As the Year Fades to Memory

The last day of 2011. I must say, I found it a pretty decent year overall, certainly a far better one than its predecessor, at least as far as my life was concerned. Left plenty of room for improvement, of course, but then nothing is perfect.

I’m not one for resolutions. Those lists seem more designed to court failure than to encourage success. That doesn’t mean I don’t plan for the future, but it’s more along the lines of a business plan, with goals for each quarter and set dates where I reassess my progress, and I take into account both work and my personal life.

As always, I have lists of things left undone, or that I wish I’d done more of over the course of the year. Naturally I wish I’d read more books, but that’s a pretty constant wish, regardless of how many books I manage. I’d have liked to have taken a real vacation instead of snatched days or long weekends, so that’s something on the to-do list for the year ahead.

Thinking about highlights of this year, I attended some fabulous conferences, including the Santa Barbara Writers Conference for the first time, and the Surrey International Writers Conference for the third. The RWA National Conference was in New York City this year, which was a terrific, busy and hectic experience. I met some wonderful writers, both published and unpublished. I signed some lovely new clients. On a personal level, I lost some weight and ran my first 5K. Good friends had a baby, and another friend got married and is now expecting. And — big surprise — I read some fabulous books.

This blog saw a move from Live Journal to its new home here on Word Press, and I think it’s been a good change. Thanks to everyone who made the move with me, and to those of you who have stumbled my way since. I hope you find these posts fun and informative, and that I am helping to encourage your progress as writers and readers, and to make agents seem a bit more approachable. We’re really just people who love reading books so much that we found a way to get paid to do it.

A final congratulations to those of you who have taken my December writing challenge. I’d love to hear how it went, whether you managed to write 29 out of the 31 days or less (or more!). Please share your experiences here in the comments. And those of you who didn’t participate, please feel free to chime in and offer your congratulations to all the ambitious writers.

Wishing you all a wonderful, productive, and joyous 2012! See you in the new year.