly writing group. I established some good habits. I prettied up this website a bit (okay, it’s a work in progress).

On the personal side, my immediate family is all healthy and as happy as we can be given the circumstances. The kids are still distance learning, which is not their favorite, but they are doing the best they can. My husband and I celebrated 25 years of marriage in October, which feels like a big accomplishment.

This will likely be my last post of 2020, so I wanted to share some goals for the new year.

My first and biggest goal is to get Holding Pattern published. I will be both querying agents/editors and exploring indie publishing. Right now I can see that there are strong benefits and drawbacks to either method. It will be interesting to see what happens as I send this darling little book baby of mine out into the world. I will also be working with beta readers, working on fine tuning the language, and hiring a professional editor to help me get the manuscript as polished as possible.

My second goal is to try and use this website more effectively. I know myself well enough to know that committing to a set schedule for posting will probably backfire. So I’ll just do the best I can.

My third goal has to do with the new little book baby that’s currently being birthed. I’m about 20k words in. I’m hoping to finish a first draft by the end of 2021.

Thanks for sticking with me. Wishing you the very best holiday season and looking forward with excited anticipation to the New Year!

-M