Showing posts with label happy holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label happy holidays. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Looking Back and Forward - A 2018 Yearly Planning Post

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year's Eve/Day. Today, I'm laying my blog and writing plan out there for you all to see. We'll look back over 2017 and see what can be improved upon in 2018. Ready? Let's get going!

First up: This Blog

Looking Back
This year was abysmal. Life happened, and a lot of my time was given to things around here. I'm not sorry, because my family will always come first, but since everyone is on the upswing health-wise, I'm going to do MUCH better this year. I only had 71 posts for the entire year, and that's just not okay. I clocked 158 in 2016, and nearly double that the years preceding. Time to fix it!

Looking Forward
Going forward, I've decided to go back to my five day posting schedule, but with a little something different. Sure, I'll share the occasional new release for myself or a friend, I'll share excerpts, and I'll be posting book reviews again for the first time in a LONG time, but the bulk of the blog will be news, tips and tricks for authors on writing and marketing, the occasional opinion post, and learning type posts. This will all begin next week. I have a plan for those posts, and I intend to stick to it like glue. It's not difficult to come up with a year's worth of content; I just needed to DO IT. Planning is everything (you know how I preach this--I just need to practice what I preach LOL).

As you all know if you've been around a while, if life happens and my family needs me, I'll go dark, but this year, I promise to be more open about what's going on so you're not thinking I've quit.

Next: Books and Writing

Looking Back
2017 was a pretty good publishing year for the F5, but no so much for myself. Our little group put out 30 episodes of a serial this year! Impressive, to say the least. You can see what we did on the Frayed Fairy Tales website here. That being said, I only released two books of my own: Utterances and How to be a TOTAL LOSER. That's just over 100k words. I can do better.

Looking Forward
2018 will be full of words. I already have a ton of writing done on Provocation and Intensification, and The House is written but not yet tweaked or edited. Those will be released in the first quarter of the year. Second quarter will be all about more words. I've stepped way back from other things, and I intend to put all my effort into getting stories told. I'm a writer, and I need to write. It's my happy place.

Last: Marketing, Events, and Life

Looking Back
I did a crap job on marketing this year, but sales have been okay--not nearly as good as 2016, but what did I expect? I attended five events: RAI, Utopia, Chapter.con, OIBF, and GLBB. Four of those were as an author. Myself, the F5, and IBGW also sponsored (in some way or another) four events: Chapter.con, OIBF, GLBB, and OUAB (I like to help when and where I can). I'm not positive there was a huge return on those investments, but most of them felt good/right. Life, of course, was full of ups and downs, but I feel as though I handled them with grace and dignity. There was no crying in a corner or pitching a fit like a toddler.

Looking Forward
I'll be doing more of the marketing I did in 2016 and adding on a couple of new things. I'm only attending one event this year: RAI, but there will be no others. That was a difficult decision, but it's what's best for me at this time. I have a writing/planning retreat scheduled in June of this year with the other F5 ladies (helloooooo, beach!), and that's going to be IT. My office will get an overhaul so it's more conducive to writing, too. This year is allll about the words and the wellness. Even when I'm not writing in my special place, I'll be thinking about writing and putting ideas on paper. Many plots will be had, and many hours will be logged in my home gym.

So, if you want to see me or get autographs or pics, you'll have to be in Roanoke, VA in April. Period. I'm not even sure what will happen in 2019 at this point. We'll see.

2017 had me by the balls. I fought MS, my husband fought cancer (like a beast, I might add), we buried my father-in-law in September, my eldest son did a tour in Afghanistan, and my second eldest had a serious fight with depression. I questioned decisions I made, got burned by a couple of people I thought had my best interests at heart (like I did theirs), and made mistakes.

But there was good in there, too. I connected with my husband on a deeper level than ever before and jaunted all over Europe with him, I got some great road time with my best friend (who I'm positive was my twin in a previous life), I made some amazing new friends, laughed until I couldn't breathe, saw my granddaughter turn one, lost a crapton of weight and gained a new lease on life, and KILLED NaNoWriMo (like, crushed it, seriously).

2018 is going to be my best year yet. I can feel it. BRING IT ON! Let's do this thing. Thanks for sticking with me through that post. I know it was long.

Do you make plans like this? Share some!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Monday, January 5, 2015

A New Year and Resolutions

Happy Monday, good people of the blogosphere! Well, it's a new year and all kinds of awesome stuff is happening. Today, I'm gonna talk about resolutions. Kind of. Let's get going and you'll see what I mean. *grin* Grab a cup of coffee because here we gooooo!

