Goodbye 2015
I sit at my desk writing this blog with only a couple of hours to go on 2015.
To be honest, I’m glad.
There’s something about “wiping the slate clean” and starting again fresh for a new year. Okay, most of our resolutions probably don’t last a month, but it’s wonderful to put the past behind you and say that you’re never going back there.
That being said, 2015 was a wonderful year for my writing and for me learning.
I had two new novels released – Shawn’s Law and You Are the Reason. They are very, very different books, and I’m proud of them in two very different ways.
Shawn’s Law was for me. You often see a writer say that, and I can tell why. This book was just the inside of me all bubbling to the surface. I’m the Crazy that you get when you read this book. Some people really connected with my Crazy. Others weren’t sure. I know my editor wasn’t sure about it either. But I wanted Shawn’s Law and I hold it close to me.
I sit at my desk writing this blog with only a couple of hours to go on 2015.
To be honest, I’m glad.
There’s something about “wiping the slate clean” and starting again fresh for a new year. Okay, most of our resolutions probably don’t last a month, but it’s wonderful to put the past behind you and say that you’re never going back there.
That being said, 2015 was a wonderful year for my writing and for me learning.
I had two new novels released – Shawn’s Law and You Are the Reason. They are very, very different books, and I’m proud of them in two very different ways.
Shawn’s Law was for me. You often see a writer say that, and I can tell why. This book was just the inside of me all bubbling to the surface. I’m the Crazy that you get when you read this book. Some people really connected with my Crazy. Others weren’t sure. I know my editor wasn’t sure about it either. But I wanted Shawn’s Law and I hold it close to me.
On the other hand, You Are the Reason is for my readers. Yes. This one is for them. I had no intention of writing Davo’s story. Nope. Jake and Patrick were it. You would have to leave the rest of their story to your imagination. But the readers of The Blinding Light weren’t satisfied. They hounded me until I broke and gave into their demands for a story about Davo.
I’m not sure if they got what they wanted. When you write a story, you need to take the good with the bad. Davo’s character had some bad spots to it. He needed something very pure to make it to a good place. Lee was perfect for him, but this is no white-washed story. There were some tough yards that one had to go through to get there. However I’m a so glad the way the story turned out. Didn’t you love it?
2015 also saw me release two short stories – Hard Feelings in the Queermance Anthology and Out of the Rain as my first self-published story. Both of them taught me very valuable lessons. I adore the story in Hard Feelings and I have begun to expand the love affair between Moe and Sam to make the story more in depth, so if you can wait a little longer, I will put this out as a standalone.
Out of the Rain was a little project I worked on to dip my toe into the self-publishing pool. I’m not quite sure if it was successful. I will need to be more courageous and self-publish more books. Although the pet peeve from reviewers about this story seemed to be that it was too short. Hmm.
On the writing side of things I’ve added a lot of words to a lot of stories during 2015. Now the push will be to get these stories out to the public (the ones that are finished) and finish off those that aren’t.
Out of the Rain was a little project I worked on to dip my toe into the self-publishing pool. I’m not quite sure if it was successful. I will need to be more courageous and self-publish more books. Although the pet peeve from reviewers about this story seemed to be that it was too short. Hmm.
On the writing side of things I’ve added a lot of words to a lot of stories during 2015. Now the push will be to get these stories out to the public (the ones that are finished) and finish off those that aren’t.
I’ve been nominated for a swag of categories in the Goodreads M/M Romance Group’s Member’s Choice awards which has me BURSTING my buttons with pride. I’m becoming more comfortable with telling people “I’m an author” which was really hard in the beginning, and I’m getting more comfortable with bragging about my work. So I’m going to put these pictures right here.
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I’m very satisfied with how 2015 went professionally. It was the other parts of my life that tumbled out of my control. My husband has continued to have health problems, and now my son has a mystery illness and symptoms that the doctors can’t nail down. We did the hard yards with one teacher this year, and I’m hoping for a much better teacher next year. And my baby-girl finished Pre-Primary with only one anxiety phase in the whole year. Yay her!
So, do I have New Year’s Resolutions? Not really. There are things I want to do better this year, and I write them down here to remind myself if I get stuck:
1. A more organised approach to my profession. This will mean less fum-bumming around on social media when I should be working, more working when the kids are at school, and making my family appreciate this is my work and they have to respect the boundaries.
2. A more balanced home-work life. Ugh! This one will be hard. But I need to spend less time in front of the computer, and more time attending to my hobbies and my garden. So I’m going to try for a more structured routine so that my writing time is more productive, so I have more time for other things. I’m going to make time for other things.
3. Try out a new form of social media. There, I said it. I need to do more on the promo front. I need to expand my horizons, hopefully find some new readers, and keep at it.
4. Write more and write better. Okay, this one’s a little silly. But I’m currently going through first edits of a new story, and during first edits I always think I’m the crappiest author to walk the earth. I can’t construct a sentence, my editor has told me so many aspects of the story don’t work (okay – she doesn’t, but it seems like it), we argue over word usage and Australian-vs-American terms. So I’m feeling like I need to take ten courses in creative writing before I attempt another story. But it is also true, I need to work on my craft and improve.
There you have it.
Now, for my 2016 plans, you will have to wait another two days and read it on my Café Risque blog.
Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support, and here’s to a great 2016!
So, do I have New Year’s Resolutions? Not really. There are things I want to do better this year, and I write them down here to remind myself if I get stuck:
1. A more organised approach to my profession. This will mean less fum-bumming around on social media when I should be working, more working when the kids are at school, and making my family appreciate this is my work and they have to respect the boundaries.
2. A more balanced home-work life. Ugh! This one will be hard. But I need to spend less time in front of the computer, and more time attending to my hobbies and my garden. So I’m going to try for a more structured routine so that my writing time is more productive, so I have more time for other things. I’m going to make time for other things.
3. Try out a new form of social media. There, I said it. I need to do more on the promo front. I need to expand my horizons, hopefully find some new readers, and keep at it.
4. Write more and write better. Okay, this one’s a little silly. But I’m currently going through first edits of a new story, and during first edits I always think I’m the crappiest author to walk the earth. I can’t construct a sentence, my editor has told me so many aspects of the story don’t work (okay – she doesn’t, but it seems like it), we argue over word usage and Australian-vs-American terms. So I’m feeling like I need to take ten courses in creative writing before I attempt another story. But it is also true, I need to work on my craft and improve.
There you have it.
Now, for my 2016 plans, you will have to wait another two days and read it on my Café Risque blog.
Happy New Year! Thank you for all your support, and here’s to a great 2016!
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