Win a Critique from me from the WEP April Challenge

I hope everyone is safe and healthy. These have been crazy days. At least I hope you've been catching up on your reading and writing!

This month, I'm excited to be a part of Write... Edit... Publish's (WEP) writing blogfest challenge. WEP is a fantastic, supportive writing community. Every other month, they post a short writing challenge, and I love reading all the marvelous entries from the prompt. For April, the prompt is antique vase.

Click here for the post!

I will be providing the winner of the challenge with a 10,000 word critique. Be prepared, I dig deep when I critique. I also make silly jokes!

Good luck to all the participants!

P.S. Click on the image below to see all the expanded prompts for this year!

Goals for 2016

As much as that nagging voice in my head says I should have done more, I had a productive year in 2015. I published one novel and six novellas plus a handful of short stories. I met all but two of my goals. One was a novel I put aside because I wasn't ready to write it yet. In its place, I wrote and published The Paramours and started on my biggest project yet, Totem. I read over 100 books and wrote reviews for them, but I could not find a way to coax more readers to write reviews for me. I also did not manage to find the balance between writing and blogging. I did better than 2014 with that, but I have to learn to be more strict with myself and stick with my schedule.

Here are my goals for 2016:

1. Revise and submit the Sasquatch Susies to my publisher. The first drafts are done. Not too much I have to do story-wise in the revision phase.

2. Write the rest of the Totem books and start to publish them. The first two novellas out of nine are done, but not revised. I'm trying very hard not to rush myself with these. I learned some valuable lessons in publishing the 13th Floor series. I will be much kinder to myself and my CPs/editor with this one. Tentatively, I'd like to say I'll start putting them out by early summer, but I'm not putting any definite deadline down on paper yet.

3. Read and review 100 books. I did it last year and the year before. I'd love to continue it for the rest of my life.

4. Write and submit six short stories. I managed to do this last year. I was short-listed on pro venues five times. I'm so close to my goal of being accepted by one.

5. Blogging. Once again, I'm going to attempt to find a balance between writing and blogging. The writing of my blog posts doesn't take too long, but keeping up with everyone's blogs and returning comments does sometimes. I will not give up the latter. So I will schedule a certain amount of time each weekday for returning comments, and if I have time left, I will make some visits. I must decide what is the appropriate amount of time for that, though. How much time do you spend a week returning comments and visiting blogs?

What are your goals for 2016?

IWSG for December 2013

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

The new year is looming in front of me. This year has been a good one. I pushed myself and managed to get the 13th Floor series out. Just seeing the collection, holding that heavy book, leaves me in awe of how much I accomplished.

I can't push myself that much again. It was unfair to my family, CPs, and betas. (I'm so thankful to all them for sticking with me through it.) I'm trying to set much more realistic goals for myself in 2014. I want to publish two novels be they with a publisher or on my own. The first drafts of both are written. The thought of querying makes me very nervous, but I'm going to try.

I'm worried that I set some precedent for myself, though. Will people expect more of me because of what I've done? Will I be lost and forgotten in the ocean of writers because I'm not producing stories so quickly?

This journey can be frightening at times. We can never know for certain which step is the right one. We just have to take a chance and walk forward. We must persevere. And I'm so thankful to you for sharing it with me. You guys are awesome!