new year

Gearing Up

Nephele Tempest

Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the holidays and are energized for 2012. I’ll admit to feeling a little sluggish when I got up this morning, but since then there’s been a four-mile run, coffee, and an e-mail from the office letting me know my sales figures for 2011 (much higher than for 2010). That combination seems to have been the magic carrot required to help me hit the ground running.

Given that it’s a short week, my plans include digging out from all the holiday e-mail, touching base with a few clients, reading one or two things that filtered in from them over the past couple of weeks, and tackling the ongoing submissions pile up. Basically, a lot of desk work, but I’m excited to read some great new client projects and to — I hope — discover some wonderful new writers in my crowded inbox.

Many of you participated in last month’s writing challenge here. I’d still love to hear how it went for you, so feel free to leave a comment here, or at my year-end post. I’ll leave you to work at your own paces in January, but come February I hope to have a new, fun challenge to get your juices flowing, so be on the lookout.

So what are your plans for this week? For the new year? Any writing goals that have you excited? Fabulous books you’re dying to read? Love to know what you’re all up to for 2012. Meanwhile, have a great day and happy writing!

As the Year Fades to Memory

Nephele Tempest

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.