2016 In Review

Warmest felicitations to you all on the beginning of yet another year - my hopes are that 2017 brings you everything you hope, need and deserve.

I always like to look back at last year's resolutions and see whether I have been even remotely successful.  I strove for happiness.  I feel almost smug at being able to put the largest ever tick into that box.  I stated that I would be moving.  I have not.  I stated that I would be exercising passionately.  I have been.  I said that I would write that bloomin' query letter and send it out to literary agents, that I would create a website, that I would have other projects in the pipeline and consider a sequel.  Tick.  Tick.  Tick.  Tick.   The only slight blemish against my smug ticked boxes is my final resolution to see more of my loved ones.  That one, alas, I feel I could have done better with. Reminds me of being back at school - must try harder, has a tendency to wander.

And wander all over 2016 I have.  Perhaps not literally but certainly figuratively.  I've tried new things, scared myself and quite possibly others, learnt new things, made new friends - always wildly impressive if you're over the age of 30 methinks - and tried my utmost to make more of this thing called writing.

I got my book published.  The Gaia Effect is available to buy right now from Amazon.  How crazy is that?  People I know could be reading it right now.  One day people I don't know may well read it.

I learnt some new writing skills by joining a fantastic playwriting group - that adventure will be continuing in the new year with the very real possibility of having a play put on at The Barbican.  We are venturing into very exciting times.

I have tried valiantly to build a social media presence as a writer across as many platforms as I feel I can handle, learning new marketing tools and striving not to make a boob.  I am testing the very limits of my current techie level by throwing a virtual book launch for The Gaia Effect tomorrow (Jan 2nd) on Facebook, the likes of which have never been seen before.  Such learned curves.

I did NaNoWriMo.  I interviewed interesting people for a book.  I wrote and I was happy.  I edited and I cried.  I made cake and the world was well again.  I read as much as I could manage.  It wasn't a bad year really and so my resolutions for the next one are simple.

Write more.  Read more.  Bake more.    And quite possibly run more.  Because of the cake.  And the sitting with the books and the tea.  It's a grand life.