Since we’re getting to the end of the year, now is as good a time as any to revisit the goals lists I posted at the beginning of the year and see what I’ve accomplished and what has fallen to the wayside. The update from May is in plum. Today’s comments are in blue.

1. Send in four applications to teach at the ACFW conference: Showing vs. Telling, Critical Reading, Critiquing, and either POV or Setting. Unfortunately, because of the level of professionals with whom I was competing for teaching slots, none of my workshop applications were accepted for ACFW. My new goal is to try to get onto the faculty for the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers’ Conference in 2009. I’ve e-mailed Alton Gansky, the director of the Blue Ridge conference, a couple of times and haven’t heard back, so I’m assuming this isn’t going to happen. However, I have been contacted by Nashville State Community College about possibly teaching a couple of Freshman Comp courses next semester, so I could be teaching next year anyway.

2. Turn in revisions on Happy Endings Inc. Stand-In Groom early. I turned in the manuscript the last week of March. I’m now trying to line up a few published authors for endorsements as well as getting the art direction worksheet filled out for the cover of Menu for Romance. Last time I updated this was back in May, so obviously, I got that art-direction worksheet turned in!

3. Volunteer as a judge in the ACFW Genesis contest. DONE. I judged in the contemporary romance category, and one of the five manuscripts I judged is a finalist! It’s actually about time to be volunteering to serve as a judge for 2009!

4. Complete A Major Event Inc. Menu for Romance by June 30, 2008 to submit to Barbour by the first week of July. By writing a little more than 1,000 words a day, I’ll have the first draft finished by the end of June (just in time for my brief vacation to Hot Springs, AR, in July!). My contracted deadline for the manuscript is December 1, but I intend to have it polished and ready to turn in before I leave for Minneapolis on Sept. 13. Well, this is one of those goals where I fell flat. I ended up spending all of October and the first week of November marathon writing and managed to get this manuscript turned in on November 17.

5. Complete revisions on Ransome’s Honor; begin work on Ransome’s Crossing. The second draft of RH is complete and has been critiqued, and the proposal went to Chip at the beginning of February. We heard back from one publishing house that is very interested in it, but requested some changes to the beginning. Just this week, I received crits back on the new prologue and revised first three chapters. I’d hoped to have those changes finished and the revision back to Chip by Friday, but time has gotten away from me this week, so that’s my project for the weekend. I have made a couple of attempts at starting RC, but nothing that has led me to a point where I feel like it’s a strong opening, thought I do have what is the beginning of a wonderful action scene when the ship Charlotte is on is attacked by a French privateer! When the “interested publishing house” requested the full manuscript, I completed another full revision (including some new/completely rewritten scenes) before turning it in. As you can see by the counter in the right-hand info bar, I have done some writing on RC. In fact, just two nights ago, around three in the morning, I turned on the bedside lamp and jotted down what I think is a really cute prologue for it (when Charlotte is a small child). I also have been toying around with what I feel will be a pretty good opening for the first chapter. The word-count recorded in the counter are all the bits-and-bats of scenes/ideas I’ve written over the past year or so, most between 200–600 words each.

6. Develop and implement pre-release marketing plan for SIG. Still in the “thinking about it” phase on this. By working with the publicist at Barbour, as well as doing a little publicity of my own, I have some interviews set up. But I’m thinking about trying to set up a blog tour (which I’ll work on after Christmas) and I have some ideas for people/places I’m going to send copies of the book to try to garner some media interest once I get my advance copies.

7. Attend Alumni weekend at SHU—possibly co-teach a workshop. Based on airline prices, the cost of renting a car, the difficulty in finding a place to stay within fifteen miles of Greensburg, and the fact that none of the workshops offered for the alumni retreat are of any interest to me, I made the decision that this was not the wisest way to spend my money this year. While it would be nice to see the people who started my final residency graduating, the truth is that I would really be going just to hang out with friends, not for any kind of professional enhancement, which means that I wouldn’t be able to write it off afterward. I wasn’t really sure at the time why God was telling me not to go to Greensburg in June, but with the timing of the layoff and needing the security of what I then had in my savings account, I can see very clearly why this wasn’t supposed to happen this year.

8. Pitch the Ransome Trilogy to at least four editors at ACFW conference. If it hasn’t sold by time of the conference, I’ll be sure to do this then. Well, I didn’t do this . . . because it went to pub board at Harvest House the week before conference and I was getting word that they were really interested in it.

9. Sell the Ransome Trilogy. See #8 DONE!

10. Schedule at least one book signing event for January 2009 (yes, I realize that’s next year, but the work will have to be done this year). See #6 While I don’t have any book signings scheduled for January, I am participating in a multi-author book signing event this Saturday, December 13. And the publicist at Barbour is working on getting me some more signings set up as well, plus I have some connections in a couple of places that I fully intend on putting into action in January.

How have you done on your writing goals for this year?