New Years Resolutions Pt 3 - My Goals for 2018

How has your January gone? Well? Any resouti—Goals that have been met yet? Have you laid the mini-goals and map out of how you're going to attain those goals for 2018?
This blog is Part Three in setting goals.

I've had years where I concentrated on writing my fingers off, publishing multiple books, and losing weight/eating better.

This year?

This year, 2018, is going to be the year of Balance. That is going to be my word for the year.

Seeking the balance between writing, marketing, social media, and being a parent.
Within that search for balance, I do have some professional goals that I would like to share here.

1. Reach 550 followers on Twitter, and 400 on Instagram. A bit of arbitrary numbers, but I've been stuck at gaining and then loosing the same 20 or so people on Twitter, and 10 people on Instagram. (Clearly not the same exact people, but number wise.) It would be awesome to hit those numbers, and then maintain it through 2018.

To make strides for this goal that I plan on posting every day, being active and responsive to other posts, being a participant in Joshua Robertson's #author365 (https://www.instagram.com/robertsonwrites/)for the entire year on Instagram. Considering I've never completed even a month long hashtag challenge, this will be interesting.
On Twitter I will be participating in #1lineWed weekly, and be sure to check in and interact with others daily. I always mean to, but the Twitter feed just doesn't hold my attention the way Instagram does. I just enjoy seeing everyone's pictures more!


2. Finish An Irish Christmas, book two in my Emerald Isle trilogy, and publish early November 2018.

I would have preferred to have it released this summer, but that is just not feasible with the responsibilities I have around the house as well as raising my son. The time just isn't there, but I am doing my best to work on the story when I have the time. I don't want to either rush the book and have it not be as good as it could be, nor do I want to work myself so much that I run on three hours of sleep a night while taking care of a more and more mobile (I swear almost toddler!) boy.

To reach this goal, once a month my mom will take Liam for a Saturday morning, giving me 4-5 hours of completely baby free time at home. YAY! Also, once a month I am going to get out of the house and plop myself at a local coffee place for an hour or two while Hubby and Liam get some "guy time". I have noticed that I am able to concentrate more and get more work done when I am in public place where I only have work to do.


3. Have blogs come out at least twice a month on Wednesdays, as well as a once monthly book review of a small press/self published book.

So far I have several books lined up, and the first few books read, and the reviews written. I am going to work ahead, so that I have the posts completed, scheduled a month a head of time. By doing this I won't panic thinking I have nothing to go out, as well as giving me time to set up blog series, and collaborate with other authors.



So there you have it. My three professional goals for 2018. Balance. Breath in, Breath out. Then I'm going to snuggle my baby boy before getting to work.