Christmas 2019 is over, and the New Year is finally here. 2020! A clean slate just ready for my  plans and plots. I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions anymore. I used to make them, but I found that by the end of January they were already a distant memory. Now, I just try to make general goals for the year and hope I can stick to them.

My goals this year are fairly simple. I want to keep a consistent release schedule for my books.  I have two ongoing series, my Terras Five Cyborgs and my Northern Rockies Werewolves. Although both are romance, one is a sci-fi series and the other is a paranormal. My hope is that by alternating between the two, I will be able to keep both fresh and not start to recycle the same plot with different characters in each successive story. I find my muse gets bored and stale if I just stick to one universe. (I’m sure a psychologist would love to explore that idea!)

Click on picture to pre-order!

On a personal front, I want to continue to spend as much time as I can with my grandkids while they are still willing to be seen in public with me. I have a day planned to see the latest Star Wars movie with the oldest four (ages five through thirteen) this weekend. We’ll go to the afternoon show, get pizza for dinner and then they can have a sleep over. I love going to the movies with a group of kids. They aren’t embarrassed to show their enthusiasm for their favorite characters!

As five of  my grandkids live within a fifteen minutes of my home, and one of them goes to high school a mere three blocks from me, I have an revolving door policy that means they are always welcome to drop in, be it for few minutes to grab a glass of water or to stay overnight and make popcorn and watch a movie on Netflix or Disney plus. I cherish these times, and hope they always feel welcome to drop into my home unannounced. Being a grandmother is one of the best things that ever happened to me!

I am also determined to be more active. Since my day job is a desk job, and writing is also very much a sit still kind of activity, I have to find hobbies that make me move (unfortunately reading isn’t active either!) This fall I entered Merlin the Wonder Dog in an advanced agility course, and it turns out he loves it! Santa brought him a set of weave poles for Christmas so now we can practice at home. Come spring, I’m considering letting him compete in the local agility competitions.

Lexi is much younger, really just a pup (maybe a year old?) so I am working on basics with her. So far she has mastered not looking terrified all the time, and sitting on command. I spent a lot of time getting her not to cringe and crawl when anyone looked at her so I hesitate to teach her ‘down’. Right now we are working on leash manners. As in, walking while on leash as opposed to dropping to the ground and playing dead.

So that’s it for my plans for 2020! Here’s hoping it’s a wonderful year for all of us,

Happy Reading!

Anne Kane

Good Lord, it’s 2020!

Happy New Years, everyone! I hope you had a party, friends and family, drank some bubbly! It’s nice to celebrate the passage of time. I’d love to hear how you welcomed in the new year!

I didn’t do any celebrating last night. My mother was released into our care from the hospital yesterday. We’ll have extra support from hospice, but it’s up to us to care for her, 24/7. So, last night I slept with the baby monitor next to me, with her in the next room, so I could hop up whenever she needed help.

We’re glad to have her back home. It’ll be work, but she’ll be happier in her own place, with her family around her.

Her care, her future and ours, is a bit up in the air, but I still made plans for what I want to accomplish writing-wise. This is a snapshot of my workplan for the first quarter of 2020.

Does it look like gobbledygook to you? Okay, it looks crazy busy, and it is ambitious, but I have to try to get there. While mom sleeps, I’ll write. Kind of like now.

I am blessed with family that pitches in. My brother and his wife have been RVing around the country, but they’re presently parked in our pasture, ready to pitch in with whatever we need done, for as long as we need them here. Last week, my sister flew down to keep mom company when they moved her to a larger hospital in the city. That was a huge help.

My dd lives right across the road with her big family, and yesterday, her husband tore down her bed and put it in storage before hospice workers arrived with a hospital bed and lift. Her room is set up like a hospital room now, and we’ve got all the supplies in—gloves, masks, menthol inhalers (my dd has a sensitive nose), bed pads, etc. We’ve done this before—for my grandma and my dad. We’re set. We know how to do this.

I moved into my mother’s office with the bare necessities of what I need: my laptop, planner, a watercolor notebook, and a portable set of watercolors. The baby monitor is next to my laptop monitor, so whenever she’s awake, I’m in there with her, checking on her comfort.

Probably more details than you guys want. All writers live these exciting lives, right? Gorgeous cabana boys at poolside… Well, we’re people, too, and sometimes life isn’t easy.

But I have plans. Stories to tell. I’ll find the time to write them! ~DD