It’s January 14^{th –}  Do you know where your resolutions are?

I’ll admit it. I love the beginning of the year.  Anything seems possible. I have 12 entire months to meet my goals.  12 months for the magic to find me.  But sometimes, I let my goals fall to the wayside and at the end of the year, I don’t have anything to show for my time.

For me, it’s easier, to make monthly goals (in line with the resolutions), then break that down even farther to weekly goal list. And then daily. A lot of lists you say? Not really when you think of all the things we do and try to keep in our heads.

Recently, I realized as I was flipping through the weekly ads that my favorite store had missed giving me the $5 gift card for the required purchase.  That was last week. From the time I left the frozen food aisle to the checkout, I’d forgotten all about the gift card bonus. It was seeing a similar sale that alerted the brain neurons that I’d missed out. Brains are funny like that.

Or maybe it’s just the writer brain that can pull out a memory from twenty or more years ago to bring back the emotion and dialogue from an event for our stories, but can’t remember to pick up coffee at the store.

Or just me.

Anyway, weekly planning is a lifesaver.  On Sunday night I plan. ‘I will write 5000 words, blog twice, and start a short story.” I send this off to my accountability partner. On Monday, life intervenes and I get nada. Tuesday, I’m back on track, but not caught up, at least with my words.  Wednesday, I have critique group (oops, forgot to add that to my list.) By the next Sunday when I report, I have better caught up with my goal list, or be willing to explain why to my partner who’s written twice that in a week. And catered her daughter’s eighteenth birthday party.

Report, make new goals for the week, then repeat. At the end of the month, we report our progress and make new goals.  Same at the end of the year.

Last year, this process helped me write two books, two novellas, and a combination of twelve short stories or essays. I’m hoping for similar success this year.

A Member of the Council was an item on a goal list that I kept moving from one list to the next.  When I finished the story, the line I’d been targeting the story to, changed, so I sent it to a contest. I didn’t win, but my editor liked what she saw and offered a contract.  Now, we’re working on book two (Return of the Fae) and AMOTC is getting great reviews.  Book three is on my list for 2013.

So what are you doing this week? Are you reaching for a dream with a weekly goal?

A Member of the Council

A rogue hunter, a clueless witch and a mission to save an unknowing world.

Parris McCall, owner of the dive bar, The Alibi, has finally constructed a life where her little quirks don’t show or matter to anyone. As for her grandmother’s warnings that she’s different, well, she’ll cross that bridge if she comes to it. But when Ty walks into her bar, both lives are instantly changed.

Ty Wallace loves his life. How could he not? He’s a powerful human lawyer by day and the Magic Council’s rogue witch hunter by night. But after he agrees to substitute on his secretary’s dart team, all hell breaks loose. Now Ty has to help Parris admit who she is before her long-lost relatives kill her.

Buy link:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Member-Council-ebook/dp/B00A262YW4