Year in Review

2010 started off with high hopes and ended with some major disappointments. I've been contemplating the good, the bad and the ugly lately as I prepare to wish a final farewell to 2010.

The bad and the ugly have almost entirely been personal sufferings with family. I'd rather not dwell on them and hope that 2011 treats us better. I do want to focus on the good, which mostly has to do with my writing. Of course, not all has been great, but the bad and the ugly have been definite learning experiences.

My year in review:

• I started a blog! This blog, actually, which morphed along the way (combining with my KristieCook.com blog for a while) and came back to here. My blogoversary is coming up in January. Yes, I've been blogging for a year and what a fantastic time it has been!
• I also started tweeting! Something I swore I'd never do because I didn't "get" it. I'm glad I decided to check it out because I've met so many wonderful and lovely people.
• With all this social media stuff, I've met hundreds of fantabulous writer friends. Like you. The camaraderie and support I've found in the online writers' world simply amazes me.
• After some crazy revisions that were mostly thrown out, I made the realization that I'd written two books, not just one called Purpose. So I made the decision to split it, creating Promise and Purpose.
• My business partner and I decided to start a second company - a publishing company - and we took on our first author - me! This has been an incredible learning experience that continues to push us beyond our boundaries each day. I've loved (nearly) every minute of it and look forward to the future it has in store for both of us...and others.
• I didn't do a whole lot of writing this year, when I really look back at it. I had to write an ending for Promise, but that was really revising what was already there and adding in some wrap-ups to tie loose ends. I did add about 30,000 words to Purpose to make it a complete book after the split. With the previously mentioned discarded revisions, I've probably written about 50-60,000 words this year...compared to about 250-300,000 in 2009.
• Of course, I didn't do much writing because I released two books in 2010!!!! Those are my big, all-time, major accomplishments of the year that have made everything else bearable
• We didn't sell as many books as our overly optimistic goals had set in the beginning, but when I look at the numbers, I'm giddy about all the people who actually paid money to read my writing. And then there are the reviews, which have blown me away, as well as the award.
• My Writers Health Plan - the one that consists of loads of coffee, chocolate and time with butt-in-chair - has proven itself successful...if I wanted to gain weight, anyway. Which I didn't. In fact, I needed to lose a bunch. I think I'll be reconsidering this plan for 2011. 

In my writing world, 2010 has been the best year ever. It's been a year of amazing growth and achieving the one accomplishment I'd been dreaming about since I was 8 years old - publishing a book. But I'm ready for it to be over and to take on the new year with new challenges and opportunities.

Bring it on, 2011!!!