Resolutions!

(This is a busy month for me, so I'm re-running this blog. I think it's one I needed to re-read, anyway. Just FYI, I met my goal of ramping up my efforts and targeting agents and publishers, I did not meet my desire of finding a home for Live and Let Fly. I did find homes for three of the DragonEye, PI, stories, however. Next year, I'm looking for a small press home. Guess DragonEye, PI does not appeal to the big NYC publishers.)

Resolutions!

Oh, bleah! Can you imagine a less original topic for Dec 31? Tell you a secret: I don’t make resolutions. I set goals. Here’s how I do it:

1. I think about where I want to be in the far future, and what I want to be remembered for.
2. I think about the past year—what didn’t work and why, and what did advance me toward my ideal life.
3. I think about what I can do differently (or continue doing) in order to keep advancing.
4. I write those as my goals, assigning them appropriate time frames.
5. I break them down to tasks and deadlines.
6. I get to work.

So, let me give you an example.

1. I would like one day to have my DragonEye, PI books be sharing the spotlight with Discworld and Myth, Inc.
2. This past year, I published Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, got good reviews and regular sales. However, I’ve not been able to sell Live and Let Fly yet, nor did I achieve my goal of writing Gapman! Also, my stories on my website are not selling well, though my newsletter is getting thousands of hits now that I publish it on myebook.com.
3. This next year, I will ramp up my efforts at shopping L&LF, sending out queries more often. I will make some modifications to my newsletter to draw folks to the website and stories. I will consider new venues for selling the short stories.
4.& 5. Deadline to finish Gapman: June 2010. Deadline for shopping L&LF to agents and big traditional publishers: October 2010, after which, I will return to small press. Have a new story written and on the website or being submitted each quarter. I will send out a query a week minimum. I will not wait for a rejection before moving on.

Still not enough for you? Want more information, tips and ideas on making resolutions, setting goals and getting organized? I’m going to post a link or tip every day in January, then have the whole file for download on my website in February.

Working toward making your life better is not a matter of a single night of resolution setting. Take your time, learn, tweak your ideas and build your habits.
Happy New Year!

2009 Goals: Making and Sharing

Happy New Year!

Did you make some resolutions? I did.

--Lose weight and gain strength
--Get contracts on two books
--Sell some stories and thousands of books
--Develop a big fan base for DragonEye, PI
--Get the many projects in the Catholic Writers Guild running smoothly

Resolutions are easy. Making them come true--that's hard.

The only way to do that is to make goals. A lot of people make goals, but how many of us meet them? Perhaps the problem is not in our effort but in the goal itself.

When I was in the military, they taught us the key to making goals is that they have to be realistic, measurable and specific. Based on that, I might then change a resolution from "develop a big DragonEye, PI fan base" to "have 200 people registered on the DragonEye,PI website."

However, that's still not really a goal. Why? Because it depends on other people. After all, I can work and work to get contracts on my Miscria novel, but if it's wrong for the market, or the publisher has a big backlog, or there's some (eek) fatal flaw in the manuscript I can't see and no one's taken time or energy to tell me about, then I'll never meet the goal no matter how hard I try.

Goals need to be something you can achieve, on your own. You want your goals to work for a desired result that may depend on others, but the success comes from doing what you can do.

With that in mind, here are my 2009 goals:

1. Publish 6 DragonEye, PI newsletters.
2. Publish 4 issues of Faith-Filled Fiction.
3. Sell 4 stories via my dragoneyepi website.
4. Submit ISIG II to publisher (Jan 5)
5. Submit proposal for Discovery (end of Jan)
6. Finish Discovery (end of March)
7. Write next DragonEye, PI novel (end of November)
8. Set up a better system for reminding CWG officers and project heads about their duties so that more gets accomplished this year.
9. Contact 50 university and 50 high school markets about ISIG I.
10. Write an article about using SF for teaching morals and theology and submit to homeschool mags.
11. Make a new workshop for MuseCon.
12. Write chapter on Internet Marketing for book (mid Feb deadline! eek!)
13. Lose 20 pounds by working out on the elliptical 4 times a week and cutting down snacks to one a day.
14. Submit Miscria to at least four publishers or agents
15. Submit at least 6 stories to magazines.

What are your goals for 2009? Share a couple with me.

I'm pleased to announce that the latest issue of Wayfarer's Journal has my sci-fi story, "Code Seven. Check it out online!

If you'd like to get the DragonEye, PI newsletter, be sure to register on the website: www.dragoneyepi.net. I'm posting the first issue tomorrow!