Who else returned to work today after the Christmas break?  Did you skip into the workplace, smiling and full of enthusiasm, greeting your colleagues as though you hadn’t seen each other for months?  Or, did you huff and puff, sigh and keep running your fingers through your hair, demanding ‘where did those 2 weeks go?’ whilst staring at your stretched waistband wondering how clothes can shrink for absolutely no reason?  I am the second example…The Christmas break seemed to fly by so quickly, I hardly had time to say hello  before waving goodbye to the Christmas decorations as they went back up in the loft.  And I’m still sulking.

Christmas brought with it a mixture of good and worrying times.   We enjoyed being together, and seeing our family and friends, although it was a little fraught waiting to find out if our little Great-Niece would make it out of hospital on Christmas Eve following a 2 week stay.  She made it home…

But sad news came from over the pond – my close pal and book cover illustrator Wendy told me how her friends, a father and his 14 year old daughter, were involved in a serious car accident on Christmas Eve.  A drink-driver crashed into their car, resulting in both being seriously injured, the daughter critically.  Both are still in hospital and recovery is a long road ahead.

And, we could only watch and pray the rain would stop and that everyone would be safe and ok up in the north of the UK  due to horrendous flooding.  Living in the Central/South East region, we did not encounter the same weather and it felt wrong to ‘enjoy’ the holidays whilst watching the news reports showing so many suffering.

Our Christmas was quiet this year which worked out well due to how busy the latter part of 2015 had been.  Since October I’d worked every evening and weekend to get ‘Bringing Billie Back‘ finished and ready to publish just in time for Christmas, and we were all looking forward to a couple of weeks of me NOT typing away at the laptop.  As much as I love writing I needed a little break, to recharge my batteries and relight my creativity, and I vowed to not write anything.  And, I didn’t.  Well, not much… But I did spend my time day dreaming and planning my writing year ahead.

freeimages.com/StMattox

So, what’s the plan?  Well, I’ve a list of things I would like to achieve in 2016, writing related, and I thought that, if I make a plan and, more importantly, share it with you, I’m more likely to stick to it…(that’s what I’m hoping).

Here it is:

1. Novel number 3 – a sequel to ‘Friendship, Love and Apple Tea‘, where we’ll see the return of the slightly neurotic Lou Granger.  Did she go on that road trip she’d always dreamt of?  Or did she end up in her mother’s craft room?  The novel should be out by the end of June 2016.
2. To have Novel number 2, ‘Bringing Billie Back‘, available as an audio book.  Yes… I’ve my little sound booth thingy wotsit all set up and ready for action!
3. Non-fiction book number 1.  Yep, I’m taking the plunge with my first non-fiction self development book, focussing on how to be more organised, effective and productive.  The book will hopefully be out by the end of 2016, if I manage to get myself organised enough to write it, and snippets will appear over the next few months through my blog…
4. …yes, the blog.  Well, I haven’t really had much of a chance to blog this past year, or felt I’ve had much to blog about.  But, I’m planning to now do so once a week.  This is for two reasons:  1) It will help me get into a writing routine and 2) will enable me to build relationships with readers and other bloggers, and to join the blogging community.  I’m planning to rotate the topics  – for example, one week it might be like this one, just news and events coming up.  Then, it might be a guest blog, tips and tricks for writers, tools to help better manage our time (which will be snippets from my non-fiction book).  I’m prepared for the fact that it may only be me that reads it, plus…
5. …my Dad.  And yes, for those that followed an earlier post, you’ll be pleased to know I’m taking him to his favourite restaurant as promised.  Yes, we reached the target number (or more like, ‘dream number’) of  ‘Friendship, Love and Apple Tea‘ book sales and so he gets to have his meal.  Yay!
6. And finally, I’m completely committed to listening to each and every  supportive, motivational, inspiring and enthusiastic weekly podcast by The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn).  This has helped me so much over the last few months and I urge any aspiring writer to tune in, subscribe and enjoy.

So, that’s my plan.  What’s yours?

Happy New Year to you, your families and loved ones!

Penny

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