Happy New Year to all my readers. Welcome to a bright new year here at Sandy’s Story Chair. I hope you enjoy the stories I have for you again this year.
First up is a blog hop with a wonderful group of bloggers who I have been lucky to call virtual friends in recent years. We are starting the year with our blog posts of ‘What I hope to accomplish in 2019 even if I don’t win the lottery.’
The start of a new year is like a blank slate, and we don’t know what will be written upon it. Even if we don’t hold that winning lottery ticket, there are loads of things we can engrave upon it.
My writerly pals and I are sharing our hopes - on the writing road and in our family life - for 2019 in our #Gr8Blog hop: “What I Want to Accomplish in 2019 Even if I Don’t Win the Lottery.”
Please have a read, and then visit the other #Gr8Blogs linked at the end of this post for more smiles and inspiration.
I’ll admit I’m not much of a planner. a bit like my writing, I tend to go with the flow and see where the road takes me. It is somewhat difficult to make plans at the moment with Mr B working overseas in PNG. He tends to have meetings all over the place and his plans are changed at a moments notice. I try to fit my plans around him to be available to catch up where we can, whether that’s in Port Moresby, here at home in Canberra or any other city in Australia. Makes things difficult at times, I have to be ready to fly somewhere at short notice, but that’s life for now and have laptop will travel. At least I can write wherever I go.
So what are my goals other than trying to see hubby as much as possible?
Finish editing ‘A Lighthouse in Time.’ Book 2 of the Adamson Adventures and send it to my publisher asap. The manuscript assessment came back between Christmas and New Year. It was so helpful, I can’t wait to get stuck into my revisions. With all the wonderful family visitors this time of year, I haven’t had the time to sit down and take it all in.
I have begun plotting Book 3. The next Adamson Adventure is going to be a lot of fun. I hope to start writing it soon too. The decision on title has to be made, I’m torn between two, perhaps you can help me choose. Which title do you think a child would find more enticing?
a) Fossil Frenzy
b) Panic on the Plateau
I am looking forward to seeing two of my short stories published in this years Creative Kids Tales Anthology. I had set myself the goal of writing 3 stories for this, but the 3rd won’t be ready in time. See, I told you I am not good at goal setting. I have to be realistic and face the fact I don’t have time to finish it before the Feb 1 deadline. The first story is titled ‘Save it For a Rainy Day.’ It fits the enchanted theme. A small child finds an enchanted star and hides it away for a rainy day until she needs it to do something special for her family. The second story fits the ‘Things that go Bump in the Night’ theme. Two brothers can’t sleep for all ‘The Thumping’ that is going on under the house. They seek to find the answer to all the noise and discover a wonderful surprise.
That 3rd story, I have set myself the goal of making it into a picture book instead. I would like to see it published one day. Maybe not this year, but one year. Daisy Dewdrop is a little rain fairy that can’t manage to bring rain to the drought stricken farm alone. She goes off in search of a few essential friends to help.
My PB ‘Penelope the Playful Platypus’ is finished and ready to be revealed to the world. My goal for her is to have her published this year. Whether my publisher takes her on or whether I Indie publish, she will be published. Penelope has a fantastic imagination and longs to play with other creatures in her habitat, but sometimes making friends isn’t easy and she must learn to accept not to be too quick to judge.
I intend to travel to Bali this year with the hopes of doing a book tour with ‘Secrets Hidden Below.’ It has been well received by a book store chain there who does author readings and signings in their Seminyak store. I would like to see if I can add to that a few more places as well, including the International school in Sanur.
I intend to continue to improve my self confidence in this writerly life by attending more conferences. I have already committed to attending the second Creative Kids Tales Festival in Sydney in early April and will also commit to attending the bigger CBCA (Children’s Book Council of Australia) conference being held here in Canberra in June.
Meanwhile I will continue to attend as many SCBWI ACT and CBCA ACT branch functions as possible. Late last year I was approached to be a guest speaker this year for the Romancing the Stars CBCA evening later this year here in Canberra. I might even stretch myself out of my comfort zone and do it.
As for marketing, I hope to do more school visits, more market stalls. and find more places to sell my books.
As we say in ‘Scribbles,’ the online writing course by the amazing Jen Storer, I aim to keep doing ‘the verk!’ One day I might even finish all the course work. Is that even possible?
So I guess my word to set my goals for this year is ‘Focus.’ I need to stop procrastination and distractions and focus on all this amazing and exciting work ahead of me.
Few! For someone who doesn’t like to set goals, there’s a lot going on here. I can’t believe how easily that all flowed out of me once I thought about it. Looks like a busy year ahead. Think perhaps I better add learning some time management strategies to that list.
What do you want to tick off your bucket list this year? Please share in the comment section.
For more inspiration, visit my #Gr8blogs pals below. (Ooooo, and we’ll let you know if one of us actually wins the lottery :) :)
If you blog and want to join us on this hop, just add the family-friendly link to your blog post in the comment section. We’ll visit and give you some blog love-:D
Thanks for stopping by!
Cat Michaels http://bit.ly/2smasqg_CatMichaels
Jacqui Letran https://rovingvegans.com/spread-a-trail-of-peace-world-tour/
Julie Gorges http://babyboomerbliss.net/baby-boomer-looks-forward-to-2019-with-exciting-book-announcement/
Shana Gorian https://authorshanagorian.com/2019/01/10/what-i-want-to-accomplish-in-2019-even-if-i-dont-win-the-lottery-blog-hop/
Rosie Russell - https://booksbyrose.com/index.php/2019/01/10/https-booksbyrose-com-index-php-kidlit-blog-by-rosie/
Carmela Dutra http://carmeladutra.com/blog-post/1354/
Rebecca Lyndsey https://rebeccalyndsey.blogspot.com/2019/01/happy-2019.html
Jim Milson → https://wp.me/p3RsfU-2kw
Corrina Holyoake bit.ly/2RlzhS2