My special guest today is fellow Romance Diva Jennifer Colgan. She writes for Amber Quill and Amber Heat and has a new release called Strange New World coming in Feb 2009 from Samhain Publishing. Jennifer also writes under the name of Bernadette Gardner for Ellora’s Cave. Today Jennifer is talking about the measuring up and taking stock we all do at the start of a new year. Over to Jennifer…
First off, I’d like to thank Shelley for inviting me to be her guest. I’ve been reading all the wonderful posts by her previous guests and wondering how I can measure up.
The question of measuring up – of taking stock of who and what we are, is one that usually plagues me during this time of year. Though I strive to see the year as a circle with no real beginning and I subscribe to the idea that it’s never too late to start something, when the end of December rolls around, I invariably find myself contemplating how the year that’s coming to a close measures up to the one before, and how it will impact the one after.
This past year was a whirlwind for me. It seemed to fly by in a blur while I tried to keep all my plates spinning at once. In addition to writing for three publishers and editing for two, I still hold a part time job outside of writing and of course care for my home and family, which includes a husband, two children and an ever-expanding collection of pets. While I wish I could say this was a year of unprecedented accomplishment, to be honest, it was more a year of unflagging dedication to getting the job done. I measured each day in how many pages I wrote [and usually how many loads of laundry I washed]. I became quota girl so to speak, stuck on the DO MORE treadmill. “Get it done” was my motto.
While that might seem like it worked fairly well from the standpoint of an outside observer – I wrote five stories, sold seven, and edited twenty – not to mention finding time to read forty other books, most for my own enjoyment, I did lose track of something I’m hoping to regain in 2009. While striving to accomplish, to GET IT DONE, I began to lose some of the wonder of my craft and that’s where I’ve decided to concentrate my efforts to see that 2009 measures beyond 2008.
I don’t plan to exceed my word count this year, or to read 41 books instead of 40. My goal for 2009 is a bit more elusive. I want to love what I’m doing again. I want to get back to the way it was when I started out, writing for the joy of seeing a story unfold before me on the page, letting my characters surprise me by doing something I hadn’t planned for them, rather than vex me by stalling my progress for the day.
It may seem like a small detail in the overall scheme of things, but to me it’s huge and will mark for me whether or not 2009 is a success. If I can fall in love with writing all over again, I will be able to say the New Year not only measured up but surpassed the old one.
Happy Holidays everyone and may you not only meet but exceed all your goals in the coming months!
Question from Shelley: How do you approach the new year? Do you take stock like Jennifer? Decide to do things differently?
Don’t forget to check out Jennifer’s story, Fresh Blood, available on her website for free! Here’s the link.
