2009 - The Year of the Ox - I'm hoping that it progresses better than this one did. And this year was a good year - professionally anyway. Especially with the introduction of a somewhat mobile office. No more midnight issues! It won't matter anymore what shift my husband is on or where we're taking the kids on any given day, I'll be able to work anywhere I want. I figure my production will close to double. I know what my production looked like in 2008 – if I can double that? Goodness! I'll be well on my way to climbing that staircase towards the Dream Goal.
Goals! I have many of them.
1. I want to start keeping track of my metrics like a normal writer!
2. 150 submissions - provided I start querying for one if not two books.
3. 24 new short stories
4. 50 new poems
5. clear out the backlog of unfinished stuff! (completions counting as new)
6. 15% acceptance rate
7. Gain entrance into 5 of my Most Wanted Markets for 2009 : 1. Asimov's, 2. Lone Star Stories, 3. Poetry Magazine, 4. Strange Horizons, 5. Beneath Ceaseless Skies , 6.Escape Pod , 7. Star*line , 8. Glimmertrain, 9. Ideomancer, 10. IGMS, 11. Futurismic, 12. Coyote Wild, 13. Interzone, 14. Fantasy Magazine, and 15. Clockwork Phoenix 3 (provided there is one). (I like to write a varied sort so my most wanteds cover a broad spectrum of genres.)
8. Rewrites on Thosha Tol and Purgatory's Queen and maybe Strange Angels
9. One complete rough of a new novel
10. Go to no fewer than three conferences.
11. I'd also like to finish Vessel of A Goddess and Arilan's middle story – my Acknivarian Cycle stories are meant to be stand alones – they have a linear sequence but I'd like very much if they didn't need to be read that way. Technically, Strange Angels comes before Thosha Tol but TT is the better story right now (though SA has its potential if I can actually WORK on it) and Arilan appears in both. I'd really like to write the story of her life between those two tales. One happens when she is very young and very vengeful and, while she's not the main character, she's integral to the plot. The other happens when she is far older, bitter, and deeply wounded. Again – she's not the main character but she is absolutely integral to the plot. In both cases, the endings could not happen without her. In both cases, the stories would be flat and the endings off without her. I happen to know what happens to her between the stories – and I really think I'd like to write it. It does not end well but it's one of those stories that – you don't NEED to read to enjoy the other two, to understand the other two – but, upon reading it, her words, her actions, her philosophies make a deeper connection. No, she's not my favorite character to play with or anything.
I guess we'll see what happens!