Oh, Hello 2017

I didn't you standing there. I suppose we should get acquainted, yes?

(What I find on my Camera when I give it to my sister to take pictures at the zoo.)

What is it about years? Always sneaking up on us, then running away just when you were making progress with them. Sigh.

Well, 2016 is over, and what a year it was. I don't remember most of it. I think it was mostly work and editing. A bit of writing. I fulfilled my goal of publishing LDTD, though it was a headache and a half to pull off. I can't say that I did very well with any of my other goals. (Refers back to last year's list)

Uh ... focusing ... eheheheh. Occasionally, when the stars aligned properly.
Multitasking smarter. Try being completely insane and heaping far too many new projects on myself instead.
Meeting Goals. I released a book when I said I would. I can claim nothing more than that.
Staying Accountable. I ... tried? Well, I have a group of friends (aka, former beta readers who refuse to abandon a chat thread because I occasionally dangle snippets in front of them) who I've stayed mostly accountable, but I still hesitate to admit how much I've been playing games. I might have spent most of yesterday afternoon doing that.
Promotion. I ... entered WPFP into a contest! (Which it didn't win. Which I didn't mind so much, save for the fact that the book it lost to ... I'd read a few months before and had been very meh about.) I also ran a blog party and a blog tour. Neither were as spectacular as I had hoped.

Some highlights this year include meeting one of my beta readers in real life, finally graduating FINALLY getting behind the wheel to learn to drive (unfortunately, schedules have not been conducive to keeping my practice up, and I'm afraid that I may have forgotten half of what I learned. *growl*), and making good progress on Love and Memory, The Worth of a King, and ROCKS. Also, this year, my mom took on some friends' kids three to four days a week for homeschooling, my job drove me insane, and some personal issues led to my sister having to go live with our Grandparents. This was RIGHT after I fell and sprained my ankle. Oh, and my old computer died and I replaced it with a new one, and now I need money to pay for it.

So last year was a mixed bag. I don't hold hard feelings against it, but I hope this next year will be much better.

Speaking of which, here's my agenda!

School
Yes, I've graduated, no, I'm not done learning. In fact, I intend for this year to be pretty intense, learning-wise. I still need to finish Streams of Civilization II for history, and my parents invested in a year's subscription to Schoolhouse Teachers and I'm expected to take as many courses as I can. I'm currently working on one for Graphic Design.

Editing
Last summer, I invested in a year's subscription to Grammarly pro, and while I have it, I intend to run all of my previously-published books through it. Sew, and possibly some others, will be receiving a slightly stiffer edit as well. I'll be editing them in publication order, and as I finish them, I'll be looking for reviewers. You can probably expect a form for this later this week.

Writing:
Mostly Worth and LaM, as I need to finish both this books this year. I'd been hoping to be able to publish Worth this year, but it's not going to happen. Now I'm hoping for early next year. LaM is going to need two drafts (although it's turning out to not be as messy as I'd wanted it to be, so maybe not ...), and I'm hoping for a September/October publication following Worth. (Worth will come first, any way we slice it.)

I also plan to finish three short stories and get them published - "Poison Kiss," "Gift Exchange," and "Saffron's Even Bigger Plan."

Oh, and I have two new co-author plans on my plate, both involving Laura. No details on either, as we speak, but stay tuned.

Blogging/Promotion.
I'd like to blog here at least once a week, the AA at least once a month, and the O.Scarlett as often as I can. I have a coupld for the AA in a notebook, so all I have to do is type them up. And I'm down to only three "have to" reviews for the O.Scarlett.

With no big releases on my plate, I don't have any tours planned ... but I do have this:

I have this planned for late March. (Not April. My brain messed up. Again.) So far, only a few authors have joined, but I know of several more who hope to, once they have a better idea of their April schedules. If you're a self-publishing author and would like to join - or an editor, cover designer, indie game developer, indie musician... you can click this link.

I also intend to tweet daily and Instagram weekly. For an extrovert, I'm terrible at social media ... and I don't need to loose contanct with my readers. I just need to figure out what to say ...

Life:
With my sister out of the house, chores are a thing (ie, a bigger thing than normal). Also, I'm not working and I have a computer to pay for. I either need to find a job that is conducive to my writing/ride situation, or I need to find a way to make adequet money from home.

If everyone would just buy my books, though, that'd be awesome.

...

I think that's everything. Kendra out.

*falls off the car.*