Soooooooooo we made it to 2016! How amazing. I’ll admit, this time last year, filled with ambitious plans and determination I wasn’t sure how I’d do. Now I know that all I need do is trust myself.

First, let’s clear up the last few bits from last month.

Actions Over Tail End Of The Year

~List ‘Dead And Alive: Episode Four’ as a pre-order (and episode five if dates allow)
Sorrrrrrted. Episode Four is here and Episode Five is set up and will become live as a pre-order on Jan 15th.

~Complete deep edits on one chapter of ‘On A Knife Point’
Hehee, done. Even sorting that one chapter was tough, but I took the opening of it to PWG on Saturday and have learned a great deal about what it needs. I should be able to move forward more steadily now. It’s good to have a spring board.

December Round Up

~Complete half the deep edits on ‘On A Knife Point’ (45,000 words ish)
. . . no. But that wasn’t going to happen, was it? Come on now. 😉

~List the remaining ‘Dead And Alive’ episodes as pre-orders as far as Amazon and Smashwords will allow
Done. Smashwords allows me to put up pre-orders a year ahead (!!!) but Amazon only allows three months. So, if you want to see all the listings, you can find them on Smashwords here.

~Proof the physical copy of ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ and release
Sorted. Thought I wasn’t going to make it, but I did. You can find the paperback here and here.

~Proof the digital copy of ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ and release
Also done! eBooks only available from Amazon (for now) and can be found here.

Full Year Round Up

Given how small (!) my list was this time last year, I just want to write out everything I’ve achieved. Not to brag, so much as to remind myself:.

January to June:

• Edited ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ following feedback from Angry Robot
• Drafted a novella (‘Dead or Alive’) that hit 36k words
• Released ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ as both an eBook and paperback
• Drafted a novel (‘On A Knife Point’) that hit 89k
• Sent all parts of ‘The Chapters of D’nai T’keyah’ to newsletter subscribers

July to December:

• Released three parts of ‘Dead And Alive’ across Amazon and Smashwords. This includes:
  • designing and creating the bloody cover art for all six parts (!)
  • formatting the files for two different platforms
• Drafted a novel during NaNoWriMo (Clash of the Animal Kings: Mach II) which hit 62k words
• Started drafting Season Two of ‘Dead And Alive’ (currently 14.8k words)
• Switched to quarterly newsletters and been (largely) on time with sending them out
• Read samples of ‘Silk Over Razor Blades’ and ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ at Fox Spirit events before a modest crowd (three this year, I think)
• Edited and released ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ as a paperback and ebook
• Filmed, edited and released 13 videos as part of a diary for my editing on ‘Walking The Razor’s Edge’ (I almost forgot this one!)

Thoughts…

Holy crap. I can’t—I just—next time I feel like I’ve had a bad day, I’m going to come back to this list and remind myself of what I can do in a year.
One year.
12 months.
Some people don’t achieve this in a lifetime.

I’m a tiny bit teary right now. These goal posts were always intended to keep fresh in my mind what I’ve done and what I want to do next. Over the last 12 months, the focus has moved, instead, to what I want to do and left very little, if any room for what I’d already achieved.

I think the only resolution I need to make this year is to remember what I have done. To recognise that I’ve worked my arse off and that I’m not lazy or slow or incapable. That, in fact, I’m pretty damn productive and driven. That, as much as (or more than?) raw talent, is a good part of any author’s success . . . I hope!