And so Starts Another Year

As the end of the year rolls around, and this is my last blog of this 12 month series, A Year in the Life of an Author, I find myself planning for the future.

Most people think ahead to the next year as to what needs to get done. My 2013 is already planned and has been for nearly a year. I'm speaking at the Midwinter ALA meeting, the Southern California Romance Writer's conference, and again at the Orange County RWA meeting in June. I'll be at the RWA National conference in Atlanta in July, and there are few trips down to Portland and other places in between.

In addition, I have a book due in February, a book coming out in March (AND THE MISS RAN AWAY WITH THE RAKE) and another in November (IF WISHES WERE EARLS). And in amongst all that, there will be another book to plot, plan, write, revise and finish. And if you been reading my blogs throughout the year, you also know that will mean copy edits, page proofs and the other necessary parts of bringing a book to publication.

So if I have my year all planned out, then what am I planning? Believe it or not, 2014 and 2015. I already have events on the calendar for those years. Yes, my life gets planned out years in advance. There is a comfort to that, (Huzzah for the work!) a bit of panic, (Yikes how am I going to get that all done!) and the inevitable fears that life will step in and muck it all up. But I have to do it. I have to come up with a reasonable guess as to when I will be able to complete three more books in the next two + years.

With kids, a husband, a house, a family, and that one thing we all have: LIFE, I just make the best guesstimate I can (factoring in all the elements that go into writing a book) and march forward. Sometimes it works, other years, not so much. In those instances I either have to haul on the hip boots and wade through it or even sometimes find myself crawling along at a whimper. But do it I must.

So for 2013, I have chosen a word to guide me and a word to challenge me to rise above my doubts and fears: COURAGE.

Debbie Macomber and Christina Skye told me I was taunting the powers-that-be to chose that word, I was just asking for life to present the need for courage. I laughed, realized they are probably correct, but am sticking to it. COURAGE it is.

So with COURAGE in hand to tackle the world in 2013, I challenge you to find a word that fits, that will broaden your outlook and buoy your heart into taking great big striding steps into 2013. And 2014. And even 2015.