Year in Review

Look Back To Move Forward!

According to the email in my inbox with the above heading, celebrating the past year is just as important as setting goals for the new year. The tone of the email is a bit too rah-rah for me, but the idea may be a good one.

Today, I'll recap the positive things that have happened in my writing life in 2008, and tomorrow, I'll return to share some thoughts for the new year.

These are some of the things I've done:

• started this blog with some vague notion about needing to have a web presence. It turned out to be a tool in forcing me to write frequently. As a bonus, I also met some wonderful fellow writers and readers.
• entered a couple of contests and placed 2nd in both.
• attended my first writers' conferences and a writing retreat.
• met fellow writers
  
• sent off queries and got requests for my manuscript (which have resulted, so far, only in rejections, but personalized ones.)
• started writing a new YA and outlining another
• revised my Middle Grade novel a few more times per suggestions of agents and editors who'd read earlier manuscripts.
• found online critique groups in which members write for children.
• Read, read, and read.
  
• wrote, re-wrote and re-wrote.