2019 Writing Wrap-Up

Blogging is the bane of my existence!

Why? I don’t know. I create stories and marketing content for a living. You’d think stopping for a few minutes to create a blog for my very own website would be simple, right?

Wrong.

2019 wound up being a crazy, chaotic, cacophony of crucial choices culminating in copious comeuppance. (Say that five times real fast).

What does that mean in real English?  2019 was a whirlwind of big decisions and life-altering events that have changed my life forever – for the good!

As a result, the following happened (crib note version):

• I began running the American Night Writers Association (ANWA) online chapters, which exploded from three to eighteen in a matter of months.
• I became an assistant at Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers (WIFYR), got to work with J. Scott Savage (an AMAZING author and class-act individual), and work on the marketing for the writing conference.
• Became head of WIFYR’s marketing for the 2020 conference.
• Was added to the Board of Directors for ANWA.
• Was offered mentorship by award-winning novelist (several times over) Carol Lynch Williams, and have been working with her for the past several months to improve my craft.
• Had interest in my unpublished manuscripts by two different publishers.
• Published my first sweet romance novel (under a different pen name).
• Finished another book which is nearly finished editing.
• Am half-way through three more books.

 

What didn’t happen in 2019 that I wanted to happen?

I didn’t get my books out. I decided to get both of my four-book series professionally edited before I self-published them.  Four of them are done, however, because they are intertwining series’, each change early on in the storyline creates a domino effect of changes that need to be tweaked throughout the series. But, when I’m done, there’s someone who wants to look at them (eek!) and that’s always a big motivator.

Now, to find the time…