Happy new year and welcome to my first blog post of 2018!
Today’s post is all about reflections and resolutions. 2017 was a great year for me in terms of writing – I joined a writers’ group, I honed my short story writing skills, and at the end of the year I released my third novel, Ethersay.
I’ve spent the first few days of 2018 thinking hard about what I want to achieve this year. I try not to make resolutions for the new year as such, since I generally find that I’m just setting myself up for a great big fall. However, I do have a list of goals which I am going to aim for this year. So, in no particular priority order:
- Finish the third book in my Witches of Pendle series. I’ve had some draft chapters hanging around for a little while now, but then Ethersay took over and I just had to go with it. But now is the time to finish the trilogy. So, historical fiction fans, hopefully you won’t have too long to wait.
- Get working on my next contemporary novel. The feedback I’ve had on Ethersay has really spurred me on to dip my toe into contemporary writing for a second time. I spent my Christmas break in perfect rural, rustic surroundings and I found this really inspiring; so inspiring, in fact, that I have a new story outline scribbled down. Watch this space…
- Start researching for my next historical novel. Currently I have the tiniest seed of an idea for a future historical piece. Well, actually, I have a few tiny seeds. So this year I aim to decide which one of these I want to start working on and then, I need to start doing some research. And who knows, if my chosen idea works, it might grow into a new historical novel!
- Get some short stories into print/online publications. This goal really alluded me last year. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, and entered competition after competition but unfortunately to no avail. This has taught me that the market for competitions and publication in magazines/literary reviews is extremely competitive. But I believe in my work so I’m going to keep going and, what’s more, I’m going to diversify and broaden my options; for example, looking more at online platforms and blogspots as well as the well-established and traditional choices for making submissions.
- Keep talking about my work. I’m the worst for being coy when it comes to this, but I know that it really is a must. I am a self-published author; I have no marketing department behind me and no enormous advertising budget. But I do have my work and if I’ve learned anything on this journey, it’s that the only way for people to know about your books is for you to talk about them! During 2018 I’ll be on the lookout for more opportunities to do just that, as well as keeping my Twitter, Facebook and this website up to date.
Phew, so that’s it, my 2018 goals! I hope you’ll all stick around for the ride in 2018 and hopefully by the time 2019 rolls around you will have at least one more book from me to get stuck into.