New Year, New Goals

It's going to be a busy month...

Hey, folks. I'm back! Back at work, back to writing, back on the blogs.

So what is it that I said about New Year's Resolutions? Did I not make any? Yeah, well, I sort of take that back.

Because, like anyone, the advent of a new calendar, as arbitrary as the time is, has set me thinking about the past few years. In summary: 2014, the year of posting on Wattpad, 2013, the year of working with a professional writer. 2012, the year of revisions and starting this blog, 2011, the year of ideas, and 2010: the year I decided to take my talent for writing seriously.

When I find myself summarizing the past four years in this way, it makes me wonder how I will summarize 2015 once it's over. There's no way that I can know yet. But what I can know is what I intend to do with my life and by extension my writing career (since in opposition to all folksy wisdom -- I am what I do) from here.

And the next step that I've decided to take is also in opposition. To my past self, to everything I've written about writing on this blog so far. It all started with a book club.

I joined a book club shortly after moving here, about six months ago. And since then I've been waiting until it's my turn to pick the book and to host the monthly event. And I've been doing research on the book I want to pick. And I've found one. A science fiction novel (of course) that is the very opposite of book club bait. Hey, if I'm not going to widen folks' horizons here in this suburban wasteland, who is -- right?

Anyways, I decided to pre-read the book. Cheater, I know. And in pre-reading it I found that the tone and future timeline of the story (although not the plot) is not unlike my own book, RoboNomics. And so for the first time in my life, I read a novel's acknowledgements.

The reason I've never bothered to read acknowledgements before is pretty clear to me. I read mainly fiction, and each novel I read is written by an author that I'll either admire or deride. Admire for their writing skill, deride because how the hell is this crap published and I'm not yet?! Writing god or writing pariah -- worship or jealousy, either way I had no interest in their personal lives.

But this time, when I looked over that much-neglected page, I noticed something. In among the thank yous, an acknowledgement of the writer's agent. Their agent. At an agency I'd heard of, with a good reputation.

Two-year Writer's Digest guide to agents I own.
It was a tad optimistic...

Out of curiosity, I looked up the agency's website. And you know what I found? All positives! Accepting queries in my genre, open to self-published works, and even possibility of combining traditional publishing and self-publishing. It's a good fit for me. It's a perfect fit for me.

Remembering something about back in 2010, when I first read the Artist's Way -- the book that set me on this journey. Something about walking through any and all open doors. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth? I had thought I'd resolved against going through a literary agent, but now I've changed my mind. These perfect opportunities don't come around every day.

So that's my goal for January, and the other 11 months will be taken as they come. The only other resolution I'll make for the year is to read 52 books by 2016. Yup, that's one a week -- up from about one and a half a month. No probs, bobs!