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.

New Years Resolutions Pt 2- Set Yourself Up for Success

Welcome back to my three part series on New Years Res—I mean Goals.
Which as we covered last week can start really at any time you want. ANY TIME. Not just at the beginning of the "New Year, New Me" phase. (Seriously, does anyone else loathe that statement as much as me?! I digress...)

This time I want to share some tips that helped me to achieve the goals that I set.

Want to know the first thing to do if you want to fail at your goals?
Make them big, with no plan on how to get there.

That is honestly the first failing of a lot of goal setters. I saw it every year in the gym. That first month back is PACKED to the gills, but as the month wanes, people start to drop off. Then by March maybe a handful have stuck around.

Why?

Because they go all out for a few weeks, completely changing their schedule and focusing on this huge momentous goal. Never thinking of making small steps, and smaller goals, on the road to their bigger one.

Their goal may have been to lose 40 pounds, run a 5K, or lift to a certain amount. But without those smaller goals after some time, that bigger goal seems out of reach, and they lose momentum.

I have done this, I will be the first to admit it. Setting goals is easy, working towards them is not. We are only human after all.

So the best way to actually reach your goals are to split them up into bite sized pieces. Every time you hit one of these mini goals you celebrate. It means you're moving forward toward your larger goal, but you are also celebrating how far you have come.

If your goal is to run a 5K, I do not recommend getting on a treadmill (I live in SE WI, so I don't suggest hitting the pavement in below freezing weather) and sprinting the full 5K. I don't think many people could do that without training.

Instead of punishing yourself and falling short of your goal, try running for a set amount of time. Say 1 minute straight to start with walking periods in between. Repeat that a few times over the course of 30 minutes for example. Do that for a week. Then the next week, increase one of the minutes of running to two. And so on until you are running straight for the full 30 min. Then work on distance.

You are not only working toward your goal, but you are changing your habits as well. That is the difficult part of goals. Humans like our habits, it's in our nature. And change, even welcome, wanted change, is difficult. BUT if you can push past the discomfort and start with small changes, you will find that you can achieve even the biggest of goals in time.

Another equally important aspect to reaching your goals is finding someone to cheer you on. Everyone needs encouragement every now and then. So find your cheering section! This can be done with personal friends or family who may have the same goal as you, or someone who just wants to see you succeed and can hold you accountable to show up and work to your goal.

In the writing community there are some lovely people that can be found on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook writing groups, and the NaNoWriMo website. If you do a quick search of #amwriting on Twitter or Instagram, you will find these wonderful people. Even one writing buddy can make the difference, so reach out.
(Feel free to add me, I love cheering people on! Twitter/Insta: @MalindaWrites )

Life is a marathon, not a sprint. Our goals shouldn't be sprints either.

I like to set up both long term and short term goals. Next week I'll share a few of my goals for the New Year; long term, short term, and how I plan to get there.

Has anyone set goals for this year? Writing related? Health related? Work or personal life related? Drop a comment below, I'd love to cheer you on! :)

New Years Resolutions Pt 1 - Why Make Them At All?

If I am completely honest here, and I will be since it is—after all—my blog, I HATE New Years Resolutions.

I mean it's fantastic that people want to better themselves by quitting smoking, eating healthier, going to the gym, doing daily brain teasers, or hitting personal milestones.

But the darn guilt of feeling you HAVE to have something to work on at the beginning of the year is crippling,

Am I right? Or am I RIGHT?!?

Before you click away thinking this is just another "New Year, New You" pile of-you-know-what....just hear me out. It won't take long! ;)

Despite my feelings about New Years Resolutions, I do agree that even writers should have resolutions. How about instead of calling them resolutions, we call them goals?
And instead of just having them at the new year, let's start them whenever we need to. Be it a Tuesday, Friday, or even the second half of the day after sitting around and being a bum and feeling sorry for yourself. Just me? Okay, moving on...

Any time is a good time to set a goal!

Goals are fantastic. They give us something to strive for. A finish line for those of us feeling like we're slaving away for naught. A goal can be as small or as large as you want or need it to be.
They help to keep us motivated to make the changes we feel we need to make. Whether they be a personal or professional goal. Even something silly such as remembering to always put your keys in the same spot, is a good goal.

As long as the goal is something that you feel will better yourself, set it!

Sadly though, setting a goal is an entirely different animal than achieving that goal. This is not like those "Set it and Forget it" meals your mom made back in the day.
Getting to that goal is going to take some work.

In next weeks post I'll talk about how to set goals in a manageable way, and how to motivate yourself to hit those puppies.

Until then why don't you, dear reader, think of something you would like to change in your life.
No matter how small, large, serious, or silly, and I will do the same!

Sunday Book Review

Time to kick the year off with my first Small Press/ Self Published book, and it's a real nail biter!
*All opinions are my own, and are no way influenced by writers or publishers of the books reviewed here* 

The book I picked for January's review was "The Name of Death" by Joshua Robertson. Without realizing it, I selected the perfect book to kick off the new year, and my revived blog!

Description from Amazon:

Drada Koehn is a fearless, formidable fighter ensnared in a presaged war against the northern humans. When the Speaker foretells their victory upon discovery of the name of death, she sets out to unravel the mysterious prophecy. Now, bound by duty and honor, Drada faces untold horrors with her companions, searching for what may never be found. In a story of unexpected twists, she soon finds that her resolve to see the quest done will be the fortune or doom of her people.

The story takes place in the same universe as his fantasy trilogy, "The Kaelandur Series". From my reading I would say that it takes place after the events in the trilogy. I downloaded this onto my iPad when it was first released, and after reading the first two in The Kaelandur Series, wanted to give it a go.

