Every year, I come up with tentative goals. And over the years, I’ve learned to pare down and simplify because…Life Happens, you know?
The 2020 we all experienced went so far beyond “Life Happens” it leaped past the next zipcode and landed on Jupiter. A global pandemic. An election year that still isn’t over. The monstrosity that is the Trump administration, dialed up even higher.
As for me, personally… It’s been a mix. My trip to Alaska last January remains the brightest spot of the year. I am also delighted that The Hound of Justice was named a finalist for the 2020 Lambda Literary Awards. COVID hit shortly after that, and the world changed.
I came down with COVID in late March—a relatively mild case, but one that lingered for months. In the middle of all that, my publisher canceled the second book in my Mage and Empire series. (Publishing took a huge hit from the pandemic, obviously.) Frankly, I could barely focus on reading, much less writing and editing, so that was likely just as well.
However! I did write three chapters for my NotMansfieldPark project, plus detailed plot notes for what is now looking more novel-ish than novella. (We shall see what happens.) I also wrote a new short story about Janet Watson when she was twelve. And I finally started work on re-releasing my River of Souls trilogy with new covers, something that excites me beyond words.
So what about 2021?
The world is more fractured and tumultuous than before, but I still want and need to set goals for myself. Gentle ones. Achievable ones.
- Re-release my River of Souls books with their new covers, both in print and as e-books
- Re-release my alternate history novel, The Time Roads (also as print and e-book)
- Finish writing NotMansfieldPark and send that to my agent
And as with every year, there’s so much more I’d like to accomplish–and maybe I will! But it’s one small step at a time.