I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season. It’s been fun, as always, to shift gears and spend more time with the kids and friends and other family. We’ve been having a particularly mild winter for Wisconsin (the last two were pretty brutal), so that’s a plus, too!
But now that the New Year is here, I’m ready to get back to work. Like many of you, I’m sure, I’m setting my goals for the year, and making plans for how I’ll achieve them. Since this will be my first full year of writing full-time, I know time-management will be key. My list of goals is a long one, and probably not all that realistic (remember, I’m a fantasy author! Fantasizing is what I do best)! That being said, I won’t share all of my goals with you, since it would be a true blue miracle if I were actually able to accomplish them all. That’s where planning the “how” comes in. That way I’ll know which I should focus on first and which may have to carry over to next year’s list.
Writing-related goals are not new to my yearly list. But this year I intend to focus more on marketing, too. Much of what I’ve learned about marketing is not necessarily applicable to my target audience, the upper middle grade set. So I intend to seek out information specific to that subject. While social media has become a powerful platform-builder for many authors, I do question its viability/accessibility for kids that age. I’d love to hear from others with the same target audience about their experiences.
Beyond that, The Triad of the Tree is currently with beta-readers, so that should be polished and ready for prime-time soon. I’m also working on the next book in my Etchings and Embers series (Muirwood fan-fiction), and of course Wunderwood Book 3 will be in the works too. That’s all I’ll say for now, other than I’m really looking forward to what this year holds! I wish you a productive and wonderful 2016! And a few mistakes…. 🙂
