2014New Year’s Day morning, 6:45, and I’ve spent about 90 minutes reconfiguring the Hat Trick section of the website so the next book in the series is represented. I’ve worked out too. It’s been a fairly regular weekday morning, even though it’s a holiday.

The 2014 plan is to continue what I’ve worked on since 2012, living deliberately and trying to make the most out of the time available. No, I won’t be on the go every single minute, but if I decide to be lazy it’ll be a choice and not something that happens because I can’t make the decision on exactly what to do.

Deliberately is the only way to go too because there are a number of things I want to accomplish this year:

  • There are Hat Trick sequels to write. The second book has a first draft that’s in pretty good shape (the plan is to have it to beta readers before January is done and then out to JMS Books for review). The third book has some parts written, including the ending, and I’d like to have that fully written by year’s end.
  • Will and I will travel twice for conventions this year. We’re going to Rainbow Con in April down in Tampa. In October it’ll be off to Chicago for our third GRL. I will be at Rainbow Con as an author, which means I’ll likely be doing a reading and be on a panel discussion. That’s exciting and scary at the same time. I’m looking forward to it. For GRL, I’m not sure if I’ll be attending as an author, but I know it should be an amazing, educational time nonetheless.
  • I want to work with Will to more fully establish our brand of books and stories. If we can find the right project, I’d like to write something with him too.
  • At least two other writing projects beckon. I couple NaNoWriMo’s ago I completed the draft of a story that I’d like to clean up and submit as a YA story (I’m not sure if it’s a short story, novella or novel at this point). I’m also going to expand a story I recently got the rights back to and submit it to a new publisher whose expressed interest. I think at least one of these projects will be worked on after Hat Trick 2 is with the publisher.
  • I will be involved with Cycle for the Cause, although, as I said in my year-end post, I don’t know if it is as rider or crew yet. It comes down to a tug of war I’m having with myself about the time needed to train.
  • Speaking of training, I need to get in better shape. I’m heavier than I need to be (and from a health perspective, probably heavier than I should be). I must buck up, eat right and work out six days a week.
  • I will be more service oriented this year. Certainly Cycle for the Cause is service oriented, but I want to do more to make this world a better place. Even as 2013 closed, I was already looking at what I can do to more fully integrate service work into my life.

It’s going to be an amazing year!

Now I’m off to spend some quality time with the Hat Trick 2 manuscript…