I don’t know about you, but I was grateful to say good-bye to 2010. It was certainly a roller coaster of ups and downs. I treasure every moment and every trial, knowing it is all part of God’s master plan. But a fresh start certainly sounds good right now.

I pulled out my notebook of 2010 Goals and looked over them:

1. Edit and polish my 2009 NaNoWriMo manuscript, Beautiful Pretense (check!)

2. Submit Beautiful Pretense to at least one agent and one publisher (check, check)

3. Write and edit miscellaneous newsletters for nonprofit organizations (check)

4. Blog three times a week (mostly…check)

5. Complete another NaNoWriMo novel (check!)

6. Create a clinic handbook for the Clark County Fair Court (check)

7. polish In Dawn’s Shadows (uncheck – but that’s a long story)

On top of these goals, I was able to reclassify my day job to a more suitable position description, I signed with my dream agency and I’ve made some incredible friends through writer’s meetings and conferences. I can’t ask for more.

So…now I’ve got to set a whole new list of goals for 2011. To be completely honest, after all that happened in 2010, I’m a little daunted by reaching higher. After years of studying the craft and working my tail off for this moment, I still feel hopelessly out of my league! But I have faith in God, in my agent, and in my amazing critique partners.

For 2011:

1. Polish and prepare Lillie Among Thorns for submission to publishers

2. Attend two major writing conferences

3. Redesign my website (just a little facelift, ideally)

4. Continue blogging 3 times a week and increase depth of content

5. Complete another novel – sequel? new series? details to be determined.

6. Learn more, read more, critique more, blog more – grow overall in my writing journey!

I put these on a public forum to hold myself accountable and at the end of 2011, we’ll check and see how far I’ve come!

What are your goals for 2011?