Happy New Year! A Look at What Was and What Is Yet to Be...

Reflecting on the previous year sometimes seems daunting, as I cringe to think of all the things I'd planned to do, but didn't accomplish, and worry that my achievements won't line up with my expectations. Luckily, I didn't make much in the way of new years resolutions last year (I just went through old blog posts to be sure) so I didn't have much to fail at. Phew!

That said, there were still some proclamations I made throughout the year and I lived up to some and not to others. Shall we take a brief look at those?

• Proclamation: Release another novel in 2015
• Result:  Didn't happen. This was supposed to be Gwendamned, which I spent many  months revising only to decide it wasn't the book I wanted to publish next/ever due to my disenchantment with the main character.
• Proclamation: I will write the full first drafts of two new books the Blade's Edge sequel and the first book in the Victoria Marmot series.
• Result: Not quite. I wrote 60% of the former and 50% of the latter, but I did not finish either first draft in 2015. I have hopes to finish at least one of those in the next three weeks though.
• Proclamation: I will run my own triathlon.
• Result: Not so much. I failed spectacularly at this. I hope to make a more concerted effort this year.
• Proclamation: I will make exercise a higher priority in my day to day life as it makes everything else I do better.
• Result: SUCCESS! I made this proclamation sometime in October and I actually stuck to this all through November and December even with the holidays to contend with. (Believe it or not I actually went for at least a 2 mile run 8 out of 11 days that we were down in the US and I've been doing pull ups every day in Winnipeg and taking the dog for long walks and am working up the courage to run in the Winnipeg cold.) 

Those are all the proclamations I can remember at the moment, but to be honest, even with my failings, I feel pretty good about the whole thing. Despite spending months revising Gwendamned I think not publishing it was the right choice until I can figure out how to fix it (which I may have done on one of the aforementioned runs in the US oddly enough). And I made some serious progress on those two new books and have big plans to get them up and running this spring. 

So the new year feels full of promise, as it generally tends to do. And I am looking forward to getting a number of things accomplished this year. I will list them out, just for the sake of putting them on virtual paper, but first let's take a moment to appreciate a dog in the snowy woods...

Excellent.

Now then, these are not resolutions, as I don't make resolutions (nothing against them, just not the way I roll). These are goals that I'm setting and hope to meet. Wondering how that's different? I think that resolutions are promises to change one's behavior, whereas goals are a list of tasks to be accomplished. So these are goals. 

• Finish writing, edit, and publish the sequel to Blade's Edge by May
• Finish writing, edit, and publish the first book in the Victoria Marmot series (though possibly via a different avenue than the ones I've used for the Blade's Edge books - more on that later)
• Work on revising yet another book
• Work on another new book
• Finish the short stories for all of my kickstarter backers BEFORE the release of the Blade's Edge sequel
• Run my own triathlon or half marathon or both
• Improve my marketing/promotions techniques such that my books become a reliable source of income
• Climb more than I did in 2014
• Put up at least one new youtube video on my Indie Authoring channel per month! 
• Launch a patreon account

And that's it! For now anyway. You know me and goals. I like setting them. 

I hope that everyone is having a lovely winter so far. I'm off to prepare for our final "Christmas" celebration of the season.