While it does take place after the events in that trilogy, it did not spoil the ending. Which was a very good thing since I have yet to finish the last one. Whoops! Sadly my iPad is filled with books I need to get to, as well as all of the physical books on my shelf that need reading. But alas, life with an 8 month old doesn't leave as much reading time as I would prefer to have.

It was a very quick read, which I rather appreciated! Robertson jam packed the story with information and plot, but kept the story moving forward and didn't get bogged down in details. Right off the bat you are transported to a fantasy world where Drada is waiting for her war brother to die after being mortally wounded by a *gasp* human who used poison. A very cowardly thing to do according to Drada. Humans are weak, and Drada's people (the Uvil) have been at war with them for years.

Drada and her war brother were on a quest to find the name of death, and with him gone it is up to Drada and her unlikely Kras companion to continue the journey. They are joined by a human and his companion. Which creates a bit of tension and depth to the story that in something this short, was necessary.  

A creature makes its way back into the pages that I was happy to see again, the Svet. AKA a centaur. I loved the Svet in his other books, and was excited to see another one in this story. For being such a short read, the characters are well rounded and easily distinguishable from one another.

I don't want to ruin the end, but it definitely left me looking for more. Would reccomend to any fantasy readers out there. I give it a solid 4 out of 5 stars!

Links to Robertson's Website, Twitter, Instagram, and Amazon are below. He is one interesting writer, and posts freqeuntly about the writers life and publishing journey. One of the people on my "Must follow" list for writers! 

https://www.robertsonwrites.com/
https://twitter.com/RobertsonWrites
https://www.instagram.com/robertsonwrites/ 
https://www.amazon.com/Name-Death-Joshua-Robertson-ebook/dp/B01N2XQYPY/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Tools of the Trade

Tools are important for any creative endeavor. Whether it is Painting, Sculpture, Fiber Arts, Design, even Writing, they all have basic needs.

Personally I keep it pretty low tech, unless you count my computer, but even then I'm pretty simple with programs. I prefer to have my notes in physical form so I can have them next to my computer as I'm working.  

My computer is my number one tool to writing. I have a MacBook Pro, and I love it. I used to have an HP laptop, but after 5 years in college it was on its last leg and finally was done. It was constantly having issues with viruses, and at the time my parents had purchased a MacBook Pro three years prior, and had not had ONE ISSUE. In fact, it's been several more years and they still haven't had an issue! (Neither has my computer, and I love how my phone and my computer automatically are compatible and update accordingly.)

In order to keep my projects separate and have plenty of room for each one I utilize different notebooks, or notebooks with multiple sections. My favorite brands are Moleskine and Five Star, though any notebook with enough pages or sections would work.

My favorite piece for keeping things organized with my Ryder Chronicles series is a large Five Star binder. It's not like a typical binder as it has a soft spine and is expandable. It has plenty of room for divided sections, hand drawn maps, character information sheets, and lots of extra loose-leaf for hand written notes.

Note cards. I could write a love ballad to my note cards. I use them as "scene" cards. Each card has which character I'm writing from, events or dialogue that has to happen, and what scene it is in the book (ie, 1,2,3 etc). This is especially helpful when I'm writing my fantasy trilogies. It helps me almost pre-write the book before I get started. I will also add notes that I need to keep in mind while writing, like scars, or abilities, or memories.

Paperclips! I use them with the scene cards. Each color corresponds to a different character so I know at a glance which character is getting "screen time". It helps to keep the viewpoints even and gives me a guide to how far through the story I am at any given time by moving the note cards to the back as I finish those scenes.

Earbuds are my next must have item for writing. I almost always have to write to music. It helps to keep my thoughts centered on the story I'm working on. I prefer the in-ear variety as I have nine earrings, and over the ear ones just push the back of the studs against my head. Not comfortable! Plus as an added bonus, they're small and easy to transport.



What are other writers must haves for writing? Anything you would add to my list?

Meet the Writer Behind the Screen

Welcome Back, and Welcome to any new readers!
I'm kicking off this new year with a "Meet and Greet" blog post.

Let's get started!

1. My favorite color is green.

2. I don't know that I have one specific book that is my favorite, but I love David Eddings work, as well as older Terry Brooks. (I'm a bit of a fantasy fan)

3. Garfield is my spirit animal. Just substitute Lasagna with either my Dads Venison Chili or my husbands Chicken Parmesan. Mondays are the worst!

4. As a former horse owner, I am a fan of almost all equestrian sports.

5. The best writing beverage is definitely Hot Chocolate. Coffee and I don't get along.

6. If I had to only read one genre for the rest of my life I'd pick fantasy.

7. I'm the pro when it comes to procrastination.

8. I wish I was known and "big" enough of an author to write off a family trip to both Scotland and Wales for research for two more romance trilogies I have in mind.

9. Music is a necessity for me to crank out the words. I prefer epic soundtracks to keep me motivated.

10. One fictional land I'd love to visit is Narnia.

11. While writing is my main "creative" outlet, I also enjoy crocheting and make blankets, scarves, shawls, and other household items. I like designing my own patterns and seeing what colors work well together.

12. I can always make my son laugh with my chicken impression... a side effect from years of being around horse barns that also had resident chickens.

13. This next year I want to publish at least one, if not two books.

14. If I had to be one of my characters for a day it would have to be Riona. Magical powers, control of fire, and a dragon for a best friend!

15. I wish I was better at marketing. Talking about my work in a selling situation is not easy for me.

16. A guilty pleasure that I indulge a little too much is binge watching my favorite TV shows on Netflix. But who doesn't do that?!?!