2013 was a heck of a year for me, writing-wise.

I saw my first book published, and then the “Complete” (for now) series of that same book.

I wrote my first ever stand-alone book – which was a big challenge for me.

I started a new series, an actual contemporary romance (another first), and the first book was published in December, with another due in February (then July, October, November and December again).

I have been published in three very different anthologies – women’s history, horror, and motherhood stories.

I went on the radio once, and classed up the show by declaring “I’m a whore” on live radio. I’m awesome that way.

I challenged myself to write 500,00 words – and succeeded in writing 413,286 of those words.

I had ups and downs and some pretty major struggles, but it was a good year.

Now it’s 2014, and as I’m sitting here with my leg in an air cast after foot surgery, and many words already under my belt for 2014, I realized I haven’t yet declared my writing goals and aims for 2014.

1. I’ve challenged myself to write 600,000 words in 2014. (41,631 WC so far)
2. I will finish books 4 & 5 of the Dominion Falls series and submit by February 8th (4 is done, 5 is at 36,343)
3. I will fine-tune and perfect Leap (Hidden Senses #.5) for publication.  (1 edit round done. W/ an editor now)
4. I will build my audience and work harder at promotion.
5. I will find focus (see below), and figure out how to USE it.

And for those that don’t know me, I have an attention problem. I jump from project to project and lack focus. I have about 6 books started that I’m currently working on – and probably 3-4 that I started and back-burnered. In my attempt to focus, I’m going to post those books, projected word counts, and try to work my way through them over the course of the year.

1. Runaway Train (Dominion Falls 5) – 100k (36,343 complete)
2. Stalled Independence (Lake Point #3) – 30k
3. Into a Mirror Darkly (Morgana Chronicles 1) – 100k (~10k done)
4. Witch Way (Lake Point #4) – 30k
5. A Thorough Thanksgiving (Lake Point #5) – 30k
6. The Wolf (The Tribe #1) – 100k
7. Natural Selection – 40k
8. Hybrid – unknown…going to do as “Chapters” not full length novel.
9. The Dead Past (Dominion Falls 6-temporary name) – 100k
10. The Chief (The Tribe #2) – 100k
11. The Raven (The Tribe #4) – 100k
12. Escaping Humanity (Co-authoring w/ Mary Terrani) – 100k

Obviously I don’t know that I’ll finish them all in this year – but I’m going to make an effort to work my way through them.  I have several stories on backburner (Like Ice Age, Broken Windows and Hex Ranch) that I also dream of approaching, but I have to focus for a change and do one book at a time.  Especially since I already have ideas for carrying my contemporary holiday series into 2015!

All right. My goals are out there – it’s time to get back to it!  Runaway train is 1/3 done now, and I have lots of words ahead of me!