Happy new year to you all! I hope you had a peaceful and enjoyable festive season. I’m mindful that I’ve been very quiet on my blog since the release of The House at Kirtlebeck End at the beginning of December. It’s been a busy few weeks; between the book release, university assignments and Christmas, I’ve barely had a spare moment!

As this is my first post of the new year, I thought I’d review the goals I set myself last year and see how I got on. My goals were:

Goal 1 – Finish writing The House at Kirtlebeck End

Goal 2 – Submit The House at Kirtlebeck End to agents/publishers

Goal 3 – Research my next historical novel

Goal 4 – Keep writing and submitting to magazines/journals

Well, I didn’t do too badly. The House at Kirtlebeck End was finished and published by the end of the year. And I did pitch it to agents/publishers, and although it wasn’t picked up, it was worth going through that process to develop my awareness of the industry (and my query letter writing skills!). I kept working on short stories, although perhaps not at the rate I managed in 2018. Finally, I did begin some research around a couple of historical novel ideas, and I’ve got some pretty detailed notes which I intend to return to at a later stage.

However, as you’ll know if you follow this blog regularly, I started something else last year – something which wasn’t planned, but which was an opportunity I just had to grasp. In 2019 I became a student again, and 2020’s big goal is to make a success of my creative writing course. I’m really enjoying it; I’m learning so much and developing my skills as a writer. And the coursework has generated a couple of novel ideas! So, watch this space.

For me, 2020 will be a year of development. I will be spending the time studying, honing my skills, and broadening my writing horizons. After that, I’m not sure – which is actually quite exciting. Sometimes the best things in life are those which aren’t planned, or expected.

And, of course, I’ll be doing lots and lots of reading!