Do you look back over your previous twelve months each December and make plans for changes in the next year? You should. Learn from your successes, failures, and otherwise, and get yourself geared up to take on the next 365 days with gusto!

Here's what I found when I did an analysis of 2014:
  • I published two books and one short story.
  • I edited, proofread, or formatted for print (with IBGW) eleven books.
  • I launched IBGW.net and took on five new editors.
  • My blog gained 57 new subscribers.
  • My blog here reaches almost 500 people per day (measured via clicks).
  • I've grown my network by leaps and bounds.
  • I attended my first writer's conference.
  • I reviewed twenty-nine books.
  • I interviewed over twenty authors.

Looking at the above, you'd think I'd be happy as a lark, but I'm not. I think I can do better.

So, for 2015, I'm going to do the following:
  • Publish three novels and another anthology with the ladies of Fractured Glass.
  • Attend UtopYA Con again in June.
  • Publish a blog post every day (M-F) unless I let you all know otherwise.
  • Write one book review per week (which should get me very close to 52).
  • Keep up with my author interviews and make them bigger, badder, and more awesome.
  • Find a way to launch my 12 Days of Review Requests event to the next level.
  • Follow my schedule for posting to various social media sites and blogging to the Nth degree.
  • Get the Review Team's posts into the hands of more readers.

Here's my TBR list for 2015 (in no particular order):
  1. Bound by Duty - Stormy Smith
  2. Shadows on Snow (A Flipped Fairy Tale) - Starla Hutchon
  3. From the Wreckage - Michelle G. Miller
  4. 8 Weeks - Bethany Lopez
  5. The Tree of Everlasting Knowledge - Christine Nolfi
  6. Moonlight - David Rose
  7. Facade: A Vampire Love Story - R. M. Webb
  8. Siren - Jennifer Melzer
  9. Queen of Someday - Sherry Ficklin
  10. Fragile Creatures - Kristina Circelli
  11. At One's Beast - Rachel Barnard
  12. Unseen - Stephanie Erickson
  13. The Heart Thief - S. Lee Benedict
  14. Refuge - Violet Haze
  15. Kindling Flames-Gathering Tinder - Julie Wetzel
  16. Dry Stories - Kate Baggot *Read - Review to come*
  17. Kinetic: Book One of the Kinetic Trilogy - C. M. Zimmer
  18. The Release Club 1 - Misty Provencher *Read - Review to come* 
  19. Destiny Finds Her - Miranda Lynn
  20. To Get Me to You - Kait Nolan
  21. The Lady of Souls - Jenn Gott
  22. Sticks and Stones - Shawn McGuire
  23. Good Luck With That Thing You're Doing: One Woman's Adventures in Dating, Plumbing and Other Full Contact Sports - Karen Yankosky
  24. Desprite Measures-The Caledonian Sprite - Deborah Jay
  25. The Last Guardian Rises - Rebecca Trogner
  26. Witch Hunter Olivia - T. A. Kunz
  27. Never Forgotten - Kelly Risser
  28. Beyond the Western Sun - Kristina Circelli
  29. Lethal Takeout - Vered Ehsani
  30. Cursed - Jennifer Armentrout
  31. Evanescent - Carlyle Labuschagne
  32. The Forgotten Ones - Laura Howard
  33. Silent Orchids - Morgan Wiley
  34. First Impressions - Pauline Creeden
  35. Darlings of Decay - Tamara Rose Blodgett
  36. The Purgatorium - Eva Pohler
  37. Safer Outside - Kristina Renee
  38. Forbidden - Amy Miles
  39. Creatura - Nely Cab
As you can see, I have a rather long list. Keeping my fingers crossed I can get through them all. I also have a book review for Altered, book two of the Crewel series coming. So, the next three weeks are covered. *grin*

How about you? Do you do a year in review? Have a TBR? Share with me!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo

Thursday, December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thursday!

It's Christmas day and I'd like to take a moment to thank everyone who follows my blog, leaves me comments, and spreads the word about the little corner of the blogosphere I lay claim to.

You all rock!

I hope you have an enjoyable day with your families and eat lots of Christmas goose, ham, turkey, or lasagna!

Remember, tomorrow is the release day party for Fractured Glass. If you haven't joined yet, do that now! Here's the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/844476385605030/?ref=br_tf We have a ton of stuff to give away that'll make your Christmas just a little bit merrier.

There will be no post here on the blog tomorrow.

Monday, we have an interview with one of the authors: Casey L. Bond. She's so awesome and has been such a busy lady since last year.

Okay, quit reading this and go play with your new toys!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Well, that's all for today, folks! Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo